Stoke by Clare Equestrian Centre

02/08/2025

*Full now*.. Due to two people pulling out last minute - We now have 2 spaces available for the 2 Day August Camp..16th & 17th August - I realise it's very short notice and lots of people have now made plans, but if anyone would like to take a place please do WhatsApp me asap on 07903311902

It's a great weekend with lots of training and lovely friendly people..

12/07/2025

23rd August - Jill Day One Day Dressage Camp

Due to the previous weekend 2 Day Camp being sold out immediately, Jill has very kindly set a day aside for an additional one day camp.

Arrive Friday afternoon/ evening, (stabling provided and shavings supplied). Settle in and familiarise your horse with the indoor arena if you wish to - ridden or in hand upto you.

Saturday
Individual sessions with Jill in the morning - perfect opportunity to watch other attendees. (Jill uses a microphone and amplifier so riders hear perfectly and spectators can hear as well)
Lunch (provided) and Questions/Answers & useful training tips with Jill over lunch.
Afternoon
Group ridden training session - perfect for focusing yourself and horse in a warm up scenario with Jill also providing individual guidance.

£140 for all training, Lunch, overnight stabling with bale of hunters shavings (Friday) or day stable (Saturday) arrive and leave when convenient to you.

Please WhatsApp for enquiries, more details or to book... 07903311902

Location: CO10 8HP

09/07/2025

Dates for your diary..

Sat 12th July
General Schooling Clinic, working on progressing communication between horse and rider - also polework patterns.

Mon 14th July
Lacey Trinder Clinic - Jumping/flatwork

Sat 19th July
Poles, grids and small jumping clinic ( 3 places left)

August
16/17th 2 Day Dressage Camp with Jill Day (Full) Spectators welcome.

Please WhatsApp for any enquiries or to book. 07903311902

07/07/2025

Super 2 day training camp this weekend with Jill Day lots of lovely horses and riders progressing.. individual sessions in the morning, groups in the afternoon..

Next one is August (Full)
Then October

24/06/2025

Recommendations ..
Which showjumper would people like to train with if i organise some 2 day camps at Stoke by Clare Equestrian Centre and what level would you like to train at?
Ie. I could arrange a novice camp one weekend, then a more advanced a different weekend..

17/06/2025

🐴DRESSAGE SOLUTIONS!🐴 How To Know If Your Inside Leg Is Effective?

To help you determine if your inside leg is effective in sending energy to the outside rein …

Imagine that, as a result of using the inside leg, the outside of your horse’s neck seems like a balloon filling with air and the outside rein feels like a bungee cord with positive tension and an elastic connection.
— Martin Kuhn

🎨 Sandy Rabinowitz

16/06/2025

Perfectly put...

Are you thinking about giving up on your new horse?

People around me will often hear me say “it’s one thing to buy a horse, it’s another thing entirely to keep one happy”

At the facility the horses are managed and ridden by experienced and confident riders, the horses don’t have to guess what we want because we confidently direct them. For a green horse this gives them the sense that this person has the situation under control and they allow themselves to be guided. We don’t lament for hours/days/weeks about what is or isn’t happening because we know that time is the most precious gift we can give them. We keep the feed simple, your horse will have been fed, grass, baleage, hay and a daily hardfeed for minerals, we don’t get grass affected horses because the balance of work, feed and minerals is managed.

If we have a horse in the programme for 3 months and the horse is returned in three months it’s because it’s taken 3 months to untrain the work. We welcome different styles of riding but foundations are foundations and any new home should be looking to build on the foundations that are introduced . In the time we have a horse we can only introduce an idea, these are not schoolmasters and any home must continue to produce the horse.

THESE ARE NOT READY MADE HORSES

The relationships that work best are the ones where the new owner doesn’t have an agenda and is relaxed about how long it will take. They already have a methodical approach to horse training that starts at the bottom with ground work before getting into the saddle. This gives the horse time to read you and feel confident in your way of doing things, it’s the same for the person reading the horse. When you do it this way the horse will be forgiving of short comings because of your already established relationship.

The relationships that don’t work also follow a pattern. The owner is nervous about horse ownership, they have made an emotional purchase based apon a feeling of excitement to own a horse. The moment something goes wrong they look for reasons, many reasons, from everyone and the feeling of insecurity in their approach grows. A feeling that their out of their depth and that feeling continues to multiply as they bombard the horse with a lack of direction. Generally they project the problem to the horse, so they look for feed based reasons the horse is not behaving. They take it off grass. Many people make this transition badly and horses end up hungry adding to the feeling of angst in the horse. This is normally a nose dive to failure. If you make the work difficult for the horse because you have asked too much, they will react accordingly. Horses do not come out of the paddock and think “today I will make your life difficult because I really enjoying having a s**t time” there are so many facets to owning a horse and often times it’s about knowing your own emotions as horses are ALWAYS a reflection of ourselves.

Tips for success with your new horse.
•read books, you can digest what feels authentic to you.
•follow a system
•start new experiences on the ground, new situations are scary for your horse
•ask questions about diet before taking them home
•make sure you have two support people you can call on for advise and their techniques feel right for you!
•bring an experienced friend to a viewing and video your first ride.
•Get lessons from a good instructor who can help you school the horse from the hind
•good riding is Pilates for the horse, increasing strength, you don’t need the body worker on speed dial
•make sure your horse is comfortable in the gear and the saddle is balanced to help you!
•have one objective each ride/session you will work on, turning/stopping/obedience to inside leg/transitions up and down. You’ll be working on these basics a while!
•it takes time to get it all together, don’t give up!
•a green horse is not going to help, you must show him the way to carry you so that the work doesn’t become hard mentally and physically

We often get horses returned and pretty much straight away we can’t see any of the issues the last owner was finding so difficult that the horse had to be returned. We have contracts with buy back clauses because we want to continue to be responsible for the horse. I sometimes worry that people take this option too early. Owning a horse can be the best decision you’ve made or the worst, it’s really up to you to decide. Below is a poll we ran from 230 people about how long it took to develop a relationship/understanding with their horse.

Happy riding!

*I wrote this post 3 years ago when rehoming race horse was my full time job.