Registered Name: Bantiglass Lad

Height: 16 hands

Breed: Clydesdale X

Age: 8 years old

Activities: Riding, Vaulting,

Owner: Calon RDA, he was bought using a Wooden Spoon grant.

Horse Bio:

Calon bought Ruaridh (pronounced Roo-ar-ree) in December 2019 when we were looking for a larger vaulting horse as Sheri was semi-retiring from vaulting, and only taking small children so that we needed a bigger one for our older children and adult vaulters. 

Ruaridh was named and owned by Mid Lothian RDA and they wanted to sell him to another RDA group as he was so suited to the work, but just a little on the big side for them. He went to Jenny Legate for a few weeks to start work lunging and by the time we went to see him at Jenny’s he was working very well on the lunge and showing great potential as a vaulting horse. We keep in touch with Jenny, and Jacqui from Midlothian RDA who like to hear how Ruaridh is getting on, and we are very grateful to them for helping our group when we needed a larger horse.

Ruaridh was bought using a Wooden Spoon Grant – the children’s charity of rugby – who help fund RDA groups to buy larger horses to allow heavier children to participate and achieve within RDA. Our huge thanks go to Wooden Spoon, Midlothian RDA and Jenny Legate for helping us to buy this super horse who will give so much enjoyment to our participants and allow many more to vault and ride with us.

Ruaridh has taken to vaulting like a duck to water and has been a joy to work with whilst we trained him up for RDA vaulting. He’s quite happy to walk around the lunge circle whilst vaulters do anything on his back, and his riding is also coming on in leaps and bounds. He was passed off for RDA vaulting and made his debut in early March at the N Wales Regional vaulting weekend at CSRC.

Ruaridh is a lovely mixture of cheeky and playful, and is a gentle giant when being groomed and stands still for ages. He loves his food and has much better concentration after having something to eat (very like some of our Calon volunteers…).

He’s quick to learn and has great paces and balance for his age. He is very wide in build, which is great for vaulters learning to stand for the first time- and his width will help to stretch his vaulters and riders! We are currently fundraising to have a custom made saddle for him, as he has outgrown the width of his old saddle and we are borrowing one in the meantime. If you would like to help us fundraise for his new saddle then please get in touch with us.

Ruaridh loves food and spending time in the field, especially with Ringo and Cyrus who will play with him for hours.

Ruaridh enjoys his work and being around his horsey friends- his  dislikes include having sunblock put on his pink muzzle or leaving a haynet unfinished! We look forward to going to Hartpury with Ruaridh and know he will allow so many participants the chance to compete at the RDA national championships, for both riding and vaulting.