Celebrating Diversity in Sport with the Launch of our new Tea with a Pony sessions
After much excitement and lots of preparation and relevant training for our ‘Tea with a Pony’ sessions aimed at local people living with dementia, the launch day finally arrived. We had great support from Abicare Services Ltd and our local Dementia Action Alliance group. Our never wavering group of volunteers helped plan the day and one of our riders volunteered to put on a coaching session.
It was a great way to do something special to mark our 40th Birthday, with the day helping to stimulate fond memories of riding and interacting with ponies and encouraged people to talk about their own sporting past. With the community grant we received from Sporting Heritage we were able to buy items such as tables, china and blankets for use in the events.
We began with a display of one of our coaching sessions and then a visit to the stables to meet our horses. Some of our guests had a go at grooming, which our ponies love.
We had some special visitors too, our Local MP and Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and our Local Councillor, who have been great in promoting our event and the work we do. Wrapped in blankets and with a short walk to our Pony Hut we all got together with a celebratory cup of tea and a delicious selection of cakes. Not wanting to be left out Baloo followed us down to the hut and stuck his head in the door to see what all the fuss was about and if there was any spare cake. Luckily standing at 15hands tall he wasn’t able to get in completely, but our guests got very excited and fed him some apples.
To mark the occasion, we presented our guests with a certificate which they could take home and have as a keepsake. We then went live on BBC Radio Wiltshire to share the day and promote how we can work together with other organisations in bringing people in our local communities together.
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