CROWN is a an affiliated riding club with the BRC Area 5 for riders in Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and Northants.
Voted the 2016 NAF Five Star Riding Club of the Year at the inaurgural Horse & Hound Awards, CROWN continues to go from strength to strength since our launch in 2014, attracting members from all three counties and beyond. With an ever growing annual membership, CROWN welcomes riders of all levels and abilities including non-riding social members so that nobody misses out!
We provide regular training at some of the best venues in the area with a selection of fantastic trainers from all disciplines. CROWN offers three annual camps; spring, summer and winter at the impressive Unicorn Trust Centre in Stow-on-the-Wold giving members the perfect excuse to get away for a few days with their four legged friends! Not only that, but we also hold regular socials, informative talks and opportunities to volunteer at some of the best high profile events such as Your Horse Live and Blenheim International Horse Trials.
CROWN also regularly sends out teams to the Area 5 Competitions and in 2018 alone, our riders attended six BRC Championships! Teams are always inclusive, supportive and fun placing the focus on just getting out there and enjoying yourselves, anything on top of that is a bonus. We pride ourselves on encouraging the grassroots riders to dip their toes and hooves into the competitive world, especially through our extremely popular Stressless Dressage League. This league is held annually, with three competitions dotted across the three counties culminating in the Championship Show at Dallas Burston in the Autumn. Not only that but we also run an annual Halloween Hunter Trial as well as hosting the BRC FOTH Eventer Challenge Qualifier for Area 5.
We are extremely proud of our little club and each person who is a part of it, from our members, trainers, venue owners, suppliers and supporters. CROWN is a big family and we would love to welcome you to join us!
CROWN welcomes riders of all abilities, from the beginner to the more advanced rider and also non-riding members who may not ride or may have a youngster and are unable to take part in ridden activities yet. Whatever your circumstance is, there is always something for everyone.
We truly believe that there is a place in the local equestrian community for a new forward thinking, creative, fun and professional club. At CROWN we pride ourselves on offering our members support, encouraging them to reach their personal goals and helping them in whatever way we can on their journey to success.
As a committee we really value our members. So much so, we think it is so important to recognise individual efforts, dedication and contribution towards the club throughout the year. At our AGM, these members are individually recognised and thanked with a token of our appreciation for being quite simply, brilliant!
With regular training every weekend and summer week day evenings, we have sourced the best local venues across the three counties with top local instructors who boast a wealth of experience in dressage, show jumping and cross country.
I would not be the only member who is unbelievably grateful to have a riding club that not only supports & pushes the highly achieving members of our club, but is also there for us grassroots riders, happy hackers & even those of us who are grounded! The friends I have made due to this club are now friends for life & some are closer to me than family! Everything we as individuals do, our committee and co-members are so supportive of. There's never been a moment, when I have supported CROWN competitors & spectated, where other CROWN members weren't rooting for their co-members.
We truly are a club for our members, who are all slightly mad, but are all held together by the fantastic team that make up our comittee.
For a junior member of CROWN I can’t think of a better introduction to the world of competing. For someone starting out the amount of support is immense, from help deciding which events to enter to cheering from the side lines (there is always someone cheering!!). Successes are celebrated and positives drawn from disappointments. Very nurturing.
I cannot recommend CROWN more. I am of the slightly older age bracket of rider, but never once has that mattered. All the younger committee members are so incredibly friendly and welcoming when I turn up. There is always a helping hand from another member to get me onboard and fired up, and the enthusiasm and encouragement is second to none. A Riding Club for any age, any ability and anybody - enjoy.
I was recommended to CROWN by a friend and I started following their Facebook page. I hadn't done more than hack in 25 years and didn't know if a riding club would just laugh at me trying to jump and compete with a rather wild young Connie.. Everyone seemed so supportive that I took the plunge and joined. We have attended clinics, dressage, xc, showjumping, camp you name it. We have competed and placed with CROWN teams - something I never thought I would ever do, and we even qualified for the Festival of the Horse - and the committee members were even there to pick me up when I fell off! Whether Skye is being a star or a lunatic I get the same amazing support and encouragement from other members and the incredible committee . I can't imagine being in another riding club.
So my hooman joined me up for this thing called ‘CROWN’ when I was just a baby and I’ll be honest, I was sceptical! I mean what can you teach a super horse, half unicorn like me that I don’t already know...
But actually it’s been bloomin marvellous, I’ve learned to swim like a fish, jump like a stag and point my toes whilst trotting in a circle like a ballerina (a macho one though, obvs).
And all this whilst my fan club of Crown ladies coo and swoon as I walk past! Oh and then they feed me loads of sweets!
Best decision my hooman made! GO CROWN!
CROWN are a club with a difference. They have helped my 23 years young mare and I find new purpose in our lives; being bitless can be a limiting factor where many clubs are concerned... but not CROWN! The stressless dressage series is simply ingenious and being encouraged to compete alongside other club members is so refreshing. The variety of clinics is also something to behold. Thank you CROWN for giving us every opportunity!
I joined CROWN as a first time riding club member (wrong side of 50) not really sure what I was going to get out of it but thought it was worth trying. I am so pleased I did, as I have gained so much friendship, support, and courage. Encouraged by the knowledgeable trainers and enthusiastic members I have gone from watching on the sidelines wishing I could have a go, to competing not only as an individual but also as part of a team. I can't begin to tell you how proud I am to go out and represent our club - okay we don't set the world on fire but you would never guess from the support given! It doesn't matter what you are doing or where you are going there is always someone from the club to cheer you on. The range of activities and training there really is something for everyone whatever age you are. It really was the best decision to join not just any club but CROWN Riding Club!
CROWN is the most well organised & friendly club around! An incredible number of lessons, clinics and events every month – all great fun & with amazing cakes!
Finally a club for the Riders run by riders!! A committee that fully understands what it is a rider wants to achieve with their horse and how to have fun, whilst regaining lost confidence!
CROWN has made me feel so welcome from the start. I’m not lucky enough to have my own horse and other clubs don’t have much to offer me, but the social side, learning and fun atmosphere at CROWN makes it perfect for me. CROWN offered a better, accessible club for all.
My daughters and I are always welcomed by trainers, the committee and other members alike and the standard and cost of training is excellent. I’m pleased to be part of a group of people who enjoy their horses and the company of other like minded people.
Lovely, friendly people. Fab organisation. Excited for the club’s future!
Fun, friendly, fabulously welcoming riding club, happy people, beautiful horses and amazing trainers, what more could anyone wish for in a riding club. One very satisfied junior members Mum
CROWN began as a small idea on a cold October evening in 2013, sat around a table at a local pub with a bottle of wine. Back then, we had absolutely no idea what it would later become and grow to be! January 31st 2014 marked the official launch night of CROWN, an unaffiliated riding club set up for riders in the local area who wanted more from a club than was already available out there. Bursting onto the scene, CROWN quickly established itself as a fun, forward thinking and above all, welcoming club, attracting members far and wide across Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and Northants.
In 2015, CROWN was granted provisional affiliation with the British Riding Clubs within Area 5 and gained full affiliation in 2016. This affiliation expanded the opportunities to our members, providing many benefits and enabling the club to take part in national qualifiers, championships and area team events. The club has since fielded teams in all disciplines with great success qualifying for many championships in dressage, show jumping and eventing. In 2017 our Senior 90cm team took the National title at the NAF National Horse Trials Championship as well as an individual win overall by Miranda Heynes. In 2018, riders from CROWN had a hugely successful season qualifying for every BRC Championship throughout the year. Senior member Lauren Shelley took the National Senior Individual Open Show Jumping title in both the Winter and Summer Intermediate Championships as well as being part of the winning 100cm along with her team mates Morgan Shelley, Ellen Goodwin and Zoe Young in the Riding Club Eventer Challenge at the prestigious Blenheim International Horse Trials.
In 2016, CROWN was nominated for and won the inaugural Horse & Hound Awards for the NAF Five Star Riding Club of the Year. This achievement has been the club’s most memorable to date as it was an award nominated by and voted for by our members, friends and supporters of CROWN, not to mention the wider public when it went to national votes. We were therefore absolutely delighted and extremely humbled to find that CROWN was nominated again for the award in 2017. Such a huge achievement for a relatively new club!
Our club membership continues to grow daily and with it we strive to provide more and more opportunities on and off of horseback. In 2015 CROWN was approached to provide the Arena Party for the two day Your Horse Live Show at Stoneleigh Park and has since provided this service for the next three years. It is always a great weekend where our members are able to help with the setup of each arena for each individual demonstration and they have over the years been able to rub shoulders and meet the likes of Carl Hester, Charlotte Dujardin, Valegro, Mary and Emily King, Ben Hobday, Geoff Billington, Monty Roberts, Kelly Marks and Ben Atkinson with his troop of Action Horses to name but a few! The Club has also for three years provided the arena party for the Eventer Challenge at Blenheim International Horse Trials and regularly helps out at BE and BRC events.
For a relatively new club, CROWN continues to hold its own amongst the longer standing, more established clubs. The committee are committed to maintaining the same values with which CROWN was set up upon whilst always looking to improve, grow and provide opportunities to our brilliant members. As such, CROWN is and will always be, a rather diverse, slightly crazy but wonderfully warm, welcoming and supportive club.