As our focus is in providing equestrian activities for a growing diverse community of riders with different riding needs it is of great importance to have a diverse group of horses to provide this opportunity for our riders.  This is elaborated on in the points below that show how important our search for specific horses is:

• Due to temperament and experience of horses needed in RDA, school masters are often the most sought-after horses, so it is naturally costly and difficult to acquire them. 
• The age, health, shape, size and temperament of prospective horses are equally important in selecting the specific horses required to give the best experience for our riders with their diverse backgrounds and needs, both in the present and for the future. 
• These horses also need to be well-trained and well schooled horses, to cater for riders of all ability levels.

So with these needs in mind we need to get horses with the required temperament, well trained but a range of shapes and sizes to cater for the present and future needs of our rider population and to provide scope for growth of our programs.  

However there are many challenges in aquiring the appropriate horses for our programs, these include:  

• Often Centres find it difficult enough to fundraise sufficiently to feed horses, let alone extra to be able to purchase horses.
• Centres try to keep riding fees as low as possible to make the program affordable for everyone.
• All Centres are 100% volunteer run, that includes the coaches, who are volunteers too.
• Even in the previous economic climate these challenges were difficult for centres whose resources were focused on maintaining the land, program and current horse numbers, however COVID has had an even greater impact on our ability to fundraise through previous means making this even greater a barrier.

Most RDA Centres in Tasmania have waiting lists. Due to older horses and not enough horses they are at capacity, but with more horses an increase of riding spots can be offered. 

As a result of this we are launching this campaign in the hopes we can fund the expensive task of planning for the future with the best horses for the job, an acredited coach on the mainland to help us source any horses that are appropriate there and the means to transport them to our centres in Tasmania.  

Your support is helping us build for the future of RDA in Tasmania would be greatly appreciated.  

Please contact us directly if you have other ways you'd like to support us with these goals outside this fundraising campaign website.