Ashfields Carriage Driving Days

For the last four summers Barrow Farm has been lucky to have been hosted by Ashfields Carriage and Polo Club for three days allowing us to offer an amazing carriage driving experience for some of our drivers. Ashfields is set in 500 acres of land, so as well as space to set up cones courses, obstacles and skills courses, there are also tracks to drive around and of course everyones favourite the water splash to drive through. Due to the generosity of Ashfields Equestrian Trust lending us their RDA assessed pony, Thlay, we are able to offer this experience to three drivers on each of the three days.

A big thank you to all our volunteers, without which these days would not be possible. To find out more about volunteering take a look at our volunteering pages. And a big well done to our carriage driving coaches Sally and Jo, who ensure the horses are prepared, arrive safely, looked after well and arrange all the activities. Thanks also to Araminta Winn who coached those driving Thlay and also did daily talks on the best way to drive cones and obstacles.

Another Award for Karen

Karen receiving the award from Eileen Cornish, RDA UK Carriage Driving Lead

At the National Championships Karen has the received the Susan Dudley-Smith Award recognising her ‘outstanding impact’ on carriage driving. Karen has been the driving force in setting up our now annual visit to Ashfields Carriage and Polo Club. This provides the chance for our carriage drivers to experience driving in new places, through a range of different obstacles including the fun of driving through the water. Big congratulations to Karen!

Congratulations to all our participants at the RDA Virtual National Championships

For the second year running RDA National has run a virtual National Championships. This provides a great opportunity for our riders and drivers to participate in a national competition without leaving the safety of familiar surroundings. This year we had participants competing in dressage, countryside challenge, show jumping, musical rides, carriage driving dressage and musical carriage drives. Well done to all the teams of riders, drivers, helpers and coaches that made this possible. I think we can safely say all that took part had great fun and plenty of rosettes were won too.