Our Team
We’re a Team. It takes many people to make Muirfield Riding Therapy work. We have volunteers from age 14 to age 86! Some of our volunteers come with horse knowledge and others are people focussed; everyone’s skills and talents are used.
Feel free to get in touch, we’d love to meet you and show you around.
We are responsible for the charity’s financial and strategic planning and compliance with regulatory requirements.
We use our specialist skills to help our participants, volunteers and ponies by dealing with the day to day running of the charity, in order to give the participant and volunteer the best possible experience.
We commit our time and energy to helping our participants to get the most out of their therapy sessions, to caring for our specially trained ponies and to supporting fundraising.
We use our skills to lead, support and encourage our participants and volunteers. Working with the group therapists, we draw up a therapy plan for individual participants.
Physios and Occupational Therapists assess participants who apply to MRT to see how we can improve their condition, draw up a therapy plan along with the Coach and help train the volunteer team.
We support the coaches and physiotherapists by providing the necessary training for volunteers. We work with the Training Coordinator on the Operating Group.
We disseminate information within our own sessions and from session to session as well as to the Operating Group and other bodies as required. We work with the Operating Group on external communication.
We assist and advise those involved in horse care. We help with procurement of new ponies and arranging for the care of elderly ponies. We liaise through the coach body and physiotherapists.
We support the efforts that MRT goes to in providing those we care for with equine facilitated therapy free of charge.
We provide essential administrative support to MRT including being first point of contact, keeping records up to date, and managing our databases.
NHS Lothian supports the physiotherapists in MRT by promoting the benefits of Riding Therapy through its network. In 2010 NHS Lothian and Muirfield Riding Therapy launched the Children’s Therapeutic Riding Service. The NHS Lothian sessions are run from our Centre on a Tuesday afternoon, by physiotherapists with specialist qualifications in Hippotherapy (an effective form of physiotherapy on horseback).
RDA National office is based in England and supports MRT and other 500+ Riding for the Disabled (RDA) groups by organizing insurance cover and providing support and training for Coaches and Volunteers.