Newsletter

THE BRUNCH BUS!

At last we have our double decker bus! The upper deck serves for viewing for you while watching lessons and the back of it serves as a class room for the pony club and for stable management lessons when riding lessons are rained off. The downstairs is being converted to catering. This will be open for food and drink every Saturday, and will be available for outside hire at events on Sundays. The outside will eventually be suitably decorated but is too expensive to do straight away - if anyone knows of anyone that could help with this, or anyone who would like to donate in return for advertising space on it do let us know!

PONY CLUB

We had a fantastic summer of rallies and pony days. A special mention must go to Tina Surch who organised the children and kept them happy!

Full results will appear on the results page, but the overall winners were Jasmine Hill and Georgie Rigg, and everyone earned a badge of some description - fantastic pony fun for everyone!

The pony club are busy rehearsing their xmas play on horseback and their village parade (see COMING UP)

NEW FACES

Cathy Ruane joins us as an instructor. Cathy has been a Pony Club instructor for many years as well as the area riding and road safety trainer and examiner. Her children followed Mum's footsteps with Cathy's son competing at Badminton horse trials.

Suzie Walters has joined us as permanent staff during the week, soon to be joined a couple of mornings by Mel Wood, who is actually an old new face returning!

Lots of horsey new faces have joined us, but most of them are for sale so are listed below in the for sale section, and Billy and Toby have joined us in the riding school - already proving to be firm favourites!

HEALTH AND SAFETY

I make no apology for leaving the following in all the newsletters!

Whenever you walk onto this yard there is a safety risk. Unfortunately animals do not have an on/off button and the batteries cannot be taken out when we no longer want to play with them.

We HAVE to take this issue very seriously, and as such the most recent risk assessment is available to all in the office, and if you have not yet completed a client form, please do so. These too are found in the office.

Sadly, for you, the client, more and more restrictions are laid down by the insurance companies due to the "someone is to blame!" society in which we find ourselves. This has led to some opportunities to learn having to be withdrawn. While every care is taken on our behalf to ensure your safety while riding, we ask that you take some responsibility for your own/dependants welfare, and advise us of any health or safety issue you may have. If you are uncomfortable with anything asked of you/your dependants please let us know!

COMING UP

Pony days in the half term week are Tuesday and Thursday - £60 per child (pony club members £50) which includes 2 lots of riding - a hack and a lesson, and of course lots of pony fun! Our Xmas play on horseback is scheduled for Wednesday 2nd December, and out horses and cast members will be parading through the village singing carols on Saturday 5th December

FOR SALE

Free range and 100% organic eggs from very spoilt and happy hens! Much cheaper then the supermarket!

BVEC polo shirts (same as you seeing the girls wearing!) £10

HORSES/PONIES FOR SALE/LEASE

Please see the office door or the for sale page for full details of those for sale. Those available for lease are detailed below

Samuel Whiskers 17hh gorgeous boy - very safe £60 per week plus shoes
Puzzle 14.2hh very safe pony - last leaser highly recommends! (has moved onto bigger pony) £50 per week plus shoes
Robin - 13hh very safe pony, though not for the faint hearted to handle - last leaser recommends! (has gone on to buy her own pony) £45 per week plus shoes

Ponies - various £35 per week

EVENLODE RIDING CLUB

We have arranged a family membership deal with the Evenlode Riding Club for only £15a year per person. They have many low key competitions and training events for which you can hire a Horse/Pony to take part in. We have taken horses to a couple of these this year with much success - they make you all feel very welcome and are accommodating especially good for first timers!

We are now taking students to train for their NVQ levels 1 and 2 in riding and horsecare, either on an apprenticeship or a train to gain basis. Our first student to achieve this this year is Tina Surch, who is going on too be a trainee instructor, soon to be followed by Charlotte Couchman who is also going onto train as an instructor

PRICE INCREASE
We have only had 2 price increases over the last 10 years, so alas it is time for another one! From 15th November 1 hour will be £27.50, 45 minutes £22 and half an hour £17 which brings us much more into line with the other local stables

HORSE OWNERS CERTIFICATE

We have a couple of adults interested in doing this, but not enough to cover the cost, so we are looking to run an Adult Riders Club for stable management training on Mondays6- 7pm. All the knowledge gained from these sessions could easily be converted to the Certificate if it became viable in the future, and of course everything learned is useful anyway! The cost is £10 per person per session

HACKING!

There are a lot of riders who come every week who have yet to go out on a hack! We goout on hacks most Sundays at 11.30 - they take about an hour and are suitable for ALL level of rider - We have horses so safe even people who have NEVER ridden before can go - so why not try it?