R-ides of March in Fall

Retired psychologist Margaret Wilkinson recently returned from Edinburgh, Scotland, after participating in a historical reenactment of a centuries old tradition, The Riding of the Marches.

More than 200,000 spectators were in the Scottish capital for a day of pageantry, tradition and community spirit as the event, dating back to the 16th century, which reaffirms the city’s ancient rights and boundaries, took place with 280 riders riding 26 miles from the outskirts of the city up the Royal Mile led by bagpipers, wild knight jousters, a Jacobite ceilidh band, and a local high school pipe band before winding its way up to Edinburgh Castle which looms over city.

“It was a truly astonishing experience,” says Margaret – a good friend of Montecito philanthropist Anne Towbes – who lives in Solvang with her attorney husband Bob Andrews.

“We wanted to visit our grandson Jack Andrews, a graduate of Laguna Blanca, who is studying at the University of Edinburgh. Then I read that Stacy Adams of Active Riding Trips had eight places available for the Riding of the Marches, which coincided with my 75th birthday.

“Up here in the Santa Ynez Valley I’m a Western rider, and the Edinburgh event was Hunter Style, two-point riding in formal English attire.

“I’m someone who likes to sort cows for fun on my quarter horse and go trail riding. So I had some last-minute schooling from Tracy Ward on how to ride properly – and off I went.

“It was like riding on steroids!” 

No word yet if Margaret purchased a kilt to mark the stirring equestrian occasion…