Truly scrumptious (From The Advertiser Series)

Rider opens cafe to follow dressage dreams

3:42pm Sunday 17th February 2013 in News By Catherine Priestley, Chief Reporter (Sedgefield)

A DRESSAGE rider has opened a cafe she hopes will make enough money to look after her horses and allow her to continue competing.

Daisy Wade, 21, has been a keen rider for about eight years and has high hopes of competing at major affiliated dressage events, with qualification to summer regionals her next aim.

She has now turned her second hobby- cooking and baking- into a money maker to prop up her equestrian dreams.

Scrumptious Home Bakery, on Cockton Hill Road, Bishop Auckland, serves homemade produce from hot pies and dinners to sandwiches and trifles.

It is open seven days a week and features a cafe, takeaway, delivery and wholesale fruit and vegetable services.

Before opening the food business she sold horses for a living but needed a regular income to support her horses, including six-year-olds Little Big man and Crystabella who she competes on, and pay for lessons and travel.

Miss Wade, of Witton Park, near Bishop Auckland, said: “I caught the bug at about 13 or 14 and that was that, I’ve ridden ever since.

“It is an expensive hobby but the business has a lot of regulars, hopefully it will mean I can keep training for competitions.”