We welcome all volunteers, you don’t have to know anything about horses, or even like being around animals, there are plenty of other opportunities for you to get involved and help us. We also need lots of help with other tasks such as fundraising, publicity, painting, creating new activities for the participants and general maintenance.

For volunteers who are keen to work with the participants and the ponies, the work involves things like grooming and tacking up the ponies, leading the ponies and/or walking beside the ponies to support the riders, mucking out and tidying the stables, poo picking the fields and checking and feeding the ponies in the evenings.

If you are keen to work with our participants then you would need to be available during one of our session times – Monday to Thursday mornings, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings or Friday afternoon.

If you can commit to helping regularly it would be great, but everyone understands that’s not always possible and there are usually many other flexible options available – especially in summer.

All volunteers must be 12 or over. There is no upper age limit. We have Public Liability insurance and Trustee Indemnity for all volunteers. Volunteers aged between 12 and 90 also have Personal Accident insurance (with some restrictions for those aged between 80 and 90). 

All volunteers at Gordon RDA will need to provide the names and contact details of 2 referees who are not a relative or partner and who have known them for more than 1 year. Volunteers of 16 years of age and over who are actively involved with our sessions are required to undergo an enhanced disclosure check because they are volunteering with vulnerable adults and children.