August Newsletter 2026
Hi everyone and welcome to the August newsletter – August already!!!!!! Pictured are the new recruits – Madge and Thomas in next door stables waiting for their training session that…
Hi everyone and welcome to the September newsletter! The year is fairly marching on and we’re now well into winter preparations for the horses – their fields, their rugs and lots more!
OCTOBER LEADERSHIP AND PONY STARS
As the October holidays approach, we have a limited number of spaces available on some of the holiday courses.
We have 2 spaces remaining on riding course for “Dartmoor Dazzlers” which is the initial/beginner level course – this course runs from 12th – 15th October inclusive from 10.00a.m – 2.00p.m and includes an hour riding lesson each day – the course costs £235.00 in total and a non-refundable deposit of £50.00 is payable on booking. There are also some grooming only session on this course – these are from 10.00a.m – 12.00p.m and cost £35.00 per day with no riding – these sessions are brilliant for our younger members who want more practice with the grooming and handling and may not manage the full week.
We are also running a Leadership course from 12th – 15th inclusive, which is aimed at 11 – 18 year old members. This is a non-ridden course, which focuses on teamwork, communication skills and confidence – it is like a “youth club” and is suitable for any level of rider/participant. This course runs from 10.00a.m – 2.00p.m as well and is £160 for the four day course.
The Welshie Wizzers course (19th – 22nd inclusive) is fully booked for the riding course, but we still have some grooming only spaces which are from 10.00a.m – 12.00p.m and are £35 each.
If you’d like to book any of the courses, then do please just let Ali know at reception thanks!
SATURDAY LEADERSHIP
We have started a new Leadership course on a Saturday at 4.00p.m (with Sally) who are working through their Bronze award – we are able to take new participants onto this course through September and October – the sessions run weekly for one hour (4.00 – 5.00p.m ) and cost £25 per session – they are similar to group lessons in that you just let us know which weeks you are coming and book in as and when.
LESSON BOOKINGS
A reminder to all our members that if you are booking and paying for your group lesson on a week per week basis, please do try to let us know with plenty of time – at an absolute minimum we need 24 hours notice. There is quite a bit of prep involved in getting ready for a group lesson – we do the horse hours worksheet the day before (normally the morning the day before), we have to check all staffing cover and availability and we have to then ensure each horse is in early enough, groomed and ready to do their allocated lessons that day. The horses workload is strictly limited so we are unable to adjust lesson numbers once the worksheet has been made up – whilst adding one rider to a lesson may seem simple, adding one additional horse to a half hour lesson or one hour lesson has a knock on effect across the day – we have to adjust the horses on private lessons and group lessons to ensure each horse is doing the correct amount of lessons. So, the best way to do it if you are riding each week is either to let us know in reception if you are coming the next week and pay for it then, or do a block booking card or standing order payment. If you are emailing or calling us with the minimum 24 hours notice, we can’t guarantee an instant response or that we will have a horse available and this can be further complicated if you transfer payment for the lesson before checking if there is space/availability so do please try to give us as much notice as possible thanks!
COACH TRAINING
We are hosting a coach training day at ARC on Friday 23rd October from 9.00a.m – 12.30p.m where Sally will be providing presentations for coaches on how to use an equine simulator for coaching riders.
We are looking for a ‘guinea pig’ rider who is a complete beginner to take part in a session from 11.00a.m – 11.45a.m so are hoping that a sibling or parent of a current rider may fancy giving it a go!
The requirements are that the participant is 7 years or older, weighs under 15 stone and is happy to have their first lesson on the simulator with up to 8 coaches in the room watching and learning J We have boots/hats which we can provide for the rider so if you know of anyone who would like to do it and is available at that time and date, then if you drop an email to Ali, we can then pick a participant for the session – there won’t be any cost for the session obviously as it’s a training session for coaches.
