Supporting the East Fife Community: 

- for more than 40 years

Background Information:
The Scooniehill group of the RDA was founded in 1976. In August 2011 we became a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation – a registered Scottish charity – and changed our name to East Fife and Scooniehill Riding for the Disabled SCIO - Today, we call ourselves 'East Fife RDA & Equestrian Group', which represents the wider community we work for.
In July 2019, East Fife RDA & Equestrian Group moved the to its current home at Balcormo Stud near Leven, Fife.  Our new home has the benefit of an indoor school that guarantees riding whatever the weather. 

The Group has access to 6 horses specifically selected for their temperament. The horses provide us with the ability to deliver riding therapy to a broad cross section of the community from young school children to adults. Each lesson is planned for 1 hour and normally accommodates 4 riders. We currently have over 35 volunteers who support the riders. We also have a large group of friends, families and carers of riders, ex-volunteers and interested members of the local community who support our social and fundraising events. University students also help during term time.

We currently have a total of 32 riders from around East Fife. We ride every Tuesday and Thursday and alternate Saturdays during school term time.
Our goal, in working with the team at Balcormo, is to increase the number of riding therapy sessions that we can provide on a weekly basis to the local community. Increasing the riding therapy sessions however  requires additional resources in terms of funding, volunteers and ultimately horses. Whilst we continue to drive an increase in our funding donations the Group would be only too pleased to welcome new volunteers to actively participate in the further development of East Fife RDA.



Organisation:
We are a registered (Scottish) charity managed by a board of trustees. The Trustees are elected at the AGM each year and are responsible for the overall running of the Group. The Trustees make sure we are providing the governance to the Group expected by the National RDA organisation.  East Fife RDA forms part of the Edinburgh and Borders Regional structure within the National RDA organisation where we are represented through our County and Regional chairs.
As a charitable organisation our well-being is entirely dependent upon donations from the general public, charitable trusts and local businesses.  
Our accounts and reserves policy are audited annually and submitted to OSCR for their scrutiny.  
Riding is provided free to all riders, but we ask for a small donation. The trustees work to manage the overheads of the Group in a responsible manner. We pay for insurance, training, special equipment and a contribution to the National RDA. Nearly all our expenditure is on providing horses and instruction.
We employ a part time coach and everybody else involved with the Group is a volunteer: the Trustees, the instructors, the helpers and the fundraisers. We normally do not pay volunteer expenses, but we can pay travelling expenses if necessary.
Each group also has an RDA Qualified Group Coach who is in charge of the ride. All the coaches provide a great mixture of therapy, fun, exercise and education – for the helpers as well as for the riders!