About Golden Cross Equestrian Centre
Golden Cross Equestrian Centre is owned & operated by Ian Bareham.
Golden Cross Equestrian Centre is one of the busiest competition centres in the South of England regularly running affiliated and unaffiliated Showjumping and Dressage. We are also a host to many Pony and Riding clubs, clinics, lecture demos, etc.
All our winter competitions are held in the indoor arena measuring 56m x 30m. Adjoining the arena is a horse holding area, a spectators gallery, function room, judges box, toilet block and a café, serving the best quality food, including our famous bacon baps! We also have a new outdoor sand & rubber arena the same size as our indoor arena, offering an excellent warm up facility.
In the summer months we have a purpose built grass arena that is maintained to the highest standards and watered in the event of hard ground.
As with all show centres we strive to put on bigger and better classes and are grateful to our sponsors who have supported us over the years. We are always on the look out for new sponsors and advertisers, and can offer packages to suit all budgets from just £50.
In addition to the competition centre, we have also strived to improve facilities year by year, and we now believe we offer the most competitive and best livery facility in Sussex. Whether you have a competition horse, a hunter or a 14.2hh pony we can cater for them all, each with the same care and attention. We also take horses in for rehabilitation and recuperation after injury or surgery.
All horses are bedded on wood pellets provided by Liston Equestrian and are fed top quality hard food, provided by Balanced Horse feeds and hayledge direct from the farmer. We offer individual turn out paddocks and larger keep fields on our 15 acres of hedged and fenced fields.
We offer full, part, competition, hunter and schooling liveries as a base, but individual packages can be arranged to suit our client’s requirements. All full livery services include exercise of your horse according to the job its doing, grooming and tack cleaning, alongside plaiting, trimming and pulling. We are also able to offer an excellent clipping service
We are very lucky in having the support of British team farrier Andrew Casserly as our resident farrier.
Milbourn Equine perform most of our medical work, Carl Duggan our dentistry and Andrew Reilly our saddle fitting. Again clients can use whomever they chose.
Golden Cross is also the base for our resident ‘stable jockey’ Sam Penn. Sam has worked and trained with the legendary Irish International Show Jumper, Paul Darragh and before coming to Golden Cross worked for Anne Burnett producing her string of young event horses, which would normally go onto Pippa Funnell. Whilst at Anne’s, Sam was a regular competitor in BYEH classes where she was placed consistently all season and a finalist at QuestX.
Sam will have a string of horses to compete this season which include Seven o Seven who will contest 2* and intermediate and advanced classes, aiming for the CIC 3* at Hartpury and hopefully the CCI 3* at Blenhiem, Above Board who will be aimed at the 2*’s throughout the season, and hopefully some late season advanced classes. Sam will also be contesting the BYEH classes and the Lycetts 4YO/5YOI qualifiers across the country, with Eagles Ridge and Candide II qualified for the Osberton Young Horse Championships in October. Pusiden, Sams’ 5YO has now qualified for the Lycetts 5YO Championships, and he is now contesting novices, with the aim of doing a 1* in the Autumn.
Over the past years Golden Cross have produced many top event horses such as Spin Doctor and Chamrock being the most notable. Sam is looking for a few more rides for this season and can be contacted through the website and she is also available for teaching.Finally we are open to comment, either praise or criticism. If you have any ideas of competitions you would like to be held at Golden Cross, or improvements that you would like to see, please don’t hesitate to let us know.
We look forward to welcoming you to Golden Cross soon.
IAN BAREHAM Owner of Golden Cross Equestrian Centre
All the event horses at Golden Cross are ‘Managed’ for their respective owners by Ian Bareham. Golden Cross Equestrian Centre is slightly unique in the fact that the owners livery their horses at the centre for the Stable Jockey, Sam Penn, to compete on, the nearest comparable set up would be that of a racing yard.
Ian first involvements with the sport of Eventing was during his four years in the Household Cavalry, where alongside competing himself, groomed for Alwyn Varely, who at the time was the army’s top Event rider, notably grooming at Badminton, Burghley and Boekelo in the Netherlands. A non-horsey posting to Germany was in the offering, but was declined due to Ian’s love of Eventing.
On leaving the army, Ian was employed by Mrs Olive Jackson, as travelling Head Lad, who had a mass of Show Jumpers and Eventers alongside many racehorses trained by the late Fred Winter. The competion horses were ridden by Colin Wares, who was one of the few riders to combined Eventing and Show Jumping at International level. Four successful years were spent here and during this time Colin and Ian travelled extensively round Europe including such greats as Aachen and Rome as well as the major International events in Great Britain.
Ian’s next position was as head lad for HRH Princess Royal and Captain Mark Phillips at Gatcombe Park and had horses such as the great Columbus and Goodwill belonging to the Queen and Lincoln, Persian Holiday and Distinctive in his charge. The position lasted about five years until Mark Phillips retired from International Eventing and the demise of the Royal Couples marriage.
Next on the Agenda came the opportunity for Ian to work for himself at a small rented yard in Sussex specialising in competition horses. Also during this period Ian groomed on a freelance basis for Lorna Clarke, travelling to the European, World and Olympic Games and held the role as stable manager for the British Team.
When Lorna retired from Eventing an opportunity for a bigger yard in Sussex came up and as the business had now outgrown its previous location the move was made to Crockstead Park. This yard was run on the same basis as previously, but had the added bonus of 350 acres and facilities to be a show centre. Ian went on the run Affiliated competitions for all disciplines as well as setting up and running Crockstead International Horse Trials for seven years.
When Crockstead Park was sold by the landlord, Ian decided to try and purchase a place for himself. Golden Cross Equestrian Centre was found, which was just 5 miles from Crockstead, so the whole business and clientele was moved to its new premises near Hailsham.
Ian has now owned Golden Cross for 2 years and alongside Sam Penn have a fantastic team of staff, owners and competion horses.
