The Cotswold Group

The Cotswold group is a part of Endurance GB - the National body for endurance riding in England and Wales. If you are a member of EGB and live in Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire or Gloucestershire, you will automatically have been assigned to the Cotswold group unless you elected to join another Group.  If you are not a member of EGB but live in our area and are interested in finding out more about endurance riding, then why not come and join us on some of our social and training rides, and find out more about what fun it is to “do endurance”.

Cotswold group profile

The Cotswold group is one of the newer of the EGB groups with a relatively small membership.  Whilst we have a number of members with international/FEI interests and advanced riders regularly doing ERs, by far the majority of our members enjoy shorter graded rides, together with social and pleasure rides. We are particularly keen to encourage local people to consider taking up endurance riding, and our rides calendar reflects this bias. Our first training day is Feb 18^th at Woolstone Farm near Uffington, followed by a social ride at Hazleton on 18^th March.

Cotswold ride calendar

The ride calendar for the year includes a number of training and social rides within the region, several of which are candidates for upgrading to competitive rides in the future.  The Group organises 3 rides in the national EGB schedule – Tresham, Badminton and Chedworth. In addition to these rides, the Group also helps organise other competitive rides within, or adjacent to, the area, including the Ridgeway Ride and Cranham (which for historic reasons is designated as an Offa’s Dyke Group ride).  Cotswold members are also particularly active at the major ride in the area - Cirencester Park (organised by Heart of England group, again for historic reasons). Ideas for new rides are always welcome - as is assistance at current rides!

Cotswold Newsletter subscribers

You can participate more fully in Cotswold Group activities by becoming a Cotswold Newsletter subscriber. For a small contribution- currently £5 – you get quarterly newsletters keeping you up to date with Cotswold Group activities, and also become eligible for Cotswold “Newsletter” trophies and mileage awards. These include awards for Novice, Intermediate and Advanced riders/horses as well as an award for the best performance by a native horse, social/pleasure rides mileage awards etc. To join the Newsletter mailing list, please download and send off a newsletter subscription form from the information/downloads section of this website.

Training days

Each year the Group organises one or more training days to introduce members to new ideas and/or to help prepare for the season. See the report on the Feb 2007 training day in the news section.  We are currently discussing the possibility of holding a mid season training day, to cover topics such as training with heart rate monitors, equipment, farriery, nutrition etc.  If you would be interested in such a training day, please complete an enquiry form (see contacts) and tell us what you would be interested in learning about.

Social events

Subject to the level of interest, the Group organises social events to encourage local members to meet each other and to develop support networks – as well, of course, to have fun evenings out! These will be added to the rides calendar as and when they are organised.

Associate Membership Scheme

The Cotswold Group of EGB would be delighted to welcome you as an Associate Member, so please do have a look at our Associate Membership Scheme Page and we hope you will find it of sufficient interest to persuade you to join us.