Riding
for the Disabled
Association NSW
“Tall
Timbers” Centre
125 Old Pitt
Town Road
BOX HILL NSW 2765
Phone: 02 9679
1246
Fax: 02 9679 0638
Email: talltimbers@rdansw.org.au
Web: http://talltimbers.rdansw.org.au
Information
RDA Mission Statement
Fundraising/Donations
Wish List
Volunteers
History
Favourite Links
Benefits of Riding
Newsletter - The Tall Timbers' Times
Other interesting items about our Centre - videos
& radio interview
Information
Riding for the Disabled (RDA) provides horse riding and associated activities
for people with disabilities. As
well as horse riding our Centre offers carriage driving. Riders can participate at a therapeutic,
recreational or competitive level.
RDA programs
cater for people with intellectual disabilities,
physical disabilities,
injuries resulting from accidents,
cerebral palsy,
spina bifida, muscular
dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, Down syndrome, visual
and hearing
impairments, autism
and amputees.
RDA “Tall
Timbers” Centre is situated
on 27 acres in Box Hill, approximately
1 hours drive north-west of Sydney in NSW. We operate
six days a
week providing facilities for approximately
200 people with disabilities per annum who come from hospitals, school, care
centres and
individually.
“Tall Timbers” is staffed by a paid
Coach and several volunteer Coaches, together with a paid Administrator, a
full-time Horse Manager and casual staff coaches and maintenance person as
required.
Volunteers assist the riders and
lead horses as well as assisting with fundraising and property maintenance.
Click
here for an information sheet about RDA Tall Timbers Centre
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RDA Mission Statement
RDANSW is a
volunteer organisation providing equine assisted
activities for people with disabilities to develop and
enhance abilities.
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Fundraising/Donations
The costs of running and maintaining “Tall
Timbers” are financed from donations
and fundraising
activities and
a small
government grant. Donations
of $2.00 or more are tax deductible.
READ FIRST
To make sure your donation comes to RDA Tall Timbers Centre just tick
optional information then special message and enter TALL TIMBERS CENTRE in one
of the boxes. You can make a donation using your credit card at the Give-Now
site by clicking this button.
Our fundraising activities include
catering, Chocolate Drives, bulb drives, Ride-a-thon, raffles, trivia nights,
Book Fairs and special events.
You can
also assist
us by helping us to care for one of
our team of horses. The cost of keeping a
horse is over $750 per annum. Thank
you to all our current horse care donors. Have a
look at our wonderful horses.
There are lots of
other opportunities
to help.
You could also consider providing a
bequest – please contact the office for further information.
Please contact us if you can help in any
way
Cash
for a Cause A new way you can help us is to shop on-line at
www.pharmaonline.com.au and nominate
RDA
NSW Tall Timbers Centre. 10%
of the transaction
value will be received by our Centre
Thank you
Thank
you to DADHC, United Way, Protrust,
The Sunshine Foundation, The ING
Foundation, Castle
Hill Country Club and the Fairbridge Foundation for their generous support. Also to the Rotary
Club of West Pennant Hills and Cherrybrook who financed our new horse yards
and Joan Edwards
who donated the funds for the shade cover.
Thank
you also to the Australian
Government Water Fund for our
Community Water Grant and
the Department of Sport and Recreation
for their assistance in our development. Thank you to The Primary Club of Australia who generously assisted
with the cost of the arena extension.
We also
received a grant
from the Department of Family and
Community Services to purchase chairs which have
now been used on numerous occasions.
Thank
you also to the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and
Centrelink for their financial assistance during the Equine Influenza Outbreak.
Thank you to our horse sponsors and
Friends of the Horses for 2010 – EAC Charity Club, Anthea
Hendy, Bendigo Bank Galston, Value
Plus Animal Health Care Products, Rotary Club of Granville,
Margaret Greig, The Gallur
Family, Soroptomist International of the Hills and
Marc Hardman & Associates, Lions Club of Crestwood, International Animal
Health Care Products, Lions Club of Blacktown and
Inner Wheel Club of North Sydney.
Thank
you to the staff at Unilever who assisted
us with a working bee and donated
some gardening equipment, trivia night prizes and
ice creams for the riders’ Christmas Party.
Thank
you to DATS Environmental Services
for their kind donation of the use
of a Skip Bin to clean up the Centre.
A special thank
you to Year 7 at Our Lady of Mercy College Parramatta who raised $6560 in 2010
for our Centre by holding a Walk-a-thon. The school has supported Tall
Timbers Centre for the past six years which is much appreciated.
Thank you to Woolworths – in 2009 we
received a Fresh Food Kids Grant of $1500 to purchase riding and games
equipment for our program. In 2010 we
received $7000 from Woolworths National Office who donated $7000 to the weekday
program enabling 7 riders to participate in the program.
Thank
you also to those donors who wish to
remain anonymous. We very much appreciate all
the assistance
we are given.
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TALL TIMBERS WISH LIST
Thank
you to everyone who responded to our wish list.
Every little bit helps us to provide our service.
Aprons – 30 navy blue aprons for our catering and BBQs (to be screen
printed)
Crockery – matching crockery for our catering
Floor to ceiling storage cupboard for disabled toilet
room.
Tractor
Heavy Duty Whipper Snipper
Fencing for the Sensory Garden
Park Benches for the picnic area on the hill
Stationary,
stamps, copy paper,
white board markers
etc
Kitchen towel, garbage bags, cream cleanser, washing
powder or liquid for washing rugs.
Connections for machinery and materials to improve the
surface of our front carpark and driveway.
Mouseproof metal
cupboards for rug storage
Saddlery gift cards to assist
with purchase of saddles
Sponsors for our program
Sponsors for vehicles (F100, Jackaroo etc)
Volunteers – extra hands for our program,
garden and
property maintenance, and
fundraising
Horses 14hh – 15hh and 15hh Schoolmaster needed (contact the office for
a horse offer form)
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Volunteers
The volunteers at RDA “Tall Timbers” Centre have
an important
and responsible job; without them
the Centre would not function. They are an integral part
of the smooth running of the riding program. The roles that
helpers play are
many and
varied, and
age, race
or disability is no bar for someone who wishes to help. Horse and
medical knowledge are not essential. Two, and sometimes three volunteers are needed to either lead
or act as
sidewalkers
during the riding lesson. For this reason the program
relies heavily upon many volunteers each
day of the week.
Volunteers are also
needed to assist with administration,
fundraising and
promotion. They assist
at events such as the Castle
Hill Show Catering, Model Railways
Exhibitions, Windsor Polo Matches and special
events.
If they wish volunteers can also
go on to train to become Coach’s Aides or RDA Coaches.
Charlie
Aquilina received the
Volunteer of the Year Award for 2010.
Well done and thank you Charlie!
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History of “Tall Timbers”
The "Tall Timbers" Centre was
founded in 1972 by Mrs Pearl Batchelor, OAM, and was
operated at
her riding school in West Pennant
Hills. The first group of children to start riding were from Northcott
Society and Crowle
Home.
In 1976, due to
impending development, 5 acres with a cottage
(which was occupied by the first Coach/Horse Manager), with horse yards,
was purchased
in Kellyville in North West Sydney.
Shortly after arriving in Kellyville, "Tall Timbers" began
leasing the 25 acres backing
on to the property, from the Government.
Over the years a
further 10 acres was purchased
and an
amenities block, indoor arena and stable
block were added to the already
existing yards and outdoor arena. This made a total of 15 acres
owned by RDA NSW and 25 acres
leased.
At the end of 1999,
once again
"Tall Timbers" moved and again this was
due to the major development taking place
in Kellyville. This time it was to Box Hill where it is hoped that RDA will be able
to settle for many, many years
and that
suburbia will not once again
push the Centre further out! The Centre
is owned by RDA NSW and maintained by “Tall
Timbers”.
The improved
facilities were officially opened on 26th April 2008 by Sonya
Phillips, Mayor of Baulkham Hills Shire Council. In 2010 we celebrated ten
years of RDA Tall Timbers at its location at Box Hill.
During the years that
"Tall Timbers" has been operating
riders have attended
from schools, hospitals,
institutions, and adult day-care Centres from Lidcombe, Manly,
St Ives, Chatswood, Wahroonga,
Merrylands, Holroyd, North Rocks,
Ryde, Carlingford, Whalan,
Riverstone, Westmead, Marsfield, Northmead,
Parramatta,
Concord, Blacktown, Baulkham
Hills, Windsor, Kellyville, Rooty Hill, Castle
Hill, Richmond and Greystanes.
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top
Favourite Links
www.rdansw.org.au - Riding for the Disabled Association
NSW
http://www.freewebs.com/rdakempseynsw - Riding
for the Disabled NSW Kempsey-Macleay Centre
http://www.epsomrda.org.uk/ - Riding for the Disabled, Epsom,
UK
www.govolunteer.com.au - Go Volunteer
www.volunteersearch.gov.au - Australian
Volunteer Search
www.frdi.net - Federation
of Riding for the Disabled International
www.cyberhorse.net.au
- Cyberhorse is an
Australian
Internet site devoted to horses
www.horsetalktv.com.au – Horse Talk TV
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Newsletters
Click here to download our latest Newsletter as a PDF
file
The
Tall Timbers' Times November 2011 edition
Older Editions of The Tall
Timbers Times
The Tall Timbers' Times March 2009 Edition
The Tall Timbers' Times August 2009 Edition
The Tall Timbers' Times November 2009 Edition
The Tall Timbers' Times March 2010 Edition
The Tall Timbers Times August 2010 Edition
The Tall Timbers'
Times November 2010 Edition
The Tall
Timbers' Times March 2011 Edition
The
Tall Timbers' Times August 2011 edition & The Horses' Birthday Fundraiser
Other interesting items about our Centre
Click here
to see a segment filmed at our Centre for the Kerri-Anne Show.
Listen to an interview by Gordon Allen of 2CCR FM 90.5
with Nicole King, Staff Coach of Riding for the Disabled Assoc NSW Tall Timbers
Centre. There's lots of information about the Centre and you can watch the
slideshow as you listen. Click
here to listen to the Interview
Click
here to see a promotional video filmed at
our Centre.
Last revised November 2011
By Kerry
Souter, Administrator
RDA “Tall
Timbers” Centre
Contents