Welcome to the AGM and thank you for coming. We have had a very successful year with up to 70 children riding each week.

We currently have riders from Priors Court, Castle School, The Avenue, Theale Primary, Fir Tree and Trinity Schools and have also welcomed back Mary Hare. As always, we have a waiting list for private riders.

Very sadly but completely understood Jenny Whiteman and Mary Iliffe are retiring as trustees. They are and have been Newbury RDA and thankfully they are going to carry on teaching and no doubt advising us on all things. I would like to record huge thanks for all they have done for a considerable number of years.

I would like to welcome Catherine Wilson who is coming on as a Trustee and will take on the role of Secretary. Thank you, Catherine.

Danielle Branton joined us as Stable Manager in September 2018 and has been a brilliant. Thank you, Danielle for all your hard work and being so helpful, cheerful and generally wonderful. The ponies and the stables all look immaculate!! Many thanks to you and Clare for going out and finding so many new ponies all of whom seem to be a huge asset to us.

As always, Jenny and Jane Allen pulled out all the stops for the Regional Show and have qualified 3 Riders for the Nationals. Well done Isabelle, Ben and Eli. 8 of our children took part which is amazing. Thank you, Jane and Jenny, and if anyone would like to volunteer to take over training up the children for the shows going forward it would be much appreciated.

Many thanks to Linkie Whitehead and Linda Benson and all the Fair Committee, for another hugely successful fair. We are all incredibly grateful to everyone for this main fundraiser of the year. Good luck with the event this year. Please could all our helpers spread the word about this year’s Fair and send out the flyer to as many as their friends as possible. I will email this to everyone when it is ready. Date for the Diary 26th September.

More thanks to the marvellous Sally Sanderson and Jo Stevenson Hamilton for the excellent idea of having an Open Day. It was a resounding success with so many of our riders coming to enjoy the games, cakes and show their parents and carers what they get up to when they come riding. It was so wonderful to see them all and realise how much they love coming to RDA. Hopefully the dynamic duo will be up to do this again for us?? Alan Rind who owns Wyld Court came along and seemingly enjoyed the day too which is very good news.

Lindsay Morris has done a huge amount of work and I am pleased to say the CRM system will soon be up and running. Jane Rowe managed to get sponsorship from Greenham Trust which should cover the cost of set up. Very many thanks Lindsay for all your hard work.

Many thanks also to Alison Crowe for setting up and conquering the new DBS system. Hopefully, it will be simpler going forward to keep us all up to date.

Anna Sugden has very kindly taken on the renewal of our lease and I think we are all set to re-sign for another 10 years on the same deal.