Grants of £1.3m awarded to riding centres and clubs
Fourteen riding clubs and centres across England have won funding totalling £1.3million from Sport England in the latest round of grants.
Each year the British Equestrian Federation (BEF) receives funding from Sport England to invest in facilities and equipment.
This year’s grants include one of £25,000, the maximum possible, to South View Equestrian Centre in Cheshire.
The money will be used to reroof the centre’s collecting ring – which currently “leaks like a sieve”, according to co-owner and director Linda Wright – and pay for a new remote-controlled lighting system.
“This will allow us to rent out the arena more often,” said Ms Wright. “At the moment, a member of staff has to stay to turn the lights off at the end of the night and this is not always possible to do.”
South View caters for all levels of rider, from children and beginners to those competing in the three-star international showjumping competition, the Charles Stanley British Masters.
Maggie Still of the BEF told H&H: “As part of our legacy from the Olympic Games, the BEF wants to increase participation in riding and one of the best ways to do this is by improving the facilities offered by riding centres to the public.
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“The projects vary, from improving the fencing at Vauxhall City Farm [in London] to providing a hoist for disabled carriage drivers at another centre, but they are all very important to the groups involved.”
For more information go to www.hoofride.co.uk.
This news story was first published in the current issue of H&H (3 August 2012)
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A self-confessed newshound, farmer’s daughter and journalist of many years' experience, Charlotte worked on regional papers before joining H&H in 2007. A regular rider, she visited Ireland in 2010 to investigate the fate of Irish horses through the recession, to much acclaim, and reported from the FEI General Assembly in Rio de Janeiro in 2011. She left Horse & Hound in March 2013.