Hayfield

Riders who ride at Hayfield are encouraged to become involved in horse care right from their very first contact with horses and ponies.

Although adult and children’s courses are run separately, everyone follows the same teaching on a syllabus adjusted to suit their age, size and abilities.

Hayfield also helps Equiworld Club which is involved in helping people who look after horses and ponies in different countries such as Hose in the Dominican Republic whose ponies needed new saddles and bridles.

Link to A Carribbean Gap Year

Junior courses include:

Own a Pony Days

Stable management progressive courses 1 – 4. Week long non residential courses.

Mini Leases – for those who are green ribbon and above, attended Stable management stage two and are 10 years or older.

Are great fun and are run in the evenings or can be arranged over a series of days in a block.  A mix of practical and theoretical they are run periodically according to demand and may be booked at reception.  Link to BHS

Hayfield first started to pioneer the idea of loan leasing to provide our weekly riders with the opportunity of experiencing the problems, delights and challenges which someone who owned their own horse might enjoy.

The degrees of supervision and control we retain reflects the abilities of the persons leasing progressing to the point where a horse may be leased and kept away from Hayfield on the lessees property or at a livery yard.

Mini Lease.

Working Lease

Full Lease

Lease Purchase.

Hayfield encourages all of our riding members, adults and children alike, to become fully involved with “life with horses” and horse care.

Our fairly strict health and safety policy requires that member’s first sign up to the horse care courses we run so that they might learn from the training given on the courses to keep things as safe as possible for everyone.

Those who help out must accept that they will always be under particular supervision or at least general supervision of staff and must obey their instructions at all times.

Every rider which Hayfield introduces to riding is encouraged from the start to prepare for the day when they might be a horse owner whether they see that prospect ever becoming a reality or not.  Indeed a very great many of our members are already owners who keep their horses at nearby livery yards or at home and simply come in to Hayfield for instruction and for competitions.

To prepare riders for horse ownership we run the BHS Horse Ownership Courses 1 – 4 which provide our members with confidence and the BHS certificates.

Member who buy horses are encouraged to keep them at livery at Hayfield for up to six months so that we might give them instruction and help them over any initial problems.

Are great fun and are run in the evenings or can be arranged over a series of days in a block.  A mix of practical and theoretical they are run periodically according to demand and may be booked at reception.  Link to BHS

We can and do find our members horse and ponies and are happy to advise them regarding the wisdom of a prospective purchase but we do not make a trade of buying and selling horses and ponies.  That said, we will sell horses or ponies which are tired of school work if leasing them out or resting them at pasture seems not to revitalise them.  In such cases school horses often prove to be a sensible buy for people who are looking for a predictable horse or pony to ride.

Our policy of leasing to riders with appropriate experience has proved to be a good one which helps our members avoid many risks and disappointments which often come with buying without expert help and on the open market.