Qualified Coaches ensure we reach more Riders!

You can raise funds for scholarships so that there are more qualified Coaches supporting our riders.

Each and every Coach can support many riders over many years. Our Coaching Scholarships are an investment in the future.

What a difference a Coach makes

Our individually tailored, goal-based riding sessions build emotional and physical strength and resilience and enhance and improve capability and capacity in our riders. They are delivered throughout New Zealand by our team of highly trained and trusted specialists who enable and support riders and their extended whānau.

Coaching Scholarships

You can make a difference in a rider’s life.

Having a qualified Coach makes a difference as it ensures every rider has a therapeutic horse riding programme developed to meet their individual needs and outcomes.

We need more qualified Coaches so that more disabled children and adults can benefit from safe and effective therapeutic horse riding.

Which is where the Coaching Scholarships come in. Our Coaching Scholarships allow us to offer our qualification to RDA Groups who aren’t financially in a position to enrol a Coach. This directly impacts on the service they can provide in their community.

This NZQA recognised qualification is supported by attendance at the NZRDA Programmes Workshops (which are held each year in October over three days) and hands on practical support throughout the year from our mentors and Roving Coach based across New Zealand.

Each Coach will complete their study and achieve an NZRDA NZQA Level 3 Assistant Coach or Level 4 Coach qualification.

The study is very practical. There is written work but this is developed and applied through many hours spent in the arena with riders. The practical, on-the-ground experience is invaluable. We are also able to connect them with experienced Coaches at other nearby RDA groups who offer support and mentoring. They can visit other groups and observe their riding sessions or a mentor can visit them and offer support and guidance on their riding sessions.

The qualification covers a range of topics that ensures our Coaches have all the tools they need to provide safe and effective therapeutic ride programmes. They practically apply these learnings and tools in their everyday ride sessions. They learn how to plan, set goals, implement ride sessions, adapt them and to assess and review. They learn how to encourage and enable riders to work towards, and achieve, their goals. They learn to coach with courage and to set their riders up to succeed.

Here is what one of our generous supporters has to say about Coaching Scholarships.

“Marty and I, along with the other trustees, are proud to provide the RDA Coaching Scholarships in memory of a wonderful mother, grandmother, former RDA volunteer and secretary, Moira Scott. Moira started riding when she lived in Shotley Bridge, Newcastle-upon-Tyne during the war, and was involved in breeding and showing palomino horses during her 20’s, before moving to New Zealand. She never owned a horse in New Zealand, so volunteering for Riding for the Disabled provided her an opportunity to spend time with her beloved horses and a horse-loving community. Throughout her life, Moira was a firm believer in contributing to society and helping others with whatever resources she had.

In her name, and with the help of the RDA National Office, we created three Moira Scott Coaching Scholarships, which fund outstanding coaches, and help them to attain their New Zealand Certificate in Equine coaching qualification. It can cost up to $10,000 for coaches to become fully qualified, and there is a huge time commitment from the coaches at RDA. We are aware just how crucial fully qualified coaches are to the programme and realise that every RDA team in New Zealand must have at least one fully qualified coach, or one enrolled in the training, otherwise they cannot provide a safe and effective programme for the riders.

Our Fund is particularly interested in educational initiatives that can really impact our youth, that provide opportunities and help them develop new skills. RDA has worked with NZQA to develop the unit-standards based programme, which provides a carefully scaffolded pathway for coaches to work through each of the papers at their own pace. This is particularly important, as we understand that some of the coaches are working full-time, as well as volunteering for RDA and also undertaking these certifications. We are pleased that we can help RDA thrive, by enabling this wonderful association to gain fully qualified, keen coaches providing their best to riders every day.”

Mrs Sam Scott