Pony of the month – Bridie

January’s pony of the month is Bridie.

Bridie is on loan to Barrow Farm and arrived in July 2025. She has settled in really well and is already a firm favourite with riders and coaches. She has been involved in riding sessions, pony care sessions and tea with a pony. After a break from carriage driving Bridie spent two weeks at Mike Daniels driving yard in December doing some refresher training and assessing her suitability to be a RDA driving pony. She was super and her training will continue at home before her final RDA driving assessment. Hopefully she will join Summer and Penny as part of our driving team next season.

To find out more about take a look at Bridie’s page on the website. Keep your eyes peeled for more on Bridie coming on our social media.

Pony of the Month – Summer

The Pony of the Month for September is Summer. You can find out a bit more about how Summer joined Barrow Farm on her Pony Page. Summer is one of our true superstars. Firstly, she both rides and drives, and she does not just do this at home but she competed and won at the RDA National Championships in driving, countryside challenge and dressage (she also took part in endurance).

A man riding a horse posting a letter in a red letter box.
Duncan and Summer on their way to winning the Countryside Challenge.

Summer is popular with many of our riders as she is narrower, which makes riding easier if you have tight hips. Summer is fairly forward thinking, and some of riders, particularly those who are neurodiverse enjoy the movement of a faster walking horse. She is a delight to drive and as her success at the National Championship shows, she does a pretty smart dressage test in the carriage.

A black and white pony being driven in a carriage
Kay and Summer on their way to winning the Novice Driving

If you would like to receive regular updates on what Summer has been getting up to, why not sponsor her. Take a look at the Sponsor a Pony page for more details.

Tawny retires from ridden work

Sadly at the end of 2022 Tawny has had to be retired from his ridden work. He has been diagnosed as having arthritic front legs and has shown an increased tendency to trip more. He also has cataracts in both eyes and while not having any apparent difficulties it is felt that for him to keep giving rides would pose a risk to both riders and his wellbeing. He will be 28 this year, an old pony and has worked for us for 18 years.

A boy riding a pony, being led by a woman with short hair and a purple Barrow Farm polo shirt. The boy has two people walking alongside him and he is riding with no stirrups.
Tawny has brought joy to hundreds of riders over his 18 years service as a ridden pony.

He has just received an overdue RDA long service award. Lots of riders who started as young children will have ridden Tawny and have many fond memories.

Tawny a brown pony with a black mane is standing in his stable wearing his bridle. From the brow band is hanging down a long service award which is a piece of leather with a brass disc on it saying RDA long service award.
Tawny with his long service award

We plan for him to still have a role being used for theory sessions on the yard, and perhaps joining in with Tea with a Pony sessions. Still giving lots of pleasure to our participants, just in a different way.

He is still enjoying life, living with his friend Boycie.

Vella – Pony of the Month

Many of you will know Vella as she has been at Barrow Farm RDA for over two years now but did you know her full name is Vella-Tor and that her dad was a sports horse? To find out more about Vella why don’t you visit her page and don’t forget you can also adopt Vella or one of her friends. You can find more details on the Adopt-A-Pony page.

Vella, who is one of our four mares, is a very sweet and quiet pony. She likes her riders to be gentle too and responds to very light instructions from her riders to stop, go and turn. She is quite happy with side walkers and is equally happy doing props, such as post boxes and putting the ball in the bucket or doing dressage. She is quite fast and bouncy in trot, so better for the more experienced riders than those just starting trotting.

We think Vella’s great and so do her riders. She is currently undergoing additional training in the hope that she will be a future RDA competition horse, so watch this space to see how she gets on!

Charlotte holding Vella at the end of her lesson