Become a valued volunteer in 2019
Be part of our Team in 2019 as we celebrate 30 years of providing therapeutic riding sessions, free of charge, for children and adults with disabilities in East and Midlothian.
2 – 3 hours per week of your time can make a big difference to the lives of others.
There are lots of ways you can help: in riding sessions, with horse care, with admin or offering fundraising support.
MRT is run almost exclusively by volunteers and team work is essential in all areas of the operation. We can offer you a worthwhile, rewarding volunteering opportunity. Some volunteers come to us with equine experience while other might come to us with experience of disability but neither is essential. Full training is given in all aspects of the running of our sessions. Volunteering can include, working in sessions; handling ponies or working with our riders. Administrative; assisting in the office, data handling. Fundraising; assisting the Fundraising Team with a range of events of all sizes.
MRT will take whatever time you can spare, but most sessions last for 2-3 hours each week.
Apply now. Download and complete our Volunteer Application Forms, bring your forms along to the Centre at any of our 7 weekly sessions when you will meet the Session Teams and your Training Mentor. You will be sure of a warm welcome.
Queries? Call 01620 842502 or email our Service Coordinator
Come and have a go at Show Jumping this Sunday!
Riders, horses and ponies of all ages, join us on Sunday 20th January for the fourth event in our Annual Winter Series Show Jumping 2018/19!
07 October | 18 November | 09 December | 20 January | 24 February | 17 March – The Final
We’re now on our fourth event of this season’s Winter Series already. You don’t need to have attended previous events in the Series to take part, just come along and join in! This Sunday 20th January 2019 – we welcome everyone, and especially less experienced riders and ponies & horses, of ALL ages.
Our Class Schedule offers something for everyone to try, and we always include an adult-only class (age 21 years +). Our Winter Series events are fundraisers, with all proceeds to Muirfield Riding Therapy. Please share our event.
LOW COST ENTRY FEE
Entry is on the day only and Classes are £6 per rider, per Class (Indoor Arena) and £4 per rider for our Clear Round in the Outdoor Arena. Buy one Clear Round and get one free – two attempts to win a rosette!
SPECTATORS AND FACILITIES
Spectator entry is FREE, so come along and support your rider from our cozy Spectator Viewing Gallery. Our Cafe will be open all day with very reasonably priced bacon rolls, soup, home baking, hot & cold drinks
QUERIES?
You can ring the Show Secretary throughout event day to check Class Start Times and weather on 01620 842502. Each Class has a guide start time, to help you plan your day. As our event is entries-on-the-day only, registration numbers will dictate our Class timings.
Our Winter Series Finale culminates in the presentation of trophies;
Wobblies Trophey
Presented to the rider/pony/horse combination which has accrued the most points from classes 1-5.
The Fiona Mossan Trophy
Presented to the rider/pony/horse combination which has accrued the most points from classes 4-9.
The Niven Family Trophy
Presented to the most improved rider of the Series.
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Lizzie officially becomes a Hippotherapist!
One of our wonderful volunteer physiotherapists, Lizzie Barke, has successfully passed her postgraduate training to become a Hippotherapist!
Lizzie, an NHS physiotherapist specialising in paediatrics and currently working in the Community, has been volunteering at MRT since 2014. After shadowing our lead physiotherapist Heather Falconer at a number of hippotherapy sessions and witnessing the fantastic results they produced, Lizzie was keen to join the team. She has intermittently been working as a Trainee hippotherapist within our Tuesday sessions since 2014.
Lizzie says,
“l’m delighted to have completed my training. The children who are referred to our Service present with a huge array of challenges, including issues with mobility, balance, muscle tone, strength, coordination, body awareness and symmetry. Hippotherapy has provided a means to address all of these issues and more in sessions.”
Our Service Coordinator Susan Law added,
“The Tuesday afternoon team are thrilled to hear of Lizzie’s wonderful achievement. It has been a real pleasure to watch Lizzie develop under Heather’s tutelage. As Service Coordinator I am particularly pleased; having Lizzie as a fully qualified hippotherapist will help to ensure the continuation and further development of the service we can offer in this our 30th year. Exciting times ahead!”
Our Group physiotherapist Heather Falconer pioneered what has become the Therapeutic Riding Service, part of NHS Lothian’s Children’s Physiotherapy Service, in 2009
MRT is on CBeebies Ferne and Rory’s Vet Tales!
Back in the summer we had a team from the BBC with us filming for Ferne and Rory’s Vet Tales. Our episode, MacGregor The Pony, will be transmitted on Friday 30th November 2018!
The team from CBeebies programme Ferne and Rory’s Vet Tales were with us for several days in July, filming in and around our Arena at West Fenton. We are delighted to announce that our episode, MacGregor The Pony, will broadcast on Friday 30th November at 4.35pm on CBeebies, and it looks fantastic (please check listings for up to date information as schedules can change). We hope you, your friends and family can tune in for what is sure to be a great show and please remember to set your recorders.
Find out more about our Therapy Pony MacGregor featured in this episode.
Winter Series Show Jumping 2018/19
Our Annual Winter Series Show Jumping 2018/19
Indoor Arena, West Fenton
07 October | 18 November | 09 December | 20 January | 24 February | 17 March – The Final
Our Winter Series is run to encourage less experienced riders and ponies & horses, of all ages. We always include an adult-only class. Our six friendly events culminate in the Series Final and presentation of trophies, in March. All Class entry fee proceeds go to Muirfield Riding Therapy.
Entry is on-the-day only and costs £6 per rider per class. Clear Round is £4 per rider – buy a Clear Round entry, get one free, two attempts to win a rosette. All entry proceeds to Muirfield Riding Therapy, thank you.
Bring your friends and family – spectators are welcome and can watch the action from our cozy Viewing Gallery. Our Cafe will be selling hot and cold food & drinks all day.
EVENT ONE is on Sunday OCTOBER 7th, 2018 – click for the Competition Schedule
Starts 09.30am Clear Round starts 10.00am
We have three trophies presented at the end of the Series in March 2019:
Wobblies Trophey
Presented to the rider/pony/horse combination which has accrued the most points from classes 1-5.
The Fiona Mossan Trophy
Presented to the rider/pony/horse combination which has accrued the most points from classes 4-9.
The Niven Family Trophy
Presented to the most improved rider of the Series.
Kishmul and other Heroes
Muirfield Riding Therapy works with a small charity called Friends of Retired MRT Ponies (FoR) to support its ponies at the end of their working lives. Susan Law MBE, our Services Coordinator and former longstanding Chair of MRT, tells the story of a very special MRT therapy pony called Kishmul.
Kishmul and other Heroes
Kishmul came to West Fenton aged 5 from a breeder in Perthshire. And what a handsome Oatmeal Dun Highland he was when he came barging off the lorry! I started at MRT not long after Kishmul arrived and it was love at first sight…….well, for me at least.
I was already a committed Highland enthusiast, but Kish reminded me on a regular basis that Highlands, like many native breeds, can be stubborn and strong willed. Yet the temperament he had proved ideal for our work; generally unfazed by wriggling, vocal children and accepting of the odd positions our therapists and riders can adopt. These solid beasts, with leg at each corner, are very stoical.
In addition, his short coupling, typical to the breed, gave him a strong back and he had the ideal conformation for back-riding.
For those not familiar with back-riding, this is carried out only by physiotherapists with support from fully trained MRT volunteers and involves the therapist sitting on the pony with the child in front of her. This is used for children who have little or no head control.
It is a fairly pressurised situation for the pony. The children who benefit from it are very vulnerable, so the equine used and the team around him develop a bond. It is very important that the physiotherapist can trust the pony so that she can focus all of her attention on the little person she is working with.
Over the years I worked with Kishmul in many situations: from the “over hill and down dale treks” that Gill would take our Riders on, where danger lay in every tempting blade of grass we came across; to outings to the Jack Kane Centre, giving pony rides on KIDS OUT days, with fire engines screaming around us; to Musselburgh Racecourse where he was NOT last in his one furlong race.
We were a team, he and I. I think he recognised that I could be just as stubborn and strong-willed as him!
But it was in his role as MRT’s first back-riding pony that our best hours were spent together. His innate sense that he was carrying fragile cargo seemed to bring out the very best in this pony. In the calm atmosphere of a one to one rider situation we could simply work quietly together, anticipating and responding to the slightest movement that the physio made or instruction she gave.
Admittedly, I don’t think there are many of our long-term volunteers that Kishmul has not carted to grass, or avoided when catching, or showed his displeasure to when saddling!
He was no pushover and taught many of us that equines deserve respect, especially equines who work as therapy ponies. They have a rider, of course, and a leader giving them conflicting signals. Their body space is crowded, which can be stressful for a flight animal.
Many have come and gone, breaking our hearts as they go, but those who stay have a tough job. They are handled by many different people with different views on handling horses.
What other way can they tell us when they are being girthed too tightly or bitted too harshly than with swishing tail or flattened ears? Thankfully, MRT Volunteers now a days are all trained in a mindful way of horse handling, but older ponies have long memories of past unpleasant experiences.
And so, in his later years, Kishmul did not suffer fools (as he saw us!) gladly. He trusted few and scared many. But if he trusted you, the effort to gain his trust was repaid a hundred-fold.
Thanks to those who saw through his grumpiness and appreciated the amazing pony who worked for MRT for 20 odd years, giving hundreds of children and adults the chance to benefit from riding therapy – an achievement recognized by Princess Anne, who awarded him with a long service medal during her second visit to MRT.
Thanks to those who cared for and supported Kishmul in retirement, through Friends of Retired MRT Ponies.
And thanks to everyone at MRT who has handled Kishmul over all the years. We have learnt from him, a more mindful way of handling all of our wonderful therapy ponies. Hopefully we will continue to pass down to these valuable lessons about how we work with our ponies, treating them with respect and working in partnership to help them to do a difficult job.
This old warrior has now left us aged 29, after a great 18 months living naturally, just being a horse. He lived in a massive field with three other 16.2 retirees who dwarfed him. But he was, predictably, the boss of his herd till the end and was his own man to the end. I will miss him in my life but know that he led a good useful life, enjoyed a wonderful retirement and died a peaceful death.
Susan Law MBE, September ‘18
Keep in touch with FoR on Facebook, Friends of Retired MRT Ponies
Launching our 30th Anniversary at a gallop!
Muirfield Riding Therapy will be 30 years old in 2019 and we are looking for support to help us mark the occasion throughout the coming year. We launched our celebrations at the Musselburgh Race Course Caledonian Cup Meeting on 15th September. The special raceday was in support of MRT with six of the races at the meeting named after MRT to heighten awareness of the work we do – spot our new anniversary logo at the racecourse finish line! Thanks to a wonderfully generous donation, and our fabulous volunteer collectors, the raceday raised a magnificent £11,000.
As a fully self-funded charity, we started life back in 1989 in a muddy field with borrowed ponies. We’ve come a long way since then, thanks to wonderful support from the East Lothian community. We now provide our pioneering therapy, free of charge, to around 120 children and adults each week, are supported by 250 volunteers, and need to raise around £100,000 a year to maintain our therapy services.
Our riders have a wide range of disabilities and life affecting conditions both physical and mental, and our volunteer-led organisation is supported by specialist physiotherapists and its 12 trained therapy ponies.
Muirfield Riding Therapy chair, Michelle Sutton, said:
“We are indebted for this wonderful gesture which has meant we started our 30thyear at a gallop. It costs an average of £3000 a year to maintain one of our ponies and we rely on corporate sponsorship and the efforts of many generous individuals to continue our work in East Lothian and beyond.
“The donation was most welcome and the high-profile awareness it afforded us at the Caledonian Cup Raceday is invaluable and helps greatly in explaining what we do and highlighting how people benefit from therapeutic riding.”
Musselburgh Racecourse senior operations and commercial manager, Sarah Montgomery, said:
“We have a long-standing relationship with Muirfield Riding Therapy which was one of our nominated charities some years ago. The work they do is of great value to many people and their families and we are delighted to be able to support this well-loved local equestrian related charity.”
We’d like to mark our special year in some way. If you have been involved with MRT at anytime in our 30 year history and would like to share a story or two, or if you are interested in helping us come up with ideas and making them happen, then please get in touch.
Over £5k raised for Team MRT at Kiltwalk 2018!
THANK YOU 💚
The MRT Kiltwalk Team 2018, from left to right: Shirley, Susan, Michelle, Debs, Morven, Cameron, Sarah and Mandy, would like to thank everyone who supported them. With online and offline donations counted, plus the 40% boost from the Kiltwalk’s partner, The Hunter Foundation, the fundraising total now stands £5,311.61.
The Team took on the Edinburgh Kiltwalk Big Stroll (15.5 miles) on Sunday 16 September and despite some soggy weather half way, the atmosphere was fantastic and they completed the walk in just short of 5 hours.
If anyone would like to take part in The Edinburgh Kiltwalk 2019 for MRT, we’d love to hear from you!
Volunteer Recruitment Week 2018
Starts 11th September
Just two hours a week can make a huge difference!
Please come along and find out about joining our team of volunteers. Just two hours a week of your time can make a huge difference. Muirfield Riding Therapy is an entirely volunteer-led organisation. We need all sorts of people to help us. We have volunteers from age 12 to 86! Everyone’s skills and talents are used.
We are open during the times below, please pop in:
TUE 11th Sept 10-12noon & 1.30-3.30pm
WED 12th Sept 10-12noon & 6.30-8pm
THU 13th Sept 10-12noon
FRI 14th Sept 1.30-3.30pm
SAT 15th Sept 10-12noon
Team Kiltwalk 2018 – join us!
We’re taking part in Edinburgh Kiltwalk’s ‘The Big Stroll’ this September – come and join us! Be a Walker, a Donor or a Volunteer.
The MRT Team will be part of the Edinburgh Kiltwalk 2018, taking place on Sunday 16th September. We are tackling The Big Stroll, a 15.5 mile route, starting at Pinkie Playing Fields and ending at Murrayfield Stadium where the Kiltwalk Party will begin…
And here’s the amazing bit, not only will Kiltwalk ensure 100% of any sponsorship donation money comes to us, their partnership with Sir Tom Hunter’s The Hunter Foundation means we will also receive an additional 40%!
For every £10 donated, we receive £14, thanks to Kiltwalk partner The Hunter Foundation!
There are lots of ways to be part of our MRT Team;
Walk with us
Use this link to register, which will ensure your fundraising page links to our MRT Team page – Register for the Big Stroll
Donate to us
Every penny of your sponsorship comes to MRT, plus an additional 40% thanks to The Hunter Foundation – Donate to the MRT Team
Be a ‘Kiltie’ for us
Did you know, you can volunteer as a Kiltwalk marshal, known as a Kiltie (the ‘heart, soul and smile of the Kiltwalk’) and your chosen charity will be ‘paid’ for every hour you volunteer – Register to be a Kiltie
THANK YOU for your support