Staff - Congratulations to Olivia Howe who was successful in her BHS Stage 2 Teaching exam. We have a wealth of wonderful instructors/coaches here at Witham Villa and we look forward to Liv joining the teaching team.
Horses - We welcomed a new pony - Lacy to Witham Villa in June. Lacy had been at another riding school previously on loan to one of their clients who sadly outgrew her. She is good on the flat and jumping and was placed at the 2026 BHS Riding Schools Competition.
Vet Bills - With the number of horses that we have here, every month sees a vet bill - all of the horses are kept vaccinated against flu and tetanus and then of course we have to deal with any injuries or health conditions. In June we had to deal with one case of lymphangitis, one case of a horse needing a wound stitching after turn out with another horse in the field, one horse that needed treatment for Equine metabolic syndrome, one horse to add to the riding school license (every horse has to be vet checked before they can go onto the license), and bills for sedation for clipping/horse dentist, this added up to a vet bill of over £1,500!
We are grateful to our vets for the excellent care that they give to all of our horses - Chine House Veterinary Hospital in Sileby
Changing Lives Through Horses we have completed training from the British Horse Society to enable us to offer this scheme and will now be looking to see how we can incorporate it into the work that we do here.
Weather - June saw some unusually hot weather that resulted in us having to teach mornings only for a few days for horse and rider welfare.
British Dressage - Verity and Gaya competed in the North and East show held at Pickering Grange on a very windy day. They were pleased to finish in 1st place in the silver section of the Advanced Medium Freestyle to Music on 71.67%
India took Demi to compete in two novice tests and we were delighted with scores of 75% and 79% and two first places.
India also competed two horses in the Young Horse qualifier classes held at Kingswood EC, finishing 4th in the 4 year old class and qualifying for the semi finals with Biscotti and 6th in the 5 year old class with Fleur. We were very pleased with the comments on both horses praising the correct training and rideability of both horses.
India and Eddie competed in the Wellington Premier League in the Inter II class finishing in 4th place on 65.637%. They then competed in the very strong PSG evening Gala class finishing onn71.25% and 7th place