The BIG Interview ...

... with Cecilia Gladwyn

The doyenne of organisation forgoes retirement to set up grass roots

dressage league as she continues her decades long support of the sport

By Kirsten Binnie

FORMER BD Regional Development Officer, British Horse Society treasurer, Pony Club mum, accountant and riding club stalwart are just some of the hats Cecilia Gladwyn has worn in many years behind the scenes working to help promote equestrianism, and in particular dressage, in the North-east and throughout Scotland.

Now 77, and supposedly enjoying retirement, her greatest achievement, she would probably say, is ‘producing’ daughter Victoria who is now a trainer, judge and rider of her own Grand Prix horse Sonny (Sonnersted) who was also successful at BE Novice and BS Newcomers.

Despite initially being reluctant to see her daughter carve out a career in horses, and insisting she work in a ‘normal’ job first, Cecilia is now proud of her “clever, kind” daughter and her achievements in the dressage world.

So, it is a natural progression that true retirement has been put on the backburner as she organises another of her popular charity dressage shows next month on April 25th and launches an unaffiliated dressage league at Loanhead Equestrian Centre, Belhelvie, in May to run throughout the summer months.

Freely admitting that she had no involvement with horses until Victoria was bitten by the equine bug, as a housewife when her daughter was first born, her only connection with horses of any kind was the “clothes horse in the house” she says, and not one of the four-legged variety.

But giving up her job at Wood Group when she became a mum soon led to boredom and after a stint back at the company offices she began to realise that she could help out on the ground at Pony Club events and on committees as she ferried a young Victoria to events with various pomies, including the black 13.2hh mare Black Beauty who started off Victoria's dressage journey to reach Elementary.

This was followed by her Quarter Horse Charger and then Houdini who went Advanced Medium. Her first PSG horse was Granite, so Cecilia was kept busy at the shows.

“I was just a mum, but I became involved in East Aberdeenshire Pony Club and I was on the committee as secretary and treasurer, I was the treasurer for the BHS regional committee, I worked with NERC (North East Riding Club) and then set up Ythan Riding Club.

“That came about through Pam and Geoff Marsden running Ladymire as an equestrian centre – they wanted to run competitions, but they couldn’t set up a club as they were the proprietors, so I said a way round this was to set up an affiliated riding club with a committee, then run the competitions through that.

Cecilia adds: “I had asked Pam Ritchie to be the chair as she was at the local newspaper The Ellon Times then, but she suggested her late husband Doug would be good to have a chairman, so that’s what happened.

“Clare Molyneux was our BHS rep and Bob Davidson got involved with course building and we had a committee. Originally Ythan was an affiliated club before the members voted to go unaffilated.”

Despite all of these equestrian commitments and driving Victoria to training and shows, Cecilia had also run CWG Accounting from home after a return to Wood Group, which was then cut sort by a car accident, and worked for estate agents Bruce and Partners. She then decided the time was right to get more involved in dressage as Victoria was doing Young Horse classes with Hari Houdini.

“When Victoria was doing the Young Horse classes at Gleneagles, which in those days was sponsored by Shell, the British Dressage Supporters’ Club had a stand there but we only had four affiliated dressage competitions in Scotland.

“I went to the stand and said we only have these four competitions in Scotland, we need to do more and they said to me ‘well go and do something about it then!’ so that was like a red rag to a bull,” says Cecilia.

“So, I organised dressage at Keithall and we were sponsored by Coopers and Deloitte which later became Pricewaterhousecoopers. It ran from 1995 to 2002 and survived them withdrawing their sponsorship and a move from Keithall

Victoria and Sonny.

to Ridinghill. “I was organising a lot with BD and people like Nigel Mercer were all so supportive – they really wanted people to have dressage in Scotland. I started the Scottish Dressage Supporters’ Group and ran the Scottish Championships at Devon Leisure. The supporters’ group had 212 members to start with and by the time it was being wound up there were over 800.

“It was my friend and dressage judge Jackie Scoular who told me about the job for BD Regional Development Officer in Scotland, I applied and my so-called local interview was in Manchester!

“It was with the then chief executive David Holmes and Linda Whetstone. I was phoned and told I had the job as long as I had two references within an hour, so as I was on the BHS regional committee, I got Annella Cowan and Marjorie Norrie to give me my references and I got the job.”

Within a few years, along with other regional development officers in England and Wales, these representatives were not part-time anymore – most of them were working 50 hours a week and BD agreed to make them all full-time officers representing the organisation.

“I was passionate about dressage and about Scotland and I said them, I’m not a Scottish nationalist but someone has to take control and promote Scotland to ensure that dressage is available to everyone,” she says.

“The way the BD job worked you had to be responsible for budgets, so it had to be someone with accountancy. I was responsible for getting a programme set up for BD, we went to the Pony Club Championships, I was at Scone prior to Blair Horse Trials with my BD hat on, we got competitions up and running and with the other RDOs we went down to Stoneleigh regularly for meetings.”

Later, when Cecilia set up the dressage supporters’ group in Scotland, she also decided to organise a charity dressage to raise funds for Roxburghe House in Aberdeen.

Chosen because it receives no NHS funding and everyone in the area knows someone who has been treated there, the charity dressage events have raised £9,000 over the years.

"This year our charity show is in April, we have raffles and prizes and then the unaffiliated CWG league starts in May.

"Victoria teaches some flat training days at Loanhead so I asked Shona about doing a league. We've got sponsors for all the levels and Loanhead have organiused prizes for BTO too."

Always supportive of her daugher, Cecilia has seen Victoria train to gain her BHSAI, her UKCC Level 2 and become a List 5 dressage judge. They have a number of horses at home, from Sonny who competes and still trains regularly with Charlie Hutton - clinics Cecilia organises - to a youngster and a few retired ex-competition horses.

Victoria is busy with a wide range of clients "they are all ages, standards and disciplines, eventers, dressage riders and pleasure riders. I still teach at Pony Club as I enjoy putting back into what I got so much out of as a youngster," she says.

And while Victoria teaches, trains and works part-time on a farm to finance her horses, Cecilia is still organising events in between trips abroad with friends and her mascot McMonkey and arranging ladies' lunches.

Although no longer dealing with the politics or the relationship issues invoved in clubs and governing bodies, Cecilia recognises that equestrianism has changed - some of it for the better and others parts for, she feels, for the worse.

"The rules and regulations have changed - but then people have changed. I felt when we first started people supported each other more but it does depend on how you look at things. Prelim then was the Intro class now - I'm not saying that is wrong but I wonder if it should be in BD as it takes away from the pony clubs and riding clubs.

"For example, has the increased growth in BD membership been to the detriment of, say, Gordon Dressage Group? BD has reached out to more grass roots levels and covers a multitide of levels now.

"There are more opportunities for young riders for squadding days, but it is so expensive now, so are we in danger of becoming an exclusive sport again?

"There is not a lot of s;ponsorship these days and people are always on Facebook with their gripes. Social media has made it easier for people to vent, we all have bad days, but I think people forget that judges are human," she adds.

"But Scotland has benefitted, there is no doubt about it. One of the difficulties we had was UK Sport didn't apply to Scotland - there was a UK system and a Scottish system, we had different needs and different governments to work with."

Cecilia also credits Victoria for her support over the years. "I couldn't have done what I've done without her - it was all down to Victoria, it's all the child's fault! But she is the most amazing person and I could not have committed to dressage without having her help and also Rod at home looking after things there too."

Cecilia at home.