Avon Riding Club

01/11/2026

Huge smiles all round from our ARC & RDA riders for a morning of In-House Dressage on Thursday! 🕺🏻😁

We were thrilled to see that most classes were fully booked - so many of you are really enjoying dressage now, where previously some riders were nervous of it! 🙌🏻

Seeing a number of you giving it a go for the first time ever, AND a number of you returning time after time brings us so much joy 😁

We completely forgot to get photos of our younger riders and lead rein classes unfortunately, but it was fabulous to see riders from age 7 right up to age 71! 💫

RESULTS 🥁

WALK & TROT 1 - Lead Rein / Assisted
🥇 Vivienne & Mo
🥈 Alara & Mo
🥉 Holly & Jim
4️⃣ Arun & Mickey

WALK & TROT 2
🥇 Jacob & Whinny
🥈 Ezzy & Dezy
🥉 Lily & Harry

WALK, TROT & CANTER 1
🥇 Iona & Caya
🥈 Emilia & Gracie
🥉 Emily & Tango
4️⃣ Rohan & Whinny

WALK & TROT 3
🥇 Katy & Storm
🥈 Mary & Cricket
🥈 Sarah & Toby
Mary & Sarah had the EXACT same percentage, collectives, and free walk mark - talk about close competition!

WALK, TROT & CANTER 2
🥇 Jess & Storm
🥈 Tess & Gracie
🥉 Sara & Max
4️⃣ Linda & Toby

As always, we were thrilled to see some of our Avon RDA Group riders joining this event too and showing their skills in the white boards alongside our ARC riders! 💫🫱🏻‍🫲🏾

A HUGE well done to all of you - we are so proud of how much work and dedication you all put into your riding journey 😁

Our next In-House competition will be Clear Round Jumping on Friday 18th December - keep an eye out for this going live on EC Pro in the next couple of days. With our In-House Dressage returning in the February half term 🙌🏻

16/09/2026

Tango is having great fun learning how to be a super RDA horse! 🤹🏻🧡
It’s really important that our new recruits are thoroughly exposed to, and become confident with, a wide range of equipment and experiences; so that they can support our riders to have a great lesson.

Did you know that all our horses do both RDA and BHS riding lessons? They have to be very versatile and be able to adapt to whoever is riding them, and a really wide range of activities 💫

04/09/2026

Eventing is for EVERYONE! ❤️💫🙌🏻

We’re not sure how to begin summing up the feeling and incredible atmosphere of last Friday. We think the photos below will do the job though! We are STILL on cloud 99 ✨

For the first time ever, this summer we organised an ARC In-House One Day Event! Specifically for riding school clients, on our very own riding school horses and ponies! All of us at ARC feel very strongly that ALL riders, of all abilities, should be able to give anything a go - including the sport of eventing. And that not owning your own horses should not be a barrier to being able to participate and have the experience of completing an ODE 🙌🏻

30 riders, from our beginner Group 1 riders still on lead rein, up to our experienced Group 4 riders; all gave 110% on Friday - to be able to complete all three phases of a One Day Event. For almost all of these riders, this was their first ever time doing this. We could not be MORE proud of everyone and how much dedication, courage, and determination you all showed! You all rode superbly, and the positivity and encouragement all day, to all participants, was off the charts ❤️

We are also incredibly, incredibly proud of our team of superstar Centre horses and ponies. All of whom demonstrated how versatile, dependable, and talented riding school horses are - they are absolute legends! 🥹

This day would also not have been possible without the dedication, commitment and support of our incredible BHS coaches! From all your hard work over the last 6 weeks to help prepare riders, to your support and time on the day to enable them to have this experience.
⭐️ Alex - our incredible dressage judge
⭐️ Anneli - our hugely positive and enthusiastic SJ judge
⭐️ Sarah - the MOST confidence building and encouraging XC Warm Up Coach
⭐️ Hannah - our superbly supportive and insightful XC judge

Another huge thank you to our amazing army of volunteers and staff, who worked tirelessly all day to ensure that everything ran smoothly and to time (no mean feat with 90 different rounds, and multiple different horses assignments in 3 different places!) 🙌🏻

Finally - thank you so much to our incredibly talented event photographers: Suzey Parker SuzeyP Photography and Rob Bayes Photography- for capturing the most beautiful images of the day for everyone ❤️

One more thank you - to all riders, parents & supporters for believing in our vision to give this a go, and for making it truly a day to remember. We are SO proud of all of you!

Eventing is for EVERYONE! 🙌🏻🐎

22/08/2026

COBS CAN 🙌🏻 🚀

Yesterday saw another fabulous day of XC lessons, getting the practise in ready for our In-House ODE next Friday!
The dedication and enthusiasm from all of Team ARC has been inspiring - from our novice Group 1+ riders, to our experienced Group 4 riders; everyone has been working so hard and showing that the sky is the limit when you believe in yourself and your equine partner 💫

We are also incredibly proud of our wonderful team of riding school horses and ponies, most of whom are fabulous turbo cobs - truly embodying the mantra that cobs CAN!

We can’t wait to see everyone put it all into place next week, and to be able to experience completing a One Day Event! 🥳

- - - - -

Riding with Avon Riding Club directly supports and helps subsidise the Centre’s charitable programmes working with Disabled and disadvantaged people, such as Avon RDA Group.
Avon Riding Club itself is proud to be inclusive and we have many riders with disabilities who access ARC sessions also.

15/07/2026

Please be aware if travelling to the Centre this morning from the Avonmouth/Lawrence Weston direction.

⛔️ Kings Weston Lane from St. Andrew’s Road Avonmouth, to Long Cross Road Lawrence Weston, is closed both directions due to a large fire.

⚠️ Kings Weston Road from Shirehampton remains open, but traffic and congestion is heavy.

Please allow extra time for your journey, or seek alternative routes to the Centre.

14/07/2026

So that’s a wrap on Team Avon’s Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA) National Championships 2026! Wow, what an absolutely incredible 3 days! 🤩

We are so proud to have been able to field one of our largest rider teams to date! 23 Avon riders gave their absolute all across 26 classes; in Dressage, Show Jumping, and Countryside Challenge.
They were all partnered by our incredible team of 7 horses who all put their best hoof forward all weekend, and handled the atmosphere impeccably: Gracie, Storm, Cricket, Harry, Nell, Whinny & Jim 💫

We are beyond proud to report the following:

🏆 5x Overall Class Champions!!
🥇 6x 1st place
🥈 7x 2nd place
🥉 2x 3rd place

📈 56% of our results were placed Top 3
📈 A huge 72% of our results placed top 6
✨ 14 of our 26 scores were above 70%!!

In addition, we had 2 riders who received trophies for special awards:
💫 Ariel D and Cricket received the Dance Trophy for the Highest Newcomer Dressage Score on Friday!
💫 Millie B and Gracie received the Sally O’Neill & Mike Butcher Trophy for the Overall Best Combination in the Show Jumping classes!

We could not be more proud of our riders, coaches, staff, volunteers, and of course horses - all of whom have worked their socks off to produce results like this!

Even more important to us than the scoreboards however, is just how proud we are of EVERY single rider who represented Team Avon this weekend. Everybody gave 110%, in challenging temperatures, to show the world what they are capable of. For some it was their first ever National Championships, for others it was their first time stepping up to a new level, or first year competing on a new horse. ALL of you should be so very proud of what you have achieved this weekend 🌟🌟🌟

We hope you can see from the photos just how much fun everyone had, how proud the riders are of themselves and their horses, and what an incredible, positive atmosphere there was all weekend.

None of this would be possible for our riders without our dedicated team of Coaches, Staff and Volunteers - both the Champs Team and the Home Team. THANK YOU for all you do for our riders! ❤️

And of course, we owe everything to our INCREDIBLE team of super horses and ponies - without whom none of this would be possible! We could not be prouder of them, total superstars ❤️

12/06/2026

Newest recruits Caya and Toby have been going from strength to strength recently, we’re so proud of them!

They’ve both been showing fabulous work in their schooling, and have recently started their RDA training too - which they have taken to like champs 💫🧡💛

08/06/2026

On Friday 29th May, ARC finished up a fabulous half term with our most booked out EVER In-House Clear Round Jumping - specifically for ARC clients on our horses and ponies! 💫

We are still riding the incredible high that the day brought everyone, the energy and enthusiasm from all was infectious. We saw more huge smiles than we could count, from the very first competitor right the way through to the final one 😁 We were thrilled to be able to offer something for everyone; starting with our in-hand Shetland class right the way through to our 70/75cm class! It was also wonderful to see some of our Avon RDA Group riders joining in the fun also 🙌🏻

We are BEYOND proud of every single person who attended - whether it was your first ever experience of jumping a full course, your first experience of a competition environment, your first time trying a new height, or your first time riding that particular horse or pony! The encouragement and motivation from everyone, towards every single rider, and the pride from all riders in themselves, was just incredible to see! 🥹

Thank you ALL for being such dedicated, enthusiastic members of the Family ❤️

We hope to see many of you at our next set of summer holiday In-House events also! All will be live to book on EC Pro this week.

📆 Friday 31st July: Clear Round SJ

📆 Friday 7th August: Have-a-Go Dressage

📅 Friday 28th August: the first ever, ARC In-House ONE DAY EVENT 🥳

A huge thank you to Suzey P Photography for all the incredible images of the day, including truly capturing the pride and joy that was felt all round 🥰

31/05/2026

A huge, HUGE, well done to all who attended our In-House Clear Round Show Jumping on Friday!! Professional photos from SuzeyP Photography are now live and available to browse and purchase on the link below 👇

You all look incredible!! ☺️

Photo collection by Suzey P. Photography

21/05/2026

All of Team Avon are still on Cloud 99 after the most wonderful day yesterday at the Riding for the Disabled Association Mid West Dressage Regional Qualifier! 💫

We are so very proud of all our Avon RDA Group riders who gave it their all, and delivered some stellar performances (and scores too!). And we could not be prouder of our team of incredible horses and ponies who put their best hoof forward, and behaved impeccably all day, enabling our riders to have these huge smiles 😀💙

Jim, Whinny, Nell, Harry, Cricket, Gracie and Storm 💫
All horses that showed us they are the definition of versatile, dependable, and just all round superstars! Every horse has now qualified for the National Championships in July, and most achieving multiple qualifications with multiple riders 🙌🏻

Of the 25 Avon riders who entered, we have an incredible 19 National Championship qualifications!
Full report and scores to follow with more photos soon.

A HUGE, huge thank you to the incredible support team of Coaches, staff, and volunteers who made yesterday such a success for Team Avon - we could not do any of this without you!

❤️