A mental health organisation set up to support equestrians has won two prestigious global awards.
Mental health support organisation This Can Happen held its annual awards yesterday (24 June) during which charities and organisations were recognised for “excellence in their approach towards positive mental health for employees and colleagues”.
Riders Minds won the best targeted mental health initiative category, which celebrates mental health campaigns and initiatives that workforces have implemented for either a specific group of employees or a specialist initiative to solve a particular workplace challenge.
Speaking about Riders Minds, one judge said: “This feels like an industry that may not have been addressed before and a gap that needed to be filled with support. Fantastic strategy, well thought out, very inclusive.”
The organisation also took the grand prix award, given to the “most outstanding” award entry.
Riders Minds, which celebrated its first birthday in May, was founded by the late event rider Matthew Wright and his wife, Victoria, with support from a number of companies, and with the British Grooms Association and Equestrian Employers Association acting as consultants.
Victoria said it had not sunk in yet what the organisation had achieved in such a short space of time.
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“We are only a small team of six, but six brilliant people with drive and passion can make a huge amount of difference,” she said.
“To have won the award against some huge corporate organisations such as the Walt Disney Company and Bloomberg is beyond a dream come true for us and gives us the opportunity to open more doors with a far bigger global reach. The bigger reach we have, the more people we can support and help along the way, hopefully giving the worldwide equestrian industry access to our services.”
Sylvia Bruce, a mental health specialist who wrote the content for the Riders Minds website, added: “Winning these awards, receiving such high praise and recognition from its illustrious judging panel for our passion-driven, ground-breaking work for all equestrians is the equivalent of winning the World and Olympic championships for every aspect of equestrianism all at once!
“This elevates, catapults even, Riders Minds’ reputation as an industry-specific provider of much-needed support, with much more to come.”
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Since joining H&H in 2018, Becky has covered a broad range of equestrian news including welfare matters, veterinary studies, FEI Tribunal hearings and road safety campaigns. She has also interviewed top riders including Scott Brash, John Whitaker and Ian Stark, to name just a few. Becky’s reporting has taken her to Canada for Spruce Meadows and France for Pau five-star, as well as the Royal Highland and Blair Castle International Horse Trials closer to home. She was also a key part of the remote reporting team for the Tokyo Olympics and the Europeans.
