Ruaridh Ormiston has been carriage driving all his life, from starting with a Shetland Stallion and a Sledge before he was old enough to go to school to the present day, when he has been known to drive up to eight Highland Ponies at once.
It is a real passion here at Ormiston Highlands and Cairngorms Carriage Driving and we have been known to drive everything from Shetlands to Clydesdales. Currently we have no big “working horse”, our last was Sam the Percheron who retired at the end of 2020, but we do still drive three Shetlands and currently have six of our Highlands broken to harness. The only bigger horse we are driving just now is a Bay 16.2 hh Irish Draft cross Warmblood called Kelpie, who is a great schoolmaster for those wishing to learn. Kelpie has seen and done everything and has competed in almost every ridden discipline and several driven ones too, he is almost semi-retired now will remain as our main horse for those wishing to learn. We used to have other big horses too and Kelpie used to make up a team of “coach horses” with out Cleveland Bays.
Ruaridh is currently Area Commissioner for the British Driving Society Area 39 – Highland and North of Scotland. He is also the Chairman of Highland Carriage Drivers club. We are keen to promote carriage driving to all and often run taster days and weekends and sometimes whole weeks! These are usually always run for free or at cost and everybody is welcome to come. In the past we have run the BDS Road Safety Assessment and it is hoped that in the future HHF can be a training and examination venue for carriage drivers because we really lack these kind of facilities in Scotland. Ruaridh for many years was a Riding and Road Safety Trainer with the British Horse Society and would like to transfer that knowledge to carriage drivers and hopes to be able to run training and assessments for the new BDS Road Driving Test when it is introduced.
Unfortunately with Ruaridh’s job in the international oil industry as well as his commitments to running the farm / croft and the riding centre he has little time for competing these days but over 20 years ago was competing up to National Level. His dream when he retires is to have a few seasons at least competing with his team of Highland Ponies at Horse Driving Trials, Private Driving and “Attelage”.
Although lessons are not something we do because of time constraints if you are very lucky Ruaridh could take you out for a “carriage driving experience” where you may get a chance to hold the reins.
We also do the occasional wedding and funeral as well as filming engagements too, but again until Ruaridh retires we cannot commit to doing these on a commercial basis for now.