Summer at Shelley

Deborah Bennett
Jul 9, 2025
2 min read

Ebony’s Blog

Life at The Shelley Centre

The lovely weather continues and all our ponies and riders and making the most of it. One of our long time resident ponies, April, has now been retired and is enoying life as a companion. We have a new pony Taric on loan and when he has settled in we hope he will prove a good replacement for April, being a similar size.

As well as ponies and helpers coming and going, we have riders leave for various reasons and new ones are taken on. Sue, who is a physiotherapist, assesses potential riders before they are offered a place at the Centre. Last autumn, Bella a delightful and bright 4-year old came in her tiny wheelchair to be assessed as she needed help to strengthen her core muscles. When she arrived she spent time stroking a pony before Sue carried her on her hips to assess how wide Bella’s hips would open. Although she wanted to ride a live pony it was clear she needed to start out using Ebony, the mechanical horse. Initially her little legs were so tight she couldn’t stretch her legs down and was very floppy and couldn’t sit up on her own needing a volunteer on either side to hold her up. She was happy playing games and stretching to reach things and was an absolute delight to work with. After a few weeks she was trotting and cantering on Ebony, sitting up much straighter and for longer, and her legs relaxed more. Then to everyone’s delight she was ready to ride our lovely pony Thomas. This is helping her progress even more – what a star! Picture: Bella with Sue.

At the other end of the age scale, on Tuesday afternoons we have elderly, frail and dementia patients come for Tea with a Pony. Spending time petting the little ponies Chocolate or Cookie is very therapeutic, especially as many of them once rode or kept horses. And there is a lovely cuppa and cake afterwards. Pictured is 88-year old Diana with Chocolate. She rode for much of her life and loves the opportunity to be around the ponies.

Our fundraising continues apace. Last month our walk, followed by homemade cakes raised over £1000 and as I write this we are preparing our stand at the Hadleigh Show.

Events coming up include (for details see our website or contact the Centre):

29^th June - Long Distance Ride

18^th July – Summer’Fiesta’ Ball. There are still a few places available for anyone who would like to attend.

Website: www.shelleyrda.com

Facebook: Shelley RDA Centre Telephone: 01473 824172