Have been thinking how lucky I am being able to ride again after all the heart (and hip!!) ache since my hip replacement broke and had to be removed in 2005. Thinking too about how lucky I've been to have the support of my NR friends, and how much it has meant to me.
So have decided it's now my turn to do my bit to help someone else. I have a hitherto very, very patchy plan, and intend to put it into action next summer, as there's too much planning to do, for it to be this summer, never mind getting horse and rider fit enough!!
I'll give you the basics, and I'd love some ideas of how to modify it into something do-able, workable, and everything else-able! And that's before starting to make concrete plans for it. And I know that planning can take an imense amount of time:
It goes something like this. I would like to do a sponsored ride for the Riding For the Disabled Association. With the most enormous respect I don't want this to become an open sponsored ride, because that then makes me the organiser who is responsible for every rider's safety, and from experience I know this can be a legal minefield from an insurance point of view. So I would really only want one or at most two others on horseback with me.
I'm pondering upon the possibility of a sponsored ride, riding say 3-5 miles a day in every county (the old counties of which I believe, there were eight) in Wales...or another route would roughly be Offa's Dyke (The Marchers). I've asked around a bit, I mean just picked a few brains upon this. There's me, who realistically couldn't manage much more than 5 miles a day (given any other chores like mucking out, and driving my Landy and trailer). Rubi, who will be fittish, but never mega fit, as I don't want her that way. Though I'm prepared to get her in shape for the event. We'd both need overnight accomodation. I'd like to do it on carefully selected roads, rather than too much bridlepath, so that we pick up some sponsorship money along the way. I spoke to my insurance company who supported me whole heartedly and then rang back and said that whatever money I made, they would double it!. I'd need a small crew of people to help me, with ideas, perhaps walk along with me for half a mile, a mile/two miles in any particular part of the country. It would be mostly in walk, with a little trot, and where 3-5 miles/day might not sound much, it is with only one hips joint....I'm afraid you'll have to take my word for that. I feel that NR and The Monty Fund has had a huge part in getting me this far, and now I want to put something useful back into the riding community.
Any useful suggestions ideas, please let me know. I would welcome all. Love to hear from my NR friends in the various welsh counties, especially if you'd like to come along, or meet up along the way, or with route suggestions. However, I'd be grateful for everybody's suggestions, practical or logistical.
Thankyooooooo!
So have decided it's now my turn to do my bit to help someone else. I have a hitherto very, very patchy plan, and intend to put it into action next summer, as there's too much planning to do, for it to be this summer, never mind getting horse and rider fit enough!!
I'll give you the basics, and I'd love some ideas of how to modify it into something do-able, workable, and everything else-able! And that's before starting to make concrete plans for it. And I know that planning can take an imense amount of time:It goes something like this. I would like to do a sponsored ride for the Riding For the Disabled Association. With the most enormous respect I don't want this to become an open sponsored ride, because that then makes me the organiser who is responsible for every rider's safety, and from experience I know this can be a legal minefield from an insurance point of view. So I would really only want one or at most two others on horseback with me.
I'm pondering upon the possibility of a sponsored ride, riding say 3-5 miles a day in every county (the old counties of which I believe, there were eight) in Wales...or another route would roughly be Offa's Dyke (The Marchers). I've asked around a bit, I mean just picked a few brains upon this. There's me, who realistically couldn't manage much more than 5 miles a day (given any other chores like mucking out, and driving my Landy and trailer). Rubi, who will be fittish, but never mega fit, as I don't want her that way. Though I'm prepared to get her in shape for the event. We'd both need overnight accomodation. I'd like to do it on carefully selected roads, rather than too much bridlepath, so that we pick up some sponsorship money along the way. I spoke to my insurance company who supported me whole heartedly and then rang back and said that whatever money I made, they would double it!
. I'd need a small crew of people to help me, with ideas, perhaps walk along with me for half a mile, a mile/two miles in any particular part of the country. It would be mostly in walk, with a little trot, and where 3-5 miles/day might not sound much, it is with only one hips joint....I'm afraid you'll have to take my word for that. I feel that NR and The Monty Fund has had a huge part in getting me this far, and now I want to put something useful back into the riding community.Any useful suggestions ideas, please let me know. I would welcome all. Love to hear from my NR friends in the various welsh counties, especially if you'd like to come along, or meet up along the way, or with route suggestions. However, I'd be grateful for everybody's suggestions, practical or logistical.
Thankyooooooo!
