Shropshire riding centre marks its 40th year in the saddle - with pictures
a Shropshire equestrian centre where thousands of people have taken riding lessons has been celebrating its 40th anniversary.
Around 50 riding teachers, volunteers and wellwishers attended the ruby reunion at Berriewood Farm which has hosted show jumping competitions and horse trials over the decades.
Owners Penny and Peter Cowdy were joined by their team to mark 40 years since it became a British Horse Society Riding Centre.
The celebration included a bring and share lunch and slide show featuring hundreds of images of favourite ponies and riding pupils in a trot down memory lane at the premises, in Condover, near Shrewsbury.
Mrs Cowdy, 64, explained that Berriewood Farm had belonged to the family of her mother Sybil Locke since the 1800s.
"It was the family farm and eventually I came home and started giving riding lessons to children and getting involved in Riding for the Disabled. Riding is a great therapeutic, calming activity for those with disabilities.
"In the 1980s some of our girls did the YTS (Youth Training Service) and we still employ two of them after all these years.
"We host annual horse trials in June which have run since 1982, apart from a little break in the middle. We hire out the arenas for dressage, show jumping and summer clubs.
"The Princess Royal came to open our Rea Valley Cabin in 1997," Mrs Cowdy added.
She said the business has seen many changes over the decades and part of the site is now a solar panel farm.
"In the 1990s we were giving riding lessons to between 300 and 400 customers per week. These days its 30 to 50 per week. Life and society have changed and another thing was that demography of children in this region went down, although its coming back up.
"Since the 1990s children's interests and trends have changed with the arrival of computers and other pursuits.
"Then there was the credit crunch in the mid noughties which didn't affect us immediately, but we felt the effects a couple of years later. We've had highs and lows over the years, but we managed to adapt to keep it going," she added.
Mrs Cowdy said she and her husband Peter, 65, hope to hand the operation over to their daughters Cathy, 34, Lottie, 31, and Louise, 27, in the future.
Berriewood Farm was used as an airfield during the Second World War in the 1940s.
