Feed Drought Stricken RDA Horses

Help feed RDA Horses!

RDA Victoria is a charity that helps people with a disability reach their personal, recreational and physical goals through horses. 

We have over 200 horses in Victoria who are essential to our program and are loved dearly by our riders, parents and volunteers.

This year, Victoria has experienced one of the hottest and driest starts to the year on record. The price of horse feed has doubled putting immense financial pressure on the centres. Some are even having trouble sourcing feed. The centres would have to make tough decisions about how to keep the program going if they cannot afford to feed their horses.

In one of the extreme cases, our Warragul centre’s feed was destroyed during the Bunyip fires in March.

9 RDAV Centres are asking for your help and their stories are below.

 

Bairnsdale

At RDA Bairnsdale we care for two horses that are used for the program, Circles and Apollo.

Circles, a 14 year old brumby who has worked in our program for 8 years.  He is vision impaired in one eye due to an injury at birth when he was orphaned in Victoria’s High Country.  Circles looks after our riders with the highest needs, and seems to have an understanding of what is required of him and is very tolerant and patient with everybody.

Apollo is a 6 year old brumby who has been with us for over 12 months.  He is very strong and caters for our heavier riders, including one who takes quite a bit of time to mount with the hoist from a wheelchair and is very unbalanced on the horse.  He loves to pick up and chew anything that is not bolted down, and we have learned to “Apollo proof” his surrounds.

East Gippsland has experienced a prolonged drought following below average to lowest on record rainfall since 2016.  Paddocks are dry and dusty across much of East Gippsland.

 

RDA Bendigo

Due to the ongoing weather conditions in Victoria, we at Bendigo RDA are finding it a real burden on our Program to feed our horses. At the moment we only have five but to keep them in good condition with the drought it takes a lot of money.

We fundraise in the Community as much as possible, Sell raffle tickets, work at the Swap Meet and the occasional sausage sizzle.

It is not only that the price of feed has gone up, but it is also very hard to find. We have travelled many miles to check out different hay supplies. At the moment we are going through 2 bales a day. Price varies between $12/14 per bale. On top of this we also hard feed once a day.

 

Doveton

RDA Doveton operates 4 days per week, caters for around 60 riders of all ages and has 60-90 volunteers. Our 9 horses live on site full time and a group of dedicated volunteers look after them 7 days a week, at least twice per day.

RDA Doveton is one if the more suburban centres in Victoria, which comes with a range of benefits (easy access for riders and volunteers) as well as a range of challenges. The biggest challenge is the provision of good quality hay. 

There has been very little rain in the first quarter of 2019. According to the Bureau of Meteorology, the January rainfall alone was 70% below the average of that month and even now we are still well below the expected average. This will only worsen the situation for hay prices.

Whilst our centre is very active with their fundraising activities, price hikes like these are going to make it extremely challenging to keep up a supply of good quality hay.

Hay is generally bought from semi-rural providers and often gets sourced by our own volunteers. Whilst many farmers are extremely kind to us in terms of pricing (currently $120 per round bale), the current climate will make it impossible to keep the prices at this rate. People in the industry are expecting the prices to hike to $200 by the end of this winter. This would have a major financial impact on our centre.

 

Echuca

RDA Echuca owns two horses and have five horses on loan who are looked after by our dedicated and wonderful volunteers.

Like many others in this situation, we are wondering when the drought will break. In the meantime, we are purchasing food for the best volunteers RDA Echuca has - our horses.

One of our horses, Yogi joined us in April 2017.  We brought him home to a paddock with patches of green grass - plenty for his needs. Since, the paddock has slowly dried up and any decent top soil in the paddock has blown away - it is just a dust bowl.

Over this time, his feed bill has increased as there is no green grass in the paddock - Yogi is now solely reliant on purchased feed - hay, pellets and muesli for vitamins and minerals.

The dollar cost is also on the rise - a shortage of product equals an increase in prices.

The horses we all have, whether owned by an RDA centre or on loan to us for our rallies are so important.  For our riders, they are an integral part to the program. We must care for them to keep them in their best condition and health.

We must do our best for each horse in our care - for the horse, for the riders, for our program.

Horsham

We have four carriage driving ponies and eight riding horses in our program. We have had a very poor season last year and little rain this year, with the hay becoming hard to get and very expensive.

The five horses/ponies that are housed at the RDA paddocks eat approx. one tonne of pasture hay per month and 125 kilos of Lucerne hay per month; in addition, some are fed one hard feed per day. This is causing immense financial strain on our centre.

 

RDA Oaklands

Prices have changed dramatically from our September 2018 delivery. We had to change hay merchants twice & our hay bill has doubled in price. It has gone up $8.00 per bale. We are now currently paying nearly $20.00 +gst for Lucerne. Good pasture hay is incredibly hard to find as most is filled with weeds.

Monthly hay bill has risen from $660.00 to around $1,200. Hard feed bill last month $500.

We own & feed 9 RDA horses.

Oaklands hasn’t had any decent rain since 2018 & it is the first time we had to fill our water tanks twice.

 

Seymour

Due to drought conditions for the last 18 months, the hay situation in the Seymour area is in crisis. Not only hay, but our water is at dangerously low levels. In October 2017 I bought round bales of hay for $45 delivered. October 2018 it cost $165 per round bale delivered. The stock feed stores in Seymour say if they can find more hay it will be over $200 a bale.

Since July last year, we have had 140mm of rain. 3 of the days of rain were over 10mm, one of these being 24mm.

If we don’t get an autumn break, there will be no hay to buy in spring.

We have 6 horses to feed at RDA Seymour. The paddocks are dust bowls. There is nothing for them to graze. We usually send them to homes for the holidays to lower the burden on the RDA paddocks. But everyone is barely able to feedstock they have, let alone take on more.

We need all the help we can get!

 

RDA Viewbank

At RDA Viewbank we have our own fields where we grow hay for our RDA Horse’s feed. Our annual hay yield is typically 1200-1300 bales, in December, due to the draught, we only yielded 527 bales which was 40% less than our normal yield.

Dry and unusually warm conditions have reduced soil moisture and further dried our paddocks, making them dry and barren with no autumn growth. This means that we are having to increase feed to our horses to counter the lack of pasture, and do not expect this trend to alter. Our already diminished hay stocks are being used at a faster than normal rate. By August we will need to start purchasing feed for our 9 horses.

Ongoing drier conditions and increases in demand, have pushed commercial hay prices up in our local area by $3-$4 a small rectangular bale (to $16) in the last month.

 

Warragul

Need for hay for Warragul RDA horses.

Warragul RDA has 7 horses and ponies. 23 riders take part in the weekly program where riders walk, trot and canter; either assisted, on or off the lead and independently.

Hay, Warragul RDA had 15 large bales of hay at Les Davidson’s farm and 2 large bales at Lyn Link’s farm and 20 small bales of hay at Tonimbuk.

ALL WENT UP IN FLAMES IN THE BUNYIP FIRES ON MARCH 3RD 2019.

Sourcing hay in this region, with much demand for fire-affected farmers and their immediate needs for their stock, is virtually impossible. Both Les and Lyn sold their stock immediately after the fire went through due to loss of fences, stockyards, grass, silage and hay.

The Warragul RDA horses are agisted at Logan Park Warragul and require one large bale per week for 10 weeks over winter.   Sometimes local farmers assist in providing bales of hay but this year that is impossible due to most of the hay being burnt. Many houses were saved but very few hay sheds survived.