Riding holidays UK? help for a total imbecile please?????

[bochead]

My ASD (Aspbergers) lad has discovered a gift this non-riding city gal had no clue he had & I'd love to reward the mahooosive effort he is making at school with a UK (pref Welsh) riding holiday next year. 'Cos I know SFA about horses etc I'm really hoping you can help me.

It needs to be funded from his DLA so am hoping we can camp to keep accomodation costs to a minimum. He'd be over the moon at having the opportunity to learn how to help care for the horses & is not lazy by nature iykwim. He's 8 and suffers from pitch (noise) sensitivity & he's just under 5 stone if that's relevant.

He's only just started riding this term so is still very much a beginner (while he clearly has a natural affinity for horses and is really gifted at this riding malarkey I don't want to over estimate what is possible).

Can you help with ideas, as I'm expecting the best to get booked up fast. If I've posted on the wrong forum then I'd like to apologise, but the MN community has yet to steer me wrong generally, so I thought this forum might be a good place to ask.

I have ridden at Nolton stable pembrokshire - google em- may be good .they do riding hols and fit the person to the pony - i love going there ,good luck x

Try the Clwyd Riding Centre. It's an incredible RDA centre with all the facilities, suitable ponies and trained volunteers.

I used to go pony trekking most summers in Wales for a while, but this was 30 years ago and they had bursary schemes where it could be at least partly funded. I should think they are still around, they did lots of activity holidays - they were called outward bound. Found out about them when I entered and won a competition while I was obsessed with horses. How can so little have changed?

If your ds rides with RDA, then they run holidays, which are heavily subsidised

Thank you for the tip re RDA holidays - I'm going to ask. It would be such an amazing confidence boost for a little boy who is smart enough to know he's different and whose self-esteem suffers as a result.

I also noted they have structured volunteering schemes for teens. Which sounds like an utterly fantastic opportunity for an older version of DS, as he seems to have a real affinity for animals generally. (does the animal care holiday scheme at our local city farm already so not scared of mucking out lol!)