It will shut down on June 28 unless the team is able to raise £300,000
Alex Clark, nine, takes weekly lessons at Park Palace Ponies(Image: Helen Clark)
Equestrians at a struggling pony club have been left “devastated” by news that their weekly classes could soon come to an end. Park Palace Ponies, which provides pony-riding lessons to children from low-income households, is facing closure as bosses said “a final shutdown date” has been set.
The charity, which has provided riding opportunities and community sessions in Toxeth and Dingle for the past seven years, will shut down on June 28 unless the team is able to raise the £300,000 needed to keep doors open.
Helen Clark’s nine-year-old son, Alex, who has autism, has been a regular visitor to the club since he was five and started taking lessons 18 months ago.
She said: “Alex is autistic, so as much as he’s full of enthusiasm, he’s quite difficult to teach, which is why Park Palace Ponies is so crucial to me, because he wouldn’t do well in your average stables.
“The staff at Park Palace Ponies are so patient with him, and if he needs to stop, they stop. It’s absolutely fantastic for a child, especially one like Alex with learning difficulties.
“He knows all the ponies. He’s got a real bond with them. When he found out it might be closing, he was devastated. He wanted to send a message out to all the children to empty their money boxes and donate their money so they could save Park Palace Ponies together.”
The financial difficulties faced by Park Palace Ponies were announced earlier this year, when trustee Karen Scott told the ECHO: “In September (2024) we were under immediate threat.
“We actually were forced to close the riding school because we were in the middle of obtaining charity status and couldn’t afford to pay the wages. When we obtained that status, we had a generous benefactor give us the money to tide us over.
“We are at the point now where things are so dire that the person who keeps us going can’t afford to give us any more. We’ve applied to the National Lottery and Sport England for funding, and produced a robust business plan, but all that takes time.”
The charity, which costs around £10,000 to run, continued to run on the generous donations of its benefactor. But the tremendous cost of maintaining operations meant the cash flow was expected to dry up at the end of April this year.
A grassroots fundraising campaign raised £4,000, enough to cover public liability insurance and secure a council riding school licence. However, the amount fell short of what was needed for long-term survival, and remaining staff have now received redundancy notices.
Alex at Park Palace Ponies stables(Image: Helen Clark)
Helen, from Belle Vale, described the news as “heartbreaking.” She added: “A standard stables is quite strict and structured and for a child like Alex, it’s not what he needs. The instructors understand he has complex needs and work around them and he does so well. It’s one of his favourite activities and we’d be devastated to lose it.
“I know lots of people who use the stables, children that maybe wouldn’t fit in in other places. There is something about the place, it’s so welcoming and so inclusive. It doesn’t matter who you are or what mood you’re in, when you get there it’s a warm, welcoming atmosphere which a lot of stables don’t really have. For children with learning difficulties, it’s invaluable.
“Alex struggles with confidence in everything but the more he’s gone there, the more he’s felt confident in himself and his ability to command a pony. He’s come on leaps and bounds.
“A city to have something like this is such a gift. I’ve always been in and around stables and the first time I went there I was astounded. I’d never seen a set-up like it and it works.
“I don’t think there’s another city in the country that has a set-up in such a built-up area, and it allows children who would never, ever have the opportunity to be around ponies to go and meet them.
“It’s such an asset to the community. I know children don’t even ride there, but go and see the ponies on their way home from school. It’s become part of the community. Everyone is used to seeing them walking down to the fields. It would be such a shame to let it go.”
The Park Palace Ponies team hopes to raise £300,000, which will secure the continued operation of the charity for the next three years. During that time, the team hopes to implement a long-term sustainability plan, developed with Sport England, to transition away from total reliance on grants and fundraising.
An emergency crowd-funder has raised just over £3,500 so far. The fundraiser can be found here: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/save-park-palace-ponies-liverpool