“Dream big and go for it!” That’s the message from Mount Pleasant RDA Riding Group which has been successful in securing a Sport Wales Be Active Wales grant for a robotic horse.
The Riding for the Disabled group - based at a stables outside Pencoed – is now urging other sports clubs to apply to the Be Active Wales Fund. The grant was created in 2020, designed to protect and progress community sport clubs and organisations through the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond.
Anneli Jeynes is the Head Coach at Mount Pleasant:
“We saw the Be Active Wales Fund, checked the criteria and thought we ticked the boxes. We ride outside so we’re constantly affected by the weather. When the weather is really bad, it can be unsafe to ride. We thought if we had a robotic horse, we’d be able to offer sessions indoors and wouldn’t be forced to cancel sessions.”
And it’s not the first time that the riding group has received a grant from Sport Wales:
“We’ve previously had funding towards our mounting block so when we saw the Be Active Wales grant was available, we decided to get together as a committee. We discussed what we could do and whether we could put an application together.
“Our Chair also spoke to Sport Wales and chatted through the application form which really did help. He discussed what we wanted to do and our aims and it made the application process a lot easier.”
The committee then pulled together basic information such as its charity number, the costs involved and basic accounting information.
“We had to give some details of how we’d spend the money should we get the grant and outline our aims,” added Anneli.
“It was really quick. The application itself probably only took us an hour to complete. Meeting beforehand as a committee meant we had everything in place before we completed the application. Doing our homework first meant it was really straightforward.
“We felt the whole process went really smoothly. Sport Wales has been incredibly responsive and supportive and we can’t thank them enough.”
The Be Active Wales Fund has been made possible through money Sport Wales receives from Welsh Government and the National Lottery.
Could your club benefit from funding?
Grants of £300 - £50,000* are available.
* You will need to make a contribution of 10% for grants over £10k or 20% over £25k.