About Us
South Western Dressage Club (SWDG) is a BHS-affiliated riding club covering Sherborne,Yeovil, Gillingham, Shaftsbury, Blandford and Wimborne, Westbury, South Somerset and West Dorset, stretching right down to the Dorset Coast and the Devon Border. We hold competitive events, guided hacks, demos, flatwork and jumping tuition plus specialist clinics with well-known trainers. Check the calendar for upcoming events.
Our club name is rather misleading and a motion was put to the members at the 2012 AGM to change it to something that more clearly illustrates what we are about. Changing the name of our club is relatively complicated but we do hope this will achieved at our 2013 AGM. The club is quite definitely NOT a dressage-only club and all year-round events and clinics, covering all three major disciplines, take place at a venues such as Moreton EC, Kingston Maurward EC, Linnet Farm (Rampisham), and Holbrook (Yetminster).
SWDG Teams and individual members have always been successful at Area Championships and at national level, winning or being placed in the National Riding Club Championships
The new millennium saw further successes at this level and also internationally: SWDG won the Dressage to Music Championship, the Senior Show Jumping Championship, and went to Olympia with its Quadrille, and to Ireland where the Senior show jumping team beat riding club teams from the home countries and abroad. In 2006 further successes have followed at national level with a Junior Team winning and being well placed at the BRC Championships at Lincoln, including a member becoming Junior Rider of the Year, and Senior members qualifying as teams and individuals at all the National Championships where again they either won or were well placed.
Today our club continues to attract new members, mainly through the excellence of its instruction, the variety of programmed events, and the numerous riding and non-riding activities aimed at all levels of rider and horse. Leisure riders and weekend riders are as welcome, as are those pursuing a career with horses, and the club also welcomes spectators at its clinics and events, with members participating as helpers as well as competitors. Instruction and competitions are offered on both weekdays and at weekends, and in the evenings during the summer months. The two main competitions of the year are the Dressage on Grass held at the end of February, at Aldon and the ODE, when competitors travel from all over the West Country to participate.
During the year we run competitions within the club where points can be scored towards the annual awards that the club makes to successful horses and riders. These trophies are presented at the AGM in November.
This is a friendly club offering members the opportunity to enjoy and educate their horse and to improve their riding and members have the chance to meet nice people in lovely surroundings!
What is a riding club?
It’s a club catering for riders and horses of all abilities and experience, so whatever your aims or aspirations your riding club can provide the opportunities you are looking for. Amongst other things you will find ready access to experienced and skilled local instructors, and national trainers, at highly competitive rates, as well as a warm welcome from a new group of friends and acquaintances with interests in common.
Riding clubs also have access to a national network of training and development opportunities provided by British Riding Clubs. Membership of an affiliated club ensures availability of insurance, discounts, and other benefits - so why not join? You don’t have to own a horse, or even be a rider, to join a riding club - all riding clubs welcome non-riding members and you will soon be given a job, as riding clubs are totally dependent on helpers to make events happen!
What is a BHS-affiliated riding club?
A riding club affiliated to the BHS is autonomous and runs its own affairs, whilst benefiting from the ‘umbrella’ of the main equestrian organisation in the UK. Over the years, the number of affiliating clubs has continued to grow and establish an identity together as a group which calls itself British Riding Clubs. Now, as a result of affiliation, there are more than 430 clubs and 38,000 members in British Riding Clubs.
What is Area 12?
One of the largest riding club areas in the national network with an area stretching from Devon, north to the Severn Vale, east to Chippenham, and south to the Dorset coast. There are 31 affiliated clubs offering a host of equine activities and workshops to well over 2,500 members on weekdays, at weekends, during the daytime, and the evenings. Each year they compete in a series of Area Championships and National BRC Qualifying competitions in the various disciplines, and many of their teams and individual members go on to compete with great success at the national British Riding Clubs Championships and other national championships.
Our club name is rather misleading and a motion was put to the members at the 2012 AGM to change it to something that more clearly illustrates what we are about. Changing the name of our club is relatively complicated but we do hope this will achieved at our 2013 AGM. The club is quite definitely NOT a dressage-only club and all year-round events and clinics, covering all three major disciplines, take place at a venues such as Moreton EC, Kingston Maurward EC, Linnet Farm (Rampisham), and Holbrook (Yetminster).
SWDG Teams and individual members have always been successful at Area Championships and at national level, winning or being placed in the National Riding Club Championships
The new millennium saw further successes at this level and also internationally: SWDG won the Dressage to Music Championship, the Senior Show Jumping Championship, and went to Olympia with its Quadrille, and to Ireland where the Senior show jumping team beat riding club teams from the home countries and abroad. In 2006 further successes have followed at national level with a Junior Team winning and being well placed at the BRC Championships at Lincoln, including a member becoming Junior Rider of the Year, and Senior members qualifying as teams and individuals at all the National Championships where again they either won or were well placed.
Today our club continues to attract new members, mainly through the excellence of its instruction, the variety of programmed events, and the numerous riding and non-riding activities aimed at all levels of rider and horse. Leisure riders and weekend riders are as welcome, as are those pursuing a career with horses, and the club also welcomes spectators at its clinics and events, with members participating as helpers as well as competitors. Instruction and competitions are offered on both weekdays and at weekends, and in the evenings during the summer months. The two main competitions of the year are the Dressage on Grass held at the end of February, at Aldon and the ODE, when competitors travel from all over the West Country to participate.
During the year we run competitions within the club where points can be scored towards the annual awards that the club makes to successful horses and riders. These trophies are presented at the AGM in November.
This is a friendly club offering members the opportunity to enjoy and educate their horse and to improve their riding and members have the chance to meet nice people in lovely surroundings!
What is a riding club?
It’s a club catering for riders and horses of all abilities and experience, so whatever your aims or aspirations your riding club can provide the opportunities you are looking for. Amongst other things you will find ready access to experienced and skilled local instructors, and national trainers, at highly competitive rates, as well as a warm welcome from a new group of friends and acquaintances with interests in common.
Riding clubs also have access to a national network of training and development opportunities provided by British Riding Clubs. Membership of an affiliated club ensures availability of insurance, discounts, and other benefits - so why not join? You don’t have to own a horse, or even be a rider, to join a riding club - all riding clubs welcome non-riding members and you will soon be given a job, as riding clubs are totally dependent on helpers to make events happen!
What is a BHS-affiliated riding club?
A riding club affiliated to the BHS is autonomous and runs its own affairs, whilst benefiting from the ‘umbrella’ of the main equestrian organisation in the UK. Over the years, the number of affiliating clubs has continued to grow and establish an identity together as a group which calls itself British Riding Clubs. Now, as a result of affiliation, there are more than 430 clubs and 38,000 members in British Riding Clubs.
What is Area 12?
One of the largest riding club areas in the national network with an area stretching from Devon, north to the Severn Vale, east to Chippenham, and south to the Dorset coast. There are 31 affiliated clubs offering a host of equine activities and workshops to well over 2,500 members on weekdays, at weekends, during the daytime, and the evenings. Each year they compete in a series of Area Championships and National BRC Qualifying competitions in the various disciplines, and many of their teams and individual members go on to compete with great success at the national British Riding Clubs Championships and other national championships.
