Tweeddale Rideability Group SCIO

History of the Tweeddale Rideability Group SCIO

The Tweeddale Group started in April 1984 in the stableyard of Kerfield Coach House in Peebles. Just five local ponies and riders enjoyed a weekly 1-hour session riding along tracks in Glentress Forest.

In 1988 we were delighted to be offered a more permanent venue at Cringletie Farm outside Peebles, by Mr and Mrs Ian Macleod. We could now have three rides on Mondays with most of our riders coming from local schools. It was at Cringletie that we had our first visit from Her Royal Highness, The Princess Royal, in September 1990.

Saturday rides were started for children who could not ride on Mondays. In 2001 the Saturday rides had to change venue and we were offered the use of an outdoor riding school at Harcus Farm by Mr and Mrs David Reid of Portmore. By 2000 the ponies we'd been using at Cringletie had reached retirement age and we had to find an alternative venue with suitable ponies.

We then moved our Monday rides to Kirkton Manor Trekking Centre, where, for the first time, we had the extra cost of hiring ponies for our riders. In April 2004 HRH The Princess Royal visited us again, this time to celebrate our 20th anniversary. We also moved our our Monday rides again, this time to Castlehill Farm in the Manor Valley. During our 29 years the Group has held twice weekly rides at no less than 15 different venues thanks to the generosity of local land owners and horse owners - we were constantly on the move.

But then in 2005, Mr and Mrs David Coltman of Haystoun very generously offered us the use of a new indoor riding school at Crookston Farm near Peebles. In January 2006, thanks to a very generous donation from the Wooden Spoon Association, we installed a new portakabin as our base at Crookston and finally settled in to our permanent centre.

In 2016 the Group changed its status to that of a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation and as part of the process changed its name to the Tweeddale Rideability Group SCIO.


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