July 2022

Heatwave! The first time we have had to move lessons due to the heat, but very pleased that we were able to keep all of the horses cool and healthy. The welfare of our horses and riders is always our top priority.

British Dressage Show - sadly the July show had to be cancelled due to so few entries because of the weather forecast and indeed the heat on the day. Looking forward to our August Bank Holiday show on Monday 29th August and hoping for plenty of entries for that

Staff - We welcomed a new apprentice, Olivia, who joined us in July. We wish her the best of luck as she starts her training towards her level two apprenticeship and BHS exams.

Horses - two new ponies have come to us on loan - Perry and Star. They are both children’s ponies that have been outgrown. They are currently being assessed by our staff and will now be added to our riding school license as they have passed their vet check. So, something to look forward to riding for our younger riders.

FEI Junior European Championships - Huge congratulations to India and Eddie (Escade) - Junior Team Bronze medalists! The championships were held at Hartpury University in Gloucestershire - what a wonderful experience. There was a team stable yard with Union Jacks and flags and a rider camp with all the horse boxes linked up with bunting and tented areas with tables and chairs. An amazing atmosphere with a fantastic team spirit and great support from the British Dressage team. Serina Gonchakov and Verity Saul also stayed with India to help.

To have come away with a medal was superb. This is India’s final year in Juniors (Advanced Medium) and the pair will now be moving on to PSG (Prix St Georges). They have finished as 20th in the world on the FEI world ranking statistics.

We are thrilled to have a horse that has been produced here at Witham Villa competing at this level and a rider that has ridden here from a child and continues to train here with Verity alongside outside training with Gareth Hughes now.

June 2022

SEIB/Horse and Hound Awards - in June we were delighted to be short listed for the SEIB/Horse and Hound Large Riding School of the Year Award. At this stage we had to make a short video of the yard and activities - (a big thank you to Duncan who very kindly helped us with this), send in a staff photo and copy of our logo. We felt very honoured to have progressed to this stage and although we have not now been named as finalists we are very proud of our achievements. Thank you to all of our Witham Villa Team of both staff and horses and of course all of our wonderful clients who make it all worthwhile.

BHS Exams- in June we hosted a Stage 2 Teaching exam which progressed very smoothly for all concerned.

BHS Exams - The next Stage 1 exam being held here is on Monday 22nd August.

BHS Stage 1 - a new course has started running on Monday evenings at 4pm. Sessions are available on a weekly basis and can be booked via ECpro.

BHS Stage 2 - The Stage 2 training runs at 5pm on a Monday evening, again bookable weekly via ECpro.

BHS Ride Safe - Silver Challenge Award - this is required for BHS Stage 1. Our next course with assessment is on

Cost is £50 per person.

Pony Club - we are delighted to welcome Hannah Robinson as the new Witham Villa Pony Club Co-ordinator. Pony club stable management training towards badges and Pony Club Tests continues on a Monday evening as before, sessions booked via ECpro

Summer Holiday Programme - we have a programme of events being held during the summer holidays. The programme is currently on our Facebook page and bookable via our online booking system - ECPro

Dressage Day Camp - Verity held another dressage day camp in June, this time with the theme of connection. Dates for the rest of 2022 will be released shortly.

International Competition - India and Eddie (Escade) were selected to represent Great Britain in the FEI Junior Team and Individual Test. They had an excellent show finishing in first place in the Team Test on 71+% and second in the Individual Test with 72+%

Junior European Championships to be held at Hartpury in the last week of July - We are delighted to announce that India and Eddie have been selected fto be part of the four person team, representing Great Britain. This has been a dream goal that we have been working very hard for and thanks go to everyone who is part of Team Eddie.

May 2022

Horses - We have been searching for horses and ponies to join the team here at Witham Villa and are delighted to welcome Orla - 16.1hh Irish piebald mare, Buddy - 15 hh grey Connemara and Vegas - 13.2hh shewbald mare.

When we get new horses they are initially ridden by the staff, then if we feel they are suitable and are happy here, they get vet checked and added on to our riding school licence and start working in the school.

Monty has now been retired from the school and has a new home with Serina. He was born and bred at Witham and Serina has ridden him ever since he was first broken in so they have a fantastic bond. We are delighted to here that he has settled into his new home and is enjoying his new routine.

Ginty (Shannon’s foal) is now 3 years old and has been away to be started under saddle. She has made good progress and is now turned back out at grass with some other youngsters. She will then be brought back up in the Autumn and re-started.

British Dressage - we have held two competitions this month and always love to see horse and rider combinations progressing up the levels. We also hold a monthly unaffiliated competition on a Thursday - all entries via Horsemonkey. Horsemonkey now have their app up and running again so hopefully it will be nice and easy to get your entries in again now.

Dressage Day Camp - Verity held another day camp in May, working to improve suppleness and connection. We had a lovely group of horses and riders taking part and look forward to the next day camp on Monday June 20th. Booking for this is via ECpro via the Witham Villa website link and there is the option of attending on your own horse, or you can ride a Witham Villa horse.

Pole Clinic - Ali set up another pattern of poles to encourage athleticism and suppleness in the horses as well as being really good fun to ride. These are held monthly and booked via ECPro (link via the Witham Villa website)

BHS Exams - Congratulations to Aliina Atkinson who passed the BHS Stage 3 Teach exam. Sadly Aliina has made the decision to stop teaching here at Witham Villa. We would like to wish her well in all of her future endeavours and thank her for the lessons she has taught here and in particular her work with the Witham Villa Pony Club.

The sessions Aliina taught here will be covered by another instructor temporarily until a permanent appointment is made.

International Dressage - We are delighted that India and Eddie (Escade) are now ranked number 24 in the FEI World Junior rankings, the second highest UK combination.

Somerford Premier League - A very good performance from India and Eddie achieving plus 70% to gain personal bests in both the Junior Individual and in the Junior Team Test.

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April 2022

Easter Holidays

April saw a busy holiday schedule over Easter with Pony Club activities, Clear round show jumping, junior dressage and junior experience sessions as well as our ever popular pole clinics.

A highlight over the Easter holidays was the final of the BHS Riding Schools Competition held at Onley Grounds Equestrian Centre. We were delighted to have so many of our riders through to the final and congratulations to all who qualified. Particular congrats to the following prize winners:-

18 & Over dressage

1st place Connie riding Mac

7th place Kay riding Basil

17 & Under dressage

3rd place Bea riding Basil

7th place Rowan riding Louis

18& Over Dressage, Show Jumping and Stable Management Quiz

1st Connie riding Mac

12 & Under Dressage, Show Jumping and Stable Management Quiz

7th Place Nichola riding Poppy

Witham Villa Horses

In April we waved Primrose off as she has gone to be in semi-retirement with some friends of Witham Villa. She has settled in beautifully and is enjoying lots of attention.

Shannon’s foal, Ginty (Integra) is off being started under saddle now. She will then be turned back out to grass within a little herd of young horses before coming back in to re-start in the Autumn.

British Dressage

It was lovely to have a visit from Jo Byrne the North and East Region RDO who came to present Witham Villa with a Region Achievement award for supporting members in challenging times in 2020 and 2021. She also presented India with the Sheepgate Equestrian Youth Trophy.

In April India and Eddie (Escade) finished in 2nd place on 68% just 1 mark behind the winner in the PSG Area Festival Championship.

Verity and Izzy qualified for the Winter Championships at Elementary and Medium Freestlye, but sadly didn’t get to compete as Izzy just wasn’t on form, resulting in us coming home - disappointing, but that is just how it goes sometimes with horses!

At the end of the month, India was selected to represent Great Britain in the Junior Nations Cup, held in Le Mans in France. This was the first time we had taken a horse abroad to compete and quite a challenge to get all of the required paperwork in order post Brexit! However despite the long journey there and back it was a wonderful week with the Junior Team on the podium in 3rd place. India and Eddie then had two more podium places, finishing 3rd in the Junior Individual and 3rd in the Junior Freestyle on 75%. It was great to have Serina come with us as International Groom, I became International Trainer and International lorry driver!

General

It’s great to have the cafe open now and for people to be able to safely socialise again.

We continue to strive to make Witham Villa a friendly environment in which to learn and develop and always welcome your feedback and any ideas that you have for future development. If you want to contact us then please do email on withamvillarc@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

March 2022

March has seen plenty going on here at Witham Villa.

We held a BHS Stage 2 exam, hosted a De Montfort University B Team competition, British Dressage Affiliated Show, Unaffiliated Dressage Show, Pole clinics as well as all of our normal riding lessons and Pony Club Training.

We have been very pleased to have the riders from Kimberly House RDA group back and able to continue with both their riding lessons and also to re-start the stable management training sessions.

We have re-opened the cafe, which has been refurbished. We are building back up to full opening hours as we get the shifts all covered. We still have some shifts that need to be covered if anyone is interested in some part time work.

We continued with staff Continued Professional Development, attending an online Safeguarding training session keeping everyone updated with best practice.

On the horses front Warrior went back home after his winter here on loan to us. He settled in well here and became a firm favourite for many of our riders. I’m pleased to say he was equally happy to get back to his owners. We have another horse, Betty who has come to us on loan. She is currently being ridden by our staff and being assessed for work in the school. She is a beautiful mare and we hope she will enjoy her time here.

Very sadly we said our goodbyes to Holly B (Madame Briot) this month. She came to us on loan many years ago and was wonderful in the school, enjoyed by so many of our riders. She was rfully etired last year aged 30 and enjoyed a happy retirement out in the field with a companion. RIP and thank you Holly B.

Verity held her first Dressage Camp of 2022 attended by a group of riders and their horses all keen to develop their skills and improve their horses way of going - a really enjoyable day. Next camp dates are Monday 23rd May and Monday 20th June. Both of these dates are now available to book on ECPro.

India and Eddie (Escade) attended an International Training Session with test riding and training with Peter Storr, which was very beneficial. They competed at Keysoe International CDI for Great Britain in the Junior Team Test, Junior Individual and Freestyle, finishing 6th, 5th and 3rd respectively all scores 68%+ and 72% in the freestyle. We are delighted that the combination have been selected onto the Long List for the Junior European Championships to be held in July. They have also been selected as part of the GB Junior Team to compete in the Nations Cup in Le Mans, France at the end of April.

We have had to make an increase to our lesson prices from April in line with rising costs and to enable us to continue to maintain standards. We have kept it to a minimum and hope everyone will understand the need for the increase.

Easter holiday activities are available to book now via ECpro.

February 2022

Although a short month, plenty happened in February! Unfortunately we had to contend with some severe weather which resulted in us having to cancel some lessons and actually close completely for one day. These decisions are not taken lightly but the health and safety of our clients and horses is paramount.

During the half term holiday we ran Pony Club E, D and D+ Tests and we are delighted to report a 100% pass rate for the 17 children that took these tests. Congratulations everyone.

We also ran a Regional Qualifier for the British Horse Society Riding Schools Competition and it was lovely to see so many children, teens and adults taking part in the dressage, show jumping and stable management quiz. Congratulations to all who took part and in particular those riders that qualified for the National Final. This will be taking place at Onley Grounds Equestrian Centre on April 13th.

A Ride Safe training and test session was held with a 100% pass rate, well done everyone. This is needed for anyone taking their BHS Stage 1 and 2 exams.

We continue to run a British Dressage show once a month and also an Unaffiliated Dressage Show. Then a bi-monthly pole clinic.

This month saw the removal of the muck heap over 2 Saturdays, it’s amazing how much muck our horses generate! If ever anyone wants some for their garden, please do ask.

The cafe refurbishment started and we are aiming to reopen in March. We will be interviewing for cafe staff so please do get in touch if you are interested in working in the cafe. Applications to withamvillarc@yahoo.co.uk.

Verity and Izzy competed in the British Dressage Regionals at Vale View finishing in 2nd place in the Elementary Freestyle Gold section and in 3rd place in the Medium Silver section. Hoping for wild cards to the Championships.

India and Eddie attended the Sport England funded National Academy camp and benefitted from ridden training sessions with Spencer Wilton, test riding, talks on nutrition, professional development, rider physio, equine dentistry, social media and PR, athlete lifestyle and coaching observation. A fantastic few days, thank you to British Dressage for organising these wonderful opportunities. #learnwithBDYouth

Verity will be running a dressage day camp on Monday 28th March. To book on, entries are via ECpro. For anyone not already on the ECpro system, you just need to go onto the Witham Villa website, scroll down and follow the link. Please note there is a discount code for riders on their own horse.

January 2022

Happy New Year! New Year’s day was spent cleaning the mirrors in the indoor school. They looked so good afterwards people thought we had new mirrors! They are such a useful tool when learning and training the horses to check rider position and way of going of the horse.

This year we are celebrating 30 years at Witham Villa so watch out for some special events as we get into the year.

In January we replaced the lights in the indoor school so it is now lovely and light and bright in there.

In February we are going to refurb our cafe with the aim of re-opening again now that Covid restrictions are easing. We will be looking for staff to work in the cafe, so please do get in touch if you would be interested in this - email withamvillarc@yahoo.co.uk.

We ran a BHS Stage 1 and BHS Stage 2 exam assessment in January, congratulations to all of those that were successful.

We run training courses for these exams here at Witham Villa and have a very high sucess rate. These are run by Louise Mellor.

We will also be running a BHS Stage 2 Teach course and assessment later this year, run by Nicola Monks

We are delighted that India and Eddie have been selected for the British Dressage National Academy for the second year running, one of only 12 athletes on this Sport England funded training.

Also, they have been selected for a place on the Under 21 International Pathway, one of 7 Junior riders. India attended her first unmounted training session in January under this pathway and is working hard to continue to develop her performance with Eddie (Escade).

They won the PSG Bronze Area Festival at Solihull and are through to the Championships at Hartpury in April.

Verity did her first High Profile show with Izzy (Issey Magic) at Vale View and was pleased to finish in 4th place on 67% in Medium 75.

December 2021

In December we were very pleased with British Dressage competition sucess for India and Eddie (Escade) at Keysoe International High Profile Show, coming 6th in the Junior Team Test with 69%, 3rd in the Junior Individual Test with 70% and winning the Junior Freestyle with 75.29%. The combination are now ranked 119th in the world.

Verity and Izzy (Issey Magic) completed qualification for Elementary Gold Freestyle, Medium Silver Freestyle and Medium Silver for British Dressage Winter Regionals which will take place in February 2022.

Over the Christmas holiday period we ran Pony Club E and D tests and were very proud of the children, achieving a 100% pass rate. They were so well prepared through our Monday night Pony Club by Aliina Atkinson our Pony Club Co-ordinator and all looked so smart. The D test candidates had an external examiner - Tom Fray.

We ran Junior Experience sessions again over this holiday period giving youngsters the opportuntiy of having some time with the horses grooming etc as well as riding.

On the horse front we are delighted to welcome Warrior - a lovely black gelding approx 16hh. He is on loan to the riding school over the winter months and will take part in both flat and jump lessons.

November 2021

November has been a great month for maintenance jobs on the yard. We have re-graded and topped up the surface in our outdoor school and it is riding beautifully. It should mean that we can use it all winter without the risk of it freezing.

We also re-graded the indoor school, so that is also riding very well now.

The highlight of the month was getting the new Monarch horse walker installed and up and running. It is a huge asset to the yard as we will be able to keep the horses exercised and happy when the weather renders the fields unfit for turnout in the winter. It is also really helful for any horses coming through re-hab ready to return to work and for the competition horses for warm up or cool down.

We have repaired the concrete surface at the entrance to the yard making it smarter and safer.

India and Eddie (Escade) had a successful second weekend at Newbold Verdon EC for the British Dressage Foundation Academy on the last weekend of November, achieving a score of 72.8% in the Junior Team Test and benefitting from input from the excellent trainers at the camp.

We are pleased that Harriet completed her level two Modern Apprenticeship with us - congratulations. She also achieved her BHS Stage 2 Complete during her time at Witham Villa.

In November we were sorry to wave Jess Thomas off. Jess has worked at Witham Villa for 23 years and during that time she has been an integral part of the development of the business to where it is today. We are so grateful for her huge contribution and wish her well in her future ventures.

October 2021

Half Term Holiday Events - it was lovely seeing the children here enjoying the special activity programme put on for them over the half term. We will be running a Christmas Holiday programme next and details for that will be out soon.

We have been very pleased to welcome De Montfort University Equestrian Club back this autumn to start their training again. Firstly there was a taster day for new students and then a trials day for teams. Following on from this riders were selected to represent the Uni as A Team, B Team or C Team. They will then take part in the BUCS events and we wish them a successful season.

The students were lucky when it was a bright day, although cold as they came to Witham Villa to shoot their “Naked Calendar”. This has been produced annually for several years now and is used to raise money for charity.

As we went into the autumn we were very glad to get the yard washing machine repaired and working again - we were really missing it with so many items of horse wear to keep clean! If you are clearing out old towels we welcome them here at Witham Villa to use when we are drying the horses off.

We are having a horsewalker installed to enable us to help keep our horses happy and well exercised in the winter months, when the weather changes and very often the fields are not suitable for them to be turned out. This month the base was put down and the walker itself will be going up in November.

Hedging maintenance was done in October to maintain our boundaries and ensure healthy growth of our plants and trees.

We were delighted that India and Eddie (Escade) were selected for the British Dressage Foundation Camp again this year. They attended the first camp at Newbold Verdon Equestrian Centre this month. India had riding lessons with Hannah Moody and there were rider fitness sessions, goal planning sessions and so much more.

This month India and Eddie were also selected to represent Great Britain at Junior level at the International show at Keysoe International. Despite the lorry breaking down on the way and having to be rescued, we arrived at the show just in time for the trot up. We then sorted out emergency accomodation for India and myself and ended up having a wonderful show with an 8th place in the Junior Team Test followed by two second places in the Junior Individual and Junior Freestyle competitions. To be in their first internaional prize giving and stand to have the National Anthem played was really a magic moment!

Verity and Izzy (Issey Magic) were runners up in the Medium Silver Veteran Rider Championship held at Vale View, just 1% behind the winner.

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.

July and August 2021

Horses and Ponies - We have welcomed several new horses and ponies to join our team of school horses over the last few months - Purdey, a 12.2hh skewbald mare who has been a child’s pony enjoying all pony club activities; Kiki, a 13.2hh skewbald mare who again was a child’s pony enjoying all activities; Minnie, a 12.2hh bay mare who had been at a jumping home; Polo, a 12.2hh piebald gelding who is currently continuing his education with our staff before being introduced into the school; Chase, a 15.2hh bay gelding who had been in the same family for many years enjoying all activities; Louis, a 16.1hh black gelding who had been in the same ownership for a long period of time enjoying flatwork and jumping.

Millie went into the vets for an operation as she had been off work for several months and had not come sound. We are hoping this will be a success and after a period of rehabilitation she will be able to come back into work.

Holly B has gone off to be a companion to another horse out at grass - she looked like a 3 year old as they were turned out together not a 30 year old!

Suski has now gone off to a retirement home and is very happy and has settled in well

Ben is having a wonderful time in his semi-retirement home, loving his new friends, hacking and doing some flatwork lessons.

British Dressage Regional Championships - We were very proud of Alison West and Victor who competed at Keysoe in the Elementary Silver class - such an achievement for a riding school horse to qualify and compete at these championships.

Verity Saul and Izzy (Issey Magic) competed at the same regionals in the Medium Class.

British Dressage National Academy - we were delighted that India and Eddie (Escade) were selected for this academy - one of only 12 riders in the whole of the UK. They had a wonderful time in the first camp having ridden sessions with Spencer Wilton, alongside rider fitness, biomechanics, test riding and feedback, career guidance and so much more. India also attended a sports science day which was full of interesting information to help with their progression. The final event of the academy was a day at Talland School of Equitation where India had the opportunity to ride two of their schoolmasters alongside watching lessons and lectures from Charlie Hutton.

India and Eddie have now stepped up to competing at PSG in local BD shows

BD Youth Home International - India and Eddie were selected to represent North and East Region in the FEI Individual Junior Championship class riding for England. We are delighted to say that they won their class both days with plus 70% scores and took the championship.

BHS Exams -

Ride Safe - we ran a silver challenge awards session and are pleased that Jessie and Harriet both passed this exam

BHS Stage 2 and Stage 2 Teach - we are pleased that India passed both of these exams and is now going to be available for lessons

June 2021

British Horse Society Riding Schools Competition 2021 - we held the first of our qualifiers for this competition on 2nd June, congratulations to everyone who qualified through to the next round. We will be holding more qualifiers so there are still chances to qualify - check out details on our website.

Special events, school holiday activities and shows 2021- dates have now been added and are available on the website, just check out the relevant pages and get yourselves booked in!

British Dressage Winter Championships - India and Eddie competed in the Advanced Medium Silver class and finished just outside the top ten in 12th place.

Verity and Izzy competed in the Medium Silver Freestyle and had a positive time gaining experience in the buzzing atmosphere in the indoor school there. Now working on developing a new floor plan and music with the aim of qualifying again next year!

Pole clinics with Alison West - these continue to be very popular and we are now running two a month on a Thursday morning, all dates bookable via Equoevents.

Unaffiliated Dressage Competitions - run once a month on a Thursday morning - book via Equoevents.

British Dressage Affiliated Competitions - run on Mondays usually once a month

Exam Success - congratulations to Harriet, who is one of our apprentices on passing her BHS Stage 2 Care exam.

May 2021

Lessons - It is so lovely to see our clients enjoying their lessons and that we are able to use the indoor school for our adult riders again.

British Dressage - following further easing of lockdown restrictions we were able to go back to warming up in the indoor school and competing in the outdoor, thus enabling us to run long arena tests again. It was lovely to welcome everyone here to compete on both of the May bank holidays.

Horses - We are looking for more horses and ponies to join our team - please get in touch if you have a horse or pony for sale or loan that you think may be suitable for the school.

This month our wonderful Ben (Rabboeni de Haar) went off to his semi-retirement home with a friend of ours. We are delighted to let everyone know that he has settled in and is loving his new life, going off on countryside hacks with the occasional schooling session. He worked in the riding school for 15 years and has provided so many of our clients with the most fabulous learning experience - whether it was their first lesson or an advanced lesson, or to compete - he was successful in affiliated and unaffiliated dressage, university competitions both on the flat and jumping and winner of the BHS riding school competition. He will be sorely missed but so lovely for him to go from us sound and ready for the next chapter.

Very sadly we lost little Holly in May. She was taken ill on the Wednesday with the vet attending straight away but despite the best care she could not be saved. She was kept pain free but had to be PTS on veterinary advice as her condition was only going to decline. She was another long serving member of the Witham Villa team and we are so grateful for all the joy she gave to so many, from learning to ride to again going on and giving first competition experience and getting through to the National finals of the BHS Riding Schools Competition.

Exam Success - we are delighted to announce that our 3 junior apprentices all took and passed their BHS Stage 1 exam. Congratulations to Jessie, Sarah-Jane and Laura.

British Dressage Regional Championships- India and Eddie (Escade) WON their regional class on 70% in Advanced Medium Silver giving them direct qualification to the Winter Championships. Huge congratulations and good luck at the championships at the end of June.

Verity and Izzy (Issey Magic) were 4th in Elementary Gold Freestyle on 69.4%, 5th in Medium Silver Freestyle on 69.72% and 10th in the Medium Silver class. They have now heard that they have been issued a Wild Card to compete in the Medium Freestyle at the Winter Championships at the beginning of July,

Wellington CDI this was the first International competition for India and Eddie and what a wonderful experience to ride at such a prestigious show. They were 6th in the Team test AM92, 9th in the Individual AM96 and then the highlight of the weekend was 4th place in the Freestyle on 72%. We were thrilled with this result especially as this was the first time India had managed to ride through the test to the music and the first time she had ever done a dressage to music competiton! Further to this show they were invited to compete at the Somerford Park Premier League show in the Junior Selectors class for the Europeans, again another very positive experience for them.

April 2021

Easter - We were pleased to be able to run some Junior sessions over the Easter holidays where participants learnt more about looking after their ponies as well as a riding session.

Pony Club - we are delighted that our Monday night Pony Club has been able to re-start, where the children are able to focus on learning more about horses and ponies and how to look after them as well as work on the Pony Club badges and towards the tests. Our new Pony Club Coordinator is Aliina Atkinson and she is very keen to see all of our children make progress within a fun environment.

We hosted a BD Youth Squad Assessment day enabling young riders to get squadded for the coming year. Well done Amelia who gained C+ and India B+

We welcomed a new apprentice, Laura Adderley who has joined us to train for her Modern Apprenticeship and BHS exams.

We have a new horse to join our team - Murphy. He has been showjumped previously and also taken part in general riding events. He has settled in well and enjoys both flatwork and jumping.

In April we made the decision to retire Holly B (Madame Briot) from the riding school. She is 30 this year, although she still thinks she is 3! She will now enjoy a quieter life. She has been amazing in the school over the years and we are so grateful for all she has done for us and all the joy she has given to so many riders.

India and Eddie (Escade) competed at their first BD Premier League show at Keysoe and came 4th in the FEI Junior Individual test (AM 96) with 68.68%. This has then resulted in them being selected to compete at Wellington in the CDI. This is an International show and the pair have now earned their GB Badge! This has been a dream goal and we are thrilled it has been achieved. We wish them good luck at the show in May.

Verity and Izzy (Issey Magic) are back out competing and have qualified for the BD Summer regionals at Medium level.

March 2021

Into the third month of lockdown in March. This period has been so different to the long lockdown last year as the weather has been so cold and wet resulting in very muddy fields and the horses and ponies having to stay in, with turn out only being possible in the schools. We ran on a skeleton staff to look after the horses and keep them fit and well. It was with great relief that we were able to start planning for the re-opening on Monday 29th March. and that we have been able to continue with our groups as before without any further restriction.

Regretfully the Government altered the status of the covered arenas so we are only able to teach adults in the outdoor school to start with although we can teach under 18’s inside! This will be changing again as the country makes further steps out of lockdown. Unfortunately it means we will be unable to run our dressage shows until May when the restrictions will have eased further.

A big thank you to everyone who made a donation to our Just Giving site, it really did make a difference and it was lovely to see the support for the horses.

Since we re-opened on 29th March it has been wonderful to welcome our clients back and to see happy faces and happy horses - they missed you all! One of our adult riders said that they felt like a 5 year old child on Christmas morning when they were getting ready to come. Horses and riding have such a positive effect on all of our mental health.

We started to go out competing again with India and Eddie (Escade) at Newbold Verdon in Advanced Medium 96. It felt a little surreal to be out doing the things we love again. They have the second part of the British Dressage Foundation Camp in April and we look forward to seeing their progress in Juniors.

We are pleased to announce that we will be holding qualifiers for the Midlands Connemara classes in May and June in our unaffiliated Thursday shows - check out the dressage dates page.

We are looking forward to April and hopefully better weather and happy riding!

February 2021

Lessons:- As we reach the end of February we are delighted that the country is to start the journey back out of lockdown. For us here at Witham Villa this will mean that we will be able to initially reopen from Monday 29th March with groups of 5 riders. We will be updating our booking system accordingly over the next few days and as soon as this is done we will be inviting all of our existing clients to rebook . Once this is completed we will know what spaces we have available for any new clients to book in.

Payments:-We will continue to take payment for lessons via BACS. To enable us to update client payment records effectively it is essential that payment is made before the lesson is taken and that the payment reference has the name of the rider, time and date of the lesson. We thank you for your attention to this.

Competitions:- We will also be able to run our British Dressage competitions with the first one being on Easter Monday 5th April. Entries are open for this competition via Horsemonkey.

School Holiday activities:- we will be preparing an Easter Holiday programme which will be announced shortly.

Covid:- When we reopen it will again be with a strict Covid protocol as we have done throughout this pandemic. Everyone’s cooperation with this is greatly appreciated - please ensure you maintain social distancing when you are here and follow all of the government guidelines.

General:- During the current lockdown we have continued to run on a skeleton staff. The bad weather has meant the horses have had to be kept stabled as the fields have got so wet and muddy. Thankfully it is starting to improve and they have loved having some turnout back in the fields over the last few days rather than just in the outdoor school.

Teddy:- has been sold to a lovely private home where we wish him and his new owners every success .for the future.

January 2021

The New Year started full of promise and then from Tuesday 5th January we were all back into Lockdown and riding schools were one of the businesses required to close. Sadly this is despite being an outdoor activity with all required Covid precautions in place. Hopefully now the vaccination programme has been started there will be better times ahead for us all.

Whilst in the first Lockdown the weather was good, now we are in the winter months the weather conditions are poor, leading to very wet ground. This has meant we have not been able to turn out all of the horses as we did before.

Sadly we have had to furlough staff again and are running with the minimum to still ensure the well-being of all of our horses, which is our top priority.

With no riding school income we have once again started a Just Giving page and we are very grateful for all of our wonderful clients and friends that have already supported us through this. If anyone would like to donate towards the horses’ keep then this is the link:- https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/verity-saul?utm_term=Xdgr8r6Kv

We wish all of our clients good health and look forward to welcoming everyone back as soon as we are allowed.

December 2020

It was lovely to be able to get back to teaching again at the end of Lockdown 2 and we were all delighted to be able to welcome our clients back.

The National Final of the BHS Riding Schools Competition went ahead virtually in 2020 - the finalists had to complete their dressage, jumping and stable management competitions here and have them filmed. The videos were then sent off to the BHS for judging. The results were then sent back to the centres and we would like to congratulate our finalists who finished as follows:-

Class 1

14th Bella riding Daisy

Class 2

4th Maddi riding Basil

6th Constance riding Mac

10th Zara riding Harrison

Class 3

3rd Ellie riding Victor

6th Kay riding Harrison

8th Hannah riding Cinders

Class 4

7th Constance riding Mac

9th Maddi riding Basil

13th Hannah riding Holly B

Class 5

2nd Ellie riding Victor

12th Kay riding Harrison

14th Hannah riding Cinders

This resulted in Witham Villa being placed 4th in the team competition

We were delighted that Megan Wevill passed her BHS Stage 2 Teach in December. This completes Megan’s Stage 2 qualifications and she is now working towards Stage 3. Congratulations.

We hope everyone managed to have as good a Christmas as possible and we wish you all a Happy New Year.

November 2020

Well - things didn’t go to plan….. just as we were happily building lessons up again, along came lockdown number 2!

We were very lucky to have held our final BD Competitions of 2020 on 1st and 2nd November before the lockdown and had a lovely two days of competition here . We look forward to welcoming competitors back next year and in the meantime thank you all for choosing to compete here at Witham Villa. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank the judges and writers who come to us and make it all possible.

Verity also managed to fit in a 2 day Covid safe dressage clinic to replace the dressage camp originally planned and enjoyed seeing the progression made by the riders and horses that attended.

Sadly all activity had to cease as we went into lockdown 2. Initial interpretation was that we would be able to continue with one to one lessons but this changed to the Government requirement for all riding schools to close for the lockdown period. Difficult times as the riding school horses do not qualify for furlough! Still, rest assured they are all being kept to the normal high standard of care and will all be ready when we are able to welcome back our clients.

The very welcome news is that we are able to re-open again from Wednesday 2nd December and will be able to run class lessons in both the outdoor school and our covered arena. Strict Tier 3 Covid regulations will apply and we ask all of our clients to be mindful of this to ensure the safety and well-being of everyone. Further details are on the home page of our website.

Please email us at withamvillarc@gmail.com to re-book.

We look forward to once again welcoming everyone back and being able to offer riding lessons to aid the physical and mental well-being for all.