Round Ireland for Bóthar

Background

On a rainy, wind-swept day in January we huddled in a little car on the road home and thought it would be interesting to ride all around the coast of Ireland on horseback to raise money for charity. We are avid horsewoman Kathrin Döhner (21) and computer programmer Eoin Shaw (24). Our ride may sound like a crazy idea, but we liked the challenge and the chance for adventure.

The ride is dedicated to Bóthar. For some time we had been impressed by the remarkable work they do in developing countries. The ride seemed a unique opportunity to support them in their work.

And so we had a plan. And the plan needed action! Here's the plan in brief:

We will ride on horseback around Ireland, north and south
We will raise funds for the Bóthar charity and awareness of their work
We will enjoy ourselves and infect others with our good mood!

Bóthar is an innovative African Development Agency based in the mid-west, which sends Irish dairy cows and goats to needy African families.

Find out more about Bóthar here.

preparing for the journey! The ride

Our mainly coastal route is about 1,200 miles. We will ride about 30 miles each day. To reduce accommodation costs we will camp where possible. The horses we will ride are well used to being outside and will enjoy the nights in fields. We will ensure they are regularly shod and seen by vets.

Find out more about the route here.

Fundraising

We will take a novel approach to fundraising. We will raise as much money as possible - the success of our fundraising will depend on our creativity as we go along. We will stop in towns and villages and collect money by telling people about Bóthar's work; we will offer our work where we can in exchange for a donation to Bóthar.

Publicity

We are making a conscious decision to minimise deadlines where possible in order to leave ourselves space for spontaneity and to keep the project's innate charm. We will write to local radio stations before we depart and call them en route to give updates and interviews. We will keep local newspapers informed and send them short stories from our trip. A web page on the Internet will serve as an additional source of publicity.

We're sure that we will be pretty unique road users as we ride along in our fluorescent jackets! We hope to catch people's attention and get a good response. Hopefully people will not be too shy to approach us!

We see this as an interactive project - a project that will grow and develop through its exposure to people.

How you can help

You can support us by sending a donation to

"Round Ireland for Bóthar"
c/o Bóthar Offices
99 O'Connell Street
Limerick
(IRELAND)

For other ways to help, read How you can help.