Summerfield Stables, nestled alongside Yardley Wood train station, has been woven into the community for almost 50 years.
The stables have a range of beneficiaries: animals rescued and retrained, volunteers rewarded with training or free lessons for their children and kids given unheard of opportunities (just to name a few).
However, following a spate of break-ins over the last few years the charity needed support and were awarded a grant of £2,000 to install CCTV and additional lighting in a bid to deter criminals.
Georgina Urwin, Director at Summerfield Stables, said:
“Both times we’ve had break-ins it’s been on a Friday night, and our busiest day is a Saturday. It doesn’t make you feel very secure
“We easily get 100 kids through here a week. It’s our job to make sure they and the animals are safe.
“A lot of them are from the surrounding areas – Acocks Green, Balsall, Balsall Heath, Yardley and Yardley Wood and some areas in Kings Norton and the kids just don’t get the opportunity to engage with horses.”
The benefits to some of its riders are massive:
“We have a mixture, earlier we had a visit from a group that work with people with disabilities. We have a lot of looked after children – animals are a great tool for them to realise and understand why they react the way they do.
“The sessions really help with self-esteem, there’s a lot of transferable skills and building of self-confidence.”
Their work doesn’t go unnoticed. Nadia, watching her daughter’s lesson, said:
“We love it, we’ve been coming here for 2 years now. They’re a lovely bunch of people and there’s a big mix of children.
“We don’t live too far away, we heard about it from friends and it’s a gem in this area.”
When we informed her about the group’s successful grant application she was delighted:
“It’s a shame, it’s not cheap to purchase the equipment for horse riding. It’s going to be fantastic to get some CCTV!”
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