Thorneyleestables

19/01/2026

I just have the sense that the upward mobility door is shutting down for any riders who don’t either have family money or who somehow have obtained at least one rich sponsor.

Maybe it was always true. Maybe, but I don’t think that horse prices for the elite ones were as out of sight nuts as they are today.

Forget upper level show jumping. Those top horses cost as much as good race horses. Dressage horses are somewhat less pricey, aren’t they? But a million dollars is not unheard of---.

And eventing, which used to be the poor man’s stepchild, and which was at least SOMEWHAT affordable, has been seeing the most elite horse prices go from in the thousands to the tens of thousands to, sometimes, the hundreds of thousands.

So if you are an upwardly aspiring rider in 2026, where can you go?

Or are you, to put it bluntly, screwed?

Or are there still escape hatches, and, if so, what might they be?

10/04/2025

Dont forget me I'm three weeks old tomorrow and my names Charlie . And I'm very independent

06/08/2024

Blakesley Show 2024

Seeds Hay 2024

First Prize

Congratulation Brian Habgood
Eydon

01327 260620

23/06/2024

“I don’t have much interest in competing, so why should I bother to struggle and practice to become a better rider?”

Good question, and maybe the answer is as simple as this---“It only matters if it matters to you.”

If you are content with the way you currently ride, and if it isn’t messing up your horse, go for it.

But if you feel that there are knowledge gaps or skill-set deficiencies that you’d like to improve upon, read more, study more, watch better riders more, think about what you are learning, take some lessons, broaden your horizons.

Competing is not the end-all reason why anyone might want to become a good rider. Some want to be good riders for the basic satisfaction of being good riders.

23/06/2024