Since 1976 we have been riding high at Barrow Farm enabling people with special needs and disabilities to develop their abilities and enrich their lives through riding.
Upcoming events
Welcome
Christmas Raffle
Our Christmas Raffle is back with a first prize of £500 Amazon vouchers. Other great prizes include a spa day for two, 1-2-1 dog training session with Harness Positivity Dog Training, Irwin Tool Bag and Ox Toy Toolkit kindly donated by Chandler Material Supplies Limited, 30 minute back, neck and shoulder massage, boot rack and many other prizes.
It’s £5 per ticket and the raffle will be drawn by random number generator on Wednesday 13th December. Either scan the QR code or go to https://www.justgiving.com/page/bfraffle2023 to buy your tickets.
New water feature in our sensory garden
We were very fortunate to receive a donation from The Co-operative Bank Customer Donation Fund to purchase the materials for our fantastic bespoke water feature in our newly renovated sensory garden. Huge thanks are also due to members of the Jessop family who had the vision and made the water feature.
Refreshing the stable yard
We are very grateful to Morgan Sindall for re-concreting our stable yard over the summer. This was a social value project which Morgan Sindall and the following companies carried out free of charge for us. We would also like to thank Hanson for supplying the concrete, Kerin Construction for the construction of works, Keyline who supplied the mesh and Active Plant for supplying the plant. Morgan Sindall co-ordinated all this for us and made sure that we’ve been left with a strong and safe yard which will hopefully last us another 30 years.
Helping Hands
On Saturday 2 September we were very pleased to welcome a huge volunteer team from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to help with maintenance around the Barrow Farm site. The Church calls this large service project for charitable or worthy cause ‘Helping Hands’. The volunteer group were all ages and from an area from Ipswich to Wanstead and from Cambridge to the East coast. They were brilliant and and got so much done, they replaced and repaired fencing, cut hedges back, treated the stables, outbuildings and fences with preservative, and so much more including clearing a woodland path so our riders have more variety.
Thank you, Helping Hands for choosing us, you did so much more than we ever thought, a really remarkable day.
Notice of AGM
Notice is hereby given that the charity’s Annual General Meeting will be held at Barrow Farm on Wednesday 2nd August 2023 at 6pm and will last about one hour. Everyone is very welcome to attend and find out more about Barrow Farm RDA, however please note that only General Members will be allowed to vote. An Agenda and further details will be sent to General Members prior to the AGM. If you would like to become a General Member in time for this year’s AGM, please complete an application form and return it to info@barrowdarmrda.org.uk by 19 July 2023. You can find more information on our Membership page.
Please help Bra-vissima to help Barrow Farm
We are delighted that the Brentwood-based not-for-profit ladies choir, Bra-vissima, has chosen to support us throughout 2023 by gifting us the proceeds from their concerts. They are an excellent choir and an evening listening to them is an evening well spent. Every ticket they sell will directly benefit Barrow Farm RDA, so please spread the word and go along if you can. They will be singing in the Lordship Tearoom on coronation bank holiday Monday, and at 7.30pm on 8th July at St Peter’s and All Saints Church in Hutton Details of their Christmas concert on 2nd December will appear on their website later in the year: https://bra-vissima.com
Marathon News
We have two runners taking part in the London Marathon on 23rd April 2023. Coach and trustee Isobel Gowers is running in her first London Marathon and hopes to finish in under 4 hours. Natasha Eagling is running to raise money for the sensory garden. Natasha has already completed the Manchester Marathon on 16 April in a fantastic time of 3 hours 41 but 7 days later and she is doing it all again in London!
To sponsor Isobel go to: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/isobel-gowers-london
To sponsor Natasha go to: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/natasha-eagling4
Glass Onions Fundraiser
Thank you to everyone who came to our fundraising event with Glass Onion on Saturday 1st April. A great time was had by all and lots of money raised for Barrow Farm. Thank you to Janet for organising another fantastic event.
Wonderful donation
On Tuesday 21 March 2023 members of Witham and Maldon SWANS visited us and presented us with a wonderful £500 donation (photo of Trustee Karen Lehner and Rosie Brewster from SWANS, along with Starra). Members watched a lesson followed by refreshments and were very complimentary about the service we are able to offer our participants. Providing riding and driving wouldn’t be possible without the continuing support of organisations like the SWANS.
Helping develop Advanced Coaches of the future
Volunteer coach and trustee, Isobel Gowers, has spent two days this week at RDA National in Warwickshire. After completing her Advanced Coach assessment last year Isobel had the chance to be a mentor for the next cohort of aspiring Advanced Coaches at the Princess Royal Coaching Academy. At Barrow Farm our coaches not only provide a great service to our riders and a drivers but also support the development of other coaches outside Barrow Farm. Isobel is doing this through being a mentor and Sally and Anne do this as Coach Developers, supporting coaches across the county and beyond. For more information about our talented staff and coaches see our Barrow Farm Staff page.
