RAC Saddle Club

Welcome to RAC Saddle Club

RAC Saddle Club (RACSC) is a registered charity providing physical fitness through equitation for armed forces and the community and improving the quality of life of people with disabilities. RACSC is a British Horse Society (BHS) approved training, riding, assessment centre, livery yard & British Eventing venue, based in Bovington, Dorset.

The club was originally formed as a facility for Royal Armoured Corps (RAC) service personnel and their dependants and has now widened to provide livery, tuition & riding to the local community. The club is managed by Stephanie Buchanan, a well-known British Event organiser, pony club examiner & coach.

The Saddle Club is proud to work with other charities including Riding for the Disabled, #Willdoes, Forces Children’s Trust, Help for Heroes and Warrior Equine. We support local military units, military families, veterans, key workers, and civilians providing them with equine therapy for mental and physical rehabilitation. We have increasingly found demand exists for equivalent provision in a civilian context, this has been accelerated by the COVID -19 pandemic, particularly for young people and key workers and the NHS. We provide “alternative provision” services for our local primary, middle and senior school community and work with referrals from Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAHMS) for equine assisted therapy, alongside the Changing Lives Through Horses the British Horse Society.

We have a full year of competitions and clinics with several camps run by us or by local pony clubs. During the winter months we have arena show jumping and arena xc competitions and from April to October our cross-country course is open, and we have two British Eventing weekends in April and September with our own one-day event in May and hunter trial in September. From April to October the cross-country course is open on several dates for cross-country schooling where we can have up to 70 riders going through in one day.