Mrs Catriona Cook was nominated for the BHS Queen’s Award by the British Horse Society
Catriona Cook’s contribution to equestrianism over many years and in many spheres (including the Pony Club) has been remarkable.
However, it is for her work on protecting and promoting equestrian access for all, without which the majority of riders in this country would be severely constrained in their riding activities, that she is nominated.
Catriona believes that horses have the right to use most rural tracks. They are our heritage. She has put in uncounted hours on committees to assert equestrians’ rights, often getting up at 3am to ‘do’ the horses she breeds before leaving her remote farm to catch a train to one meeting or another.
Catriona has been a BHS Access officer for many years, using the farm as a testing ground for equestrian gates. She was a BHS Trustee and has represented equestrians on the Rights of Way Review Committee and other bodies.
Catriona helped devise the BHS’s first Rights of Way training in the 1990s and has fought many public inquiries to preserve threatened routes, earning the respect of eminent lawyers for her extensive knowledge developed over many years of painstaking research, and for her tenacity.
Catriona is a Trustee of the Byways & Bridleways Trust and a member of the North York Moors National Park Committee.
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