Now for the news update ;D
I am now “the organiser”
of this event ( really I am Lorraines slave but don’t tell anyone ) so am doing things like making lists !
Many thanks to everyone who has volunteered so enthusiastically to participate in this new fundraising venture for the DG .. .. a Ride Round Britain. Thanks as well for all the suggestions as to how we can maximise the impact of the ride and its ability to generate funding for the two charities we are all supporting this year.
All the suggestions have been very carefully examined as to practicability and manageability and we feel that this event has a potential to grow and grow if we can utilise all the contacts, skills and resources that the members of the DG have.
However we do want to treat ourselves as we treat our horses, start off gently and build the basics before we go galloping off along the beach ! Attractive though some of the suggestions are could we delay some of the more ambitious ideas till we have the basics in place ? This is a first and we want to get the foundations right. The idea of a relay the length / breadth of Britain sounds fantastic , I personally would love to see it happen in a year or two in conjuction with shorter rides …... but this is something we feel is an aim for the future.
At the moment this fundraiser is DG led, these area events are not at this moment linked to IH directly ..... but once we have worked out what it is feasible and have basic principles in place we can approach Kelly in more detail for “official” backing so we can use the logo / pics etc
Organisers need to organise size of event according to their experience .... also bearing in mind larger events need insurance / medical presence / police awareness etc . It can also mean having to spend loads money ! I Have had experiences of events where insurance, loos, medic etc paid for and then the "****" hits the fan and a loss made so would advocate thinking things through carefully especially if novice at it like some peeps have said they are. At the moment there is no back up funding to pay for things like insurance / medics so we need to be careful.
The format we suggest for the events is therefore:
Each area has a named organiser who hopefully links up with other DG members in the area and they decide what format of sponsored riding event best suits their area.
Participants would have to have their own insurance.... we can organise centrally a sponsor forms / information that lets all participants be aware of their own responsibilities etc.
Suggestions so far as to formatsof events ………
* Individuals or small groups at a yard / riding school / RDA centre decide a distance to go and obtain sponsorship / donate to take part …. (could then have little informal horsey “party” ) Children, in the great spirit of IH kids and involvement, could do laps of the paddock .
* Individuals / small groups decide to ride from place to place with a target in mind .. eg could link up RDA centres in the area (with maybe some sort of static event at each centre ? ) eg link up DGer yards ….. sponsorship / donation to take part.
* Individuals / small groups could do a bridleways / roads ride, perhaps aiming to ride the length / breadth / circumference of the area ( this could be a target for the endurance / LD peeps) . ….. sponsorship certainly suited for each mile as the mileage ridden rises!
* Non riders could bike / walk / be lead rein help
I am looking onto the viability of rosettes minimum for participation ..... but for an inaugural event we hope will take off over the years a t shirt seems fitting somehow …. and has been mentioned already . This might entail participants agreeing to a minimum donation / sponsorship so we dont lose out financially !
As a target to work towards….. . since we started off calling this the Round Britain Ride …...
The circumference of the British mainland is 11072.76 miles (round up to 11073 shall we). If we could all get £1 a mile sponsorship and aim to ride that many combined miles …… what a total that would be even taking off expenses !
Is it manageable … I think most definitely !
There are nearly 60 regions. If each region gets 20 riders and each rider does 10 miles ………. That’s more than the target ….. . We really will have ridden round Britain ! Could we make it twice round Britain
Although as soon as we get anyone from NI taking part we will ammend the title to Ride UK and increase the target miles !!!
I will also work on a format of some sort to keep everyone up to date with area plans / events and as the ride nears how many riders pledging to take past and how many miles …… keep us all motivated to reach the target !
Thats all for now
Laura
PS could everyone who has volunteered to organise and area please pm me with your "real" names and an email addy so I can get a group list on the go ? thanks
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