The demand for children’s mental health services continues to rise nationally and in Milton Keynes. Local charity, Ride High, currently supports 120 children weekly with 80% of them facing mental health challenges, such as anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts. To keep up with the growing demand, Ride High requires increased funding and support to continue its vital work within the community.
As part of their efforts to raise funds and awareness, Ride High is launching their ‘Hobby the Horse’ initiative, a unique programme specifically for primary schools. Children create their own hobby horses from recycled materials, encouraging creativity, environmental awareness, recycling, and physical activity. Designed to be fun, educational, and inclusive, the initiative compliments the Key Stage 1 curriculum. The program also introduces children to Ride High’s mission, highlighting how the charity uses horses to support those children in need. Once children have created their hobby horses they then participate in a school-hosted fundraising event with their creations, gaining sponsorship to raise funds and spread awareness of the charity’s work.
Last year, Portfields Primary School in Newport Pagnell took part in the pilot scheme and integrated the ‘Hobby the Horse’ initiative into its Year 1 and Year 2 curriculum. Children, with the help of their families, gathered recyclable materials from home to craft hobby horses with their teachers at school. Each creation was unique, with different materials, colours, and even names. Once the hobby horses were complete, the children participated in a gymkhana-style fundraising event, showcasing their creations in the playground. The event created a strong sense of community, with parents attending as spectators and older students helping at various activity stations. Year 2 teacher Yvonne Pearce reflected on the experience, saying, “We absolutely loved taking part in Hobby the Horse. The programme offered us an alternative and purposeful way to teach the children and to develop so many new skills. Just as rewarding was knowing how their efforts were helping those less fortunate than themselves”.
Ride High is aiming to roll-out the Hobby Horse Programme to 50 schools in 2024/25, reaching around 2,500 families across Milton Keynes and surrounding areas and they are looking for businesses who would like to get involved and support the initiative. Partnering with Ride High offers not only the opportunity to support the community and local schools but also creates high-value publicity, increasing brand awareness and showcasing a commitment to corporate social responsibility.
Ride High is seeking sponsorship for the programme but is also keen to hear from businesses who could support in other ways, including support with the creation, printing, packaging and distribution of kits that are sent to all participating schools to make it easy for them to implement the programme.
The ‘Hobby the Horse’ project is a fantastic opportunity for businesses to support hundreds of local children and provide free access to a unique programme that not only will supports children’s development but also help to provide a sustainable financial future for the charity allowing them to continue to support vulnerable and disadvantaged children.
To find out more and to get involved with Ride High’s ‘Hobby the Horse’ programme, please contact projectmanager@ridehigh.org or visit www.ridehigh.org/hobbythehorse.
