Gareth Hughes

Gareth Hughes spent most of my childhood in Australia and participated in a variety of equestrian sports including western riding as well as showing. At the age of 23, Gareth moved back to the UK and got a job working for Paradise Farm.

After 10 years at Paradise farm Gareth moved to the north of England and worked on a freelance rider basis again competing in a variety of different equestrian disciplines, that included showing Arabian horses to teaching western riding, around this time Gareth also started to get involved in the world of Dressage.

in 2001 Gareth started he own yard, based on a great yard owned by the Bell family in Cheshire. In the 3 years Gareth slowly started to develop a small group of competition horses and started to get some great results including half a dozen National titles. At the end of 2004 a move to Aspen Grove came about which was actually based back at paradise farm.

Over the last ten years competing in dressage Gareth has won more than 30 national and international titles,in 2011 Gareth was short listed for the UK`s European championships team, the following year he was long listed for the 2012 olympics. In 2013 Gareth was a member of the 2013 Bronze Medal winning team at the FEI European Dressage Championships in Herning. In 2014 Gareth was a member of the 2014 British silver medal team at the world equestrian games.

I spent most of my childhood in Australia competing mainly in showing & western riding. At the age of 23, I had the opportunity to return to England & was offered a my first job as a rider at Paradise Farm. I arrived wearing jeans, western boots with my chaps slung over my shoulder, amazingly I got the job, they must have thought they were hiring a cowboy. It was an amazing opportunity to ride superb horses, if anyone told me that 10 years later I would be living there I would never have believed them. The job was for six months and as I left I never thought that I`d see Paradise Farm again!

I then moved back to the north of England and worked on a freelance basis.In that time I did everything from showing Arabian Horses (my entry into horses in Australia was showing Arabians) to teaching western as well as getting involved in the Dressage world.

In 1999 I was offered a ride and in need of a place to keep the horse, I got in touch with Stephen Clarke.

From that point on Stephen has been one of the biggest influences in my career. He has been a great support and been a huge help in his advice and training.

The next step was for me to venture out on my own and rent a yard. This came about in 2001. I was based on a great yard owned by the Bell family in Cheshire. In the 3 years I was there I slowly started to develop a small group of competition horses and started to get some great results including half a dozen National titles.

At the end of 2004 a move to Aspen Grove came about (you can read how that started on Aspen`s "our History page").

I have been very lucky to have had and still do have the opportunity to ride some great horses and meet lots of great people.