Millhouse Stables
2020
26th November 2020 -
This year has been an unusual one for all of us and we would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your ongoing support & patience, thank you for following the new rules, thank you for understanding when we have had to change a yes to a no at short notice. THANK YOU.
Here's a little video of some fun we had on a blustery Sunday morning. Can you spot who the runners, the non-runner and the high flyers are?
Some friendly faces to help us remember all the things to do during the Covid-19 Epidemic
Wash your hands regularly with soap & water for at least 20 seconds at a time.
Wear gloves whilst handling or riding your pony.
Observe social distancing rules. Please keep at least 2 metres apart from each other
Face masks may be worn, however these are not compulsory.
If you arrive early, please wait in your vehicle until your allocated time.
Clean/disinfect all equipment & tools regularly.
Christmas is Nicola's favourite time of the year (well after her Birthday that is!), and as usual we hold our annual show. This year Anna & Jackie had the task of organising the proceedings, so they decided on variety of classes to test everyones all round skills. We had Dressage & Handy Pony in the morning & 'Jump on Horse, Jump on Foot', Best Trot, Best Canter, Prettiest Horse & Cutest Pony classes in the afternoon.
Of course Jodie had to be our dressage Judge & was assisted by Jo, and our judge for the afternoon classes was none other than our very own Sunshine!
There were some lovely dressage tests, Bella & Coffee Bean were absolutely awesome, & Jodie was very proud of Lilypops & Jake who proved they had been listening in their lessons and rode the best centre line.
It was a close contest for prettiest Horse & Cutest pony as we think they are all gorgeous, however Layla won the horse class & Toby won the pony class.
Their were a few hairy moments in the jumping ring & Sunshine was a little frightened for her life when a couple of riders lost their steering, but the funniest moment has to be watching Ditsy (Nicole) & Emily fight it out for the on horse on foot class. Em's Santa dress swaying as she ran & Ditsys awkward gate were all very amusing, however by about 0.2 of a second Ditsy pipped Em to the post.
A good time was had by all and we donated £85 from the entry fees to the Liv's legs fund.
Here are a few pictures of the day.
2019
Wow, where does the time go?! Almost Christmas once again and yet another busy year. Plenty of pony day fun, lots of shows, a fair few days out cross country schooling and lots & lots of Rain!!
Here at Millhouse Stables we never let the weather get us down, ponies still need riding and we try to keep a smile on our faces even when we are up to our ear holes in mud, however even we have had to admit defeat a couple of times this autumn, we have never seen so much rain! Fingers crossed that the next few months will be much drier.
One bonus of the wet weather is that we discovered this year that coloured horses are like Gremlins, get them wet and they multiply!! We started the year with just 2 coloureds, we now have 5! With the additions of Big John, Eddie & Pie, check out the meet the team page to find out more.
This summer we saw a sad farewell to the much loved Nipper as we waved him over the rainbow bridge, a much loved favourite of you all he has definitely left some big shoes to fill.
We also bid Fizz & Amy farewell as Amy started her college course at Brackenhurst, so she decided that having Fizz at home would be a lot easier. Some of the girls have met up with them both and we can report that both are doing fine.
We would like you to join us in congratulating Victoria on obtaining her BHS PTT teaching award, BHS Stage 3 Dressage Rider award, Stage 2 Complete Horsemanship award.
Victoria has been riding with us since she was 5 years old, and it has been and continues to be a great pleasure watching you grow and develop your skills as a rider & instructor. You used to be this shy little thing who 'wouldn't say boo to a goose', now you are a confident young woman who is teaching the future generations (& us older ones too!), it is safe to say that we are really proud of you Vics.
We are always so proud of our little family, whether it be a once a week client who has finally mastered the rising trot or who has pushed their comfort zone and tried a new/horse or pony, or one of our liveries who has been out competing and improved a dressage score or not knocked so many poles down this time!.
It doesn't matter how big or how small your achievement, what matters is you did it!
If you would like to share with us pictures of your achievements you can email us at muckheap@live.co.uk and we will give you a mention on our next update.
So while we are on the subject of being proud of our students, we would like to say how proud we are of our 'Sunshine'. Back in August Olivia (Sunshine), went to sleep like any other night not knowing that this night would change her life as she knew it. At around 3 am Sunshine woke up to the feeling of 'pins & needles' in her legs, worried an ambulance was called and Sunshine had to undergo emergency surgery. She had suffered a spontaneous bleed on her spine, no reason for it just one of those things, the surgery removed the Haematoma that resulted from the bleed however she was now left paraplegic. Sunshine has spent 108 days in hospital and is now finally home, however for her to be able to carry on independently there are many items of equipment, and alterations to her new home that need to be made in order for her to do this.
We have raised money for her by selling pumpkins, partaking in a pub quiz (surprisingly we weren't that bad), & we will be attending the 'Liv's Legs Ball.
On searching through photo's of Sunshine to share with you she has always got a smile on her face, reminding me of why we call her Sunshine, none of us can imagine how hard this has been for her and we know that her famous smile may have been forgotten but hopefully now we will see more of it and maybe not this year, but next, she will be back causing havoc on the Christmas Day Hack & organising our Christmas show.
We are well and truly into 2019 and what a great winter we have had so far, despite the weather. We've welcomed some new horses and a new instructor, see our meet the team page. As usual our Christmas pony days & half term pony days have been a huge hit, thank you to all for your continued support with these, that goes for clients and helpers alike.
Our annual Christmas show once again was a great hit, plenty of giggles and lots of memories made.
It is with great sadness that we had to wave our beautiful Bo over the rainbow bridge. Our wonkey donkey defied all the odds over the years with her various health issues, but after taking a turn for the worse one evening we had to make the heart breaking descision to say goodbye. So many of you have such fond memories of her and we thank you for all your kind words and memories that you have shared since her passing. Bo Bo you were one in a million, sleep tight beautiful xx
On a brighter note, we encouraged some of the girls to enter the interdressage competitions, and what fantastic results we had, especially from the girls who had never competed in dressage before. You can view some of our entries by clicking on the youtube link below.
We have also added a new blog from Nicole, affectionately known as Ditsy, to our blog page, please click on the heading above to see what she has to say about our winter fun.
We will leave you now with a collection of photos from our various events, these are just a small selection and we're sorry if we have missed anyone out as there were far too many to choose from!
