Updated Points League standings 5/9/2024
With only one event to go, it’s all to compete for. All the details in this post
Strathallan SCDA Club Event
28th – 29th September 2024
To all Members, Stewards and Supporters
We are very excited to have a new event for 2024 this year at Strathallan Estate…
As you all know, we cannot run Carriage Driving events without the help and support from our Stewards! We are looking for Stewards for both the Saturday and Sunday to assist with Dressage, Cones, Marathon and the Gateway Classes.
If you are interested in volunteering as a Steward at Strathallan, please reach out to the Event Stewards Convenor, Cathy Duff, at cm.duff@btinternet.com.
No experience is required if you haven’t had a go before and our Lead Stewards will be more than happy to show you the ropes! Likewise if you are a usually a Competitor at SCDA events but aren’t competing at Strathallan, please do try to come along and help out on the other side of the rope.
We look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible.
For all competitors, please remember entries close on Monday 16th September! Entry form, schedule and all the details on the events page.
Kind regards
Callum Dougan
SCDA Stewards Liaison
Brechin National / Club Event 31st Aug & 1st Sep
Final results now posted. Congratulations to Ian Bertram, our overall champion, to reserve champion Louise Kaiholm and all the individual class winners. As always, thanks to our judges Joyce and Carol, our TD Katy, writers, helpers, stewards and course builders without whom these events would not take place. Special mention to Sanchia May who organized the event and did an incredible amount of work to make it happen and run so successfully.
We’re off next to Strathallan which is near Auchterarder – it’s a stunning venue and we’re looking forward to what will be our last outdoor event of the season. If you haven’t already sent your entry in, please do so as soon as possible. It makes such a difference to our organizers to have the number of competitors well in advance. See the events page for more details and the schedule.
Introducing SCDA Stewards’ Liaison – Callum Dougan
I’m delighted to announce that Callum Dougan has volunteered to take on the role of Stewards Liaison for the SCDA.
This is a new role for the club, reflecting the increasing focus we want to bring to our wonderful stewards who enable us to enjoy our events throughout the season. Callum’s primary mission will be in ensuring that our club can provide individual Event Organisers and Stewards’ Convenors with help in finding and looking after their stewards, as well as working more broadly on what we can do to provide more information, communication, training – and fun! – for our volunteers.
Callum has great experience in being a Stewards’ Convenor in his own right, and he is passionate about our sport. We are very excited to have him bring his creativity and enthusiasm to this role and are confident that everyone involved in our events will benefit from his contribution.
Graeme MacArthur
Chairman, Scottish Carriage Driving Association (SCDA)
GB Pod Training Clinics at The Pines, Symington, Biggar
More dates have been added to the training schedule for later this month, and also for October and November. For more details see this post, or take a look at the Training Events calendar.
Townfoot event 17th/18th August – marathon day and final results posted
Final results now posted. Just click on the link below. Well done to all our competitors. Huge thanks to Ivor our judge, Graeme and Janet our organizers, our hosts Gerald and Margo Smith. Also to Graeme and Pam for the use of their land for Section A, all the wonderful stewards and helpers (and Callum for organising them) without whom these events would not run.
We’re off to Brechin in a couple of weeks’ time – hope to see you there!
Seacliff National and Club event – 22nd/23rd June 2024
All of the weekend’s results are now available. Well done to all our winners and everyone who took part in the competition. Thanks to all the helpers and volunteers who’ve made this a wonderful event.
The late Tommy Fawcett
It is with great sadness that we share the news of the passing of another carriage driving great.
Tommy Fawcett passed away peacefully in the early hours of Monday 3rd June 2024, after many years of heart problems, including a heart attack in 1994, and a triple heart bypass seven years ago.
A beloved Dad and Grandad, Tommy was also a much-loved member of the carriage driving community, that we are all proud to be members of. We were so lucky to have him with us for so long. His knowledge, wit and kindness will be missed by all who knew him.
Tommy was an Honorary member of SCDA, and a frequent visitor to SCDA Events, including as Show Director at Hopetoun for many years. He helped the Raehills team to establish that event and gave valuable advice in his lovely, quiet but respected manner. He was often seen in his judging role too. Tommy was a true gentleman and a great ambassador for the sport. He will be very sadly missed and we offer our sincere condolences to his widow, Elaine, his children Adam, Robert and Sarah, and grandson Sam (also an SCDA member) and Tommy’s other five grandchildren, all of whom he enjoyed being with so much. A true family man, now re-united with his first wife, Barbara.
Hopetoun National and SCDA Club Event 24th-26th May 2024
Hopetoun 2024 – the final results are in. Thanks to all the competitors who participated, our judges, stewards and helpers who did a fantastic job in spite of the weather conditions. We’re grateful to the A-team, Morag our event organizer, our sponsors and supporters without whom this event would not happen. Wishing everyone a safe journey home and onto Seacliff in a couple of weeks’ time.
Click below for the final results – just one note, the Gateway competition had to be curtailed because of the weather conditions, so their results appear under the “Dressage + Cones” category.
Cardross Event 11th-12th May 2024
Congratulations to Ian Bertram, our 2024 Cardross Event champion and Joyce Simpson, our reserve champion.
Thanks to Sanchia, Patsy and all the team who put in so much hard work to create a lovely event in a stunningly beautiful estate. Thanks also to Carol Lumsden our judge, Yvonne Anderson our course designer, and all the volunteers who came along to help out over the two days of the event.
We’re all off to Hopetoun in a couple of weeks’ time. Hope to see you there.
In the meantime, you can find all the weekend’s results by clicking on the following link:
Training Dates
The training dates for Summer 2024 have been updated. Please see the training events page. For all bookings, please email training@scda.co.uk
Hopetoun website now live!!
It’s great to be able to announce that the Hopetoun event has its very own website. There’s lot of information about the event, carriage driving in general, how you can get involved, links to enter the event and much more. Take a look now at hopetoun.scda.co.uk. Many thanks to Callum Dougan for his work in designing and building the website!
Dunbog Event 21st April – Cancelled
Message from the organizers at Dunbog:
A further assessment has been made of the Dunbog ground conditions, the weather forecasts and the views of the Oakden family. It is quite clear we have to cancel the event for this year due to flooded ground.
Refunds of entry money will be made in due course, we are sorry for the disappointment but this is completely outwith anyone’s control
Progression from Novice to Open
Quick reminder that the rules for 2024 can be found in this post. You can also find a link to this on the reference page.
Strathallan event 28th/29th September 2024
Details of this new event are now on the website events page, where you can download the schedule, along with schedules for all of this season’s other events.
Reminder about entry closing dates…
Please note that the SCDA committee has asked event organisers to take a firm approach to closing dates this year to try to eradicate the last-minute culture we have seen becoming an increasing issue.
We thank you for making sure that you enter all events this season before the closing date. To avoid disappointment, please enter as soon as you are able – one event this year has already been oversubscribed and entries were turned away before the closing date!
Our Points League is kindly sponsored by Gee Gee Rugwash. Please support the businesses who support our sport. Ian is happy to collect rugs at each event and return them to you at the following one.
We now have an Instagram account!! (thanks to Sanchia). We’d love pictures or video clips of you and your turnouts – here’s the link…
https://www.instagram.com/scottish_carriage_driving_scda/
AGM
Thanks to everyone who turned out to our Helpers’ Lunch and AGM. Our guest speaker Roly Owers, Chief Executive of World Horse Welfare, gave a fascinating talk covering a wide range of topics, but with focus on Social Licencing and the public perception of horse sports in general. We also heard from Lucy Barclay-Carr from HorseScotland (SCDA is now a member of HorseScotland), and met Chairman John Burns. We’re looking forward to working closely with HorseScotland and we’ll be highlighting some of the exciting work being undertaken by them, by World Horse Welfare and their partners.
In the meantime, for more information about Roly, please see this link to his bio on the WHW site: https://www.worldhorsewelfare.org/about-us/our-people/staff
Chairman Graeme MacArthur, in his review of 2023, highlighted the “what3words” he would use to summarize last year: “Successful”, “Transitional” and “Encouraging”. He gave an upbeat assessment of the 2023 season and we’re looking forward to another exciting and successful season in 2024. He thanked Eileen for producing the Omnibus and OPG for its support in designing and producing it. (he also pointed out that the what3words location success.transition.encourage is just off the coast of Hawaii – but that doesn’t mean that next year’s AGM will be held there!!!)
One point that Graeme mentioned in respect of the coming events season: most events this year will have a zero-tolerance policy towards late entries. Late entries cause nightmares for organizers and officials – so please respect the closing dates for entries. They are shown on the events page, in the Omnibus, and reminders will be posted on Facebook.
On that subject, note that the closing date for the Strathorn event (which will be held on 2nd March 2024) is Monday 19th Feb.
The minutes of the AGM will be published shortly and will be uploaded to the reference page.
SCDA Membership 2024
The updated membership page is now available. It contains all the details about the benefits of SCDA membership, the 2024 membership fees and a link to the online form or downloadable application form. Please use the menu option above or click on this link.
Website updates
We draw your attention to this post (Disclaimer of Liability), you can find it listed in the Recent Posts and also in the main reference section.
SCDA Welfare Liaison
Equestrian sport (in all its various forms) is coming under ever-increasing scrutiny from the public and, most notably, animal rights protestors. The SCDA Directors have therefore created a specific Welfare Liaison role on the Committee, to inform and assist our members on the emerging concerns and actions that may be required from this complex area of Equine Welfare.
I am delighted to inform you that Sanchia May has volunteered to take up this role as part of her (many!) existing activities on the SCDA Committee. Please join me in thanking Sanchia for taking on this important new role.
Graeme MacArthur
SCDA Chairman
Website updates
SCDA has adopted the British Equestrian Safeguarding Policy. This policy is available on the website under the “Other Pages” menu option, on the reference page and also can accessed via this link. It is important that all members of SCDA read, understand and implement the key principles of safeguarding as set out in the BEF policy and should apply that policy itself as far as they can.
News archive
Previous stories have now been archived, but are still available online. Click the link here and you’ll be able to read news from the past couple of years.