PRESS RELEASE

NOAH’S TOOTH CAUSES DOUBLE TROUBLE FOR RIDING CENTRE

RDA Unicorn Centre Noah’s toothache has become a very costly headache for the Centre when he was recently involved in a serious road traffic accident.

Poor Noah had recovered from three day’s sedation at Leahurst, the teaching hospital of the University of Liverpool Veterinary School, after a difficult tooth extraction, and was returning home to Hemlington, near Middlesbrough.  Trustee Judy Preston was driving the Land Rover towing the horse trailer.

She takes up the story: “We were on the A1 and I felt the trailer start to snake.  All I could think was, ‘don’t brake, or we’ll jackknife’.  But before I knew what was happening, we had toppled over and were facing the wrong way on the dual carriageway.  It was eerily quiet, but then I had a whinney, and knew that Noah had survived.”

Although Noah had to be sedated again while the trailer rear doors were cut away, he was soon grazing on the grass verge none too worse for wear.  Both he and Judy miraculously only suffered minor cuts and bruises, but the Land Rover and trailer were in much worse shape and have since been written off by the insurers.

Centre Manager Claire Pitt said, “It was such a shock when we got the call about the accident, but were so thankful that Judy and Noah were OK.  Now we have no transport at all for our horses, our students and our volunteers, so there’ll be no more trips to the beach, to horse shows or to the feed merchants for now.  We will probably replace the vehicle and trailer with a horse box and a smaller 4 x 4, and although we were insured, the insurance money won’t cover the entire cost.

She continued, “Funding from our great friends at Santander paid for them originally, but we don’t know if they’ll be able to make another contribution.  I just hope we can get some donations elsewhere to help us get back on the road.”

If you can help the Unicorn Centre get its wheels on the road again, please contact Claire Pitt on 01642 576222 or make a donation to RDA Centre in Cleveland Ltd.