The Field - A Beginning

Tuesday 8 December 2015

Oh my so its been a year since I posted on here. This blog is great for me to read through, I mean, obvs I like the idea very much that other people also quite like reading it, but it is very useful for me to read over and see what earlier bright ideas I had. After all, I have no memory (or brain, much of the time) and actually forget some brilliant and cool ideas I have had in the past  - but luckily I put them in a post on here!

So as 2015 draws to a close, I am looking back over the year and thinking about what has gone well, what not so well and what to focus on for 2016. Each month I write some goals for the riding school (a hangover from my HR days, can't escape from SMART goals even whilst sloshing around in muck and mud) and actually I think it has helped me to keep focused and achieve some things we might not otherwise have done.  I'm not saying that it is all planned - in fact lots of what has happened has been "off the cuff" or "on the hoof" - I  might have made that one up -  or,harking again back to HR days and jargon,  "organic" (!!).

Basically we have just been doing lots of lovely lessons and hacks and acquiring lots of lovely new ponies and horses. A quick summary for the riding school for 2015 goes something like this: we have a great team of instructors - Sam callow, Jody Holdgate and Rachael Pitt. Our lovely smiley yard managers Caroline Nobel and Leanne Eldrett and of course our fab  team of helpers (without whom we really couldn't operate at all). Leanne and Caroline introduced "Helper of the|Month" which has been great fun and details of each month's helper is on our Facebook page. (Brook Cottage Farm)

Caroline has arranged the office - the centre of command, the hub - including field planner, charts, pony log books etc etc. Leanne meets and greets clients and is very much the face of Brook Cottage Farm. And there have been lots of changes on the equine front - many of you will remember Tizzy who I sold (far too good a show jumping pony to be a riding school pony for long ) and Strawberry Lil (who never really got out of the blocks as a riding school pony as it was NOT FOR HER. Lovely ponies though - just typical mares who knew what they did and didn't want to do in their working lives. My amazing Springtime had to be put down last March - so many of you rode and loved her and I haven't even been able to put anything on our Facebook page, or on here, before now about it as so traumatised. Bloody horses!

Lots and lots of new faces have arrived - including Falcon, Paddy, Whizz, Nancy, Basil, Eddie, Tobasco, Riley and Star ....... NO MORE PONIES!! Well maybe just a couple  in 2016 :-) Anyway we love them all.

We are now an accredited RDA (riding for the disabled) facility and currently have 9 riders each week. And a team of great RDA volunteers who make this possible.

We have stopped doing Christmas turkeys  - the riding school and horses just take up all of our time - we are sad to have stopped doing this as I really enjoyed raising the birds and it was good to produce such  lovely meat that really had been raised to the best standard possible. Thank you to all our faithful customers, many of whom bought each year, maybe one day we will be able to do them, again....., gobble gobble.

And on to plans for 2016 - where to start? A cute retro caravan for teas coffees cakes etc for patient parents watching their children ride, kitchen garden, cross country course (oh yes, still on the list!) and I have a plan for each horse / pony to take them out to compete each year with helpers and my kids on board. I am hoping someone might buy us a lorry one day to make this easier :-) Anyone ..... ? ....you never know!

So without going on and on and on - thank you to all our fabulous staff and helpers who really make us what we are - and to  our clients (many of whom are now such good friends) - thank you :-)

xx
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