The Cavalier Centre "Where horses make the difference" was opened in 2019 by The Princess Royal.
Previously run for 30 years from a smallholding in North Shropshire where the british weather caused a huge amount of cancellations, the decision was made to find a site, obtain planning permission and raise the money to build a purpose built centre where all activities could take place whatever the weather.
Almost as soon as we had opened the new centre the covid pandemic obliged us to close so we struggled to really get going for the next 18 months or so. Subsequent to that we had a lot of staffing changes which disrupted our desire to expand and grow.
We are currently facing the challenges posed by the current government increases to our staffing costs and trying our best to maximise our potential with help from outside the charity.
We know that what we do is worthwhile and does actually change peoples' lives, whether they be volunteers or participants. We have a fabulous location in the beautiful Shropshire countryside, we have amazing volunteers, loyal staff and an incredible team of ponies who help our work in so many ways. It was Winston Churchill who so rightly said "the outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man". We know that they can calm the troubled mind just by being present. So many individuals have come to us and told us how much just being around our ponies has helped them.
We know that our outside spaces are currently under utilised and that we are not marketing them sufficiently well. We need help with this and we are hoping that this project will bring us the boost that we need.
