The team
Every instructor holds a British Horse Society coaching qualification, an enhanced DBS check and a current first-aid certificate, and teaches the same lessons every week so riders see the same face. The grooms and the office know every horse by name.
Grew up on Cefn Hir, evented to intermediate level in her twenties, and opened the riding school on her parents' farm in 2009 with four ponies and a field. BHS Stage 4 Senior Coach, BHS Accredited Professional Coach, and the person who takes the adult beginners herself. Enhanced DBS, first aid, and she still mucks out on Sundays.
Farms the hill with his brother and runs the yard: the liveries, the grazing, the hay, the fences and the drains. Has known every horse on the yard since it arrived, and most of their owners since they were children. Holds the BHS Stage 3 in care and the lorry licence for the show trips.
In the arena and on the yard
Safety
The British Horse Society inspects the riding school and the livery yard every year: the horses' condition and workload, the tack, the arena, the instructors' qualifications, the first-aid kits and the paperwork.
Riding schools are licensed by the Vale of Glamorgan Council under the animal welfare licensing rules, with a vet's inspection of every school horse. The licence and its star rating hang in the tack room.
Every instructor holds an outdoor first-aid certificate and every groom the equine first-aid course. Accidents, however small, are written in the book and told to the rider or parent before they leave.
Everyone who works with children holds an enhanced DBS check and has done the BHS safeguarding course. Elin is the safeguarding lead, and the policy is on the tack-room wall.
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.