We’re delighted to start the year with a lovely little film, This is Muirfield Riding Therapy. Introducing Eilidh, who comes along to take part in a therapy ride.
Eilidh loves horses, and is excited to come along to take part in a Riding Therapy session at Muirfield Riding Therapy’s (MRT) Centre at West Fenton, East Lothian.
WATCH – click the image of Eilidh below to play our short film via our YouTube channel,
The short film aims to showcase what we do here at MRT. Our Centre is volunteer-led, and self-funded, providing pioneering, life-changing equine therapy, free of charge. Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, not only has our usual fundraising been decimated, but we have been unable to invite people to the Centre to see riding therapy in action, and meet our community face to face.
The project was a collaboration with advertising agency, Whitespace, and their mentoring partnership with students from Napier University’s School of Arts and Creative Industries. Everyone involved in the short film, from our own amazing participants and their families, our specially trained volunteers and therapy ponies, and the incredible filming and editing crew, generously gave their time, skills and enthusiasm to help create it.
At MRT we have two statements which sum up our way of working, “It’s what you can do that counts” and “together we make a difference.” What I loved about this project is that everyone involved lived up to these too. Each person played their part and worked together to really make a difference for MRT, thank you
Until we are able to properly open up our doors once again, we hope this film will help you see what we can achieve, together.
Join us as we countdown to Christmas with our advent calendar. Click on a door each day and unlock new photos of life at MRT, with a festive twist!
Click on a door-a-day.Doors turn green once a day has passed, but can still be clicked open if you’ve missed a day – and you won’t want to miss all the cute new photos!
Thank you very much to Jim Hunter for gifting us these gorgeous photos.
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy new Year, from everyone at MRT!
Life at MRT – autumn update
We hope you are all well and making the most of the sunshine. We enjoy the change of seasons to autumn at West Fenton, the colours, the harvest, and of course the stubble fields! Read on to find out about life at MRT, our participants, ponies, fundraisers and a story about our name.
It is great to see us very slowly returning to a new sense of normal at MRT, and we’ve welcomed many more participants back riding with us. There are still those waiting to come back – we are trying hard to get as many participants as we can back onto or visiting their ponies.
To help with this, we added a whole new Summer Term, we have also launched a new session using our mechanical horse, Oreo, and we have a new equine therapy session called Quiet Corner.
New Ponies
Thanks to a very generous donation from Baillie Gifford & Co, we have been able to purchase two new ponies. Cinders is doing really well with her initial training. She’s very affectionate and loves being around people. She will gradually be introduced to sessions and am sure she will become a firm favourite of our riders.
Events
Indoor Market
Our indoor market will take place on 10th October. Plenty room to browse our 50 stalls in our spacious, ventilated Arena. A great mix of local, independent talent. It looks set to be our best market yet so bring your family and friends along!
Our Winter Series Showjumping Championships is back, with for a 14th year, with 4 events over the next few months. This fundraiser invites equestrians, of all ages, especially novice riders or horses/ponies. The first one is on 3rd October. Come along to watch our local riders take on the jumps (and for some lovely home baking or bacon rolls! ). Enter here.
Order your Christmas Cards
We are delighted to present our new Christmas Cards. Two beautiful bespoke designs, created exclusively for us by award-winning Edinburgh illustrator Amy Nash with all proceeds to MRT. Email Debs with your pre-order – let us know by 30th September.
Packs of 8 cards (4 of each design), size A6, for £5.95. Message inside reads, ‘Merry Christmas and best wishes for the New Year’.
Christmas Coffee Morning & Craft Sale
Save the date – Saturday 27th November, 09.30 – 11.30am. We’re back in Gullane Village Hall! Our wonderful volunteers are hard at work in the coming months creating now legendary, beautifully decorated Christmas Cakes to order, and for sale at our Christmas Coffee Morning. Beautiful Christmas crafts & gifts, Christmas Hamper Raffle, Live music – guitar and mandolin.
Coming up…
Charity Golf Day – Renaissance 2022
We are delighted to announce the new date for our Charity Golf Day, at the prestigious Renaissance Golf Club, host of the Scottish Open, as 19th May 2022.
We invite you to join us on the fabulous 18-hole links course at The Renaissance Club, Cowden Hill Drive, North Berwick, EH39 5HS: Invitation and Booking Form
And finally, what’s in a name?
When volunteer Rosemary started at MRT we were still called Muirfield Riding For the Disabled Group.
Click here to find out about Rosemary’s volunteer story and our name change.
Our Spring Rally Trail 2021 saw 97 teams navigating our 40 mile route around beautiful East Lothian. The Trail which finished on Sunday 25th April, started and ended in the village of Gifford, with the first 7 clues being done on foot in the village before participants jumped in their cars for the remaining 42 clues.
All correct entries were submitted to our prize draw to win our Big Picnic Prize Hamper, which was stuffed full of treats thanks to donations from Tesco North Berwick in Our Community and Co-op Gullane, plus a gift voucher for a night’s stay at the gorgeous Seaholm B& B, North Berwick.
Check out the answers here – how did you get on?
CONGRATULATIONS to our winners, TEAM ‘FOSSIL AND THE PAVLOVAS’, Caitriona Kavanagh & Gillian Harley.
A fantastic £1,455 was raised to support the work of Muirfield Riding Therapy and we would like to say a huge THANK YOU to all our teams for supporting the fundraiser and helping secure the future of our service.
Hope to see you at our next Rally Trail – we’ll keep you posted!
(Thanks to JS Main & Sons who took part in our Rally Trail, for the header image)
Muirfield Riding Therapy has been closed since the end of March due to the Coronavirus Crisis. As we move into summer, we are planning for a phased return to therapy riding in line with Scottish Government and RDA National Office guidelines.
With Indoor Arenas now able to open in Scotland we are looking forward to when we can safely offer riding therapy sessions again. The team have been planning for how we adapt what we do so that some of our riders can return.
Our Roadmap to Riding planning involves considering safety protocols for our Riders, our Volunteers, our Centre and of course our Ponies.
In the meantime, there are lots of ways you can stay in touch and help us to fund the upkeep of the Centre and the care of our specially trained therapy ponies, so that once we re-open we can help as many children, young people and adults as possible.
Sponsor our Rider Kirsty to Skydive!
Kirsty has been riding with us since she was 3 years old! Read her story and support her fantastic fundraiser.
Shop online – raise funds for free
Sign up to Give As You Live This is a fantastic way to help raise funds for us, for free! With over 4,200 shops part of Give as you Live Online, including John Lewis & Partners, Expedia and Marks & Spencer. They’ll turn a percentage of your spend into free funds for us. Simply sign up, search for the retailer and start shopping. It’s that simple!
Sign up to Amazon Smile here Shopping at Amazon? Raise free funds at the same time! Sign up, choose us as your beneficiary charity, then do your usual Amazon shopping but via their Amazon Smile login, and they donate 0.5% of the net purchase price to us!
Free 50% boost for our Edinburgh Kiltwalkers’ fundraising!
Sponsor our Kiltwalkers and your donation will go 50% further! The Kiltwalk’s partner The Hunter Foundation gives every Kiltwalker a staggering 50% extra on their final fundraising total!
Sponsor a Pony
Who’s your favourite? Sponsor a Pony and help us to continue to fund all the care our four-legged friends need to do their important riding therapy work and lead healthy, happy lives.
Get in touch
Join in the chat during Lockdown!
We have Facebook chat groups for our Riders & their Families and our Volunteers
If you need to get in touch please drop us an email and we will respond as soon as we can;
Chair, Michelle Sutton
Services, Susan Law
Administration, Shirely Duff
Fundraising, Debs McLaughlin
We are so looking forward to when we can see you all again and want to say a massive THANK YOU to everyone for your continued support!
Muirfield Riding Therapy is now closed, and its fundraising events cancelled indefinitely because of the impact of the Coronavirus.
But there are lots of ways you can help us to fund the upkeep of our Centre and the care of our specially trained therapy ponies, so that once we re-open we can help as many children, young people and adults as possible.
You don’t have to be super fit and some are free!
Calling all Home Hereos – Take on the 2.6 Challenge!
Click here to join in this nationwide challenge with us on 26th April – you don’t have to be super fit to take part, use your daily exercise to fundraise for us.
Sponsor our Rider Kirsty to Skydive!
Kirsty has been riding with us since she was 3 years old! Read her story and support her fantastic fundraiser.
We’re all online shoppers now – raise funds for free when you shop,
Sign up to Give As You Live We’re all shopping online at the moment so this is a fantastic way to help raise funds for us, for free! With over 4,200 shops part of Give as you Live Online, including John Lewis & Partners, Expedia and Marks & Spencer. They’ll turn a percentage of your spend into free funds for us. Simply sign up, search for the retailer and start shopping. It’s that simple!
Sign up to Amazon Smile here Shopping at Amazon? Raise free funds at the same time! Sign up, choose us as your beneficiary charity, then do your usual Amazon shopping but via their Amazon Smile login, and they donate 0.5% of the net purchase price to us!
Free 50% boost for our Edinburgh Kiltwalkers’ fundraising!
Sponsor our Kiltwalkers and your donation will go 50% further! The Kiltwalk’s partner The Hunter Foundation gives every Kiltwalker a staggering 50% extra on their final fundraising total!
Sponsor a Pony
Who’s your favourite? Sponsor a Pony and help us to continue to fund all the care our four-legged friends need to do their important riding therapy work and lead healthy, happy lives.
Get in touch
Join in the chat during Lockdown!
We have Facebook chat groups for our Riders & their Families and our Volunteers
If you need to get in touch please drop us an email and we will respond as soon as we can;
Chair, Michelle Sutton
Services, Susan Law
Administration, Shirely Duff
Fundraising, Debs McLaughlin
We want to say a massive THANK YOU to everyone for your support!
The Coronavirus has had a devastating impact on Scottish events and charity fundraising. The Kiltwalk series is one of Scotland’s top mass participation fundraisers. In a show of incredible support and kindness, Kiltwalk partner The Hunter Foundation has announced they will continue to donate their generous bonus to Kiltwalkers even if walks are cancelled!
We love being part of the Edinburgh Kiltwalk. The MRT Team will be part of the Edinburgh Kiltwalk 2020, on Sunday 13th September and we’d love you to join us! It’s a wonderful way for small charities like ours to fundraise. The Hunter Foundation, announced earlier this year it will be upping its charitable bonus to every participant’s fundraising total to a whopping 50%!
In 2019 Audrey took part with her son David, who is one of our Riders, and their family,
We had a wonderful time taking part in the Kiltwalk this year. We did the Wee Wander, which is 5 miles, and it was a lovely walk. The atmosphere was so friendly and we got chatting to lots of people raising funds for other charities too. It was so rewarding to raise money for MRT, a charity we love, and an organisation that has given David, and the rest of our family, so much support over a long number of years. We would encourage other families to take part in the Kiltwalk and to support this amazing organisation, which gives so much to all of our riders and their families.
There are three distances to choose from, 5 mile Wee Wander , 14.5 mile Big Stroll, 24 mile Mighty Stride with the shortest distance, the 5 mile Wee Wander being wheelchair accessible, and all ending at Murrayfield Stadium with the Kiltwalk Party!
Shirley is our Office Manager, and was one of our Kiltwalkers last year,
2019 was my second time doing the Kiltwalk for MRT. We did some practice walks before hand which was really nice and great having the time to walk and chat with other fantastic team members from different sessions. MRT has lots of different fundraisers, but for me, walking, talking and being offered food along the way is ideal!! While the feet were hot and the hips were a wee bit worn out, it was a great day from start to finish and we all had BIG smiles on our faces at the end of our achievement.
There are lots of way you can get involved; as a walker, a donor or as a volunteer. Find out how to register to walk, donate or volunteer at The Edinburgh Kiltwalk for Team MRT
Tuesday 17 March 2020
From Michelle Sutton, Chair, Muirfield Riding Therapy,
Hello Everyone,
I am writing to you with a heavy heart to let you know that Muirfield Riding Therapy is now closed because of the impact of the Coronavirus. This closure includes the cancellation or postponement of all training and fundraising events until the end of May.
As has always been the case the health and well being of our riders and volunteers is the priority in our decision making process. With the recent government announcements we feel we can no longer operate our riding therapy sessions.
I know that this will be really disappointing to those people who will miss the last 2 weeks of their terms riding. We are already getting calls about when we will reopen – the honest answer is we simply do not know. We will review again on a regular basis but I do not expect to open before the 1st June and so unlikely to offer regular sessions until after the Summer holidays.
To protect our team of volunteers and employees the MRT office will not be manned for the next few weeks. Instead our admin teams will be working from home as much as they can. If you need to get in touch please drop us an email and we will respond as soon as we can;
Chair, Michelle Sutton: [email protected]
Services, Susan Law: [email protected]
Administration, Shirely Duff: [email protected]
Fundraising, Debs McLaughlin: [email protected]
Thank you for your support and understanding at this difficult time. Our thoughts are with you all and we look forward to seeing our riders back in the future.
Stay safe!
Michelle
What a difference a year makes! We would like to thank everyone who has been part of our celebrations, our Riders, friends and families, our volunteer team, our supporters and our sponsors. You have contributed in so many ways, and we are thankful for each and everyone one of you.
The theme for our 30th birthday year has been all about raising funds for, and awareness of, our work to enable us to deliver projects which will set us up for the next 30 years! Let’s take a look back at some highlights from a truly fantastic celebratory year.
The past 12 months have gone by at a gallop since we launched our 30th anniversary celebrations back in September 2018 with a special Raceday at Musselburgh Race Course.
In 2019 we’ve provided over 3,500 life-changing therapeutic riding sessions, free of charge, thanks to our volunteer team giving over 16,000 hours of volunteering! We’ve had so much fun!
We had to say bon voyage to Therapy Pony Tess who is now enjoying retirement, and a sad farewell to Hijarrandi this year.
But we are delighted to have welcomed Lillie, Willis, Callie and Highland pony Kara. MacGregor was especially taken with Kara…
The Rotary Club of North Berwick are wonderful supporters of the charity, especially marshalling at our events, and honoured us with beneficiary charity status at their sellout annual Classic Car Tour in April 2019.
We are also lucky enough to have the support of many local Rotary groups, not least The Rotary Club of Longniddry and District who this year generously funded the printing of our brand new Volunteer Handbook.
Shout out to all our fantastic pony sponsors and to our Sharers who not only support us in the financial upkeep of our Ponies but, importantly, help us keep our precious Therapy Ponies’ lives enriched.
Our supporters help us in so many ways – Riders’ filling their Coin Boxes, Agnes’ wonderful baking at our Coffee Mornings, Brenda’s beautiful knitting and crafting, June’s gardening skills, Joyce’s wonderful pony photography and Jim’s stunning photos capturing our work, our brilliant event organisers – and so much more.
We welcomed American Master Classical Guitarist Alex Komodore who gave a beautiful Concert at Dirleton Kirk back in May.
Our annual Summer Show for Horses and Ponies back in July was our biggest ever, and our Coaches supported some of our Riders to take part too. Thank you to Lucy from MacGregor Healthcare Ltd our Show’s main sponsor and a great supporter of the charity, and to all our wonderful sponsors and volunteer Judges. We couldn’t do it without you.
In September, our fantastic Edinburgh Kiltwalk Team which included volunteers, riders and supporters, raised a phenomenal £8,535 – wow, now that’s teamwork!
Later that month we had our very memorable Riders’ Fun Day celebration with families friends and supporters.
There was lots more fun to come in October; we loved having the young student band led by Knox Academy music teacher Liz Woodsend entertaining us all at our Indoor Market!
And we had a swell time at our Blingo By The Sea fundraiser making lots of new friends!
And speaking of new friends, we made even more at this year’s annual Charity Golf Day at Muirfield Golf Course! We were delighted to have been chosen as their beneficiary charity. With very grateful thanks to the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, our sponsors – Beatitude, Bravo Whisky Golf, Henry Jewellers of North Berwick and NB Gin – and our Golf Pro Alasdair Good, our guests had a ball! We even had a Hole In One! Well done to our deserving winners, Renaissance Braves! A phenomenal £24,000 was raised.
One of our young volunteers, North Berwick High School student Mairi and her team won a £3,000 grant for Muirfield Riding Therapy!
Our annual Christmas Coffee Morning moved to a new venue, Gullane Village Hall!
And we also had a big birthday party! ‘The Three Chairs’ – our founder Gill Morrison, longstanding former Chair Susan Law MBE and current Chair Michelle Sutton – led the fun at our 30th Birthday Party at Aberlady Village Hall, showing a wonderful presentation of the past 30 years of MRT and cutting our magnificent cake donated by volunteer Wendy!
Look who came to visit the kids at our annual Children’s Christmas Party at The Mallard Hotel, Gullane this year!
We are very grateful to Longniddry Parish Church for hosting their lovely Carol Service for us, and to Heidi Innes and Holly Carter for choosing us as their beneficiary charity for their ‘Songs for Christmas’ concert at Tyninghame Village Hall.
And so we come to the end of 2019. We raise a festive toast to everyone who has been involved in making Muirfield Riding Therapy what it is today, thank you.
And we also look forward to the next 30 years… we have lots of exciting plans coming up, starting in 2020 by celebrating 10 years of our pioneering partnership with the NHS, thanks to our Group physiotherapist Heather Falconer.
Merry Christmas everyone, see you in the New Year!
Our long running Winter Series is back this Sunday 27th October for its 13th year, open to ALL AGES, and we have an improved Arena surface, particularly suitable for jumping. Benefit from an all-round professional Show Jumping experience, but in a relaxed, friendly, encouraging atmosphere with a Grand Finale in March 2020.
We are delighted to be back for a 13th year of our Winter Series Show Jumping Championships, and with a new improved Arena surface too! Held at our Indoor Arena, West Fenton, the monthly events kick off this Sunday 27th October – click here view our October Schedule and Equine Flu ‘Pony Passport’ requirements– with the Final in March 2020. With a cozy Viewing Gallery and an all day cafe, your support crew can keep warm while you’re in action. Spectators are welcome, free entry!
