Jingle Bells

The ponies at work are putting up with our christmas spirit pretty well, and the clients and children certainly enjoy it!

Early Xmas Spirit

Some more photos of Smartie, but this time, they're Christmas-y! Alice wanted to dress him up for when he takes one of the regulars on their pony ride. Doesn't he look adorable!

Sunset Smartie

Friday was such a lovely evening, we took Smartie on a little hack around the wood for some nicely lit photos. He behaved wonderfully and enjoyed standing about in the sunlight.

On The Look Out

The Somerset Six are now ready to move out to new homes!

"Over the summer, White Horse Stables horse rescue took in six young, unhandled, wild ponies rescued down in Somerset. There are two youngsters and four that are older (around 3 and 4 years old) They are now all broke to the headcollar and trusting when handled both inside and out of the stable. They would all make fair riding ponies, though Delilah has a trot that would look devine under a ladies cart, and Maggie would make a cracking event pony. Contact Ellenwhorne EC (Tel: 01580 831 266) for more information."

Schooling Smartie

A little video of Alice and Smartie over the past week. He's going through his final stages of prep before starting to earn his keep in the riding school, though Alice will continue schooling him as a "project pony" between his lesson days.

Lesson Time

Our usual instructor, Nicky, is away diving over this weekend, so Michelle stepped up to give us our lesson yesterday. We worked through stretches and a warm up, before working over canter poles in both 3-point and forward seats. Jodie is riding Bronte, Alice is riding Robert, and Sam is on Bluey.

And here is a little video of the main part of the lesson (not the best quality, but you'll get the gist)

Lunging Smartie

Today is usually booked off as a 'relax' day for the horses, meaning that no lessons are booked, which led to there being some spare time after lunch. We had been meaning to lunge Smartie over some jumps for a few days now, and so we made use of the empty arena! Alice began with a nice warm up, with even and controlled walk and trot (and some slightly less controlled canter) before Jodie picked up the rein and took him up to the jumps. Smartie is terribly unfit and not usually the most athletic, but he made a good effort over the fences, possible 'working hunter' classes in his future?

Rain Coats

Now that the weather's getting worse, the ponies are spending more and more time in their stables. And then, when they do get to go out, they have to wear their snuggley turnout rugs. 

BHS Prog. Riding 5 & 6

Today, 4 members of staff passed their BHS Progressive Riding 5 & 6, meaning they have achieved the BHS Stage 1 qualification!

Moving Stables

Yesterday, we moved Sadie and Delilah, two of the 'Somerset Six', up onto the main yard to join Dotty. The aim is to integrate them with the horses that live on the busier main yard, and to get them used to being around different horses and workers all day. They're still being turned out with the other three overnight (weather permiting) but they seem to be settling well to their new routine.

Here are some snaps of Sadie waiting to come in. She's got a very pretty little face! You can find out more about the 'Somerset Six' here.

Ear Warmers

Today, whilst trying to take a semi-serious picture of Dylon, he ended up wearing a mis-matched pair of socks as slightly unusual earwarmers! He wasn't overly impressed by this, though Alice seems to think it's the best thing ever ..

Fig Havin' Fun

To kick off the new blog, I thought I'd share these photos of La Figaro (more commonly known as Fig) I snapped earlier today as he had a little leg stretch in the field. Now the fields are getting a little more muddy and slippy, we tend to limit the amount of time the bigger horses are turned out for. Fig evidently made good use of his turn out time, promptly rolling in the muddiest patch, and then taking a long canter up the field!

A Warm Welcome

Krystal, being nosy!

Why, hello there! Seems you have stumbled onto the new Ellenwhorne Equestrian Centre blog! This is a separate affair from the official EEC website, and also from the White Horse Rescue. This is a staff-run site for sharing day-to-day stories, photos, and updates of all the goings-on on the yard.

Please bare with us as we try to organize the site and add more pages. Soon it should shape up nicely. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy the running insight into our little world!

- the EEC staff xo