Keeley Durham Equestrian

30/09/2025

Cruz 💗

30/09/2025

So that’s a wrap! Thank you Speetley Equestrian Centre for the memories and making such a lovely friendly place to come to on top of the amazing food ! Video of Stellar today with Harry Stott below 3 horses today and 3 clears so a good day at the office ! Once again thank you to the whole team at speetly we are going to miss you 🙏

30/09/2025

Joyce 💗

26/09/2025

Memories to last a life along with many friends made on the way ♥️💙

John Whitaker and Welham, winners of the King George V Gold Cup in 1997. Three years later, when Welham was 20, the pair won the Hickstead Derby.

24/09/2025

02/09/2025

Go Dougie go 👏👏👏

A 12-year-old rider who qualified for the 128cm final at HOYS a couple of months ago beat the adults to a win in the main arena at The All England Jumping Course, Hickstead. Read more below

01/09/2025

Great weekend for Emily and Olivia at Willow banks your hard work is paying off keep it up girls 👏👏👏👏

25/08/2025

Be Patient When Schooling Your Horse

If horses came with an instruction manual, life would be a lot easier. But they don’t, and that’s probably just as well, because half the fun (and half the grey hairs) comes from figuring it out together.

When we ask a horse for a shoulder in, a circle with bend, or even a simple halt, we know what we mean. The horse, however, does not. They haven’t been studying the FEI rulebook in their spare time. To them, it’s just their rider suddenly asking for something peculiar and they’re left to wonder whether it’s worth co operating or if a polite wobble (or a not-so-polite hop) might be easier.

It’s rather like asking your granny to master TikTok overnight, she’ll get there in the end, but you’ll need a good dose of patience while she works out which button does what.

A new movement feels strange to the horse. Muscles protest, balance shifts, and for a while they look more like a shopping trolley with a wonky wheel than the graceful athlete you were hoping for. But with repetition, rest, and a bit of encouragement, things improve. What was once awkward becomes elegant provided we don’t rush them.

Patience is the rider’s greatest tool, though many of us misplace it as soon as the horse starts arguing. It is not the horse’s job to know instantly. It is ours to explain kindly, to reward the smallest try, and to resist the temptation of “just one more time” (which always ends badly).

Good schooling isn’t about drilling or demanding perfection. It’s about communication, fairness, and yes keeping your sense of humour when things go badly. Because when your horse decides that leg yield means sideways towards the gate and not across the diagonal, sometimes the best you can do is laugh, regroup, and try again tomorrow.

Give them the time to work it out. Horses taught with patience today become the willing partners of tomorrow. And if they test your temper in the meantime? Well, that’s horses for you always reminding us that the learning never ends on either side of the saddle

Michael Duffy 2012 Dublin Horse Show.

17/08/2025

"A horse is a mirror of his rider". On the dawn of an industrial age people left riding horses and start riding cars. And so they lost genuine mirrors of their character... Soon after that - as reflected in the personal growth literature of those times - they moved away from cutlivating their character to cultivating their personality. Or "skills". In other words they became more interested in "how to apear to be" rather than in "how to truly be". As people quit riding horses "for life" and start riding them "for fun", they did not breed the horses for their character any more. Instead, people start breeding horses more for their beauty, appearance. And soon after that they realised that they have problems to ride them... Since then they pay more attention to new gadgets & tricks (that should help them to appear to be riders) rather than to become better persons and so (also) better riders... But the principle of "if you want more, first you have to become more" works in both the horsemanship and the personal growth...

Ivan Borsky

08/07/2025

Top team well done guys 🤩🤩

28/06/2025

Cruz and Harry take the win at Willow Banks on Thursday 🥇👏