Helena Bissex
Livvy Linares
Emily Pattison
Phoebe Goodale

Our second team managed a respectable third which was an outstanding result as they were unexpectedly one man down.

Laura Pattison
Daniel Winnett
Hayley Horsman

A serious well done to one and all, including the dedicated team managers – Jane Bissex and Diane Goodale. 

The Winnint Team - Livvy, Helena, Emily & Phoebe

The Team Mascot!Third Placed Team of Daniel, Laura and Hayley

Third Placed Team of Daniel, Laura and Hayley

For us at Lavant we have to be extremely reactive to our climate, sometimes pretty much on an hourly basis.  Whilst we are certainly lucky to be in the unusual position in the over-crowded and expensive south east to have such a lot of well draining acres that permits our horses to live outside as nature intended, 24/7, this status certainly provides us with some challenges when the weather throws its most extreme at us.

Horsey happenings …..
Due to the past couple of scary “Ice Age” winters, this year we proactively decided to keep all of our older horses in at night as they do struggle with retaining weight and therefore body heat if the conditions turn arctic.  However this then caused a problem when one of my horses, Pepper needed to come in due to a foot infection.

So with a little bit of imagination I decided the best route was to chuck every inorganic item (bar soft furnishings!) out of our barn so that this then became Pepper’s “suite” – there are not many horses I would stable-up in a barn full of rugs, bales of straw and other items that to most equines represent a serious health hazard!

Owner of Elite Livery, Robbie, Hayley Horsman, has decided to stretch her learning skills even further by taking on a half-share in our five-year-old pure bred Spanish mare Amora.  Well done Hayley, between your two young horses your horsemanship skills will progress in leaps and bounds.

The hugely popular Roma has now come back on to the market if anyone is looking for a good all round horse to have here with us as a livery, as her long-term owner Nathalie (Hyman) is awaiting with much anticipation her new all-singing and all-dancing competition horse called Squiggles, who is travelling down to us from Scotland as we speak.

Another movement on the horsey front is Squirrel who has been out on trial for a couple of weeks at a hunting home which is now reaching fruition and having not heard a squeak, other than how delightful he has been, we are hoping that he has now found an experienced home more suited to his platonic nature.  If so this is a pony who has always landed on his hooves, as he has to date only ever been cared for by professionals.

& What else it going-on (or should be?)! ……..
And what about all the things I should have done by now and haven’t – much to (office) Holly’s frustration?  First off the annual planner of all the activities for the kids (and adults too of course) for 2012 – apologies and judging at just how well this coming half-term has filled up this programme is clearly sorely needed.  I suspect Lauren and Holly will snatch this responsibility out of my hands before much longer.

Then there are the building development plans.  Well yes I have in fact done a bit about this – mostly thinking!  The result is I just don’t want to invest so much money in one bespoke building (the planned and very large indoor school) so I am now returning to the tenders and asking for quotes for an off-the-shelf building that is close to the size of a standard sized riding arena.  Monies saved can then be used for the multitude of other plans I have, such as the cross-country course, an internal hacking route just within our boundary, field shelters in every field, electric field fencing replaced with wildlife-attracting hedgerows, hard standing tracks leading to every field and every field having hard standing gateways – to name just a few of the things I have planned!

And on a more productive note let me introduce you to our stalwart Pony Club team quiz members.  This year we will be sporting two teams for the regional finals due to be held in West Meon on the 18^th February.  Division of teams and team titles have yet to be decided, but with the amount of swotting that has been going on, very ably overseen by Mrs Diana Goodale and Mrs Jane Bissex, I suspect we are going to have some pretty positive results like last year!

So the very best of luck to our trusty quiz representatives who are: -

Helena Bissex
Ellie Finn
Phoebe Goodale
Hayley Horsman
Livvy Linares
Emily Pattison
Laura Pattison
Daniel Winnett

And finally …….
We were privileged to have Fellow of the British Horse Society, Robert Pickles, return to us for the new year on Thursday 2nd February to provide a full day of staff development.  Consequently all of us are now geared up for 2012 achievements – both in the examination and competition sectors and we look forward to Robert’s return in early March.

Thank you for your attention in this matter.

Lucy Thomson

On the subject of activities for the rest of the year, Lauren is definitely on a roll and coming up with some really inspiring ideas for both child and adult events, so hopefully once this programme finally lands in your lap it will be something worth having a look at.

Glorious hacking-out …….
As I have sort of started riding again just to help my daughter out with the time-consuming element of riding-out three horses to get them fit, I have now galvanized everyone else into taking a serious look at making better use of the fabulous hacking-out opportunities around us.  It is ridiculous to think that I used to box my competition horses up from my Arundel base in order to use the marvelous bridleways around Lavant yet here I am, now based in this same location and we barely make any use of this wonderful natural heritage around us.

So I am reintroducing my daughter and my staff to areas we can ride to easily from here within a two hour radius – both to the east and the west.  I had forgotten just how exciting the riding out opportunities are here and the views are unbelievable – being able to see Portsmouth Spinnaker Tower to the west and looking down over Goodwood Racecourse to the west – with lots of cantering which certainly helps the appeal for me!

Goodwood Racecourse through Quinn’s Ears

Because of our own interest in Hunting, hacking is also becoming an increasing important area of supply for us because our riders have to be highly competent in this area before joining the hunting field.  With the single annual Meet due to be held at Goodwood mid-February I suspect there are going to be a lot of liveries furiously out hacking between now and then in order seriously up their control skills!

Actually if the truth be told, it really got to me dropping my daughter and whoever else off at the Meets and having to follow on foot if to watch at all.  Thankfully something has finally sparked my interest enough to make me want to get back in the saddle again.  I had just better make sure I stay there because a fall is going to leave a serious dent in the ground!

And on the final bit about Hunting, here are some fabulous professional photos of the Christmas Eve hunt held at Coombelands.  I just had to have the remarkable shot of the hounds’ bums!  And can you spot Evelyn and Eddie behind Amelia in one of these shots?

Happy Hounds!

Pepper/Amelia, Evelyn/Eddie, Jess/Bluebell

Looks like Amelia is dozing off ……

Our lovely liveries ……
On the 21^st we held probably the best-attended ever quarterly Livery Meeting to which I was shamefully late (story of my life) but thankfully which my three key staff: Jade, Lauren and (office) Holly, ran with productive aplomb.  Our liveries in particular are the ones that often produce the very best ideas of how we can improve what we do, so I reckon these meetings are more beneficial for us rather than our horse-owners!  Continuing the subject already mentioned regarding hacking, first on the cards is to introduce a regular “Livery Hack”.  Our child livery owners are becoming such competent riders now it is nearly killing their poor parents who are taking them out, usually on foot or a bike, over an ever increasing radius, which obviously includes steep hills and sometimes mud.

Jacqui King and her son Dylan are now the proud owners of Silver and it is a privilege to see how much Jacqui and our other new owner Lizzie (with Bluebell) are enjoying themselves with their horses.  This is the magic of horses of course – that thrill and companionship that is unique to the human/horse relationship, that special something that Michael Morpurgo so richly brought alive with his writing of War Horse and is so ably demonstrated again in the stage and film adaption of this book.  Just for once this is not a facetious comment.

Squirrel has gone off on trial with view to purchase into a hunting home for an 8 year old girl to enjoy.  As this is an ideal home for him and an ideal pony for this child I will be very surprised if he returns.

It also looks like both Amorio and Roma may become available shortly either to loan or purchase, so if you think you may be interested, now would be a good time to stake your claim as these two tend to find new owners immediately.

And now the boring bits ……
Apologies to parents and pupils from Lavant House School who now have to unceremoniously hoik themselves over the fence to get to us from the school grounds as all pedestrian access points have now been blocked.  This is for two reasons, and I hope those affected will understand the inconvenience.  Firstly it is stop my dogs following their liked humans onto the school grounds and secondly to deter delivery drivers from using the school car park for their vehicles simply because it is that bit closer to the centre of operations than our own.

This ploy certainly worked well for a couple of weeks on the dogs, but dogs being dogs will find another way around, especially when they are rewarded for this effort, and it appears they have succeed judging by the latest hostile missive received.  The deliveries were a different story, starting with complaints followed by what resembled high speed car chases through our car park and even worse on occasions into the yard itself – hence the signs.  I loathe signage with a vengeance, especially in the countryside, so hopefully these temporary signs will not be necessary for much longer, especially once most of the drivers have been verbally knocked around by me …….

Finally, a riddle for you ……
What do our weekly riders Jacky McPherson, Sam West and Kate O’Donovan have in common?  If you think you know the answer let Holly know on riding@lhstables.co.uk.

Liveries & lessons ……
So where to start?  How about the surprisingly huge surge in interest of both lessons and livery during the past three months?  We are now as busy every day of the week as we were before the recession bit.  We have quadrupled our livery base in just two years, and welcome our latest recruits Jenny Lane/Travis plus Lizzie Douglas/Bluebell who have both just opted onto our Perfect Partners loan scheme.

On the sales front, Bally, Silver and Squirrel are all under negotiation to purchase.  So this means there are very few horses or ponies left here to either loan or buy – which is a huge relief for but possibly not a sentiment that will be reflected amongst those who are dithering about taking the next step, i.e. some type of horse ownership.  Please don’t be put off, still do give us the nod and we will make sure you are kept informed, guaranteed to be without any pressure of obligation.

Staff & students …..
Out in the Chiddingfold and Leconfield Hunting field it is a pleasure to find three of our male adult clients taking up a serious interest.  So good luck to you Mark, Geoff and Joe, just make sure you keep up updated and we want any photos of the field you get please!

Another active area within our livery client base at the moment is mother of Bethany Stonefrost (Pebbles) Anne Christie.  Anne is supplying an interesting narrative to the Daily Telegraph regarding parental participation in their child’s chosen sport, initially to develop common ground before finding themselves equally hooked!

In the last week we have also welcomed Jo Saunders as another full-time member of staff, necessary to expand our team due to daily business demands.

In many ways Jo is quite definitely a fairy tale for us.  Initially one of the first and youngest members of our club (which started in 2001), as a teenager Jo progressed on into horse ownership before taking the next step on leaving school into higher education relating to equine management ……. and now here Jo is back with us again to top up her degree with a teacher-training qualification.

Staff trainer Amanda Kruger has been off this week with the horrific-sounding vomiting bug predominantly found in hospitals.  All I can say about this is I hope my staff react with as much concern if I am absent due to sickness as they did upon learning Amanda’s plight ….. Doubtful of course, the only throwing up likely to happen in this event is their hands ….. in glee …… on discovering I am (temporarily)  absent.

Thank-you gifts ……
Two generous clients donated a nice cash sum to the staff over Christmas which my team are wisely using to go en masse to see the cinema version of War Horse.  So a big thank you to the Lane and Attwood families – your generosity is about to be both appropriately used and certainly much appreciated by us all.

So phew, what next?  The team continue to do a fantastic job looking after the horses, the people and the business whilst Office Holly continues to blossom and expand her wings showing remarkable capabilities in many areas.  With Lauren working hard on our latest project to provide lesson plans/goal setting for all of our 300+ weekly clients, Holly didn’t flinch when presented with Lauren’s rough version and slapped on my desk today a solid and useful prototype to follow in order to take this innovation forward.  This innovation that may not appear to be much in most sports sectors but certainly is a big step in ours because there is no-one else to follow and it is a bit like re-inventing the wheel – i.e. we know it can go around and make things easier, but what are all the component parts that make this happen?

Well on that salutary thought I will leave you for this week, let (office) Holly get hold of this text to painfully cut and slice it into some sort of grammatical order and look forward (?!?!) to whatever this forthcoming week holds.

NB ….
Oops meant to add this fab photo Holly took of my dogs when I dared to get back on a horse again resulting in their being shut in the office.  Sadly no Pearl (the black one), and yes, Bruce’s head really is this big if you haven’t already seen him in the flesh!

BB, Poochie, Bruce & Calvin

Happenings over the New Year …….
Over the New Year weekend I went off with my family and a load of mates to stay in London– which I definitely recommend for the New Year celebrations if you haven’t already done this – but the purpose of mentioning this, is we also went and saw War Horse.

Oh my goodness, I came out of the theatre absolutely stunned, so if you haven’t seen it you absolutely must.  To start with I thought, golly this is good, what fantastic puppets.  Ten minutes later I wanted to say to one of the stage props: don’t do that you will frighten the horses – and this is a reaction from someone who has spent her entire waking (and sleeping) life with horses.  So enthralling is this production that it transports you full-force into the fantasy.  Thankfully I proved tough enough not start bawling until near the very end although my friend beside me was well away even before the interval …….

It was impossible not to liken some of the key characters to animals here and we decided Joey was definitely Pepper, Topform was quite apparently the arrogant and magnificent Salt and Goose was a mirror species of Two Stroke – if you have seen this play you will understand what I mean about likening Goose to our donkey.

However our arrival at the theatre was an altogether different experience and resembled something of a farce.  Having purchased tickets from the National Theatre, after a leisurely lunch we arrived some five minutes before the play was due to start to be informed it was actually being held at the Drury Lane Theatre, one and half miles away …… with military precision we streamed en masse from one theatre, flagged taxis that seemed to magically appear in front of us, as the usually clogged London traffic parted before us and all six of us plopped down in our (correct) theatre seats just as the lights dimmed.  Queuing during the interval I was treated like something of a celebrity by the others due to the last-minute timing of our entrance!

Michael Morpurgo, the author of War Horse, was the entertaining guest speaker at one of Amelia’s school Speech Days several years back which was just as his book was about to hit the stage.  I could kick myself for not buying one of the signed copies of his book at the time – so another lesson to be learnt here too (along with reading your theatre tickets more carefully).

An unbelievable experience this stage production – I couldn’t bear for anyone to miss it – and especially so as it promotes interest in horses, which also has to be good for business!

Other going ons ……..
So whilst I was gallivanting off, my team continued to slave away in my absence, battling this ghastly virus that seems to sweeping its way through everybody. However I am glad to report their poor health didn’t affect their appetites as proven by how they managed to sweep through the mountain of donated Christmas goodies like a bunch of locusts.  Whilst I am well used to their hearty appetites, (office) Holly was mesmerized by just how fast they could consume such vast quantities of delicacies within a matter of days.

To welcome in the New Year we held our first 2012 Pony Club competition which Lauren cleverly themed around the Olympics with gold, silver and bronze medals being awarded.  With a record number of competitors we were blessed with a single day of good weather between two horrendous ones.  Well done to our prizes winners as shown below.

From left to right: -
Back row: Phoebe Johnson, Evelyn Sadler, Ella Guimaraens, Laura Pattison, Hayley Horsman, Bella Boulton, Ella Quarrey, Molly Brooks & India Boulton
Front row: Eve Jolly, Lily delacy, Bethany Stonefrost & Leyla Smith

On the subject of activities, yes I know I have not yet done the programme for 2012 and will be getting on to this today with Lauren’s and Holly’s help along with Diane (Goodale) who kindly oversees the Pony Club for us now.  Come on, it would ruin my reputation if I was on time for everything!

If there is anything anyone would particularly like to see in the kids’ annual programme (or adults’ for that matter), do let us know ASAP – we always welcome new and novel ideas.  I am also trying to come up with a type of Customer Loyalty Discount for those who regularly participate in the activities – we tried supplying the fifth day free during 2010 but this was a headache to administer, so I need to come up with something easier to promote and track.  Again any ideas do let me have them please.

Horsey happenings ……
We usually find there is an uptake in purchasing/loaning ponies as Christmas presents, but this year for the first time this was not the case.  What has proven unusual is the activity of horse sales/loans during just the past week with five possible ownerships currently under discussion.  When you consider there are probably no more than twenty of these over the year you will understand just how unusual this is.  What I find interesting from this development is it underlines the different way people now decide to make important purchases since the recession – which is with careful forethought rather than emotively.

(Office) Holly D wrote her thesis on pronunciation so I now have to be really careful how I write these blogs as Holly pounces on it as soon as I publish it live and goes through it with a fine toothcomb (plus lots of tutting) correcting my errors as swiftly as possible.  It’s like being back at school – I can just imagine Holly with a red biro – I bet she is already feverishly editing this blog even before she has got to this final paragraph!

Here’s wishing everyone a really fabulous 2012.

Height: 14.2hh
YOB: 2002
Gender: Gelding
Colour:  Black
Breed: Irish Sports Pony
Owner: Ella & Hannah Quarrey

Suitably named, this lovely, quality pony has British Show Jumping winnings and has proved the perfect match for sisters Ella & Hannah.  On Elite Livery he can also be ridden by our better riding school pupils to help keep him exercised.

Blackie & Ella 2.1.12

Having just found a load of pictures on our work’s digital camera I thought it would be fun to share some of these with you.

Mary Jane's Creation!

Calvin & Sam getting cosy!

Mud Glorious Mud ……
Pepper came in from the field the other day literally covered from head to foot in mud, there was not a clean inch to be seen anywhere, he even had mud in his eyes!  Pepper also posed for a “War Horse” branding head shot, complete with pancake make-up!

Could he have got any muddier?

Pepper's Interpretation of War Horse!

Then there was my little American Eskimo Dog, Calvin, whose back half only got bowled over in the mud by my Ridgeback, Bruce – he looks deformed, but in fact it shows you just how tiny his little frame is under his plush coat!

Isn't he cute?

Half a dog!

Christmas for Lavant House Stables is one of our busiest periods of the year with lots of activities being held for the children plus additional goings-ons linked to celebrating the festive season.  Christmas Day and Boxing Day are the only two days we officially “shut” although this is a bit of a misnomer because our horses still need caring for, which is carried out by a reduced team over the two days.  This is organised and consequently carried out with military precision to ensure everything gets done to our usual high standards but without any staff having to be here any longer than necessary.

The week before Christmas we had a well attended and definitely quite electric Christmas Camp for the children – who were kept thoroughly occupied and under control (not always easy with the building excitement of Christmas Day looming) for the full five days.  Jade carried out her usual excellent impression of Santa Claus on the final day and Holly will publish shortly the results of the competitions held during this week, plus the winner of our Christmas Hat competition held during the week for all Group Members.  A big well done to all of you who gave this a go and hope all of your wonderful creations survived the rainfall we seemed to be afflicted with every time a group lesson was being carried out during this pre-Christmas week.

As usual all lessons from our two annual “closed” days were moved to the two days immediately following Boxing Day and the rest of the week is then taken up with further activities for the   children.  We are open for business as usual on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day although we always find the latter ends up being one of our quietest days of the year – I wonder why?!!  On this subject, the timing is right to wish all of you a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year – London Olympic Year – it seems to have come around so quickly and I apologise now if you do not share my excitement on this topic, of which I am going to bore everyone to death over the next 8 months!

Looking back at Christmas again, and as mentioned in the previous Latest News, we took a lorry-load hunting on both Christmas Eve and Boxing Day and both outings were full of the usual dramas.  Evelyn (Sadler) and Eddie created the excitement on the 24^th December Meet by falling off four times – two of which were definitely not Evelyn’s fault when she got knocked off.  When I picked them all up (Amelia and Jess being the other two riders with Pepper and Bluebell respectively) Evelyn was as usual grinning from ear to ear and when questioned on the journey home as to whether she hurt herself during any of these falls, Evelyn shook her head with an emphatic “no”, but then admitted in hindsight her hand “hurt a bit”.  However an eventual visit to A&E on Boxing Day by Evelyn and her Dad revealed a broken thumb.  Made of tough stuff this girl – slight of build though she may be!

Also on Boxing Day we ventured off hunting again and amongst our number this time was Mark Pennycook with his horse Beau, both attending a hunt for the first time.  Their companions were my daughter Amelia on Salt (another horse hunting for the first time) and my god daughter Poppy on Bally, both experienced at this type of activity.  There was an enormous turn-out for this event with both mounted and foot-followers (later I learned that 2000 people turned up to watch the opening of this extravaganza) and the atmosphere was understandably electric.  Mark and Beau provided some early excitement by parting ways at the commencement of the hunt with Beau then hot-footing his way back to the trailer he arrived in which alarmingly involved galloping riderless along the A285.  Thankfully the mounted and highly experienced Hunt Secretaries promptly rounded up the horse, got Mark back on board and brought the drama efficiently to an end.  Despite this blip Mark is clearly now a Hunting convert judging by his enormous grin I was met with on collecting them at the end of the morning coupled with his enthusiasm for wanting to get out again to the next Meet as soon as possible!

And very sadly on the 28th December 2011 Georgina Milward had her final riding lesson with us, having started with us in October 2001 and there are very few weeks that Georgie has missed during this decade!  It is going to feel very odd indeed not to see her here henceforward, but we have achieved with Georgie as we have with her mother Anna and brother Douglas before her - which is now hopefully a lifelong passion of horses as they now have their own.   This is a slightly dated photo of Georgie and Dinky (bearing in mind Georgie is now 15) but one we all well remember – the pair of them coming 5th in the Puissance by clearing 3’3″ – which no-one has vaguely managed since!  Good luck Georgie, we will all definitely miss you.

Georgie & Dinky coming 5th in the 2008 Puissance

Changing the subject completely, we are in the final throes of adding another member of staff to our expanding yard team and are finally down to three suitable candidates selected from the short-list recruitment process carried out the week before Christmas.  We are hoping to be introducing a new member to our team early in the New Year and on this note and before signing-off, may I again take this opportunity to wish all of our wonderful clients …….

A VERY HAPPY, HEALTHY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!