We Offer:

• Free Assessment
  Bring your horse to our Yard, for a no obligation assessment. Contact us for more details.
  
  
• Handling

  We believe that before a horse is backed it should be happy to be groomed, tied up, to load, and to be attended to by the farrier. We can help with this.

• Breaking – your horse will be lunged, long reined and loose schooled. We will ensure that suitable tack is used and check that the horse is physically developed enough before we move onto backing, riding in the school and going out for short hacks. You can then, depending on the horses' maturity either turn it away or continue light work back at your own yard.

• Schooling - for the recently backed horse, we introduce him to self carriage, smooth transitions and basic pole and cavelliti work. We can also cover road work in the quiet lanes around the farm.

• Join us at any stage

It may be that you would want to do some of the work before you come to us, or perhaps you have become 'stuck 'and would like the reassurance of experienced riders and some help as you progress. Every stage can be catered for.

• Any size pony or horse

• Problem horses and ponies.
  We can work with you to address a range of problems such as refusal to load, napping, traffic shy, refusal to jump and general misbehaviour. Often in these cases it is necessary to work both on the partnership of the horse and the rider. A combined programme of schooling for the horse and lessons for the rider on the horse often yields the best results.
  

Care of Your Horse

Your horse will be stabled with daily turn out in post and rail paddocks with a quiet companion.

Your Role

You are welcome to and encouraged to visit your horse and attend schooling sessions. We are happy for you to play a small or large role in breaking and schooling, taking advantage of the facilities we have here. Accommodation can be arranged in our self catering cottages.

Our Riders

We are justly proud of our staff and their 'can do ' attitude. They have access to experienced and accredited trainers and frequent lessons. They will always put the horses first – for example, if they were due to carry out a first backing on a hot day, then they would wait until the evening when it was cooler.

They believe and practice reward when the horse has made an effort.

Our riders are fit and 'nimble'. They have soft hands and are gentle but effective riders.

Most of all they enjoy what they do.

Our Facilities

Please click on the 'Equestrian Centre' picture on the right to learn more about our facilities.

Our Philosophy

We will learn about your horse before we break him. He may be a quick learner, a nervous type, or one with attitude – we treat every horse as an individual and their training programme is revisited after every session.

                    November 2011 William

William was bred from Mikes foundation mare Oakfield Rococco, who competed at BE Intermediate level before retiring to stud, with the intention of producing a coloured sporthorse with the potential to keep entire. Mike decided to use the fantastic stallion Country Lone Ranger for his proven competition history in the show ring and his exceptional grading achievements along with his high percentage of coloured progeny to date. William is now 3 years old and this not very good photograph shows the excellent progress he is making in our indoor school. William was first backed in late October 2011 and this photograph shows our trainer Liane on him 2 weeks later trotting on different reins in the school.

                                   Mellow

Mellow is a delightful young cob gelding recently imported from Ireland. He is very willing and eager to please but easily spooked and nervous. He has come to us on a programme to give him confidence and get him going safely in traffic and out and about on his own. We have gone back to basics with lunging and long reining, before doing some ridden work with a schoolmaster.

Mellow is now progressing to more demanding flatwork. His pace transitions are coming on very well. When we are satisfied that Mellow has made sufficient progress he will be for sale later this year or early next.

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DUCHESS

Duchess is an Irish Draught mare that was brought to us as an unbroken youngster for backing and schooling in August 2010. She stayed with us for about 9 months and the pictures below tell her story during that time.

Duchess arrives with her owner in August 2010. She looks very much the unbroken filly in this picture

Our trainer Rachael can be seen here in September 2010 starting to work Duchess in our Arena.

In October 2010, Duchess has been backed and is progressing very well. Both us at Hurstwood and her owners are very pleased with her progress.

Duchess progresses to more varied work outside the Arena.

During the winter of 2011, Duchess continues with her schooling developing her paces, her physical strength and responsiveness to the aids.

In the spring Duchess is now strong and mature enough to try her hand at jumping. As can be seen in 6 months she has put on strength and weight, looking more like the draught horse she is than an immature filly.

And here we have her looking very pretty for her first show of the summer! She achieved a very creditable placing in a highly competitive class judged very much on condition. The green grass of our paddocks in the background will have had a lot to to with that!

ROSIE - ANOTHER CUSTOMER

Rosie is a 6 year old cob mare that has hunted regularly and also been used to pull a trap but has never had any formal schooling. The pictures show her here being schooled in the Arena by a member of Hurstwood staff. Very quickly she has become a better balanced and more responsive ride.

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Tom Thumb

Tom Thumb is a stunning 13hh part bred Welsh Section B pony that had a bit of a difficult start in life. He was bought as an unbroken 2 year old for a 10 year old girl. He was then backed but proved too lively for the girl and subsequently did not do very much for a couple of years. In July 2010 he came to Hurstwood for schooling. One of the problems in bringing on a pony such as this is finding a rider with the requisite skills but is not too heavy.

Initially we went backed to basics with a schooling programme and gradual exposure to different and more demanding environments.

After some months one of our younger trainers, Jessie McCann took Tom Thumb under her wing and he has come on enormously, with his first showing experience at Oakwood earlier this year with Jessie's younger sister Becca on board. At Oakwood, Tom achieved a second place in the Pony Club Pony riding class.

A couple of months later Jessie took Tom to Plumpton for his first exposure to a dressage test, where he achieved very creditable results, given that this was his first ever dressage test. The results can be seen here and here.

August 2011

Most recently Jessica took Tom to Beechenwood Farm show and entered into the Riding Pony class and the in-hand class. He performed superbly all day from the initial trouble free boxing up and achieved a 1st in the Riding Pony class a 2nd in the in hand class and was made show Reserve Champion. A really excellent result for a pony that was too difficult to ride a year ago!

Tom Thumb is for sale to the right person who can continue his development and fully enjoy this smashing little character.

Tom continues his development back at Hurstwood Farm and his jumping is now coming on very well

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