Horsley, Bookham & Leatherhead Riding for the Disabled Association is a local, entirely volunteer run, charity which supports children and young adults to ride and have theraputic horse and pony sessions to improve their mental and physical well being. We work with several local schools and provide over 1,000 rides per year. Our ambition is to double this number and reduce our long waiting list for other children who want to join us. During Covid we had to move from our previous home, and started fundraising to build a new, weatherproof, fully accessible riding centre. Our new facility has a huge indoor school, bleacher benches so parents and supporters can watch (and be dry) as well as a classroom, kitchen area and disabled toilets. We are nearly finished - just the toilets, the fit out, the car park and landscaping to go. But we've run out of all the money we have fundraised to finish the project (as some costs increased and building spec changed). We will need £30k to complete.

What we'll deliver:

• Finish the toilet fit outs and make wheelchair accessible
• Complete the car park for schools / volunteers
• Finish the landscaping / edging around the new centre

Why it's a great idea:

We have over 100 children and young adults who want to ride with us and have been waiting for over 3 years to do so. We have more schools who want to sign up too. Riding is a wonderful experience for our children - they enjoy mobility, movement, freedom and smile non-stop as a result. Some of them are wheelchair bound so this is a different sensation for them to be on a pony. Engaging with our ponies is a hugely positive experience - as reported by the children, their carers, teachers and families. Moving to our new centre has allowed us to realise our dream to have more ponies (we previously had 3, we now have 9) and we will expand to have 3 more over time. We have recruited over 90 volunteers who ensure our sessions run smoothly (every pony needs 3 volunteers to support their rider), as well as training up new coaches. We need to finish the centre so that all our focus can be on increasing our volunteers and ponies so we can deliver more sessions and reduce our waiting list.

Steps to get it done:

• Finishing the toilets
• Finishing the car park
• Completing the landscaping and surrounding areas