Income has dried up, staff are stressed but horses must be fed, writes Caitlin Sloan

In August, Woronora Heights local Colleen Kemp started a GoFundMe page to help reinstate staff and feed the horses at Darkes Forest Riding Ranch.

The Read family owned business – which has been running trail rides, camps and lessons for 40 years – has been closed through lockdown and is unlikely to re-open until November. So Colleen has now raised the fundraising target to $20,000.

“It was originally $10,000, but we hit that really fast, and then when they decided to extend the lockdown period, I bumped it up to $20,000 just to get us through,” Colleen said.

For 14 years, Colleen has agisted her horse with the Read family and now describes them as family of her own. She said the closure of the ranch has been a heavy blow.

“Once the gates are closed, once there’s no customers coming in to ride horses, there is no source of income,” Colleen said. 

“It’s just such a different business… Horses don’t stop needing to be cared for just because a government has decided to close a business.”

With 54 horses in the riding school still needing to be fed, rugged and shod, and casual staff unaffordable, the staff who run the agistment business have had to significantly increase their daily workload to care for the horses in the riding school and the boarding stables.

Restrictions are expected to ease in mid-October, but Darkes Forest Riding Ranch is facing another month without income, hoping to reopen the riding school in early November.

“We’ve had horses sitting in a paddock for three months now that have had no work – they’re unexercised,” Colleen said.

“It’s going to be a slower process.” 

Want to help? Search for ‘Help Keep Darkes Forest Riding School Alive’ at www.gofundme.com