The cost of running Barrow Farm

As a charity we are entirely self funded and to provide our 100+ riders with the opportunity to ride it costs over £80,000 a year. This means that it costs about £20 to provide each ride at Barrow Farm - but what a lot £20 gives - a chance for our riders to develop their abilities and achieve so many benefits for their well being.

Our Benefits of Riding page tells you more about all the positive benefits that a riding session can bring.

Our riders pay a small fee for their ride, but we keep our fees to a minimum to enable our service to be available to as many riders as possible with no financial bar to accessing riding and if riders are unable to meet the minimal fee charged we offer additional financial help. Riders from special needs schools contribute £6 to their ride and our other riders £10. The ride fees contribute about one third to our running costs, the balance of funds come from donations by generous individuals and companies, grants from trusts and fund raising by the Barrow Farm team and fund raising undertaken by supporters.

We have the equivalent of three full time paid staff - we rely very much on our fantastic bunch of volunteers to help with rides, fund raising events, repairs and maintenance and in organising our office.

Our valued staff account for a little over half of our costs and the costs to keep our marvellous team of ponies fit and well to do their valuable work accounts for about a quarter of our costs. Our ponies are happy to work for hay and feed! with some bedding, veterinary care and blacksmith costs thrown in.

Our necessary overheads such as repairs and maintenance of our extensive facilities, insurance, rates, electricity etc account for almost all of the rest of our costs. Our administration costs to run the charity are less than 1% of our total costs - that’s thanks to our great team of volunteers undertaking much of the work.

You can find out more on how to get involved and help the Barrow Farm team on our How Can You Help?