Ride High - Milton Keynes volunteering day

Milton Keynes kick started their partnership with the office’s chosen charity by attending Ride High, the Loughton based equestrian centre, ready and raring to muck in.

Ride High is a charity that transforms the lives of disadvantaged children by giving them the opportunity to learn to ride and look after horses and ponies. They work with children aged 8-17 in Milton Keynes, particularly those living in the most deprived areas for whom there is no or little support available.

Eleven volunteers donned their wellies on the 9th October, including office head Robin Webb and head of the CR Committee Sarah Evans who were ready to crack the whip if needed. Luckily it wasn’t required as everyone embraced the challenged and got through a huge amount of work for the charity, including:

• Trotting around the local area posting leaflets to request that neigh…bours discuss any plans for firework displays with Ride High. In order for them to prepare and try to prevent the horses from being too startled on the night;
• Painting and helping renovate the Manor House on site. Which the charity hopes to be able to book out to paying guests in the future, raising valuable funds for the charity;
• Sorting, itemising and pricing a large number of items like jodhpurs and boots which Ride High can look to sell to visitors over Christmas to raise even more money to help run the programme;
• The mane amount of man-hours were spent helping transform the Ride High garden. This was all in order for the children to be able to spend some relaxing time in the garden watching the horses and planting flowers in the newly created flower beds.

Helen Dixon of Ride High said “Everyone got stuck in and worked so hard on a variety of tasks. Your efforts were particularly visible in the Ride High garden!! It’s looking great and now the Children’s Team will be able to do some planting with the children!“

Everyone immensely enjoyed the day and can’t wait to push on with the partnership, helping build a stable relationship going forward. Upcoming events include a pumpkin carving competition, a Christmas bauble appeal and taking part in the MK Marathon Relay. Watch this space for more horsing around from the MK office.