About Ride Yorkshire 

Ride Yorkshire was set up in 2010 after Janet Cochrane and John Yeomans (then the Chair of Visit York) met out riding in the North York Moors and hatched a plan to get more people enjoying the Yorkshire landscapes from horseback.  
 
Since then we've developed and gone from strength to strength: hundreds of people each year enjoy our guided rides and self-guided rides, as well as finding out about places to stay with their horse in beautiful Yorkshire or to learn to ride or do trail-rides from.  
 
We are a not-for-profit organisation, and our aim is to get people enjoying the Yorkshire countryside on horseback.  
 
Janet & Scout at York Minster during 2020 lockdown
 
Janet worked in the travel industry for many years, as tour leader and organiser, for an activity holiday company, and then as a university lecturer. She puts her experience to good use in running Ride Yorkshire while still working occasionally as a tourism consultant and as Executive Secretary of the North York Moors Association. You’ll meet her leading guided rides in the Wolds, elsewhere in the East Riding or the Howardian Hills on Scout or Toby, or running charity rides.  
The video shows her riding through York when the 2020 Covid lockdown had eased slightly.  
 
"I love finding and exploring the routes that we help others to enjoy through our pleasure rides, guided rides and self-guided rides. For me, being out in the countryside on a good horse is what riding is really all about!’’ 
 
Kate and Charlie Mo
 
Kate is a great sounding-board and source of advice and help, while working full-time as a Professor in Events, Tourism & Hospitality at Leeds Beckett University. Her research focuses on gender issues in sport and interspecies encounters. A recent book is entitled 'Human-animal Relationships in Equestrian Sport and Leisure’. Kate's horse is Charlie Mo, who she’s owned since 2004.  
 
‘I’m particularly interested in the relationship between horse and rider. There’s no other sport where you have a bond with another living creature with a mind of its own – they’re willing but unpredictable. It’s challenging but so rewarding!' 
 
Bill and Amigo taking a break
 
Bill knows the North York Moors National Park like the back of his hand: he can advise on every boggy patch and wonky gate in the area! He’s provided many of our self-guided rides and produced a book on riding in the North York Moors. He leads rides for us in the Moors and Howardian Hills on his Criollo horse Amigo and with his partner Mel on Paddy Skye. Bill is Chair of the Ryedale Bridleways Group and on the Local Access Forum for the North York Moors, and campaigns tirelessly for improved equestrian access to the National Park and surrounding areas. He often gets out with secateurs, saw and spanners to improve the routes himself.  
 
Tania on Penelope
Ride Yorkshire also depends on people who help out with leading rides, marshalling at events and in other ways, all committed to ensuring that the countryside remains open to riders just as it has been for hundreds of years. 
 
Key volunteers are Mel Mellor, who co-leads rides with Bill on her Connemara Paddy Skye; and Tania O'Connell, who is a vital source of support with reassuring more nervous riders, and co-leading rides with Janet.  
 
John was a vital source of legal advice and other support in our early days but has since retired and moved on to pastures new,. 
 
Ride Yorkshire’s full title is the ‘Ride Yorkshire Foundation’. It is a not-for-profit organisation established as a Company Limited by Guarantee, Certificate of Incorporation no. 7476708. 
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