Latest news from Lavant House Stables with Lucy

Well I just can’t believe it is happening after all these years. From the moment I managed to buy Lavant House Stables in 2007 it was a definite we would be having an indoor school. The cost of such a building is prohibitive on leased land, so only the freehold purchase would have made this aim possible. 2008 we achieved the planning consent and ever since I’ve been trying to tie it all together so we could have the actual building. Eight years is a long time, especially to someone as impatient as me!

From the minute the steelwork arrived last week, the construction team have been crawling all over it like worker ants putting it into position. They have just quietly got on with it, we are only aware of them by the machinery buzz and clanking; plus the sight of cranes and metal monoliths appearing on the horizon, the view from my office is now about to be change forever. Our horses have as usual been remarkable. Whilst we had already planned various strategies to acclimatize our horses to their changing environment, so far there has proven no need. Bar one, they have all sort of had a look, then said OK and got on with doing what they should be doing; even our Vet who was with us for the first day of the construction had to express her amazement at our horses’ stoic attitude to such distractions. A somewhat different story no doubt if these were confined stabled horses kept in a typically cloistered livery yard.
Moving on from the building to our typically preferred topic of the weather, we are now just all waiting with bated breath for the spring so growth can help absorb the soggy land created by this past record winter for rainfall. Mild it may have been but I think we would all have welcomed a dry cold snap to offset the damp. At least our horses kept moving outside, and by experience we know our well-draining and professionally maintained land will recover swiftly. But I think all of us, horse and human alike are more than ready to welcome the sun on our backs or faces.
Last week we had meetings to debrief on the half-term activities, how did the Pony Club days go? The Pony Owning and Activity Days? The Clinics? We are so determined to improve these services it is likely they are going to change out of all recognition, but what we also need is feedback. If your child came, let us know what you thought – what was good? What do you think we could have done better? What would you like to see included? Please do let us know. It takes a whole team to put the best ingredients together to improve these days and this quite definitely includes those we organise the days for! Bye for now..,………Lucy

0 comments | Comment on this post »