Adrian Sinclair

The National Equestrian Awards 2018, formerly the horsescotland Annual Awards, recognise and reward the hard work of Scotland’s equestrian coaches, volunteers, performers, clubs, equine breeders, the equestrian business community, employees, photographers and those that have made outstanding contributions to the equestrian community in Scotland.

This year we received a record number of nominations showing the hard work and dedication made across the entire Scottish equestrian community. 

After needing to re-schedule the event due to the extreme weather recently, the hugely deserving award winners were finally announced at the sparkling ceremony held at the Airth Castle & Spa on Wednesday 21st March. Despite it being a ‘school night’ the turnout was fantastic and the winners announced on the night were:

• Youth Coach of the Year – Duncan McFadyen
• Youth Volunteer of the Year – Dawn Edward
• Youth Performer of the Year – Fraser Reed
• Equestrian Business of the Year – Sinclair Photography
• Equestrian Photo of the Year – Sinclair Photography
• Employee of the Year – Lynne Cree
• Equine Breeder of the Year – Ronnie Black
• Owner of the Year – Deborah Thomson and Belinda McClung
• Club of the Year – Scottish Tetrathlon
• Volunteer of the Year – Audrey Smart
• Young Peoples Coach of the Year – Olivia Wilmot
• Participation Coach of the Year – Liz Love
• Performance Coach of the Year – Hannah Eccles
• Writer of the Year – Helene Mauchlen
• Performer of the Year – Derek Fox
• Lifetime Achievement  - The Hon Heather Galbraith MBE
• Special Recognition – Muriel Colquhoun MBE

We were delighted that the Royal Highland Agricultural Society of Scotland (RHASS) were our title sponsors for the event. This year they are celebrating the ‘Year of the Youth’, leading to the addition of three new awards categories being included, specifically for Under 21s. Thank you very much for all your support for this event.

Endurance cyclist, Mark Beaumont was our keynote speaker for the evening.  He inspired the audience with his stories from both his round the world cycles.  18,000 miles in 80 days is an amazing feat and we even had some guest’s highlight that the main reason they were in attendance was to hear Mark. There were definitely messages in his presentation that many will remember for years to come.

Patrick Print OBE FBHS, Chair of horsescotland, summarised the awards ceremony when saying: “The National Equestrian Awards were a fantastic opportunity for the equestrian community to come together and celebrate Scotland’s substantial equestrian success over the last 12 months. I would like to thank everyone who came along and made it a real night to remember, everyone who nominated someone, congratulate all those that were nominated and offer my sincere thanks to our event sponsors RHASS and our principal partner sportscotland – the national agency for sport, Mark Beaumont BEM for a fantastic speech, as well as Adrian Sinclair, for stepping up at the last minute to be more than a guest and nominee, but to take the photos of our winners for us.”

All photos are available on the horsescotland Facebook page.