Reggie and Sheila, a superstar pairing

When Riding for the Disabled groups from all over the UK arrive at Hartpury for the annual National Championships, there’s always a wonderful sense of camaraderie and teamwork between the different centres. But there’s one thing that really sets this competition apart from other equestrian events: we share our horses.

Not every participant is able to bring their usual horse to the Championships. There can be all sorts of reasons – perhaps a horse doesn’t travel well, is injured, or simply can’t make the journey. So RDA groups help each other out, loaning horses to riders from other centres and sometimes creating new partnerships that have barely met before entering the competition arena!

One of the Park Lane ponies we loaned out this year was our lovely Reggie.

Sheila, from Thornton Rose RDA, a small centre around eight miles south of Edinburgh, explains how she came to compete with him at this year’s National Championships:

Doug Smith, a longstanding RDA volunteer, put me in touch with Natalie from Park Lane Stables as he knew I would need a horse to compete with because mine was unable to travel from Scotland. Natalie said she knew exactly the horse for me. I’d had a riding accident a few months earlier and was still quite nervous, so I really needed a steady, calm horse.

When I met Reggie, we had a short warm-up on the Friday. It was too hot to do much more, so we made sure we were both hydrated and then headed off for our dressage test. I was still a little nervous as we’d only just met – but I needn’t have worried.

Reggie was absolutely perfect and didn’t put a hoof wrong. He took everything in his stride - nothing fazed him. He was so calm and gave me huge confidence. That meant so much to me this year as I’m only just finding my happy place in the saddle again after my accident. There were lots of happy tears in the end!

He also showed his funny side. After the final salute to the judge, he heard Natalie and David cheering and turned to look at them as if to say, ‘Yeah, I nailed it.’

Now, I don’t know if Reggie was telepathically in tune with the judge, but we got first place, became class champions and won the cup for our class. Then, incredibly, we were awarded the Carl Hester Cup for achieving the highest dressage score of the entire weekend.

I’m already counting down to next year’s Nationals and hope I can partner with Reggie again.

For a partnership that had only just met, we think that’s pretty special.

Natalie says: “I’m always so proud of the teamwork on show at the National Championships, and the way RDA groups support each other is a huge part of what makes the event so special. But I’m exceptionally proud of Sheila and Reggie. What a fantastic partnership and an incredible achievement!”

Read more about the 2026 RDA National Championships on our news site and find out what the Park Lane team got up to.