Another top equestrian centre for Scotland

The flurry of investment in Scottish equestrian venues shows no sign of abating. Hard on the heels of the sale and planned redevelopment of Ingliston Stud (news, 1 February 2007) and the opening of the new £3m Scottish National Equestrian Centre, attached to Oatridge College (news, 21 December 2006), comes yet another plush new riding centre.

Kingsbarn Equestrian Centre, near Sheildhill, to the north east of Glasgow, encompasses a riding school, show centre, training centre and livery yard. It has been built at a cost of £10million, and funded by an undisclosed private individual.

“It was a grass fields site, built entirely from scratch in 12 months,” said former international show jumper Ernest Dillon, director of equitation at Kingsbarn, which sits in 40 acres and has stabling for 75 in three barns, each with a tackroom, washbox and solarium. “We are nearly finished but still have a little more building to do.”

There are two 60x40m indoor arenas under one roof, with seating for 300, a restaurant, two massive outdoor arenas (one spans two acres), a two-mile all-weather gallop, plus an office block with showers and lecture rooms.

“We already have a dozen riding school horses, which I will increase to 25-30, and we have plans for a cross-country course,” said Mr Dillon, a Fellow of the British Horse Society (BHS) and BSJA and British Eventing accredited coach.

“We will also run residential courses for people who want to bring their own horse.”

Read this news story in full in the current issue of Horse & Hound (26 April, ’07)

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