A fundraising effort set up to help cover veterinary costs and hopefully purchase CCTV for an Armagh-based riding school for the disabled plagued by vandalism has already raised over £1000.
It was suspected that on the evening of Monday March 2, a fence belonging to Longstone Riding for the Disabled – on Mullinure Lane – was forced down and four of their five horses escaped.
When the horses were eventually recovered by the team it was discovered that all four had suffered serious injury which resulted in them being put on immediate box rest.
Yard Manager, Debbie McKenna contacted Armagh I to express her absolute devastation as the centre was forced to cancel all immediate bookings and many children were left extremely upset with the disruption to their normal routine and concern for the horses they had built such strong rapports with.
When Armagh I met with the team last week in the wake of the incident it became clear that this was just the tip of an iceberg that had been building for some years.
For as long as they could recall, the school – which runs entirely on voluntary effort – have been staving off anti-social behaviour and irresponsible vandalism at their site.
With their horses safety now at obvious risk, coupled with the tangible detrimental impact to their services, Longstone Riding School are taking steps to prevent further incidents from occurring.
Launching a GoFundMe page to help cover the considerable veterinary costs they have now accrued, the team are also hoping to raise enough money to purchase CCTV cameras to protect their grounds and ponies.
Explaining the need for funds, the school said they are facing extra costs including “extra hay as they will be on box rest”, “feed to help aid with recovery”, “shavings to stable comfortably” and “supplies to make their field safe again and replace fencing that was damaged.”
Provisionally, they are aiming to resume their normal services after the Easter holidays and any funds raised will go a long way to help making this aim a reality.
In a word of thanks to all who have supported the school so far, they said: “We would like to take this opportunity to thank Deirdre from O’Reilly and Fee veterinary surgery for their quick call-out and for taking care and understanding of all our horses, the maintenance team at the Longstone site for all their help and support helping with fencing and keeping the horses safe, Armagh I for covering the story to help share awareness, all our team of volunteers for their support and time looking after our horses, to all our schools and pupils for your understanding at this time and lastly to you the general public for your support through the years and for all your lovely messages we really appreciate all the offering of help and support.”
You can make a contribution to Longstone Riding for Disabled’s GoFundMe page here.
