Horseytalk.net Special Interview

Alison Remmen

www.afranews.org.uk

Some give her the thumbs up.

Some paint her pictures.

Others just smile and smile and smile

The children who go to the Ashdown Forest Group of Riding for the Disabled which has just celebrated its first birthday, have their own individual ways of thanking Alison Remmen for teaching them how to ride.

“It’s wonderful,” she says, “To see them smile. To see how happy they are. To see how thrilled they must be to be released from their usual, everyday environment.

“They all have their own individual ways, their own individual likes and dislikes.

“Jack, for example. He’s seven. He loves poo-picking. He’s always telling me, I love poo-picking.  He is autistic.

“Clara. She’s six. She says again and again, I love trotting. She has Down’s syndrome.

“Lauren. She’s six. She doesn’t say anything. She just smiles all the time. She has cerebral palsy.”

Alison or Ali, as she is known to everyone, started the centre at Paddock Farm, Fairwarp, East Sussex because she says she realised there was a need for an RDA Group in the area.

“I love teaching children,” she says. “Since I started, I suppose, back in the ‘70s I must have taught thousands of kids. Some of them have gone on to be top riders like Duncan Inglis, Monica Campbell and Louis Simmons.

“But working with our special children is so rewarding. Their response and partnership with the ponies is unbelievable. The partnership and understanding between the children and ponies is amazing. Somebody once said – It was probably me
– The best thing for the inside of a person is the outside of a horse.
  It’s so true of everyone. It’s even more true of disabled children.”

To many people the wonder isn’t that Ali started the Ashdown Forest RDA Group but that she had the time to do so for she seems to be involved in everything.

Although  she comes from a non-horsey family – her father was an architect, her  mother and sister were heavily involved in the tennis world -  Ali has been involved with horses all her life

Ali (left), as a little girl, on her first pony>>

“I discovered horses when I was about 10-years-old. I used to leave notes all over the house for my parents saying, Please. Please Can I go riding? Eventually I must have worn them down and they agreed.

“I went to Newlands Corner Riding School, just outside Guildford. It was run by Cis Clarke, who used to breed Irish hunters. I loved it there; I knew it was my forte. My parents used to go up to Wimbledon for the tennis. I would run to the stables. It was my life.

“When I was 11-years-old my parents bought me my first pony, Jessica. She was a bay. A Heinz 57. She was very naughty. When I first saw her, I ran up to her in the field – and she kicked me

“Eventually I grew out of Jessica and my parents bought me another horse, a bay, Irish gelding. I called him J2 after Jessica. I used to go to show jumping classes with Brian Crago, a British Olympic show jumper. He was amazing. He was so positive. He instructed so well. Thanks to him, I went from being an ordinary jumper to being an Affiliated.

“I then went through the BHS system. I went to Crabbett Park, at that time, a famous world-wide equestrian education centre. I was there for four months. It changed my life. It gave me the discipline of the equestrian world. You do things properly. You don’t try to cut corners. When it came to mucking out we even had to plait the straw at the front of the stables.

“After Crabbett Park  I got a job as Head Girl at a Welsh Mountain Pony Stud in Bletchingley. I got my BHSII. I produced and rode in Holland for two-years. After that I came back to Ashdown Forest and bought Paddock Farm which, at the time was a goat farm. We started with seven stables and ended up with 15. We built an indoor school, an outdoor school and turned it into a Show Jumping Training Centre.

“I started teaching children in the 70’s but after finishing my show jumping career teaching children became a big part of my life.”

As if that’s not enough, Ali produces Mountain and Moorland ponies, is a course builder for the British Show Pony Society and also runs unaffiliated shows at Oakwood Park. She even devised and presented one of the first television series of programmes on horses for children, which attracted well over one million viewers for each episode.

Today, however, she is concentrating on her work for the RDA and Oakwood Park.

The Ashdown Forest RDA has its own chairman, Nigel Basham; Secretary, Mary Bell; Treasurer, Barry Lelliott  and committee consisting of Bridgyd Richards, Liz Lelliott, a physiotherapist, Lisa Basham, Sally Sandercock, Rachael Roberts, Tracy Spencer, Charlotte Salvage and Victoria Remmen. It also has a group of hard working volunteers who are vital to the smooth running to the group.

To date they have eleven children, 8 boys and 3 girls, aged between three and 13-years-old,  attending their Tuesday sessions. The children have a wide range of disabilities.

Each child has a 30-minute session: 15 minutes riding; 15 minutes grooming and general stable management. Each riding session involves not only Ali but also three helpers:  one to lead and one on either side of the pony. Other volunteers undertake the grooming and stable management. So far all the ponies which are borrowed from local families have all been immaculately well-behaved.

Having established the branch and achieved their first birthday, Ali now wants to expand it.

“We need helpers,” she says. “The more helpers we have, the more children we can help. We also need sponsors.”

Without regular donations and sponsors the group will be unable to provide this valuable service to these very special children.