A RIDING club for disabled people was happy not to look a gift horse in the mouth when a shop donated £1,500 to the group.

Wear Valley RDA (Riding for the Disabled Association) bought popular cob Ruby after more than a year of hiring the horse for lessons for people with a range of disabilities.

When Ride-away equestrian store, in York, learnt of the charitable group’s work assistant manager Sarah Beecroft stepped in to help.

She has led a series of fundraising activities at the shop including a cake bake, fancy dress events, tombolas, a sponsored run and one supporter was sponsored to show jump wearing a onesie.

She said: “We have a lot of customers from across the country but a really strong client base from County Durham, we appreciate that and wanted to give something back.

“We understand the importance of riding for disabled members, it can be very therapeutic so we were happy to help the group.”

RDA coach Claire Walker is an instructor at the Riding Centre for Special People, in Escomb, near Bishop Auckland, where the group is based.

She said: “Being able to own Ruby is great, she is a lovely big cob and we can now take more riders including taller ones.

“We’re delighted with Ride-away’s donation, in effect they’ve sponsored Ruby and enabled us to recoup money we spent buying her.”