RDA South East Region Scoops a Hat-trick of Awards at National Gala Night Hosted by Clare Balding

The annual RDA National Awards this year saw South East Region enjoying a hat-trick of wins. The Gala evening was held at the Draper’s Hall, London yesterday and hosted by broadcasting legend, Claire Balding. She presented awards to the RDA South East’s regional sponsor of a decade, Cowan Architects, who won Business Partner of the Year, Sam Smedley from Canterbury’s Cobbes Meadow who won Brilliant Idea while Katherine Swan from Bradbourne (Sevenoaks) won Most Improved Participant.

Business Partner of the Year: Cowan Architects

Clare Balding, a great supporter of the RDA, was particularly enthusiastic about the work of Cowan Architects, who are specialists in disability adaptations and inclusive design. She praised the company for “continually finding creative and new ways to help the RDA, not only in funding and attending their events but giving advice on accessibility and much more”. They are certainly worthy winners having been unstinting in their long support of our region which has given us the stability to become such a vibrant, progressive and successful operation.
The award recognises both the length of the Company’s support and the breadth. For more than a decade they have funded the regional competitions in riding and carriage driving as well as training days and speakers for conferences. Of particular note for the judges, however, was the number of new ways that they find of supporting the region from speaking on panel discussions to designing and providing participation certificates to groups who take part in the events.

Brilliant Idea: Sam Smedley, Cobbes Meadow

Sam Smedley from Bradbourne won the Good Idea category for his invention of a special set of wheelable steps to help his disabled wife, Ros, get into the carriage for her weekly carriage driving session. He noticed that she was finding it increasingly difficult to use the mounting block to get up into the carriage and used his engineering skills to develop ‘Sam’s Super Steps’ which feature shallower steps to ease manoeuvrability and a lightweight, foldable handrail for added security. Clare Balding praised his ‘resourceful ness and dedication’ but he felt he was probably too old for Dragon’s Den.

Most Improved Participant: Katherine Swan, Bradbourne

In 2012, Katherine Swan was nearly killed in a car accident just before her 18th birthday and she suffered brain damaged which left her very immobile. When Katherine first arrived at Bradbourne, she was in a wheelchair and rode for no more than ten minutes with two sidewalkers and a leader. Over the next three and half years, Katherine has been getting stronger and improving slowly, but always progressing. This year she has begun trotting, something unimaginable 3 years ago, and she rode an independent dressage test for the RDA Regional Qualifier at Hickstead scoring an impressive 64.4%. On receiving her award, Katherine gave particular thanks to her instructor, Jenna Leight, who she described as ‘truly amazing’. As an added treat, Paralympic Gold Medallist, Natasha Baker, allowed her to wear her medal from Rio.

Photography: Alex Lloyd