Relocation, Relocation, Relocation
What the Trustees Have Been Doing to Secure a New Home
July 2006 saw the end of an era, when Camsley Grange RDA Group held its last ride at the farm it had eponymously called home for the past 27 years. The changing agricultural climate and the need to diversify had finally resulted in the owners giving the Group a generous 12 months notice in November 2005.
As trustees we were acutely aware of the demand and need for RDA in our area. With up to 6 ponies, the Group had been providing 3 rides on a Monday evening, 1 on a Wednesday evening, and 2 daytime rides for special schools. Before riding finished, there were 23 people on the waiting list, and there had been several other group and individual enquiries.
Initially 12 months seemed like a long time in which to find a new home, but there was no time to waste...
Almost immediately, Anne Thorpe put us in touch with Warrington Borough Council, who were keen for the Group to develop the old riding school and attached stables at Walton Gardens. Restoration of the riding school would have been an enormously expensive project, but the main problem was lack of grazing. Any open land near the stables had long since become Walton Municipal Golf course! However, the problem became academic when, in early 2006, WBC embarked on a comprehensive review of all its leisure facilities, including Walton Gardens. Although the Group was invited to submit its proposal for the riding school, to date we have had no further response from the Council.
Clearly we could not afford to sit on our laurels, so the quest went on...
The Trustees had also begun contacting all the commercial riding schools and livery yards in the area. As we had feared, the evening rides presented a problem. Although happy to accommodate daytime rides, all the riding schools were fully booked in the evenings. The livery yards understandably felt that if their schools were not freely available to their customers, then they may risk loosing them to other yards. Clearly they could not afford to accept any such loss of business, and neither would we wish them to.
Plenty of well intentioned people were keen to help and suggest possible locations, but with an understandable lack of appreciation of RDA's specialised requirements, further enquiries invariably revealed that the prospective facilities and/or opportunities were unsuitable.
Throughout this process, we have been offered a lot of support and encouragement by Anne Thorpe and Sheila Saner. Through Sheila, we were put in touch with Elaine Cartledge, who was keen to establish an RDA group at her stables in Wythenshawe Park, South Manchester. A group looking for a home, and a home looking for a group - it seemed like the perfect solution! Our RDA neighbours, Sandy Lane Group, had also kindly offered to try and accommodate some extra rides for Camsley's riders at their venue. Unfortunately, when these proposals were put to the riders, the consensus of opinion in both cases was that travelling would prove difficult and that they needed the Group to remain in much the same geographical area. Since the trustees felt that their primary obligation was to the majority of their existing riders, the search had to continue….
So, several months further on, we finally hope that we have found a new home, on a private livery yard. The owner has an interest in RDA, and is happy for the Group to have a trial period on the yard. If successful, the Group would again have the opportunity to own ponies, and hopefully to expand the rides offered. Having contacted riders for updated heights and weights; and helpers for availability, we have finally started trial rides, with a view to hopefully establishing a long term home at the new location.
Fingers crossed, and watch this space.
