Who are we

Bobbie Matulja – MD, telephone sales clerk, groom, rider and tea-boy – bought Bridle Rides as a going concern in January 2000. This is a photo of her riding Monty (then aged 18) back in 1998 in the days when she was still a customer! Monty sadly died in June 2001 and is much missed!

Bobbie’s husband, Phil, does a lot of route-checking on his mountain bike. Here he is at a lunch-stop in Dorset preparing for an afternoon of pedalling.

Adrian Moyes, founder and previous owner of Bridle Rides, is researching a bridleway route in the North Cotswolds. Adrian is now retired, but he has a wealth of experience and helped Bobbie to achieve a smooth handover during her first year in 2000.

Bobbie Matulja has been running Bridle Rides with the help of her husband Phil since January 2000. It was established in the mid-1980’s by Adrian Moyes and Sue Raikes, who started exploring bridleways about 20 years ago. They thought it was crazy that so few people took advantage of such wonderful networks and such an enjoyable activity, and decided to turn their hobby into a business.

Despite the BHS’s AROW project and other initiatives, we are still amazed at how few people ride the bridleways. Adrian says “We set up Bridle Rides to make it easier for other riders to share our enjoyment – without the hassle of doing the research and making the arrangements – and the disappointment when rides don’t work out.”

During their first 3 seasons Bobbie and Phil rode all the 13 networks they inherited from Adrian and Sue – no mean achievement when Foot & Mouth closed the countryside for most of 2001. Bobbie says “For us, bridle-riding is much more than simply riding. Its a way of life which enables you to ride the countryside and take the time to enjoy and understand it. Our routes are designed to take in the most interesting sites and viewpoints – and there are short notes about farming, geology and history incorporated into the Route-guides.

Importantly for farmers and other rural business, bridle-riding is a way of getting money into the countryside. We believe that the best way of ensuring that bridleways are kept in good condition is to make sure that they are used regularly, which helps to ensure that resources are available to maintain them, and to arrange for farmers and country pubs to make money out of them. Not by charging directly (they are legal Rights of Way after all), but by providing services that riders need – accommodation, food, stabling, special rides and so on”.