Bobbie Matulja - Access - CABO, Worcestershire Committee |
|
| |
|
|
| "I'm a city-bred girl from Birmingham, so although I've ridden regularly since I was 7 years old, my formative years were spent being dropped of at a riding school 11 miles away at weekends with sandwiches and enough money to pay for a one-hour group lesson or escorted hack. By the time my family moved out to Blackwell near Bromsgrove in 1975, we had our own horses:- Cappy, a 15.2 Irish hunter type and my first pony, Sherry, a 14.3 Connemara. Throughout my teens and early 20s, I remained a happy hacker, fitting horses around school, university and then full time work. I got married to Phil in 1989 and continued along my chosen career path with a series of fairly demanding, but well paid full time jobs as a Business Analyst and Project Manager. I kept one horse on full livery, often turning up at the yard at 6.30 am to ride before getting on the train to Birmingham at eight. |
 |
|
 |
In 1998, I took my horse on a bridleway riding holiday with Bridle Rides and, when the opportunity came up at the end of the following year to buy the business, I sank all my savings into it. My income suddenly reduced by about 90%, so my horses had to come home to our family smallholding. After the luxury of full livery, I had a lot to learn about their day-to-day care and I can thoroughly recommend the BHS Horse Owners Certificates, which I studied in stages right up to Level 4. My business is obviously all about bridleways and I had to learn the basics of bridleway law and develop relationships with BHS Access Officers and County Rights of Way teams all over England and Wales from Day One in January 2000. |
|
| I've been interested in history and antiques, and have been collecting old maps of Worcestershire for about 20 years, so volunteering to join the BHS Committee in 2003 to help the then County Access and Bridleways Officer by keeping an eye on the bridleways near my home in North East Worcestershire seemed a fairly obvious thing to do. I took over as CABO in the summer of 2006 and am committed to doing what I can to help local riders - although the fact that my business is very demanding and I also have an elderly Mum to keep an eye on, means that I don't always have as much time as I'd like, specially when Bridle Rides is very busy during the summer months. Although my knowledge of path user's rights and responsibilities is good after 7 years of running it, I still have a lot to learn about the Lost Ways project and claiming new bridleways based on historical and user evidence. |
 |
|
| In my spare time, my horse, Herbie and I do the odd local unaffiliated Prelim and Novice level dressage test. I'm a committed Christian and regularly attend church at Tardebigge, where I'm a sidesman and Chalice Assistant. I also enjoy reading, gardening and cookery (fairly typical hobbies for a lady in her mid-forties) - although I also like the odd (!) glass of wine and ride an 850 cc classic Italian motorbike!" |
|
The photographs are of me on Herbie, my 15.1 hand Dalesbred
|
 |
|
|
|
