THE Hamilton Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA) Centre has invited the community to an end of year presentation, celebrating the local volunteers and riders, and the Christmas spirit.

Previously, the Hamilton RDA Centre had been forced into a two-year long break during the COVID-19 pandemic.

During this time, a lot of administrative tasks continued in the background and virtual meetings were held to plan for the resumption of riding activities.

The time finally came to welcome back riders to the centre and since then Hamilton RDA has gone from strength to strength.

Recent centre highlights include the successful participation of many of the riders and volunteers in their first ever RDA competition in which all participants placed and won ribbons, the recognition of long-term volunteer, Melissa Schulz with the ‘Wannon Volunteer Award’, and a wonderful end of term presentation of Bedřich Smetana’s ‘The Moldau’ on horseback.

Many factors have contributed to the Centre’s current success, but it comes down to three main categories – a focus on horses, volunteers and riders.

The Centre’s horses are well looked after and cared through attending regular farrier, dentist and bodywork appointments, with a good rapport with the local veterinarians, and are also kept fit with many different activities such as trail rides, dressage lessons and competitions,

Most of the valued long-time volunteers have returned after the COVID break and many new volunteers have joined the team, including the support of Good Shepherd College who regularly send out two of their senior school students and one teacher’s aide to volunteer for the weekly riding sessions. 

The RDA Centre benefits from gaining three reliable, youthful volunteers and the students gain valuable inter-personal skills, and the school as well as the students’ parents have commented on the benefits for the students.

Andrew Davies is the father of Good Shepherd student, Jess, and said her involvement in assisting with the program has taught valuable skills.

“Jess being able to assist each week and to hang out with the horses and volunteers leads to her gaining valuable experience with students as well as volunteers,” he said.

“Thank you to the coaches and volunteers who take the time out each week to run these sessions.

“My daughter comes home after RDA very excited with being able to participate in the organisation.

“Also, I appreciate the Good Shepherd College bringing her to RDA each week and picking her up afterwards.”

Last term, a trail riding camp was organised for volunteers and horses to participate in, and next on the agenda will be a volunteer trip to the mounted police force and ‘Living Legends’ – the home of retired racehorses in Melbourne.

As for riders, the centre carefully tailors lessons to individual riding goals and offer a large variety of activities, from riding obstacles to dressage-based lessons.

Often, there will be a theme on which lessons for a whole term will be based on, and this term, one of the riding groups has been working towards mastering an obstacle course while another group has been working on independent riding skills through learning a drill ride.

Both activities will be presented during the last riding session on Wednesday, December 11, at the Hamilton and Alexandra College (junior campus) Equestrian Centre where anyone who is interested in cheering on riders and joining the centre for Christmas celebrations will be welcome.

The mounted presentations will begin at 10am, followed by a gold coin donation sausage sizzle.