Barguse Riding Centre is owned and run by Lisa and Alistair Todd who have many years, experience in caring for, riding and training horses.
We love seeing children and adults fulfil their potential and enjoy spending time with the horses and being taught equestrian skills in a sympathetic and fun way. That’s why our motto is “Coaching is our passion”
This is why we were the first riding school in Cornwall to have achieved our Clubmark accreditation and one of only 40 equestrian establishments in the UK to have been awarded this status.
We aim not only to teach riding skills, but also stable management, handling and general care of the horse.
Our Children’s Saturday Club is extremely popular as well as our Take Back the Rein lessons for adults returning back to riding!
We have lots of exciting ideas to make riding appealing and fun to children and adults alike, as well as demonstrating the benefits to mental and physical health that spending time with horses can bring.
Our aim is to help all riders along their journey regardless of whether your long-term ambition is to compete or become a horse owner or you just wish to improve your skill sets and enjoy the company of other like-minded people.
We also work with schools and other organisations to deliver tailored sessions for children and vulnerable adults who have sensory processing disorders, are on the autistic spectrum and have physical and learning difficulties. As an Accessibility Mark centre; we run sessions for adults and children with varying disabilities, working alongside other specialists to create programs and exercises that will benefit each individual rider. For further information please check out the relevant page on our website.
A little about us!
Lisa and Alistair Todd bought Barguse Riding Centre in August 2007. It is situated near the village of Lockengate just a mile from the A30, between Bodmin and St. Austell.
Nestled in 50 acres of beautiful Cornish countryside with fantastic facilities, it is home to 28 horses and ponies. Alistair and Lisa’s aim is to expand the business by adding to and improving the existing facilities, so that it provides a fantastic venue for shows, events and lessons that the local community can utilise.
Our regular advanced riders can take advantage of being able to hack up to Helman Tor in the summer months whilst our popular lead rein hacks are always a must when the weather allows! We are 20 minutes away from some of the finest beaches in the UK where there is great surfing, magnificent walking and just 10 minutes from the world-famous Eden Project, making us a popular destination for holiday makers who wish to brush up on their riding skills whilst on vacation. (Please note we are not a trekking centre and only offer hacking to our regular riders)
We operate year-round and are fortunate to have a large indoor riding arena equipped with full training mirrors and a further large outdoor arena.
Lisa ran a successful livery yard in Ascot, Berkshire for 15 years, training and schooling clients’ horses and providing tuition. Her formative years were spent competing in both affiliated show jumping and eventing competitions before turning her attention solely to dressage. She has trained and competed to advanced level and currently owns a Dimaggio mare that she enjoys riding when time allows!
She has been fortunate to have trained with various well-known trainers over the years but credits well-known German trainer Michael Beining. with teaching her the German scales of training and the correct use of the seat and how the riders posture influences the horse. This fired her passion for truly understanding the bio-mechanics of the horse and the rider and how it’s important to get each system to work together to create a unified, balanced way of going. There is plenty written regards the horse’s biomechanics but relatively little regards the rider and the finer details of how they need to train their body to be able to influence their horse correctly.
In past training sessions with her own horses, she noticed that most of the session was very much focused on the horse but with little regard for the rider and the positional issues which were actually creating problems with the horse’s way of going and subsequent performance. Many riders think it’s sufficient to just be able to sit on the horse and that this alone should be enough to create a dynamic, polished performance but in the same way as any top athlete must train and hone their body and skill set, a rider needs to take a similar training path if they wish to attain the optimum levels of performance.
Lisa loves to teach riders of all levels from private horse owners to the riding school juniors and feels it is never too late to attain these skills especially for the horse’s sake! As a result, we use lots of different techniques and tools, to help educate riders on why we need to have an understanding of the anatomy of the horse and biomechanics of the rider to achieve the end goal of becoming effective, safe, empathetic riders and thus creating happy horses! She is looking forward to developing the riding school and her training and welcomes any enquiries that people have.
Lisa runs the riding centre on a daily basis, however Alistair does get involved when his equine veterinary skills are required. Alistair has worked for several years in an eight-man entirely equine practice: Scott-Dunn’s Straight Mile Equine Clinic in Berkshire.
He worked with horses from all disciplines, racing, polo, dressage, show jumping, eventing, driving, pony club, pleasure horses and rescue centres.
Clients included the Queen (Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace and Hampton Court), Prince Charles, Andrew Balding, Guards Polo Club and others too numerous to mention.
He was regularly involved as a racecourse veterinary surgeon at Kempton, Sandown and Epsom as well as attending local point to points, Royal Windsor Horse Show, affiliated BE events, polo matches and pony club events. Alistair is a clinical director at Kernow Veterinary Group and can usually be seen out & about around the county and at various point to points! However, he does utilise the facilities at Barguse when necessary.
Alistair is available for all aspects of equine veterinary work including vettings, dentistry, castrations, lameness work-ups, artificial insemination (AI) etc.
We believe that the facilities are here to be used for the benefit of the local community.
Wherever possible we try to support local businesses and welcome any enquiries from local businesses.