Communication is vital to the everyday running’s of the Brae. Since there are different volunteers and staff members everyday there has to be a way for all of the information for the riders and horses to be kept in once place. There are only 5/6 members of staff at The Brae with over one hundred volunteers. Some volunteers work half days, others full days. This means that there could be many different volunteers a day taking part in the lessons and looking after the horses and riders. Some riders only need one volunteer with them leading the horse, while others also need one or two side-helping. This means that their responsibility is the rider, making sure they are straight on the horse and occasionally holding the riders leg and/or ankle to keep then straight on the horse.
In the stables there are a couple of noticeboards that all have different communication messages that equate to the smooth running of the school every day. The first noticeboard focuses on the lessons of the day and information on the riders. Everyday there is a timetable pinned up with information on the lessons of the day. This sheet is vital as it contains all of the important details about each rider. These sheets have different number ratings for whether the rider has seizures and how severe that they are (there is a corresponding key also on this noticeboard so that the number beside each rider can be understood as to what it means). This makes it easy for everyone to understand what the different seizure ratings mean. There is also a similar rating for how the rider can communicate but this rating is done in order of letter so as not to be confused with the seizure one. These two pieces of information mean that staff and volunteers working with the riders know how they need to communicate and what you need to look out for when side-helping. As well as this, these sheets also have the time of each lesson, the riders name, which horse their lesson is on, the rider’s hat size and their stirrup length. At the side of each lesson time it also says how many volunteers are needed for each lesson. This means that the horses that are required can be tacked up ready with the stirrups at the correct length before the riders get there. There is also a small whiteboard in this area where each volunteer writes their name when they come in. This means that the supervisor knows how many volunteers they have that day and can assign the correct amount of volunteers to each rider.
On a second noticeboard these is a sheet, which is changed each day, that lists the daily tasks that need to be completed to make sure that the school and the horses are taken care of. This noticeboard also has different training sheets that are changed occasionally. These sheets go over training that all of the volunteers have had and they are put there as a reminder of how to complete certain tasks and jobs.
Without all of these different communication methods and sheets it would be very difficult for everyone to know this information. This shows how important communication at the Brae is and why they need this system in place to ensure that all of the volunteers know what they need to.
