Riding school & livery · Llancarfan
Lessons from four years old on fourteen school horses and ponies, adult beginners from scratch, pony days, livery, and four miles of farm tracks with no road to cross.
Next children's group with a place: tomorrow at 10:00am. Next adult beginner slot: tomorrow at 1:00pm.
Riding
01
Lead-rein lessons from four, children's groups of four riders for walkers, trotters, canterers and jumpers, and private lessons for the nervous and the keen. The same instructor and the same pony each week. From £32 for thirty minutes on the lead rein.
From £32 for a thirty-minute lead-rein lesson.
02
For adults who have never ridden, or who stopped at twelve and want to start again: a course of six thirty-minute private lessons on one of the school cobs, then adult groups of four on weekday evenings and Sunday mornings. £255 for the course, £45 for a group hour.
£255 for six private thirty-minute lessons, or £48 for one.
03
Lessons on your own horse with one of our BHS coaches: flatwork, gridwork and courses, a horse that naps or rushes, or getting a young horse going. Bring your horse in the trailer or hack over from a nearby yard. £40 for 45 minutes, the arena included.
£40 for 45 minutes, the arena and the jumps included.
04
In the school holidays: pony days from 9:30am to 3:30pm for riders from six to fourteen, with a riding lesson, a hack or a games session, grooming, feeding and mucking out, and a quiz on the bench at lunch. £85 a day or £375 for a five-day camp week.
£85 a day, 9:30am to 3:30pm, lunch brought from home.
05
Eighteen stables in two blocks, summer grazing in post-and-rail paddocks, winter turnout on the hill fields, the floodlit arena and the covered school, and four miles of farm tracks. DIY £45 a week, part livery £115, full livery £185, with the spaces left shown live.
DIY £45 a week, part livery £115, full livery £185, all with stable, grazing, the arena and the tracks.
06
Hacks on four miles of our own farm tracks and field headlands, with views across the Vale to the Bristol Channel, and no road to cross. An hour at walk and trot for riders who can steer and stop, or two hours with canters up the long field for experienced riders. From £50.
£50 for an hour at walk and trot; £85 for two hours with canters, experienced riders only.
The school horses
Welsh Section A, grey, 22
Lead rein and the nervous: has not hurried since 2015 and does not intend to start.
Welsh Section B, bay, 14
Lead rein and first groups: forward, honest, and very good at finding the last carrot.
Dartmoor cross, dun, 16
Children's groups and pony days: the first canter for half the children in the Vale.
Connemara, grey, 12
Jumping groups and teenagers: careful, scopey, and honest to a fence.
Irish cob, piebald, 15
Adult beginners up to fifteen stone: unflappable, broad and kind.
Welsh Section D, chestnut, 11
Adult groups and hacking: forward on the tracks, sensible in the arena.
How we teach
School horses work no more than three hours a day and never two lessons in a row in the heat. If a horse is tired, sore or not himself, he does not work, and your lesson moves to another horse or another day.
Hats and boots are checked at the mounting block every time. Nobody canters until they can stop at trot, and nobody jumps until they can canter a circle in balance. It is slower, and it is why our riders stay on.
Your child rides with the same instructor on the same day each week, and on the same pony until they are ready for a change. Progress is written on the yard board, and parents can ask about it any time.
The yard sits on a hill farm with sheep in the next field and tractors on the lane. Horses live out in the summer and in at night in winter. Riders learn about all of it, not just the hour in the saddle.
Livery
A stone barn of twelve and a timber block of six, summer paddocks, winter turnout on a hill that drains, our own hay, a floodlit arena, a covered school and the farm tracks. The stables free today, and the ones where notice has been given:
Hats and boots
Every rule at the mounting block has a reason. A hat to the current standard, because heads do not mend. Boots with a heel, because a foot that slides through the stirrup is how people are dragged. A body protector for the young and for jumping. We lend hats free for the first three lessons.
Riders and parents
Nia started on Pip at four, clutching the front of the saddle. She is nine now, cantering Dandy in the Saturday group and telling me how to pick out a hoof. Ffion has taught her every week for three years. The day she let go of the saddle was the best thirty minutes I have ever spent on a bench.
Fifty-three, sixteen stone when I rang, and Elin told me straight that I needed to lose a stone before she could put me on Major. I did, and I am glad she was honest. Six lessons later I was trotting round the arena; a year later I hack every Sunday. Best thing I have done since I stopped smoking.
Moved my mare here from a big yard near Cardiff and the difference is the people. Dai knows every horse by its breakfast. The hill fields drain so the mare is out most of the winter, the hay is good, and nobody has ever borrowed my grooming kit without asking.
The farm
Cefn Hir is a working hill farm with sheep in the next field and a view to the Bristol Channel. The yard has a 40 by 20 metre arena, a covered school, a viewing bench, a toilet and a kettle. About 25 minutes from Cardiff and 15 from Barry.
Lead-rein lessons £32 for thirty minutes, children's groups £36 for 45 minutes, private lessons £42 for thirty minutes, adult groups £45 for an hour, jumping groups £48, own-horse lessons £40. VAT included, no joining fee and no block to buy.
At four on the lead rein, and in a group from seven. Every new rider has a private lesson first so we can match the pony to the rider.
Yes. Our cobs carry riders up to fifteen stone (95kg) including hat and boots, and our ponies less. We ask privately when you book, because it decides which horse you ride.
Long trousers, boots with a small heel and gloves. We lend a hat for the first three lessons and body protectors whenever they are needed. The lessons page explains why each rule exists.
The livery page shows the stables free now by type, and the ones where notice has been given with the date they come free. DIY from £45 a week, part £115, full £185.
Cefn Hir Farm, a mile and a quarter up the lane from Llancarfan church in the Vale of Glamorgan, CF62 3AD. About 25 minutes from Cardiff and 15 from Barry.
Tell us the rider's age and what they can do now and we suggest the lesson and the next day with a place. Every new rider starts with a private lesson so we can choose the right horse. Or ring Sian in the office.
