Horse riders set to bring festive cheer to care home residents and kids in Derbyshire village

Claire Barley, from Eckington, is hoping to help spread some Christmas cheer across the village on Saturday, December 23.

Along with a group of five other friends, Claire will be riding her horse Troy through Eckington - with each horse set to be dressed up in a Christmas outfit.

The group will be stopping at a number of nursing homes in the area, as well as Eckington Miners Welfare – and are hoping that families will come to meet their horses and enjoy the festivities.

Claire said: “The community have very generously donated some mince pies, sherry and chocolate gifts for the children. We’ve got three nursing homes and two other stops.”

“The riders will stop first at Eckington Miners Welfare at 12.00pm - that’s where we hope the children will come and meet our friendly horses.

“We’ve got the Whitwell Brass Band, I think there’s six members joining us. We want to thank the band for volunteering their time to join us on our Christmas ride through Eckington, delivering some festive cheer to our elderly community. We also have a snow machine to add that little extra.”

After leaving Eckington Miners Welfare, the horses will visit April Park Care Home at 1.00pm and the George Inn at 1.30pm.

They will then stop at The Grange Care Home at 2.00pm, followed by Eckington Court Care Home at 2.30pm.

Claire said: “We did the walk of remembrance last November, which was really well-received by everyone in the parish.

We had a lot of people saying they’d like to see Troy again, so in December, we did a ride on Christmas Eve last year.

It’s inspired us, being so well-received last year and seeing the pleasure the residents got out of it.

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“We really wanted to do that again, because of the support we’ve had from the community, it’s enabled us to do it - we’ve luckily been able to secure the band as well, which is amazing, and I think it’ll make all the difference.”