Disadvantaged Ride High children benefit from donated cold storage unit 

The recent delivery by Blue Cube PCS of a previously used cold storage unit went to some rather unusual four-legged clients earlier this month.

The temperature-controlled rental company were delighted to donate an ‘end of usable life’ cold storage unit to the Ride High Equestrian Centre, home of Ride High, a charity working with disadvantaged children to increase their social and educational outlook through the use of horses.

Mark Giles, Blue Cube PCS Fleet Manager, was delighted to be able to deliver the unit, “We’re so pleased to see this unit being put to good use. At the end of their fleet lives as temperature controlled units many go through an environmentally ineffective disposal process, so we’re always investigating different options to try and have them utilised. We’re so proud to support such fantastic work here at Ride High and look forward to coming back to visit to see how the unit is being used in the future.”

“We’re thrilled that we can now utilise more safe storage space to continue our work with the generous help of Blue Cube,” explains founder and CEO, Rachel Medill.

“We have 88 children who come to us through the charity every week, they are highly disadvantaged and are referred from health care and social care professionals,” explains Ms Medill. “These children often come to us when they are suicidal, self-harming, caring for their parents, living in foster care, or can’t be in school because they’re too traumatised.

“They ride for an hour and then they do classroom work. With the horses you have a mechanism to get them engaged in a way that schools simply can’t. Many come to us and simply refuse to put pen to paper, but if you give them a horsey quiz after they’ve ridden they’ll do that.

“By the time they leave us the things they value more are the relationships they’ve made and the confidence they’ve built, they’ve made relationships with positive adults, they’ve got a friendship group and they’ve got increasing confidence.

“The biggest challenge for the Ride High Equestrian Centre is to continue to support the charity. This site is a social enterprise of the best sort but because it is such a big site we totally rely on the generosity of people, like Blue Cube, to help us on a pro-bono basis.

“Our plan is that the equestrian centre business that we run alongside the charity will support the work we do. For instance, we are running corporate training through the equestrian centre, so we actually train teams of people covering leadership and teamwork skills using horses. We’re lucky to have supporters like Blue Cube who have given us help, so I’m excited for a bright future for Ride High.”