UP TO 80 riders turned out to support the Charity Ride held recently at Gelliwen near Trelech to raise money for five charities. With a fabulous pink fancy dress turnout theme of horses and ponies, riders weren’t deterred by the wet weather and so far, the total raised stands at £5000 with money still coming in!

"We are very fortunate to be able to ride our horses and have fun whilst raising money for charities. There are many people out there who are going through treatment for cancer who would give anything to be able to continue riding in whatever weather (speaking from my own experience), so a bit of rain did not seem to have put anyone off from supporting this ride,’ commented charity ride organiser Louise Jones.

The theme this year was ‘The Year You Were Born In.’ The youngest rider was Lilly Williams at only four years old, who also won the award for the Pinkest Fancy Dress which was a homemade Flamingo costume. Her sister Abbie Painter won Best Fancy Dress under 16 yrs old with her homemade costume of Cat In The Hat. The Best Fancy Dress over 16 yrs went to Chris Hemmingway with Flower Pot Man as did the Veteran Award – Combined Age of Horse and Rider. Most Sponsorship Raised under 16 years old went to Abbie, Lewis and Lilly with £350, with most raised over 16 years being won by Louise Jones. She raised £2080. Everyone received a rosette as a thank you gesture for supporting the ride, with the outstanding winners receiving Special Rosettes along with some pink prizes.

Louise added: ‘There were various routes for people to choose from, ranging from three to eight miles, mostly forestry tracks with minimum roadwork, few gallop tracks and various jumps. From the feedback I have received, everyone who participated seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Following the ride there was a BBQ with refreshments and we also drew the raffle. There were 50 raffle prizes, mostly having been donated by various people who I would like to thank for their generosity. I would also like to thank Barclays Bank who has match funded £1000 from my sponsor sheet towards Breast Cancer Wales,’ explained Louise.

The money raised will be split between Ty Hafan Children’s Hospice, Cancer Research, Marie Curie, Prostate Cancer Wales and Breast Cancer Wales.