Weston Mill Stables

22/04/2025

♥️

22/04/2025

Kind 🙌 hands & calm hearts ♥️ always people, patience and understanding is what makes a good horseman/woman 🥰

So true 🐴

22/04/2025

Desperately needing an automatic car asap. Must have MOT & be reliable please. Unfortunately my max budget is £1000

20/04/2025

OMG PLEASE SOMEONE HELP THEM 😡😡

19/04/2025

♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

Learn to read their eyes, a lot being told there.

18/04/2025

There’s nothing better than a visual explanation to help things click!
We love this side-by-side comparison of a correct vs. incorrect 2-point position — and the imaginary seatbelt is such a helpful concept.

Think of the seatbelt as being attached to your saddle, it helps remind you not to lift too far out of the tack.
It’s all about staying close, balanced, and connected, especially over fences or when galloping.

Tips for a solid two-point/half seat:
• Keep your hips slightly forward, not stuck behind your shoulders.
• Maintain a light seat - close to the saddle, not standing above it.
• Heels down, core engaged, and eyes ahead.
• That imaginary seatbelt from saddle to hips? Keep it just snug enough to stay grounded.

Common mistakes:
• Popping too high out of the saddle
• leg too far back
• Collapsing the upper body or leaning on the hands.

Keep practicing, the right form makes all the difference for your horse and your ride!🙌🏼
Save this for later or send your showjumping friend 🫶🏼

18/04/2025

Always worth repeating over and over...: stop riding babies!!!

18/04/2025

Do people actually school their horses anymore?

Genuinely starting to wonder. I saw a post on Facebook recently, someone jumping 60cm in a Pelham, and now looking for something stronger because the horse is “too strong to the fence.”

Let’s just pause for a second.

The horse? A dressage horse. Supposedly well-schooled, able to collect, extend, work laterally yet apparently can’t be ridden over a tiny fence without throwing more metal at the issue? That’s not a bitting problem. That’s a training problem. And if you’re needing that much hardware to get over a crosspole, it’s time to ask the hard question, Is the rider ready to be jumping at all?

If your horse is rushing, ignoring your aids, and crashing through fences at this height, a harsher bit isn’t going to solve it. It might mask the problem, temporarily, but it’s still there, simmering underneath. And it’s only going to surface again, at a worse time, with bigger consequences.

Stronger bits are not a substitute for education. The work doesn’t begin at the fence. It begins before the first pole is even set up: with flatwork, groundwork, polework, transitions, adjustability, all the building blocks that make a horse rideable, responsive, and safe. You don’t just jump in and pull when it gets fast. That’s not training, that’s damage control.

Schooling and going back to basics is and always has been, the foundation of proper showjumping. Any top-level rider worth listening to will tell you that (though, yes, a few could use the reminder themselves). You don’t get control from a bit. You get it from balance, discipline, and respect, built from the ground up, over time.

And if your horse already has a dressage foundation? Then all the more reason to expect more, not less, in terms of responsiveness and communication. That training should carry over not get thrown out the window the minute there’s a pole on the ground.

And let’s not ignore the other side of this: If a horse is acting out, there are other questions that need asking too about fitness, pain, saddle fit, ulcers, or just plain overload. But none of those are solved with more leverage either. They’re solved by listening, observing, and doing the proper legwork.

Bits are tools not solutions. If you’re maxed out already at 60cm in a Pelham and reaching for something harsher, the problem isn’t in your tack box. It’s in your training plan or lack of one.

Do the work. Train the horse. Respect the process. Or ask yourself if you’re really being fair to the animal you’re sitting on.

16/04/2025

For a good cause ♥️

We need your help! Can you spare any unwanted gifts or unused items for use as raffle and tombola prizes? 🎁⭐

Your support will allow us to raise vital funds to continue and build on our work here at the Cavalier Centre!

We need unwanted or unused items only please, including:

⭐Bottles of alcohol,
⭐Handmade crafts,
⭐New sensory toys,
⭐Gift vouchers,
⭐New toy sets,
⭐Jewellery and accessories,
⭐Ornaments,
⭐Unused toiletries,
⭐New soft toys,
⭐Any new equine themed items!

You can donate direct to our reception (ample parking available!) at the following address:
The Cavalier Centre
Bradley Farm
Much Wenlock
TF13 6PE

Or email Francesca via [email protected] for possible local collection!

On behalf of the staff and volunteers here at the Cavalier Centre, thank you very much! 🥰

10/04/2025

The strong hand and the weak hand

one of the million reasons to prioritize our own balance and equitation: our bodies are often the limiting factor against the very thing we are trying to fix in the horse.

Everyone has a strong hand and a weak hand: a hand that flops around and doesn't like to take the contact is often counter balanced by a rigid hand that struggles to yield. It can take a lot of education to get them to work evenly.

You can't use your hands without influencing your seat, and as in the case of this photo, the entire body of the horse is altered.

You can't be working on something regarding your horse's way of going if you are, in fact, the thing in the way.

You can't have "soft hands" if they are unaware of what they're doing. That's bad news but once you accept if, you can get to work on it. Then you can really be an asset to your horse instead of an interrupting force.

Edit: these photos are the same - I just showed the rotation in the horse in the second one

03/04/2025

Oh yes 🤣🫣❤️💙🩵💚💜

💯

03/04/2025

Your mind is your biggest asset.

03/04/2025

☆5 Stables available
☆Winter & summer paddocks
☆individual paddocks
☆ automatic water feeders
☆ fully working kitchen with utensils
☆ working toilet
☆ small friendly private yard
☆offer livery services/ holiday cover
☆ offer sales livery / working livery
☆retirement livery
☆ cctv / with the opportunity to set your own cameras up in your stable with our WiFi.
☆ Weekley yard hack outs
☆no stallions /no colts
☆ lorry/trailer storage (free)
☆ personal private feed/tack room
☆miles of countryside hacking off road & on road
☆no stallions / no colts

02/04/2025

Another beautiful day at weaton Mill Stables
Sun is shining birds are singing
Fields poo picked. Horses looking amazing
And I'm feeling great
Hope everyone has had a lovely day 💜

02/04/2025

Fantastic ride yesterday 😍💙🩵💜 was well needed
Happy Wednesday everyone