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Get your friends together and join us for a great night! Teams of 6 for our Curry, Quiz and Disco Night! Quiz by our expert Quiz Master, with prizes. Curries from Grace of India, Aberlady, a well stocked Bar, disco and dance floor!

What more could you want from a night out, for just £15 per person (£90 + eventbrite processing fee per team of 6)! We look forward to welcoming you and your friends to Aberlady Village Hall.

Click here to book your Team Table

The Quiz will be led by our expert Quiz Master, with prizes for our winning team! Top Tip: there may be a Muirfield Riding Therapy-themed question or two… Your curry is from the fantastic Grace of India, Aberlady, and we will have a well stocked Bar, great music and a dance floor awaiting you!

There will be plenty of games on the night too, as part of this fundraiser for local charity, Muirfield Riding Therapy (MRT). MRT are a volunteer-led Centre providing pioneering, life-changing equine therapy, free of charge. Based in East Lothian, the charity is a member group of RDA UK.

Oreo is no ordinary therapy pony. With a flowing black mane and tail, and majestic stature, he’s been likened to fictional stallion Black Beauty! Oreo is a rather extraordinary therapy pony, in fact he’s a mechanical pony!  Read on to discover more about Oreo thanks to one of our participants, Adam, and Coach, Nicky.

Frank, Adam’s Dad

“I just thought I’d take a little moment to express my feelings for Oreo the mechanical therapy horse. Initially when my son Adam was paired with Oreo, I was a little sceptical. However, therapeutically, Adam has come on leaps and bounds with far quicker progress than previously on flesh and blood horses. A Mechanical horse has far more benefits than negatives. Mucking out is so much easier, the feed bill is far less and in my opinion the therapeutic value is far greater than its equine cousin. It’s far easier to pinpoint a child with mobility issues such as my son, and localise that movement in a required area. It’s easier to repeat that action and so to tick objectives and track progression, ultimately enhancing mobility and confidence.  The staff certainly enjoy seeing results.

In these days of total inclusion Oreo fits this brief perfectly. No child, no matter how challenging their disability, will ever hear, “Sorry this isn’t for you” something they’re unfortunately told on a daily basis. With a tighter structure to the room, hoist aids and supervising hands literally millimetres away, it’s really obvious to me.”

Oreo Coach Nicky

“Muirfield Riding Therapy is fortunate enough to have Oreo the mechanical horse, to be able to use for therapy riding, alongside our four-legged herd.  We think Oreo looks at bit like [fictional character] Black Beauty!”  

Oreo was added to our herd in 2017, thanks to an incredible donation. He is a horse-shaped, high tech piece of physiotherapy equipment responds to leg and hand movements like a real horse.  He is an important part of our Service, offering benefits to Participants and Therapists.  Oreo helps our Physiotherapists with Riders’ biomechanics assessments, offering top of the range postural analysis to improve muscle tone, strength and symmetry.

In November 2020, Oreo was moved into his new larger ‘stable’ thanks to long-awaited renovations.  Our NHS partnership, The Children’s Therapeutic Riding Service Team were able to restart their sessions again, paused due to COVID-19, by using Oreo for now to simulate the equine experience!

New Oreo sessions

And now, Oreo is used in various sessions, and in a brand new Oreo-only therapeutic riding session on Wednesday evenings, with our Oreo Coach Nicky. Nicky explains why Oreo really is an extraordinary therapy pony,

“Our aim is always to make any riding or equine therapy experience at MRT fun, no matter which type of horse is being ridden.  Often, I hear participants, parents and carers exclaim in delight that this week that they are going to “play” on Oreo.  Oreo is linked to a screen in front of him which allows his riders to choose from a range of scenic rides which they can enjoy, virtually!  There is no doubt that there is something wonderful that happens when participants can ride via the simulations to either splash in the sea, go around a lake and castle, or ride through a zoo with elephants trumpeting!  

However, Oreo is sometimes perceived as a second best option to riding a real horse.  But both are of equal value in terms of offering therapy riding.  A horse has an intuitive relationship with its rider, when using aids to change pace, if the rider doesn’t get the ask quite right the horse can second guess the intention and make transitions between paces and movements.  Oreo is a machine and isn’t intuitive.  If the rider doesn’t select the correct aid, then the transitions simply doesn’t happen. This at times can be frustrating, but the look of joy and satisfaction when the rider achieves what they are asked to do is fantastic.  The rider knows without a doubt that they achieved that task by themselves.  

Oreo doesn’t slow for corners, or stop whilst further instruction is given, for the full session the rider is constantly moving, and their muscles being given a through workout.  Hand and eye co-ordination is improved, along with a greater understanding of how to use their bodies as a riding aid. All of which helps them to become better riders if they transition back onto a real horse. 

Oreo also has a dressage element, which can be challenging to master. It’s often the only opportunity some of our riders will get to experience canter and learn how to do more technical dressage riding such as flying changes and piaffes.

I often tell my riders when I coach them, if you can do it on Oreo then you will be able to do it on a real horse.  Oreo is fun, it can be difficult, but it certainly isn’t the second-best option to riding, both have equal merit and a place in providing riding therapy.”   

Why not give it a try!

Will Writing service

Sometimes a chance encounter can change lives. Without knowing it, the direction we take can change, and we find ourselves on a path we might not be expecting. A meeting like this changed ‘Muirfield Riding for the Disabled’ (RDA) and took the charity in a wonderful, life-changing direction. Our Services Coordinator, and former longstanding Chair, Susan Law, tells the story.

“About 18 years ago I was at the Drum RDA group in Edinburgh and saw a young physiotherapist riding a pony with a child in front of her. I had never seen this before and was intrigued by this thing called back riding. To find out more about it, I sought out this physio, called Heather.

As luck would have it, Heather was working on a Hippotherapy (a specialist, very effective, form of physiotherapy on horseback) qualification, and needed a centre where she could work up her case work. She brought to us a little girl called Anna and we created a space for Heather to work with her on a Tuesday afternoon. We gave her a pony and a small team of volunteers.

This team quickly learned what was required of them and so our introduction to equine therapy in its true sense began. It was evident from the start that, working with Heather, we could properly evidence the impact we could make.

So, in return for use of our facilities, volunteers and our little therapy pony Smartie once a week, Heather had unwittingly signed herself up for 18 years of devotion to MRT! I know who came out of this deal best!!

The Children’s Therapeutic Riding Service

Most of Muirfield Riding Therapy (MRT) Volunteers and Coaches will have met Heather, but even if they have not they should be aware of the impact that she has had on how MRT has developed over its life. Heather was responsible for setting up the NHS Partnership session – The Children’s Therapeutic Riding Service – which runs on a Tuesday afternoon, the first such in Scotland.

(Heather and her NHS team, STV news feature November 2020)

Working with these sessions has resulted in Volunteers and Coaches raising their game to a more professional level. Certainly, the Tuesday afternoon team would say that the proof of the value of what they do makes them feel very proud.

(Photo of the MRT volunteers from the Children’s Therapeutic Riding Service, celebrating the 10th anniversary, virtually, during the pandemic 2020)

Coming from the NHS, Heather was used to measuring the difference that different types of therapy can make; from assessing an individual’s needs, coming up with a plan and recording the outcome. This was her world. But when equines are used as a therapy tool it adds many other dimensions and things can be achieved that can’t be replicated with traditional gym equipment.

Mentor and motivator

Of course, Heather has changed the lives of her patients and their families professionally but her 17 year connection with MRT has not been purely professional. She has also volunteered with our Friday afternoon session. Her support in this session has allowed us to offer riding therapy to children with more complex needs. Many of the children coming into the Friday session have progressed from the NHS sessions.

Working with Heather has motivated some of our young volunteers to go on to pursue careers in physiotherapy and medicine. She has willingly given time to support these young proteges. She has designed and delivered volunteer training materials and encouraged so many Volunteers over her time with us.

She has set up external courses to encourage more physio to take up an interest in Equine therapy and hippotherapy, using MRTs wonderful facilities.  She has given Coaches and Volunteers the confidence to work with children whose conditions affect not only their lives but the lives of whole families, and she has given MRT the means to prove that the work we do is very valuable – appealing to funders, and providing us with statistics and scientific measurements.

A change of name

By 2010, we had become more confident that our activities could really make a difference and believed that the change of name to Muirfield Riding Therapy underlined the idea that, with expert input, we truly could affect changes in lives.

(Photos of a fun and simple, yet effective, visual measurement of walking gait improvement following a term of therapeutic riding; the left sets of footprints in each image are from the start of a term, and the right sets of footprints in each image is at the end of a term)

Using Physiotherapy and latterly Occupational Therapy principles, MRT has developed a therapy-led approach to the service it offers. This principle has resulted in a highly trained volunteer base, prepared to go out and about and tell others how proud they are to be a part of MRT.

A new life

Now Heather is spreading her work to a wider audience, travelling to South America, a part of the world she has long loved to run a hippotherapy centre. She has spoken of her wish to do this for several years but we hoped, selfishly, that the day would not come when she achieved this ambition. As a result of Covid we had her for 18 months longer than otherwise and we must be grateful for this.

(Photo of Heather on previous travels, providing therapeutic riding on a donkey).

It will not be the same without this little powerhouse who has guided – and driven maybe! – us in a way that has earned us the respect of the community, the NHS and the wider RDA world.

So now we must put aside our personal sadness at her leaving and share her enthusiasm and excitement for the next steps in her life…continuing to carry out very important work in a part of the world which has drawn her for many years.

Thank you

Heather will leave a lasting imprint on MRT and the whole organisation should be aware of the impact she has had. When it became clear that she really was going on this grand life adventure, we set to to plan for her departure to put together her succession plan which will protect our precious service and enable us to continue to develop.

(Heather with two NHS physios she has mentored through their hippo therapy training here at MRT – Annika and Lizzie)

To do this we need as a group to continue to inspire and encourage volunteers and coaches that MRT can be a centre of excellence and stay at the forefront of equine facilitated therapy.”

Thank you Heather, good luck and haste ye back!

(Photo of Heather and Susan Law celebrating 10 years of our partnership with the NHS, The Children’s Therapeutic Riding Service)

Quiet Corner will give Participants the opportunity to spend time just being with the pony in a relaxed way, interacting on a one-to-one basis. Developed by Jenny and Sharron, two of our experienced Coaches, our Quiet Corner is a new initiative currently being piloted as an alternative option, part of our equine therapy service.

We’re delighted to be back hosting our 3rd Indoor Market here in our Arena at West Fenton, EH39 5AL, and invite you to come and browse our 50 stalls of crafters, producers, upcycle & car boot-ers! A great mix of local, independent talent.

Looking for something to do during October and the mid term break?  Our Autumn Rally Trail is back! Jump in your car and take part, anytime between 1st – 31st October 2021!  A fun drive, at your own leisure, through beautiful East Lothian countryside, with lots of clues to spot on the way and picnic viewpoints. All correct entries will be added into our prize draw.

Prize Draw