Donations

Why are rowing photos being sold to raise money for the RDA?
Mostly because I have a camera, an interest in rowing, and an interest in the RDA. I am an RDA rider and I know from my own experience just how brilliant an organisation it is. This is the first set of Bumps (College/Town) in several years in which I have not been competing - mostly because I needed to spend all my time training for the RDA Championships! Instead, I'm going to be sitting on the bank with my camera trying to get a few photos. I'm not a professional photographer by any means. The suggested donation per photo is small to reflect this.

How do I donate?
Good question! Visit the JustGiving page here.

Why is it a 'crowd funding' page instead of going directly to the charity? How can I know that the Cambs College RDA Group is a real charity?
Another good question. Not every charity is listed on funding websites, and getting Cambs College RDA listed is quite difficult when many of its trustees are on holiday! Rest assured that all money donated will be given to the RDA, minus a small fee charged by the Just Giving website (for details of the fees involved, please visit their page here). As well as being part of RDA National (covering the whole of the UK), the Cambs College group is its own independent charity. Its registered charity number is 1074419, and you can find official governmental detail on the charity here and here.

Can I get a copy without the watermark?
Yes - just get in touch and tell me which photo you would like (include the file number). I can send a high-resolution digital file via email for a further donation. To order images, please comment below, send a tweet to @bendyrower, or email bendyrower@yahoo.com. A very small number of photos may be slightly different in their higher resolution version (mostly in terms of exposure). Please note that I will be away with no internet access for the first two weeks of August.

Fun races at Christmas time

What is the money spent on?
All sorts of things! Anything to do with horses tends not to be cheap. Whilst the group has a strong relationship with the College of West Anglia (where most of the horses are stabled), there are still costs incurred in paying insurance, training volunteers, travelling to events, buying sacks of carrots for clever horses and acquiring rosettes and prizes. Other more specific costs can range from helping to subsidise tickets to international horse shows to buying specialist tack and communication devices for people who need adaptations in order to ride.

Here are some of the typical costs involved in the group's RDA sessions:

• Each rider pays £3 per session. Depending on their disability, sessions can last from 30 minutes to over an hour, and activities include dressage, jumping and mounted games. A similar lesson outside the RDA would usually cost around £30.
• At each session, any one rider may need three or more people assisting them at all times - one to lead the horse, and one either side to support the rider. These are volunteers but they do have to be trained. Training to a similar level outside the RDA can cost hundreds of pounds.
• £25 pays for a horse's hooves to be trimmed by a farrier. If the horse needs shoes as well, these cost around £70 per time. Horses should be visited by the farrier every 6-8 weeks.
• Horses need to be wormed regularly, at a cost of around £100 a year. They also need to see the equine dentist every year, which costs around £60.
• £40 pays to hire an indoor arena for two hours a week. A further £6 is charged for using the lights, which are essential in wintertime. 
• Specialist tack is variable in price. A pair of stirrup toe caps designed for people with minimal leg control is usually around £35. Specialist reins for people with diminished or no hand function are around £50. A straightforward strap to attach to the saddle to give extra stability is £15. Each horse must have the right sized tack to prevent them from becoming injured, and each rider must have the right tack to match them too.
• The Cambs College group has recently started vaulting sessions. The vaulters pay a small charge (£2) but the rest of the money (for hiring facilities and paying a trained coach) has to come from the group.
• The group helps supply riding equipment for those riders who do not have the resources to purchase their own. Help can be given for anything from a pair of white gloves for competition (£3) to helmets (£25+) and boots (£25+). 
• Because the horses are kept at an equine college, they tend to go away for a holiday each time the students break up for Christmas, Easter and summer. This means that an RDA volunteer has to transport the horse(s) to their own yard and care for them there. The cost of this varies wildly depending on whether they can live in a stable or out in a field, how much work they are doing, and how far they have to be transported, but it is worth remembering that they are hungry and accident prone creatures! 
• Insurance is vital - for the horses, the riders and the helpers. Putting disabled people on horses is not without its risks and the group has to be covered for all sorts of eventualities (such as one which came up last summer when a horse partly fell through a bridge on a bridleway outside the college).

Hopefully you can see that there are a lot of costs involved, but that even tiny amounts of money make a difference.