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.
Reviews
What they say.
Six reviews, one for each kind of riding, including the four-star one. Collected by an independent platform after a rider's sixth lesson or a livery's first month; we do not choose which appear, and we answer every one.
Collected by a third-party review platform. Children's names used with their parents' permission; surnames left off.
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 boys did a camp week in August and came home filthy, exhausted and talking about nothing else. The Friday show with rosettes was lovely, and Osian got his first Pony Club badge signed off. Packed lunch, wellies in the car for after, and an early night.
Four stars only because the two-hour hack I had booked in February was moved to the top fields because the stream path was flooded, so we missed the wood and the long canter. They told me the day before and offered to move it, which I should have taken. The hour we did have was stunning, and Molly is a dream.
My gelding stopped at every second fence for a year. Rhys watched for ten minutes, changed where I was looking and how I sat in the last three strides, and we jumped a clear round at the end of the third lesson. I trailer him over every fortnight now and it is worth the drive.
About the four stars
The stream path floods. Now we say so when you book.
Laura is right. In a wet February the bottom track along the stream goes under, and the two-hour hack has to stay on the top fields, which means no wood and no long canter. We rang the day before and offered another date, but we should have said it when she booked. Now every winter hack booking comes with a note about the bottom track, and the choice to move it is offered first, not second.
Ride with us? Tell the next rider.
Reviews are collected by an independent platform after a rider's sixth lesson or a livery's first month, and we never pick which appear. Good or not, they stay up, and we answer every one.