Horse Heaven!

Lily’s Horse Riding

Lily started riding horses when she was about 5, but has always been surrounded by horses. Her favourite part of horse riding is spending time with the horse and all of the opportunities it brings to go to new places with her horse and her cousins. She’s very dedicated to her horse; visiting the yard at least four times a week to check up on things and ride. She loans a horse called Woody and used to share another horse with her cousins. She rides a lot of other horses too every couple of months.

Lily has taken part in competitions with her horse. Her yard hosts them every year and she has won 1st place in agility before. Horse riding is an exhilarating experience but can be scary, falling off or losing a horse is what concerns Lily, because you build trust with a horse and a connection that can be hard to work on after a fall.

Despite these risks, she absolutely loves the hobby and wants to take it further into a professional career. ‘I would like to become a professional showjumper or horse photographer because I can’t imagine myself doing anything else.’

Isabelle’s Horses

Isabelle started horse riding when she was about 3 years old. She took a natural love for it and started going regularly. The scariest thing about starting riding was her first competition, she was really nervous before it started, but as soon as the competition was underway, she was fine. The hardest thing she has encountered is teaching her four year old. It has been challenging and has needed lots of time and patience, but she has learned a lot whilst teaching him.

Her favourite part of looking after her horse is the riding. She loves learning and practicing new things, such as jumping. She has a show jumping lesson every week, learning new skills whilst also teaching her horses.

Isabelle took part in her first competition last year. She entered three classes, two of which were show jumping. She had a lot of fun and came out with a 2nd place and 4th place out of 15 contestants! She is continuing her practice this year and hopes to attend lots more with her horse, Tango.

Having her horse is a great commitment. She has two horses called Scrumpy and Tango. She also rides other horses on the yard to help ‘produce’ them and get them ready to be ridden by their owners. She goes to the yard every day after school and twice a day on a weekend! She rides most days, between the two horses she shares.