Ceffyl Du RDA Driving Group

News

Another visit from Cwmbran Life to receive Colin Morgan's bequest

Watch the moment the group’s members found out about the donation.

A Visit from Cwmbran Life to celebrate our award

Find out more and view the video at www.cwmbranlife.co.uk

Ceffyl Du RDA Driving Group are Carriage Driving Magazine Awards RDA Group of the Year

What a surprise. It was a lovely, though very long, evening and Mark gave a wonderful response when receiving the Award on behalf of the Group. Congratulations to everyone associated with the Group. It is because of all of you that Ceffyl Du has had this success.

Carriage Driving Holiday June 2018

Thursday 14th - We all arrived at Clwyd Special Riding Centre and settled in to our rooms. Asda did a food delivery and later Caroline arrived to serve us an evening meal of meat or vegetable lasagne followed by fruit salad or apple pie and custard. We all really enjoyed the meal.

Friday 15th - Today we visited Chester Zoo. The weather was kind to us and the zoo is an amazing place. There were a lot of baby animals to see and everyone had a wonderful day. Back at the centre Zena came from the Wrexham Driving Group to let us know about the driving on Saturday. We also had a barbeque.

Saturday 16th - After breakfast our drivers had their first driving session with the ponies Harvey and Jack. They went out on the track and in the arena. After lunch the second session was with the ponies Mouse and Kestrel. Only Mark was able to have a few minutes in the field due to rain. However, they all enjoyed driving around the cones in the arena. In the evening a few of us went on the Rail and Ale steam train ride from Llangollen. Beautiful scenery and a good time was had by all including Llewellyn the mascot!

Sunday 17th - After breakfast this morning we went to go on the narrow boat Glas Y Dorlan which is a specially adapted narrow boat for the disabled. Two wheelchairs were able to go up on the front of the boat. We went over the Pontcysyllte Aquaduct and through two tunnels before arriving at the Poachers pub for lunch. We had a little drizzle on the way back but the rest of the day was fine and dry. Some fantastic scenery and a very relaxing pace made this a really enjoyable day. Sadly some of the group had to leave early due to work commitments. The rest of us finished up the remaining food!

Monday 18th - This morning after breakfast we packed up and said our farewells to the centre for the drive home. We all had a wonderful time, were made very welcome by everyone and look forward to a return visit in the future.

I think we all worked extremely well together as a team with everyone contributing to make this an enjoyable and fun holiday for both drivers and volunteers.

Royal Windsor Show

On 12th May fourteen of us enjoyed a very wet day out at Royal Windsor Horse Show, watching the International Driving Teams competing in the Cross Country Course. It was fascinating at how quickly and skillfully they navigated the very tight obstacles on rough wet terrain. A few of us decided to hit the shops for goodies before heading back to the bus home.

Royal Windsor Show 2018

Award Nomination

We have been shortlisted for Carriage Driving Magazine’s Riding for the Disabled Driving Group of the Year kindly sponsored by Fenix Carriages.

The winner will be revealed on Friday 6^th July 2018.

We continue to have the benefit of operating from Greenmeadow Community Farm

Our season opened on 15th May 2017. Our evening sessions have been well attended, and drivers have enjoyed driving individually designed courses in the paddock. Driving at the Farm finished on 4th September 2017 as the evenings were getting darker, we had one lovely day in September driving in the woods at Usk Castle Chase

Visit to All in One Carriage Driving Event, at The David Broome Event Centre

The event was in three phases, dressage, obstacles and cones, and we were given a ring side spot to enjoy our picnic and see the turnouts go through the obstacles.

Picnic-at-Cricklands-Event

James Broome coaches Ceffyl Du Drivers

In July James Broome came twice to give our Drivers special training. They are all learning to perform dressage tests, and each driver identified a specific goal that they would work to achieve.

Woods Drive

One Saturday in September the Group met for a picnic in Usk Castle Chase woods and each driver had a chance to drive their pony along the lovely leafy rides.

Hoy!-Get-off-my-picnic-Tinker

Fundraising

Fund raising carried on throughout the year and was finally boosted by a generous cheque from the Monmouthshire Provincial Grand Lodge, presented to us at the home of our RDA Driving Coach Bethanie Headworth with her driving pony Daisy in attendance..

A-gift-from-the-Masons

2016 Season

We continue to have the benefit of operating from Greenmeadow Community Farm

Our season opened on 9th May 2016 with a very wet start, and driving had to be cancelled, and the pony went home unused. A rare event at Ceffyl Du - who are not fair weather drivers. Since then all our evening sessions have been well attended, and drivers have enjoyed driving in the new paddock. Driving at the Farm finished on 5th September 2016 for the year as the evenings were getting darker. They will restart on Monday 8th May 2017.

Ceffyl Du Drives 2016

Before driving commenced Volunteers had 2 training evenings to prepare for the season , and were pleased to be joined by 6 new volunteers. These included 2 Duke of Edinburgh participants, as Ceffyl Du is now registered to help them qualify for the Award. During the season 3 new disabled Drivers joined us and soon felt at home.

New driver Gerardmeets our pony Tinker