Fightback of the Rangers Oct 8 2004
A HORSE riding charity is winning its fightback, after being caught up in an horrific sex scandal more than two years ago.
Work started this week on a new all-weather arena at Windsor Horse Rangers' Forest Green Road club in Fifield.
And two new ponies have joined the stables as the club expands.
But it has been a tough battle since volunteer Gary Hinds was jailed for 20 years in 2002, after being convicted of a series of sex attacks against some of the young girl riders.
Commandant Mike Cooper, 63, who took charge after the scandal, was determined to save the Horse Rangers.
Mike, who manages two garages in Windsor, said: "It has taken lots of work, but the Rangers are worth saving."
Windsor Horse Rangers is a charity for horse loving young people without an animal of their own and is run completely by volunteers.
It bought its own land five years ago but lost it all, when the charities minister of the time ordered the umbrella Horse Rangers'Association into receiver-ship so it could provide a compensation fund for Hinds' victims.
Now, years later the Windsor branch is totally independent and has spent the last two years raising around £50,000 to buy back its site and fixtures.
Everything was re-bought at the beginning of this year, including tables and chairs originally donated free of charge.
Mr Cooper, who lives with wife Horse Ranger: Mike Cooper's daughter Maria, one of the volunteers, with a new four legged addition
Gill in Farnham Road, Slough, said: "It's been a big struggle at times, but of course we haven't said that to the kids. We just had to improve things and improve the facilities.
"A lot of it is down to the support we have had from the parents."
The club now has 150 youngsters on the books and is over-subscribed.
There is a year-long waiting list for children aged eight to ten, while youngsters aged over ten need to wait at least six months to join. Around 20 volunteer officers and parents help out when the young members come down to the stables at the weekend.
New ponies, Pandora, a tenyear-old Welsh Cob and 12-year-old Monsoon, a Welsh Pony, take the number of horses up to 14.
Mr Cooper added: "We have got a team of good volunteers and they have made it possible. It's just going from strength to strength. I just wish we had more land and horses to expand."
Let's hear it for Mike Cooper!! 
