The Diamond Centre for Disabled Riders was one of the founder members of the Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA) and was the first purpose built centre for disables riders. The Centre was formally opened in 1974 by HRH The Princess Royal, who has maintained her interest in Diamond and has visited us several times.

Since 1974 The Diamond Centre has expanded steadily and has helped over 7,000 disabled people to ride. It has evolved from the original purpose-built arena with stable block and offices, into a well-equipped centre with many additional facilities. We have stabling for 30 horses and ponies and land that we own for grazing. A full size outdoor arena has been added to the two original indoor arenas. A lecture room and accommodation for students have been built to further improve our facilities and increase training opportunities.

The Diamond Centre has an excellent record of training riders in dressage and many riders have achieved successes in National and, in a few cases, International competitions. We have qualified at the RDA Regional Dressage Championships every year since 1980 to take riders forward to the National Championships. In recent years we have regularly taken 7-14 riders to the RDA National Championships. Several of our riders have in the past been selected to ride in International Competitions.

In the 2008 Beijing Paralympics Laurentia Tan, who has ridden at The Diamond Centre since she was six years old, represented her native country Singapore and won two bronze medals in the Dressage events. A fantastic achievement for Laurentia and for Diamond. Laurentia was also successful in the London 2012 Paralympics, competing at Greenwich in September 2012 and improved her performance, attaining a silver and bronze medal.

We are very proud that in 2011 one of our volunteers was awarded the RDA President’s Award. It is awarded by Her Royal Highness, The Princess Royal to a limited number of people each year who have made an outstanding contribution to the work of RDA.