Firstly may we wish a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone. We are looking forward to going into 2023 and hope to be able to help all of our clients and staff achieve their Equestrian goals. As we go into the new year it is a great time to reflect on the past year and to plan ahead.
If you have any particular training or events that you would like to see here at Witham Villa please do let us know and we can see if we can assist.
Monday Unaffiliated Dressage - in 2023 our unaffiliated dressage competitions will be held on Mondays rather than Thursday. We will be running a Spring series (Jan-June) and an Autumn Series (July-December) with some additional sections next year and we are also planning on two championship shows. Watch out for details to be released soon.
Pole clinics will also run on Mondays. Thursdays will then be left for normal lessons
Dressage Camp/Clinics - Verity will be running one day camp each month on a Monday, followed on by a dressage clinic going into the evening when both Verity and India will be available for lessons.
2023 Schedule - our calendar of events for next year is currently in the process of being finalised and will be out in January. It will be available to view on our website and will also be advertised on our Facebook page.
Suggestions box - thank you to those of you that have put forward suggestions/comments. We do respond to these with written replies onto the original cards. Some of the suggestions are already in our plans but we have to budget to implement them. Some would be too expensive to implement, much as we would like to, as it would mean a big rise in lesson prices to have the money to afford them. We continually look to improve and develop our services and welcome your feedback.
Witham Villa Junior Trainees - all of our trainees are now working towards the Witham Villa Rainbow Stable Management Awards. Congratulations to the following:- Red award:- Millie, Summer, Gabriella, Rosie, Austin, Isla, Sienna, Lilly, Teeya, Hope, Polly. Red award and Orange award:- Ezabell, Shelby, Albany, Libby, Isabella, Leanna. Red, Orange and Yellow award:- Olivia, Ella, Olivia IM, Amber, Sophie, Lexie. Abigail.
Witham Villa provided the Junior Trainees with a Christmas Party day. Festive food, games and good fun. Thank you Kelly for organising.
Christmas Holiday Programme - we hold various special events - all on our website and available to book via ECPro.
BHS Exams - A Stage 2 Teach exam was held here in November and a stage 1 assessment was held in December. All candidates passed the stage 1 and we send our congratulations to the two Witham Villa apprentices who were both successful - well done Olivia and MIa.
British Dressage Convention - Verity and India attended on the Saturday and benefitted from the training sessions run by Gareth Hughes and Michael Eilberg. We were delighted that India was awarded a trophy to recognise her achievement in being part of the Junior Team winning Bronze at this year’s European Championships having come up through the British Dressage National Academy.
British Dressage - it was lovely to get Eddie (Escade) back out competing again. He had a break after the Europeans and then had a tricky tooth extraction which took a longer recovery than expected, but we are delighted that he is now fully recovered.
India and Eddie have now qualified for the Regionals at PSG Silver with a fantastic 77% in their latest test. They have also made their debut at Young Rider level, stepping up from Junior and achieved first place in both the Individual and Team test with plus 70% scores. at the Arena UK High Profile Show. Their goal is for International competition again in 2023.
Young Horses - it was lovely to welcome Ginty (Integra) - Shannon’s foal - back to Witham Villa. She is now three years old and has been away at Richard Walker’s yard where she was started under saddle earlier this year and then turned away in the field to mature. She has settled back in really well and we are looking forward to seeing her progress.
Ziggy (Danzmayr) - Abi’s foal - is now four and has made steady progress this year with plenty of breaks as he grows. We are pleased to report that he now loads well in the lorry and has been on his first trips out. He took a long time to develop his confidence and we did bring in Gavin to help us on the final push. Thank you Gavin for your help.
Looking forward to 2023, we wish everyone a very Happy New Year.