Our Facilities

Reception

The Reception is the hub of the yard – open 9.00am to 6.00pm (5:00pm at weekends) 7 days a week. It is dry and warm. There is a viewing gallery to view riding lessons in the indoor school. There are tea and coffee making facilities, iced water dispenser, vending machines with snacks or cold drinks and client lockers.

Riding Arenas

We have three riding surfaces in total. The indoor school, was recently resurfaced with the Martin Collins fibre track, and the two all-weather outside schools with the latest sand/premier stabiliser surface. The Indoor School (55m x 22m) has good natural light and it is fully illuminated. The surface is the top of the line Martin Collins fibre track surface. It’s bright and light – the surface sand colour enhances the feeling of freshness and brightness. It is a delight to ride in. The arena has mirrors on two sides, recently extended to cover the full far side and a sprinkler system keeps the surface moist. The main Outdoor School measures 65m x 30m and is floodlit. It has sand/rubber/ stabiliser surface and is a great surface to ride on whether it be dressage or jumping. We have a full set of BSJA jumps to use in it. The Small Outdoor School (Playpen) measures 38m x 18m. It has a sand/ rubber/ stabiliser surface and is ideal for starter lessons, small groups particularly with new or younger riders and is great for for lunging.

Cross Country Training Course

The cross country training course was designed by Eric Winter. Eric has designed 11 courses on the national circuit and is the current course designer at Badminton Horse Trials in 2017. He is also one of only 19 ‘A’ listed accredited course designers in the UK. The jumps were built and installed to BHS standards by Dom Moore of Tweseldown Racecourse. There are two parallel courses. One designed for professionals taking BHS Stage 3 or 4 training/exams and another for novices. Training will only be given by BHSII qualified instructors and above. Rules for cross country lessons

Livery Facilities

We have 40 large boxes. Most are 3.6m2, some are pony boxes.  All have automatic watering and a ‘haybar’ for healthy hay feeding and rubber matting. All are separately lit and are bedded with straw or shavings.

Security

We do take security seriously so you don’t have to. Both tack rooms and offices are Secom alarmed and both are locked when no one is on the yard. We have Banham’s digital CCTV. At night the main yard and front car park are illuminated. The staff house is positioned to look down on the yard, and the owners live on site too. So there is always someone on site. Entrances to the yard, barns, tack and rug rooms are locked at night. Late night checks are carried out.

Paddocks

We have seven paddocks, fully post and railed with metal gates. All have electric fencing with automatic watering. The paddocks are carefully rotated to ensure good grazing and are kept clean on a daily basis. They are also looked after by Shorts agricultural specialists.

Training

All courses are run from our fully equipped training room.

More Facilities

• Space for full-livery clients to securely park Horseboxes and trailers
• Two car parks
• Two heated tack rooms, both are locked and alarmed (Secom) when not in use
• A heated rug room
• Feed room
• Trunk room for fully-livery client’s trunks
• A Wet area
• A heated shower is available in the wet area in the barn annex
• We have a large hay barn designed to hold a year’s supply of hay to ensure we have the supply we need and have hay of a consistent quality
• Industrial sized washing machine and tumble dryer that can effectively clean and dry the biggest and dirtiest rug
• Industrial sized heated rails
• Industrial sized tumble dryer for winter drying of numnahs, etc.
• Disabled toilet facilities

Our facilities are always being reviewed and updated. We take health and safety seriously. We have a regular maintenance contract and repairs can be effected immediately.

Risk Assessment

We take the management of risk associated with horses, horse care and management seriously and have developed our own assessment of risks. Whether it be riding on the roads, leading horses to field or getting hay bales down, all have risks associated that need minimising. Staff should be fluent with this, and we encourage all clients, in particular, livery clients to be aware. A hard copy of the Centre’s risk assessment is available in the office but if you want your own copy you can download it Risk Assessment 2023.

COVID-19 Risk Assessment

Please find our COVID Risk Assessment 2021 here.