September 2021

September has been a month of consolidation as we have been getting used to running our booking system online via ECPro . Overall the system has been very well received and we thank everyone for their patience when we have had the occasional glitch to resolve.

All of the group lessons at Witham Villa are graded according to rider ability and it is good to see the Rainbow Award System getting back into full swing and also to see riders progressing and moving up a group when ready. If you have any queries regarding progress please do drop us an email to withamvillarc@gmail.com and we can ask the instructor and feed back for you. Lesson times are generally taken by the same instructor every week, but of course they do have holiday to take and training courses to go on etc, so we cannot guarantee you will always have the same person. When an instructor is off then their lesson will be covered by another suitable instructor.

As we come into the Autumn and Winter months, we are very lucky to have a large indoor school so that in the event of inclement weather and being unable to continue teaching outdoors then the outdoor lesson will come inside and can share the space with the lesson already taking place indoors, meaning no-one should have to miss out on their lesson and no lessons are compromised.

Witham Villa Horses - we are very sorry that on 14th September we lost our wonderful Harrison to colic. He was an absolute superstar for us here for many years and will be greatly missed. Always in our hearts.

Covid-19. Whilst rules have been relaxed, please can we ask everyone still to be careful. We have hand sanitiser around the yard for your use, please continue to keep safe distancing wherever possible. We are continuing with the policy of no public access to the horse stable yard and horses will continue to be brought to the schools for lessons. If you hire a hat or boots please put them back on the table after use and they will be cleaned before being returned for further use.

Our monthly Thursday pole clinics and Unaffiliated dressage continue to be well supported. The Thursday dressage starts with Intro through Prelim, Novice, Elementary and is run in a very relaxed way to encourage competitors to support one another and develop their confidence and technique in a fun supportive environment. Callers available and happy to help.

It was nice this month to be able to have a staff meal out at our local pub - it had been a long time since this had been possible and it was good to have a time to socialise away from the yard.