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Cotswold RDA History
We began riding in October 1965 in the garden of a local lady, May Bingley. There were 12 riders that came on a Tuesday and Sunday for a half day only and the ponies were borrowed from all over the area.
In 1972 we moved to what is currently the Ellenborough Park Hotel, which was then a boarding school. The school had an indoor arena which we used. Again, the ponies were borrowed and were used on Tuesday afternoons with approximately 30 riders. The school arena later became a sports hall so we had to move again, this time to the Apple Tree car park and field in Woodmancote until February 1982.
Between 1980 and 1982 we had a massive fund raising campaign to build a new indoor riding school. The Jackie Brutton Fund very kindly agreed to match whatever we raised. The school cost £80,000 to build, with Jackie Brutton Fund providing £40,000. Interestingly Jackie Brutton was the first female racing trainer and master of the Cotswold Hunt. She herself became disabled and when she died left her fortune to the disabled of Gloucestershire. Unfortunately Jackie died before the Cotswold RDA School was opened.
In honour of Jackie’s memory, we named the school after her and opened in February 1982. In April of that year HRH Princess Anne officially opened The Jackie Brutton Riding Centre. We provided lessons over 4 days a week with approximately 36 riders a day! We still used borrowed ponies brought in from all over the area.
In 1983, Sunday riding was introduced and in 1984, Marks and Spencers kindly donated a horsebox to the Cotswold RDA. We purchased land located near the racecourse at Cheltenham and also started to buy ponies. The first pony we bought was Horsepower closely followed by Chips who remains with us as a companion pony, in retirement.
In 1996, a position for the centre manager was created and in 2006 we employed a pony welfare manager who takes care of our ponies. All the rest of the ‘staff’ at the Cotswold RDA are our fantastic volunteers without whom we could not operate.
We receive no external funding so our operational costs have to be raised through fundraising carried out with the help of our volunteers.