Tea With a Pony
Tea with a Pony (TWAP) is a nationwide Riding with the Disabled Association (RDA) initiative where individuals and their carers are invited to come and watch part of an RDA session, enjoy lunch with tea and cake, and then spend one-to-one therapeutic time with our horses.
Benefits include:
- Soothing, sensory experience
- Supportive, safe and inclusive
- Can help participants revisit old memories and make new ones
- A special experience for all involved
- Make connections within a local community
The wellbeing team thought it would be a dream day for a few of our VIP’s to go to have lunch with a pony and spend some quality time with some beautiful ponies at the Equi-Power Riding for the Disabled.
Each of our VIPs had a very strong link with horses in the past.
Marcella's love of horses started when she was growing up in Glasgow and coal was delivered to her by horse and cart! She loved waiting with excitement for the arrival of the coal to come so she could go out and pat the beautiful Clydesdale that delivered it this was the highlight of her week. She even followed it all around the street she so she could have extra time with him. She couldn’t pass a field of horses without stopping and giving them a pat, big or small.
When she lived in Surrey, she loved to visit the Shire Horse Centre in Maidenhead, sadly it’s no longer open, it closed in 2000. One of her treasured possessions is a stuffed toy called Jimmy which was given to her by her late husband Jacques, she has had him for over 50 years, and it brings so many memories of the good days she had with her favourite friends. Speaking with Marcella she is very passionate about horses and even loves to watch them at the racing she and her husband use to go there often.
Irene always loved ponies growing up and she had them when she was in her younger days. She had a really bad accident falling off a horse and to this day she has no smell, but this never stopped Irene it made her more determined and still got on her horse every day. In her later years when she got married her and her husband every Saturday watched horse racing whether it was on the tv or at the races that are how they spent their day.
She has been to many a race course in her time, Hamilton, Ayr, but her favourite was Royal Ascot and every year she got a better position every year she returned she got a closer seat to the Queen's box which was her utmost goal and was a running joke between family members for years. She loves to watch horses and see how elegantly they can walk and carry themselves. She commented that these are just terrific beasts who have individual characters.
Norman has always been an “animal man” and speaking with Norman’s family, they say that he has always had a special connection with animals. Norman's first encounter with the love of horses was when he moved to a new house as a child, and they had a field right next door with a stable and horses in it. He found himself just patting them through the fence and the next minute he was over helping the stable hand mucking them out, and in return he was taught how to ride. As he got older, he would run home from school and get changed so he could spend time with his horses.
In his adult years, if he passed a field with horses in it, he would always take the chance to stop at the gate to chat to them, and he went pony trekking on a few occasions. He just loves horses, and they seem to love him too.
Jean loved horses from an early age her father had them when she was growing up around the farm. She can always remember one being called Harold who was a Clydesdale and she had a great bond with him feeding him some sugar lumps. Jean has had many encounters with animals and has always been a cat woman.
When she got married, she moved and stayed in South Africa she moved on to the bigger version of the cat and took to look after a young lioness that had been injured. Jean and her husband had to hand rear her back to health and when she recovered fully, they let her loose back into the wilderness she then came home one day to find her beloved lioness in her garden again she found out that the lioness was pregnant. Jean and her husband set up an area so she could have her cub once she had her baby cub, they both went back to the wild. She kept returning to pay a visit to Jean and her husband.
She commented that when she paid a visit to see the horses she had the added bonus of seeing the yard cat and her kittens. Jean said, “She thought she died and gone to heaven after having such a wonderful day and was very thankful for making new memories”.
The team at Roselea Court Care Home in Stirling is so pleased to have been able to organise this wonderful day out for our residents.
