What is The Paddocks? |
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The Paddocks provides horse riding opportunities for people that would otherwise be excluded from this form of recreation. We also provide training opportunities for volunteers and people with hidden disabilities, to expand their knowledge, increase self esteem, and provide a firm foundation for further development in any field. One of our many aims is to develop life skills for people with behavioural difficulties.
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Do I qualify? |
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The Paddocks accepts applications from all backrounds and areas.
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How do I apply? |
Contact The Paddocks via one of the contact methods listed on the contact page here |
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• Current Page � Main : News
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What do we do at The Paddocks
The Paddocks is staffed by unpaid volunteers.
We deliver individual sessions to children with particular needs. When needed we give one to one sessions and these take place by appoinment with a staff member. We offer group riding sessions on Saturdays to people in financial hardship to enable children to access a facility that they wouldn't have been able to due to cost. We have a system that means that if families are in hardship they can donate what they can afford. Those that can afford to give help those that can't. There are many children that need our specialist time helping them to learn to ride. We are fortunate in that we have many volunteer helpers that come here and all have something they can do to help run the Paddocks. Some are trustees, some take out hacks, some help teach those children that are struggling with written work during term time and after school, at our after school club.
We differ from other riding establishments in that we have a entrance system to further training that is not affordable to most people. This system gives children the chance to compete locally and we do not charge for transport of ponies and children to shows. Jean and Paul provide overnight accommodation, for free, to groups of young people that need to stay over to be able to be here early enough to get up and go to the shows. The young people enjoy the experience of staying at the farm and working together as a team to get their ponies ready for a show.
This is something that is usually un-affordable as competitive equine sport is an expensive hobby and usually only accessed by those that own their ponies. The ponies are provided for free, training is given for free by qualified volunteers or grants are sought to pay for specialized outside coaches.
Our young people also progress to take exams in dressage, BHS stages, first aid and UKCC coaching.
We very much enjoy helping the children and seeing them progress in their riding ability, confidence and self esteem. Because of the age of the children and the one to one specialist help we provide we cannot offer childcare for the younger/novice children once their ridding lesson has finished. The yard is not a safe environment for a child learning to ride to be without a knowledgeable young person or adult by their side.
Progression to the senior groups that attend all day and sometimes everyday!!! is something that is offered to children when they have reached a level of safe competence. It is judged on safe behavior and practices around the horses. We teach this at each session that they attend. Our volunteers note who is progressing and advise senior staff when they think a child is ready to join a more senior group. A assessment is made and a place offered when available.
Other activities
We host group activities days for groups from The orchard School, SNAAP and Ashford Actioneers a group for visually impaired. This is provided by volunteers. It is manned by the senior volunteers and the participants them selves that are part of the group that have progressed from the Saturday riders group and have become all day attendees.
The senior youth group.
This group are here after school, and at weekends and all through the holidays. We take new children onto this group as they become safe and able to ride to a good standard. They travel and compete locally and are monitored by volunteer staff. We encourage team skills and teach an understanding of each others needs and problems in life.
Students
We have diploma students on week days. Some of our students are under 16 and not in education so they come here to take an equine qualification through Canterbury College. Some students need a small environment with a greater amount of learning support. The qualifications we offer are work based diplomas. Some of these young people join our volunteer group and help out when they can
Camp
We provide a camp for the beginner groups and senior groups. The beginner group camp is staffed by members of the senior group and instructors. The camps take part in the summer holidays and do not have set fees. We ask parents to give what they can afford. This again is something some children would not have access to due to cost as other riding school camps usually cost around £300- £600 . We have a swimming pool, games, riding , hacks and of course wonderful evening meals together chatting.
We hope that you will come and see what we do and we will be in Canterbury town on the 15th June with 2 of our ponies to promote our new project for 16-18 years old. It is totally free and concludes with a level 1 certificate in equine studies.
Best Wishes to all our supporters
The Trustees.
PS
We need to change our riding stock again as some of our new applicants are larger young people ( either i am shrinking or children are definitely getting taller i feel quite short!!!) So we have sold 3 ponies and now need 2 cobs. Can anyone help? They must be quiet and safe to be around children
Summer project for 16 to 18 years
We are running a free course for 2 and weeks from July 8th .
SUMMER PROJECT FOR 16 TO 18 YEAR OLDS, IN CONJUNCTION WITH Canterbury College.
Are you 16, 17 or 18 on 31/08/2012, under 11 stones in weight and looking for a fun hobby/possible career?
Then join our course at The Paddocks for free, from June to September . You will receive 6 free riding lessons, learn how to care for horses and gain a level 1 award in horse care. Anyone over 11 stones can still take the level 1 course without the riding element.
If you are interested contact Jean Sharratt by email on sharratt_jean@hotmail.com or come to 76 New House Lane Canterbury CT4 7BJ on 20th June between 10 am and 2 pm.
Saturday morning lesson times
9.15 - 9.45 in round pen
Spare Ivy
Spare Seal
Spare Kestrel
9.15 -9.45 in medium school
Katie C - Ocean
Ebony - Coral
Connor - Jessie
Millie M - Wren
Max - Skye
9.15-9.45 in large school
Cydanie - Sapphire
Izzy - Shadow
Chelsea D - Prairie
Jack B - Nemo
10.00 - 10:30 in Round Pen
Spare - Ivy
Spare - Seal
Spare - Skye
10.00 - 10:30 in medium school
Abbie - Prairie
Annabelle - Shadow
Ellie - Ocean
Kiera - Jessie
10.00-10.30 in large school
Ethan - Wren
Megan G - Sapphire
Noah - Kestrel
10.45 - 11:15 in round pen
Ivy
Seal
Kestrel
Spare Wren
10.45 - 11.15 in Medium school
Maisie - Ocean
Sophie - Shadow
Spare - Jessie
Spare - Prairie
Any clients who have been told they are moving on to the Saturday Riders Programme but are not listed above, please contact Gemma on 07970896556 to get a slot. If you are unable to attend, please let Gemma know as soon as possible.
We will request a £10 donation every week, even if you cannot attend, so that we can hold your slot. Families on benefits or in financial hardship can apply to the trustees if they cannot afford this donation. The donation you give helps us to shoe and feed the horses. All donations go into our not for profit organisation.
We hope you enjoy our new programme!
Dean Bax
Dean Bax died suddenly on the 31st March 2013. Dean was an active volunteer at The Paddocks and was a work based diploma student delivered through KEITS training programme. He was an active vibrant young person who cared greatly about the plight of homeless or troubled young people. His energy and enthusiasm was appreciated by many who met him. We always noticed how he was able to empathize with those who could not seem to make themselves understood and interpreted it so others could. Dean achieved his level 2 in team leading shortly before he died and was able to complete his English and Maths. Everyone here are deeply saddened by his death and would like to acknowledge their grief and loss of his company. Although his life was short he touched the hearts of many that met him.
Lessons with Liz Roberts and lessons with Jackie Pritchard
This week we have been lucky to have had lessons with Liz Roberts on Tuesday and Jackie Pritchard on Thursday. The lessons we had with Liz were for our trainers. We can share the knowledge we gain with our younger members and that way we can improve many more people. Jackie came to teach our younger groups how to show their ponies in the correct classes giving the correct riding displays. Our instructors also learnt from Jackie by watching the lessons and learning how to advise our young people on their showing displays and what classes they should enter. We look forward to seeing Jackie and Liz at our summer camp in August where we hope to show them how much homework we have done. Thank you to everyone that sponsors our charity we are really learning and loving everything we do. lets hope summer arrives for camp!
Summers is coming...we hope!
Welcome back all the Saturday riders, we have started up our Saturday riders programme again. We had been trying to squeeze people in here and there but now with the kindness of our volunteer workforce we can once again run this programme. Well done to the paddocks team , they came third and here is a picture of the latest event we attended which was the Moat Valley riding club teams.  Summer camp for beginners group 6 th to the 8 th August Senior group 1 st to the 4 th August We have seen many changes recently of our stock which has been sad to see some of our ponies go but happy to welcome our news one. We had to re think our stock due to changes sizes of our clients. Not so many grey connemaras any more! But welcome to the cobs. I will update the lists of them soon.
Louise Lessons
Volunteers and young trainees have been enjoying schooling lessons with Louise Edwards. Louise has spent her time training both the horses and riders and getting them ready for summer shows. Thanks Lou, the trainees have gained a lot of confidence and knowledge from these lessons.
Emma has been spending her spare time helping the young trainees with school projects both during the half terms and after school. Everyone is grateful that Emma studied so hard when she attended school herself!!
All young trainees joined in the Easter egg hunt on Easter Sunday and ended up with pockets full of goodies after collecting coloured balls from the woods and trading them in at the sweet stall. Thank you to everyone who helped set the egg hunt up, all the trainees had a brilliant day.
Recent Funding
We have recently received 5000 funding from Truemark Trust. Thank you very much for this donation, it will help us to make the most of the summer ahead. We will now start planning summer events including our two summer camps. Also thank you very much to Barclays Bank for the donation, which we will use to refurbish our stalls.
March News
The winter is still with us but we have been busy as usual. The after school homework sessions are still being ran by Emma and Steve . Gemma has created a group of young people that haven't ridden here before. Thursdays are really busy busy busy! Louise Edwards our freelance instructor regulars teaches our young trainees also.
We have a new block of stables as the harsh winter caused many problems housing our stock from the elements. We hope we can repair some of our fences this year as the high winds have blown many sideways and the rain has rotted some of our stakes.
The next project we are saving for is to make a concrete gully and hard area to wash and treat our horses. The young people, when they attend shows , must present a clean horse and that gives us many problems. We are holding boot fairs and trying to squeeze in a few fundraiser rides.
Our plans for this year are a summer camp, 24 competitions to attend, 3 on site big exams, 11 work based diplomas and 3 rising and road safety tests. We also have other smaller events on our agenda and we are full of new ideas!
So keep watching our website for details.
February at The Paddocks
Thank you Emma Bennett for your after school club teaching basic English and Maths . I know all our students are very grateful for all your help catching up with their Science, Maths and English. Also thank you to Gemma Page for her extra riding sessions. Well done to all the young people that have been working hard to keep everything ticking over through the awful cold winter weather we have been having.
Our new team also have been working hard towards their next season of competing. Good luck to all involved in the Thursday evening group sessions.
We look forward to a happy and long 2013 spring and summer, especially camp 2013!
January News
Over the Christmas holidays its been jolly hard work here at The Paddocks. The rain we have had has created a lot of mud , this leads to cracked heels in our more delicate ponies so they have to be kept in stables. This increases the costs and workload. Paul Sharratt is working as fast as he can to build new stables so that all the ponies can come in stables and we can rest and repair our pasture. Our group formed by Sport England Project have been continuing to help us and take lessons from our instructors, thank you Arran, Amanda and Emma for helping out over the holidays. We have attended 6 competitions which has been fun and the young people are looking forward to the welcome spring weather ( we hope !) Here is a pictures of Sam Bradshaw riding her horse, Orro. Sam attended the Saddlesdane dressage competition.  Nice work Laila and Twilight for their first dressage test, Twilight was noticed by the judges and received good comments for her performance.
Cement Team!
Yesterday a team of Paddocks volunteers helped to lay a large area of cement. Thank you everyone that helped, we really needed you and you were all really wonderful. Not everyone that helped is in this picture but thank you to all.  
Christmas Show at Blue Batn and christmas hack
On Thursday 27th December , we dropped off 7 young people to compete in classes at Blackhorse shows Blue Barn, supervised by Gemma Page. It was rainy but our young people are all weather riders. 2 more young people will be competing there tomorrow as well in a dressage competition. Christmas Eve some of our group went on a fancy dress hack, very festive looking! 
Christmas 2012
As we approach the new year we have been able to look back and review all our projects here at The Paddocks this year. We want to thank all the groups, boards and people that have awarded us with funds to unable us to do our work. Thank you everybody from all of us to all of you.
We have completed our sport England project and have a new group of young people here. Our seniors have been enjoying their coaching sessions and the NVQ students have finished their autumn term, The weather is not being kind to us but we are still running and our young people come each day to help care for our ponies.
We are looking forward to a productive and busy new year, helping our new students to progress and assisting our NVQ students to complete their qualifications. In June we will start our new summer projects, which will include a camp and a once a week after school club for new people.
Currently we cannot take on anymore new students due to the high number of people that wish to stay on after their project has finished here. The Paddocks simply cant support anymore people right now. If we do get further funds for more staff costs, then it will be possible to run more projects but funds for supervisory staff just don't seem to be available.
Thank you also to all the people that make gifts of their time for free to us, you have all been most generous.
A happy new year to everyone from all at The Paddocks.
Charlie , my Wild Project Pony by Beth Attwell
Our trip to Ireland and the beginning of The Diary of Charlie On the 24th of October 2012 some of the Paddocks young people went on a trip to Ireland, We were on a tight budget and travelled on a shoestring, so we flew with Ryanair. We arrived on the Wednesday morning and went horse riding across the rugged bays of the far west point of southern Ireland, Clifden. We saw views that you couldn’t describe with the sun was out and it was a lovely ride. We also visited a beautiful old abbey at Kylemore, it was awesome. Later that evening we received a warm welcome at Clifden Town Hostel by Sean, the owner. Sean keeps his hostel lovely and clean and always helps us with anything we need. It is a very inexpensive place to stay, in what is an expensive town to visit. The Paddocks staff travel to Ireland sometimes to buy a pony for the Paddocks or someone who has asked us to go with them to buy their first pony. This year we were looking for 2 good sized ponies as we have sold 2 of our ponies from our workforce. Irish ponies are well bred and make lovely riding ponies, the Connemara’s especially. They have kind natures and can win many of the sports we compete at. After dropping our belongings off at the hostel we young people went for a walk round the town and down to the Connemara Horse Sales to give Jean and Kate a break before dinner, there were not many horses there yet but we stood and watched the skilful men and women unload some horses that had been in the trailer for a fair while. In the evening we went out for a lovely meal just down the road from the Hostel to celebrate Laila’s birthday, it had traditional live music played by two local Irish young men and they were very good musicians. The next day we rose early and enjoyed the short refreshing walk to Clifton horse sales. Katie Flay was with us and told us stories of her trips to Ireland previously. There were over 400 ponies there in pens. Some of them were presented beautifully with gleaming manes and tails and so well cared for. The sales is bustling with activity, people trying to buy from other people and looking at the ponies trotting up and down the paths. It was a great atmosphere and everyone seemed very happy. The Irish horse handlers are really brave as some of these ponies are completely wild. Some are rounded up from the mountains and bogs and run into pens at the sales. The young salesmen men have to dodge the striking hooves from the frightened animals that are totally un-handled by humans. One such pony came into the ring. He looked very wild and clearly terrified to come into the sales ring. I watched as the price went up and we bid on him. We can only afford to buy very cheap ponies and we hope we can make them into good ponies for the charity. The wild ones are the most rewarding when you win their trust and it’s such a great feeling when you reach such a milestone. This pony was advertised as having a condition called sweet-itch ( But in fact it turned out to be lice). It is awful for horses .  I watched with excitement as the hammer went down and Charlie was ours. Jean then told me he would be my project pony! How exciting and what a challenge! A wild pony with a difficult health condition to cure, for me!! I could see he had potential, he is well bred and a good size but rather scruffy looking with a dull coat. Jean and Katie explained that we ( the young volunteers ) Have reached a level where we can learn how to produce a wild pony, although Katie and others would be there to help and observe safety. We rang Jim Jackson the transporter and excitedly made our way back to England to await the pony’s arrival.  1st of November 2012 at approximately 4pm Jim Jackson arrived with our ponies we bought in Ireland. Jim is always careful and kind to his ponies and makes sure they have good rests and water on route. When we bought Charlie, we knew he was in a bad condition. He has lice and after he arrived he developed a cold. We had put the ponies into isolation stables but Charlie needed a special large stable where he couldn’t rub so we had prepared a stable with tape around carrying a static shock He looked surprised when he tried to rub at first but he’s now learnt not to do it. 2nd of November, Charlie had got used to normal horse feed and lets me catch him in the stable. 3rd of November Charlie had his first grooming session, considering he had came from the wild he took it really well. 4th of November Charlie had a day off whilst the whole of the Paddocks went to team dressage at willow farm. Charlie had two days off as on Monday the yard is closed and today he just got mucked out. 7th of November he went for a walk round the yard and that is when Kim Cook spotted something shinny in his tail, but as Charlie had come from the wild we did not want to take risks and get kicked so we left it a bit longer when he could trust us a bit more. 8th of November we picked up Charlie’s two front feet with the help and guidance of Katie flay, as Katie has broken in many horses for us at the Paddocks. It very rewarding when a horse trusts you to lift and hold its leg because many years ago, in the wild their legs are what save them from being caught by predators and they feel most vulnerable when we lift them, so they don't like it. Charlie let me hold and touch them it was good progress. 9th of November Charlie had a walk and trot around the round pen with the guidance from Rosa Burton. We still could not get near his tail as he was too frightened and would kick us. It looked really matted but they often are in the wild so we still didn't feel concerned. 10th of November I went to pick Charlie’s back feet up but instead of picking his feet up, some barbed wire from his tail caught on my hand so I took a hold of it and called for Sam, she went to get some wire cutters as we couldn't believe our eyes and how horrid it looked, his whole tail was matted from the dock down. Overall there must have been about 45cm of wire entwined in his tail, we estimated it must have been there for a good year at least. Once we had all the wire out Kim kindly helped me complete the mission of de-tangling Charlie’s tail and getting it back to normal and with a lot of help from half a bottle of baby oil Charlie is now clear from any barbed wire and wood from the fence post and is feeling a lot less itchy. Charlie was a wild pony and often wild ponies do get problems and its very hard to treat them when they are so wild. You couldn't see the wire so no-one would have known it was in there, it just looked matted. After finishing Charlie’s tail we treated him for lice, there were many!!! And he was absolutely fine! I was so happy that he trusted me enough to do all these things to him and happy he was starting to look so well. 11th of November we picked out Charlie’s back feet and changed his rug , He’s beginning to trust me now and was really good for a wild pony. Charlie is unable to be lunged at the moment as he is isolation with a cold but is much better. 12th of November. Hurrah! Charlie’s cold has gone and looks so well. His sores from rubbing are healing and he looked brightly over his door with a happy face waiting for his feed. 
The Provincial Grand Masters Chairy
The provincial Grand Master presented Jean Sharratt and Tora Kerr with a cheque for £900 towards training our young people. Its so kind of you to provide these young people, with cash for lessons with a new coach. We are always grateful to receive funding for our existing young people, as most grants are for new people, which leaves us quite short of cash for them. They work so hard to include others here and leading our challenged young people around on ponies, its really good to now help them too. Thank you province of East Kent and all those that contributed. And well done Tora for getting up in front of all the People to speak about what we do.
November News
Lots has happened over the last month or two and i will try to tell you all. Our car park, yard frontage and track is fabulous! We have proper gates and a good fence to protect the children and horses. It makes such a difference to all the track uses and we meet the needs of our ongoing risk assessments. Thank you again The Rooney Foundation. A mention also to The Hobson Charity. Our 4 by 4 is now working properly and we have been going out and about competing thanks to your donation, the young people are grateful. Our young people competed locally at a team dressage competition at willow farm Faversham on the 6th November and 4 new team members created by Sport England were able to join us at Blue Barn Blackhorse1, on the 21st October. Good job guys lots of prizes won for the Paddocks. Below is a picture of our young volunteers when not covered in horse poo and mud! We went to the Canterbury Sports awards for a lovely dinner, Katie Flay( one of our trustees and volunteers) was runner up for the un-sung Hero award and Elena Wilse was awarded runner up for the young coach of the year award . Well done guys and well done young volunteers for turning up looking so smart.  I would like to mention a big thank you to all the young volunteers, Beth, Laila, Daisy, Gabby, Kim,Jordan and Tora and anyone else that came , that have been assisting the new young people, on the Sport England Project. Thank you for turning up in the rain and wind to help train these new guys. A very big thank you to Gemma Page our instructor, Gemma was conducting an orchestra of activity. Gemma oversees and helps prepare the ponies and her and her team of volunteers stay on after the sessions to clean up the equipment and cabin area. Its very cold and dark now so its not an easy job! Loiuse Edwards for the older group coaching sessions . The new teams have been created and we are delighted to welcome them to the Paddocks. Our Sport England groups also competed against each other as individuals , taking a dressage test and a jumping a course of fences, thank you again to our volunteers for building the course, assisting the new young people, jump judging and scoring. We have taken the young people to the following activities. Beach Riding, cross country, dressage , showjumping and endurance riding. It has been such fun. The weather is becoming cold and dark now, so our activities will be limited for the winter months but, as soon as the clocks change we will be starting up new projects again. One activity to come to, is on the 21st December, Pony Rides Day from 10am till 1 pm. Open to everyone that lives in our parish. Fancy dress and cakes.
Sport England Teams progress
The teams we have been creating through new coaching sessions funded by Sport England have been doing very well. We have attended 10 events so far and i wanted to show some pictures of how they are doing . Here are some pictures of Noah, Rio, Kim and Maddie.      The young people gained 2 firsts, a third, a seventh and a fourth. We are very proud of them as it was this groups first time at a competition . I also have some snaps of the other team members at the previous weeks show.  Below is one of our coaching sessions .  We also train for endurance riding and here is a picture of us training with our Sport England Participants. 
Jean and Paul on their pearl wedding aniversary
Here is a little snap of our venue hosts, Jean and Paul Sharratt, on their Pearl wedding anniversary. Congrads to them both from all the members of The Paddocks! 
Sunrise ride
Early on Monday morning we all rose to be out before sunrise to see the sun come up. I thought our readers would like to see a picture of our sunrise hack, it was truly beautiful. When we got back we had a cooked breakfast.  
Sport England Project and end of summer party.
The trustees would like to thank sport england for funding a new project here at The Paddocks. We have started to create new teams of young people to compete locally and train in extra sessions. Here are some pictures of us at local shows with our new young people supported by the team leaders. This picture shows one of 3 groups of 6 people having completed The Denne Hil Cross country Course. I would like to thank Nick and Jean for delivering a total of 16 horses and riders on this day. They drove up and down to the venue . And also all the team leaders and coaches that supported the groups  Here is a picture of the fun and games at our end of summer party. Our young leaders spent the summer helping to coach new children. This involved walking up round and round on some very hot days, leading young people on ponies learning to ride. Our party was to thank them for all their hard work. Two of Trustees, Katie Flay and Kerrie Bundock got into the spirit and accepted the challenge to go down the slide fully clothed!  Also pictured here are the young leaders in Sumo wrestler suits. Great fun! 
Sport England
We have now created our 2 new teams at The Paddocks to train for competitions and receive coaching sessions all funded by Sport England. Last weekend we took our first team in training off to Colette s Horse and Dog shows for their first introductory competition. Here are some snaps of them at the show.  And well done to Tracy, Megans mum. She dressed up to enter the lead rein class with her daughter Megan. They looked super with all the plaits and jackets. 
Good News
Hi Everyone, Today i caught up on my email and found that we have been awarded £420 by  Lynda Gatusch Neighbourhood Development Team Manager Community Development and Outdoor leisure service sent us an email to tell us! We are delighted to accept and thank you! This will be fab for our travel training and volunteer expenses small grants project.
Senior Camp
Senior camp has now been completed and was really good fun. We didn't have the heat the others campers had but actually that was quite pleasant as our lessons were fun but hard work. Its easier to be sporty in the cooler weather. Here are some snaps from the camp.  Above we have the young people doing a dance routine from a video, on Jeans patio, for the Paddocks got talent competition. From left Lily ( with Katie Flay , one of our trustees behind her in the hoodie) Then next to Katie at the back is Lissie. At front, next to Lily is Harriet, Megan , Tora and Morgan.  Katie, Lissie, Harriet  and from the past participants/volunteers group from the left Eleanor, Sam ( Jeans Daughter) Fiona Tonry and Kerrie Bundock ( trustee)   And here is a scene from ABSOLUTELY FAB Cast ,GOES TO BUY A HORSE! Above are Jean Sharratt( Owner venue /Trustee) and Laura Young ( Neighbor and volunteer), playing the parts of Patsy and Eddie. Amanda Haywood ( Volunteer)and Chloe Mutton as the horse. Bridget Carpenter as the Horse Dealer . With Rosa Burton as the Old Lady and Gemma Page as the long suffering 'Saffie'  Here is a picture of one of the final day of camp showing classes.  For our final night we had planned to have dominos pizza delivered to give us a break from cooking for 34 people but it rained so we decided to go out if we could find a local pub that would feed for the money we had left. And to the rescue came The Duck Inn at Pett Bottom. Wow! It was delicious! They gave us a special deal and we thank them very much, it ended our camp dinners on a all time high! We went dressed as cowboys and Indians and were joined by most Trustees and volunteers. Our thanks go to Paul Sharratt Senior for putting up with over 70 people passing through his home over the last 10 days. Thank you Paul and for all the mending and building you do for us . Also to Paul Sharratt Junior and Steven Mann. They cleared and built the' Spooky Trail' through the coppice. They bought for us, lights and glow sticks, produced eerie music from IT stuff! and dressed up as monsters. The young camp children loved the trail, full of spooky surprises and wanted to go again and again! . Here is a picture below of Paul Sharratt and at his lap top producing music for our talent evening. 
Our Summer Camps
This year we have been fortunate to have funds to run 2 camps, one junior and one senior camp. Our junior camp were younger children and novice riders. It was a real treat as we had the lovely hot weather and could use the pool. The children rode all day and did stable management lessons, We hacked out in the woods and camped in our fields. Here are a few snaps with a bit about our super holiday fun.  Here are some of the children having their lessons   And this is our end of day rounders game.  This was our hack to the woods on the hottest day but it was cool in the woods.  Swimming lessons with the instructors.  Katie Flay ( one of our trustees ) lending a hand at breakfast.  Sam won the best turned out on our end of camp show. He made his pony look fab!
The Hodson Charity
Today Jean Sharratt heard from the Hobson Charity, That they will donate £1000 to help get the 4 x 4 back on the road. Thank you so much to The Hobson Charity, this means so much to us, to be able to get our young people off to competitions.
Also, thank you to Four Acre Trust for their continuing support of our charity and without your support we could not serve our clients as we do.
Forthcoming projects.
Level 1 award course for young people from Porchlight homeless charity and Chalkhill farm participants, starts on Tuesday 10th July 2012 for 4 weeks. Thank you to canterbury college for putting this course together at such short notice.
23rd to 25th July
-Junior camp for 30 children ( can someone send the sun to us! please)
27th to 30th - July
teenage camp for 30 young people.
21 project days for visiting groups until the 4 th September2012
10 planned shows and 6 cross country visits ( funding applied for)
10th September 2012 -
20 new students start their workbased diplomas or BHS modular exams.
plus 6 weeks of fun filled days for 20 young trainee volunteers, throughout the summer holidays.
Staff Training
On Friday evening Dee Manford came to the Paddocks to train some of our staff for riding and road safety . Our staff have taken their exam and help teach others to prepare for the exam. Dee is an excellent trainer and has been a examiner for this test for many years. We were lucky to have her share her expertise with us, so we as trainers, can help others. The test helps to keep people safe on the roads and also trains young people to risk assess situations and check their personal equipment. The Paddocks provides cut price training and exam entry for low income families with young riders. This helps keep our local riders safe, not just the Paddocks young people. Some local youngsters have access to a friends a pony and may go out onto the road , we want them to stay safe and so offer the exam to low income families at considerably lower cost. Here is a picture below of us watching Emma and Fiona riding the markers. 
Fundraising news
A big thank you to Millie and Laila ! They baked cakes and sold them to raise £30 for The Paddocks . Really well done !
Colettes horse show Barville farm June 5th
Hot days in the lovely sun
Our young people are really enjoying the hot summer weather at The Paddocks. Here they are taking a dip after a ride out on the ponies. We are hoping to get a new fence around our pool soon , ready for when our younger group starts camp in July.  
The Paddocks Horse Show
It was a lovely day as it didn't rain as forecast. Our young people were up at 6.30 to get their ponies ready and cleaned.   And then the day began! Thank you to all the parents that came to help. Kelly Hedges and Filomena for the jumping ring, Mrs Attwell for the tea and coffee,Donna Kerr for the secretary and her donation of fizzy drinks , Susan Mac phearson for her cakes and cheese straws, Tracy Hayes for cakes, Katie Flay for writing for the dressage judge and William Barrett for parking attendant. Thank you also to Gemma Page for all her hard work staying late to give lessons prior to the show and Paul Sharratt for making everything suit risk assessments. A very big thank you to Julie Biggs and Louise Edwards our judges for the day. We made £159 towards our 4 x 4 repair that we need to tow with and had an absolutely super time .   Results coming shortly! Meanwhile, here is a photo of some of our after school group with Jessie, one of our most valued horses and Heidi the yard dog. 
The Paddocks Horse Show
The Paddocks will be hosting a Show at its Venue, 76 New House Lane, On Sunday 20th May 2012. See below for the schedule Showing Judge - Julie Biggs Dressage Judge - Louise Edwards Jumping - Kelly Hillier 
Welcome 'Tara' Autumn's foal
At last our foal is born. Our volunteers have had many sleepless nights waiting for it to be born and 'Tara' ( meaning tall hill in Ireland) arrived at 8 am on Sunday the 22 April 2012. Here is a picture of her moments after she was born.  Tara didn't feed so well and we would like to thank Julie and Carl Hardy for coming along to lend a hand. Also to our neighbour , Jack, who kept a watchful eye and alerted us to the foals plight. That morning, the senior volunteer group were booked for the' Blossom ride' so we are grateful to our friends and neighbours for lending a hand. Here is a picture of Amanda, Jean, Kerrie, Laura and Bridget ready to set off on their ride. 
Dover Duty and Assessment Team
A very big thank you to Dover Duty and Assessment team. They held a raffle which raised £75.00 and they decided to give it to ' The Paddocks'. We really appreciate their kindness and we would all like to say thank you very much to everyone who helped to raise this. Here is a picture of Jean Sharratt ( right) Receiving the cash from Charleen Carnell.( Left)  Charleen arrived at the Paddocks soon after our new foal was born. We were able to introduce her to some of the young people and show her our new born foal.
Another Jockey in the making!
We are pleased to announce that Dan Monk has been accepted at Northern Racing College for his first course to become a jockey. Dan has been attending here for over a year now and has achieved his BHS Riding and Road safety exam. Thank you to Orchard school for organising his course here and well done Dan, we are all very proud of you.
April news
We are still awaiting the arrival of Autumn's foal. She is 3 weeks overdue, which i am told, is not unusual in horses. Thank you to all the young people that have stayed over and took a turn on foal watch, its chilly sitting in the field with a sleeping bag. Below are some pictures from the latest show we attended at Blue Barn, Ashford and some pictures taken of The Wye Ride competitors. Well Done to Lily, Laila, Beth and Tora also. Here is Lily receiving her fabulous Double clear prize rosette.  And here are the instructors and 2 of our trustees setting off on the wye ride.  During last term Elise Baldwin put on a special lesson to include gymkhana games. Here are the young people lining up for their games. 
April Intake
We have 4 places available for young people aged between 13 and 18 years to join our training projects at weekends and holiday time. The criteria you need to meet is one of the following ; low income ( in receipt of benefits), referred from health professional or from single parent family.
Please email sharratt_jean@hotmail.com for more information
High Sheriff of Kent Visit
We had the most lovely surprise this week. Georgie Warner , the High Sheriff of Kent , awarded us £500, as one of her chosen charities. The High Sheriff works hard visiting charities and performing community duties for our county. It was a very welcome surprise! We were pleased to have a visit from her to receive the cheque and the certificate .  In the picture below you can see from the right, Georgie Warner, Jean Sharratt and Elise Baldwin. Elise has been teaching the 13-16 year old level 1 group, this year in association with Canterbury College and has proved herself to be a great asset to the Paddocks. 
The Beach Rides
Since Christmas , we have managed to get out to 7 horses competitions and 6 beach rides. We have held 2 riding and road safety exam days and continue to host our NVQ programme. Our summer camp plans are to host two camps, one for 13 years and under and one for 14 years and over . We also have another riding and road safety exam on the 31st March and 5 new people have completed their basic skills through NVQ work. Our Ride leader exam is on the 12th April and 7 of our students will be taking this level 2 and 3 qualification. Here are some of the pictures from our beach ride. The beach we went to was Dymchurch beach, on Romney Marsh.    
Instructors at The Paddocks
Thought our readers might like to see some of the activities our team leaders do. Here is Dean Bax and riding Jessie  Team Leading is one of the NVQ ,s we offer here at The Paddocks and can be used for any job , that requires leadership skills, not just equine . Interested students can apply to the Centre Manager email sharratt_jean@hotmail.com
January News
Welcome to our NVQ students and welcome back to our Saturday riders groups. We would also like to welcome all our new young trainee volunteers. Recently we have been out and about to horse shows at Limes Farm, Blue Barn and this week we are off to Willow Farm dressage. We took 6 young people to Blue Barn using our 4 pony trailer and Sam Sharratts 2 horse trailer. Thank you to Sam for giving up her time to teach the young people how to ride a course of fences and staying with them at the show, to answer all the young peoples questions and settle their nerves. Here is a picture of Leila riding Ocean and winning her class! 
December 2011
During the run up to Christmas, we have enjoyed some mild weather and this has meant we have been able to take out some some lovely long rides and had the use of our schools to create lessons for more people. Over Christmas, we have hosted a party for the younger group funded by Linda Hogan Community Fund. The young people came and a enjoyed a Christmas gymkhana, which was supported by our young volunteers. After games of walk and trot races and handy pony, the children and young volunteers enjoyed a Christmas feast in our cabin.   On Christmas Eve , the young volunteers/trainee volunteers went on a Christmas trek to the Duck Inn at Pettbottom. The young people dressed their ponies and themselves in festive costumes and then rode out across the Downs.   During the Christmas break Emma, has been hosting the Own A Pony morning sessions for our new children. Emma has been giving a group of 3 children each day, a intensive course on how to ride and care for ponies which includes a lesson or trek out. Thank you Emma.
Canterbury and District sports awards
Many thanks to all who voted for Jean Sharratt to receive the community sports award.  Jean said it was a great honor to win this award and would like to thank the Lord Mayor for his kind words at the evening event. Jean said ' We are lucky at the Paddocks to have a volunteer team like ours. Each and every member gives something special to the work we do ' . Thank you also to Canterbury and District Sports Awards for a lovely evening and for helping clubs promote what they do. About The Lord Mayor Of Canterbury The Lord Mayor of Canterbury for 2011/12 is Councillor Ian Thomas Councillor Thomas was first elected to Cantebury City Council in 1989 after winning a by-election in the Swalecliffe Ward. He has represented the Ward ever since. Councillor Thomas has a long standing intererst in community service and joined Whitstable Round Table in 1976. He was also a founder member of Chestfield Rotary Club. Councillor Thomas is a volunteer for the Whitstable Volunteer Bureau and a trustee for both the Wynn Ellis Alms House and the Whitstable Non Ecclestiastical Charity. Councillor Thomas played a big part in helping create the Paddocks back in 2002 and was one of the original Trustees. His advice was paramount when the Paddocks started in its infant years.
Looking Ahead
The creation of the New Paddocks riding Club opens new competing opportunities for our clients to take our exams and take part at shows.Thank you to Sam Sharratt and her team for starting this new project. We held another riding and road safety exam on the 30th October well done to all 10 people that passed. And thank you again to Dee and Dawn for coming all that way to examine the students. The exam is the first exam on the way to becoming an instructor and an important way to learn how to be safe on the road with a horse. Below we have some of our young people that came to take part in our Halloween gymkhana. The instructors were careful not to upset our visitors for fear of a spell being cast on them!!!!!  And here are some of our younger members showing off the trophies they won at one of our half term competitions. Well Done all. .jpg)
More news
Over the last couple of months, we have been busy competing at Chilham Park, Blue Barn and Willow Farm. We also took part in the Postling ride near Folkestone. Its a beautiful ride that goes across the downs and has many fences to challenge us all. We have a new group of riders at the weekends and welcomed many new work experience students. With increased numbers, we have once again taken a trip to Ireland with some students that have not been before, to buy new ponies. The ponies have been kindly bought by supporters and will be used and sponsored by them for The Paddocks. Ponies from Ireland are very low in price at the present time so it was a good time to go replace some of our retired stock. We will be updating our pony list soon. Meanwhile take a look at some of the fun we have had.  Jean with the Junior team at the sales  Playing pool at The Hostel. Hostels are a very cheap way to accommodation young people in large groups and this one was very well run for young people. The young people learnt much about the equine industry in Ireland and will use this knowledge for their Equine exams. 
October activiites
Welcome to our new students this term studying for their NVQ levels. Our new students started their courses september and with the help of Canterbury College, we anticipate a fun packed term. Welcome also to all our riders from the Ashford Actionaires, we hope you enjoyed your riding lessons and we hope to see you again soon.  Good effort from our junior leaders groups competing at Blue Barn in the dressage competition, a lot of preparation went into this day and we are proud of you all. 
The Paddocks supporters
Many Thanks to the Hedley Foundation and The Henry Smith Charity for supporting us this year. The help we have received from these charities will help keep our work going for another year ahead and we are very grateful. Without the support of these charities we could not do the work we do so thank you to you from all of us at The Paddocks
Riding and road safety Exam
Well done to the 6 people that passed their riding and road safety test on the 31 st August. It was a fine sunny day and we enjoyed very much training the 6 new students on this course. It was a busy week leading up to the exam and their is lots for a senior group to do prior to it taking place. Tack must be checked and cleaned, yards swept and ponies groomed and prepared. So thank you to all the young volunteers that also helped make this possible for the new students.
We are pleased to say we will now be continuing to run the NVQ courses through Canterbury College at The Paddocks.
A special message to Louise Edwards. All the NVQ students wish to thank Louise for agreeing to give up 1 evening a week for the next 2 years to take a DTLLS course at Canterbury College. Louise gives volunteer time at the Paddocks as well as being a contracted instructor and will have to pay her own transport to this and give up her valuable self- employed working time. Without one of our staff members taking this, Canterbury College said they can no longer run the NVQ courses here. The Paddocks will continue to seek funds to try to cover Louise costs doing this.
Our new riders
Throughout the holidays we have been having new riders days for people that have not ridden before. On these days children from various local support groups or clubs come along to experience the joy of riding on a pony . Here are some pictures of our new riders enjoying their day.  
Colettes horse and dog show Barville farm and The Dawn Ride
Summer activities
Here are some pictures of what we have been doing this summer. The young people are having training sessions with Louise Edwards and Nickki Lewis. We have also had visits from local groups and our saturday riders training programme . .jpg) 
Our lovely Summer
Kids and Co bought 11 young people from london on 3 rd August . The young people loved the ponies and cant wait for a chance to come again. It was a beautiful hot day and some joined in with the feeding and cleaning of the ponies, as well as the riding. The Saturday riders have been coming in regularly to Sam Bradshaws group lessons and the seniors are doing really well with their training. Thank you so much to the ladies and gentlemen from Whitstable Active Retirement Association. Your cash you have raised for us is enabling to give our young people the lessons they so badly wanted, to be able to compete locally. Tora and Isabelle have just been to a show at willow farm in Ospringe, ran by Collette Shows. Here is a picture of Isabelle and Ben the pony. Thank you to Tora for helping Isabelle so much and well done on your 3 classes you competed in. 
More Pony Club News
Pony Club ended on friday ah  But Summer activites begin again on tuesday  Our staff and faithful ponies, are taking a well earned rest and then we are all ready to recieve our new children, we are looking forward to meeting you all. Here are some of the happy pictures from our camp including our award day. Thanks again to Herne pony club for putting the camp on for our children.  Our children learnt how to drive ponies in carts.  And how to race some very bouncy little ponies!  They worked hard to keep smart and busy all day long.  Mums and dads and friends came to watch our award day. 
Pony Club Camp 2011
This week has been one of the best camps ever! Tomorrow we have our final competition and all the mums and dads are invited to join for prize giving. I will put a couple of pictures on here for you to see and then after tomorrow i will put some more. First here is Natelea with two of the younger members doing their horse posters in the scout marque.  And here is a pictures of the lessons for road rider badges and to the left the jumping practice.  So far the young people have taken part in swimming, running, driving shetland ponies in a cart, jumping, dressage, shooting , first aid lessons, hacking out in the countryside and much more.
Our sand school
Hurrah for our sandschool! Fabulous news as Bretts aggregates have agreed to give us 100 tons of sand for our sand menage. A very big thank you to them for there donation. It means that all our summer programmes will take place. This means over 90 children will be able to take part from now until christmas. Many Many Thanks. I would like to thank Mike Weir from whitstable harbour and Giles Seaford from Active Canterbury for helping me to make contact and supporting us. I would also like to thank Ovendens Haulage for giving us the chippings we needed at cost price, Kent Peoples Trust for helping to pay for the extra materials we needed and continuing to support projects like these, The Hedley Foundation for also helping with the costs plus some new riding equipment for the summer and Paul Sharratt for all his long volunteer hours/financial contributions to this, for our summer projects . And finally i would like to thank Gerry from KM canterbury for the article that helped to raise awareness of our need for the sand area. Thank you on behalf of all the young people here at The Paddocks. Jean Sharratt 
News for the summer ahead
This month we took a trip to the sales in leominster to buy 2 small ponies for the pony club camp as we didnt have enough ponies to go around. Our camp is very popular this year. Angela Bradshaw , one of our trustees, bought one pony called Ben, especially for us to use. Thank you Angela. Here is a picture of Ben. He is a lovely section A pony and small enough for a little riders to use.  And Elisabeth Calnan bought a pony named ' Prince' to bring into work also. Here he is with her in the stable..........it seems she has taught him to sit!  Welcome to all our level 1 students that have started this week, what a very hot day we had too. Phew! We can,t complain though we have all enjoyed the welcome sunshine. And here is a picture of some of the volunteers and trustees taking a late evening ride to the pub. It was really lovely for us all to get together on such an enjoyable occassion. 
BHS INSPECTION!
The Britsh Horse Society comes to inspect our premises once a year so that we can be one of their approved establishments. It is something to be proud of when you are BHS approved and it holds a high standard for us to achieve. This year we gained the following fabulous ratings;  I would like to thank the staff, volunteers, trustees , the young people that come here and of course my dedicated family members. Paul Sharrat for his building and repairs, Sam for her training and taxi service for horses to shows and Paul B for his IT support work. Everyone has worked so hard. Without your sweeping , cleaning, care, laughter and hours of training given and recieved, we could not have achieved this. Well done all of you , i am proud of everyone of you. Jean
Riding arena base
The Paddocks would like to thank Ovendens Tipper services for supplying some of the base for our sand school. Ovendens were kind enough to offer it to us a reduced price . Thank you ovendens, you are helping us to provide a repaired arena for our summer programme to ride on. We still need lots more so if anyone reading this knows of sand or small rock base please can you ring us on 07734189902
Name Tags
We have just bought some name tags for our horses bridles and saddles. They are good for our young people to identify whose saddle or bridle is whose. These tags are light and very attractive. If there are any other horse owners out there in big busy yards i can highly recomend these.
You can find them on Ebay by love-lock-co-uk
Pet ID Tag, Both Sides Engraved Free, 22mm Nickel Plate
Item Id: 250828297059
Latest Activites at the Paddocks
Some of our young people went to a horse show at Denne Hill RDA show. They had a great day and came away enthusiastic about their next future planned events.   Louise has also been busy finishing the NVQ students assessments. Well done to them all for completing their courses. Here is a picture of one them at work.  This summer we have a Pony Club Camp, planned and organised by Herne Pony Club. Some of the children from Herne will be joined by some of the children from the Paddocks. The camp will take place in the fields at the Paddocks. We would like to thank, Natelea Legg and Nikki Lewis for their time and effort organising this for the children. There are many activities for the children. The day begins at 7.30 am and finishes at 8 pm , so its full on for 5 days! Look out for pictures on this site.
First Aid Course
There will be a equine specific first aid course, held here on 2 nd July, at The Paddocks. It is delivered by Judy at TrainAidInc - Making First Aid, Second Nature
Tel:01773880054/07816481794
www.trainaidinc.com
I can highly recommend this fun filled very well delivered course, Do contact Judy, via the above, if you need a refresher course or if you are new to first aid.
New Ponies arrive from Ireland
Our new ponies arrived from ireland on Monday. They are ponies bought by people to help us through our busy future programmes by becoming working liveries here. The ponies will be schooled and when ready, join our workforce. Here is a picture of Mr Jackson greeting the girls as he delivers the horses. The ponies arrived fresh , healthy and happy as Mr Jackson made sure they were well watered and comfortable on the their journey to us .  
Future Projects at The Paddocks
Just a quick bit of news to tell you what plans and work we are doing this summer. We have;
14 young people here at the weekends, every weekend.
13+ young people on weekdays
We plan this summer;
3 week project for 9 young people to achieve a level 1 NVQ . This is for vulnerable young people just left school or not in education
Pony club camp for 33 young people for one week on our land from the 23rd July
10 inner city London children for riding introduction lessons.
5 activity days for 20 + children with special needs
12+ new young vulnerable people for 6 weeks throughout the summer on a volunteer training programme
14 new young vulnerable people starting in September , for 10 weeks on a NVQ 1 programme ( through canterbury college)
We also support/ take referrals from Orchard school, George Turrel house, SNAPP, Ashford Actionaires, St Nicholas school Step Ahead and many other places . The demand is higher than we can currently meet and are fully booked. Please send in applications and we will try to fit you in as soon as possible, as we are do apply for new grants for new grants for new projects.
First Aid Course by Judy from Trainaidinc
We held a first aid course, on Saturday 7 th May , in our cabin, for some of our young people that are progressing to further exams and competitions. Judy from Trainaidinc came along and taught us our first aid. It was really interesting and we loved all the extra information she gave us on how to look after a injured person until an ambulance can reach us. This is something all our young people learn when they begin to trek out. As endurance riders they may be far from help and need to assist someone that has fallen off or had an accident. Judys course is Equine Specific and covers many of the types of injuries that can happen when riding or handling horses. Thank you Judy! And here is Judys contact info and some pictures of us learning our first aid. Tel:01773880054 / 07816481794 This is the log roll  This is me doing CPR!  The recovery position  And here is Judy demonstrating how to put on a sling 
Equestrian tourism and riding and road safety exams
We are pleased to tell you that 4 of our students passed their assistant ride leader exams and 3 people passed their riding and road safety exam. This is great news for our hardworking students and we look forward to them taking out hacks and helping others to learn to ride. Here are some pictures of them on their exam.  
The Mary Edmondson Sporting Trust
We had the most wonderful surprise today in the post! We have recieved a cheque from The Mary Edmondson Sporting Trust , to cover the cost of 5 young peoples Equestrian Tourism exam. Mary Edmondson left a bequest in her will to set up the Sporting Trust Registered Charity to promote leisure and sporting activity. The Trustees were her friends while she was alive. Mary played and excelled in many sports during her lifetime and even followed many sports in her old age. The Trust has a limited income but they do what they can in the Canterbury area concentrating on junior sporting activities. It is fabulous that our young people have benefited from Marys' fund. It means that all the riding lessons and training these young people have received can now be turned into a useful qualification. They can use this qualification to take other young people out on treks and also for jobs in the future. Thank you so much to the trustees for voting to support them and good luck to all the young people. Here is a picture of a group studying for their exam. They are learning about the care of our horses with Gemma Page, one of our instrcutors. The exam they take consists of riding out on a trail, taking care of others learning to ride and caring for the horses day to day needs. You can find this exam on the Britsh Horse Society website under Equestrian Tourism Exams and it is called 'Assistant Ride Leader'. The exam will take place now on the 5th May and the examiners will come here to observe our students. Many Thanks to you 
Kaddy and Missy update
Kaddy and Missy the racehorses that came to us in January are doing great. They are schooling well and starting to become valued members of the paddocks team. They are loving the warmer weather and have settled in very well.Gemma now has Kaddy on full loan. Here is a picture of Kaddy and Gemma.  Here is kaddy training our NVQ students. Arron Lawrence and kaddy.  Here is missy and sam is now the owner of missy.  We will keep you updated of there progress throughout the summer... Posted on 16 Apr 2011 by Lucy
The Wye ride
The Wye Ride is a cross country ride of 10 miles and 28 fences. Elena Wilse riding Connor .  Samantha Bradshaw riding Quinn  Sam Sharratt riding Nemo  Kerrie Bundock riding Pearl  Kate Flay ridng shadow  Louise Edwards (our instrictor) riding Misty, Misty is Louise's own horse.  Thanks you to Sam Sharratt and Kevin Bradshaw who were the drivers and got all the horses/ponies and their riders to the Wye ride safely. Thank you to Gemma Page who took some amazing photos. Also thank you to all the supporters. The riders, dirvers and spectators stayed for a lovely picnic after. Posted on 16 Apr 2011 by Lucy
Flicka
Sadly before Christmas we lost one of the mares Flicka, who has been with us since birth. She was truely a lovely horse and everyone who rode her loved her. She was owned by Samantha Bradshaw and together they usually came first in riding shows. Before this she was bread and owned by Sam Sharratt. Flicka gave lots of good times to many people. She will be sadly missed, but everyone has good memories with her which will stay with them.
Posted on 16 Apr 2011 by Lucy
Endurance ride for the senior saturday riders
On 20 th March , 6 of our Saturday riders joined the many other riders for the Primrose ride. The ride is over 15 miles, organised by Endurance uk, and needs to be completed in under 3 hours. I am pleased to say they all completed well in time. Congrads to Amanda and her team. Photos to follow.
We are busy making plans for our summer activities, we have pony club camp, NVQ 1 students, Junior leaders and welcome to the new Junior leader trainee group.
Funds are really tight this year and we are sorry to disappoint the children wanting to come back for more lessons but we only are funded for one project this summer. Fingers crossed, maybe we will be successful again soon.
March News
Good news to our boys from orchard school and spires academy. They had a visit today from the IV from Hadden training and all of them have passed their assessments today. Gay ( our IV ) was most impressed by their folder work and said they are well on track for their NVQ level 1. Well done lads! Here is a picture of Chloe on Prairie after she had completed her dressage test and well done to Tora, Emma and Gemma for competing at willow farm at the weekend. It was a chilly day but the snowdrops are out and I see the blue bell leaves too. .jpg)
Hints of spring
This week we have had mostly our younger members attending. we held gymkhana races on thursday, folowed by a 3 hour hack, to the Duck Inn at Pett Bottom, for the senior group then a dresage test on Friday. Saturday we have the saturday riders here and Sunday 3 people are a attending a local competition. It has been great to be able to go outside with no wind, rain and cold. well done to our junior leaders for braving the harsh winter and keeping all our horses well cared for. 
Winter still hanging about
The chilly wet and windy weather is still with us but no matter, we have been able to get out and about hacking. We have 2 new NVQ trainees and 5 riding and road safety pupils. They have joined our weekday groups that train as grooms and assist us when the little ones come for a ride from the local schools and referral agencies .Starting this time of the year things can only get better. We have mud and more mud but its a good opportunity to talk and teach about pasture maintenance and how to refresh your paddocks in the spring. We have had a few lovely hacks out and spring must be coming because the birds were there to sing to us as we rode. 
Beautiful February Day
Just a quick note to say what a lovely hack we had. Here is a picture of Rachel, one of the teachers from Orchard School , followed by the boys. We rode around the countryside overlooking Upper Hardes and stone street. It was a welcome break from the fierce weather we have had. 
February Progress
The fields are drier now and we can do a little more riding out. The wind is fierce here though but next week is promised to be nice. On Tuesday we have the IV from Haddon Training coming to IV the boys from Orchard school , who have progressed very well with their folders. They are very close to completing their NVQ1 . On Wednesday , we will have a visit from the Sheriff of Canterbury who is coming to see what we do here. Our young people will make him very welcome and show of their riding skills. Welcome to our new level 1 pupils, we wish you happiness and success with your studies and hope you enjoy the course. Our Saturday riders group is so big now, we are putting on extra days in the holidays although the groups are already stretched to full. Our 2 new Horses , Kaddy and Missy ( Kadastrom and Restless Harriet) are lovely. Thank you again Robin and Claire Dickins, they are the sweetest horses, well mannered and healthy. They are now working for our groups and love their hacking out. Here are a couple of photos of them.  
New Arrivals !
We would like to say welcome to our new arrivals Restless Harriet and Kadastorm. They are 2 lovely thoroughbreds donated by Robin Dickin. Robin has a beautiful race training stables in Stratford upon Avon . He and his wife Claire made us most welcome when we went to collect them. We would like to thank Robin for letting us have these 2 horses. They will join our happy herd and enjoy our beautiful hacks on the Chartham Downs. The children spent the day today getting to know them and Kadastorm has made best friends with Nemo our Irish Draught horse. Here are some pictures of the new horses and we will post some more soon when they start their new job.  
January 2011 News
The weather has hampered us over the holidays but we are going full speed ahead for our new projects. Thank you to Kent Peoples trust , they gave £1260 for instructor fees and Four Acre Trust have sent a cheque to cover our very high insurance costs and some of our running costs. Thank you also to Whitstable community college for your donation and fund raising. Without everyone support we could not provide the service we do and we are busy!!! . Lots of young people here on Saturdays and plenty of students in the week too. Here is a picture of one of our 5 hour weekend hacks.  We have applied to awards for all to fund our instrcutor fees for an extra project, a level 1 new training project for 10 more young people, but we will have to wait and see if we are sucesssful.
Nesw Years day Riding
Just a quick note to let everyone know there is no 'saturday riders' riding on new years day as this is a staff holiday but we are open tomorrow on Thursday 30 th for the Saturday riders. All junior leaders are welcome from 10am on New Years day to help feed and school. Saturday riders due back in again on Saturday 8th January . see you all then and ............ Happy New Year! And here is a picture, taken on the 29th Dec 2010, of Ethan and Isabelle on their first hack, with all the junior leaders . This programme is funded by the Kent County Council Children’s Social Services 
Riding at the Paddocks
The big freeze stopped riding plans over the holidays but i would like to thank all the dedicated young people that came in to help keep the horses fed, warm and watered. It was a tough time for all of us with pipes frozen and Jean took her annual holiday with her family too. So, thank you to Amanda and Gemma and all the other people that took such good care of The Paddocks whilst the Sharratts were away.
I would like to add that the Paddocks will be open for riding on the following days.
Red and Blue Groups- 28th and 29th December
Open to all groups 30th and 31st ( Text 07734189902 or email sharratt_jean@hotmail.com for a appointment or time slot)
We look forward to seeing you all soon.
Riding and road safety
Well done all the young people that took their riding and road safety test on Saturday and thank you to everyone that helped . It was a really cold day but everyone mucked in and helped out. we would just like to give advise to all parents and clients during these cold days.
Put at least 5 layers on starting with a vest, then long sleeved vest, then thin jumper, then thick and then coat. Make sure these layers come down to your hips and over. Short puff coats may look fashionable but cold middles cause a lot of heat loss. In soles in boots make a big difference to keeping your feet warm , use a thin socks and then a thick one also. wear Jods and tracksuits or tights under Jods. Gloves - you need a thin silky pair and then a thick pair waterproof material. And then a nice scarf and then your riding hat . We had five very cold people over the weekend that we had to wrap up in our spare togs, so don't get caught out.
New House Lane can quickly become blocked as we don't get the gritters along here so if you do bring your child and the road gets blocked ring 07734189902 or 01227 451721 if you have a problem, we can drop your child/ service user, at the bottom of the lane in our 4 x 4.
Have fun in the snow everyone and look forward to a white Christmas!
The Paddocks Christmas List
If anyone out there can help us with a kind donation we would be very grateful. We need funds for a Children's Christmas party and also repairs to our tack and stables. Our repairs bill has been higher than usual this year due to the number of projects we have run . Our volunteer costs too have been very high. If you can help us please get in touch with Jean or Gemma by email on sharratt_jean@hotmail.com . We also need someone that is a qualified electrician to come and do this years PAT testing in our classroom. Can you help?
Children in Need
Just a quick note to say thank you to Children in Need for funding our latest project, which ends this month. And thank you to the BBC news team for filming our children and putting them on TV. They enjoyed it very much and they really loved the children in need live party at Leeds castle. Thank you! and here is a picture of them at the Party with Pudsey  Also, Here is a picture of the Sunday group riding on a very frosty Sunday 28th November. 
November news
The winter is upon us now but we have had some lovely days. Here is a picture of a lovely hack we went on , on the 19th November, it really was the most beautiful day.   We have also had many visits now from the children at Orchard school in Canterbury, here are the Friday afternoon group.  Good luck today to all our candidates on their first exam today, it is a chilly start to the day and we re very proud of you all. Finally , we had a training for trainers day with Joao Charlesworth, at Blue Barn. Our young coaches enjoyed their lesson with Joao very much and we would like to thank him for his time. Our coaches will share the knowledge they have gained with others wishing to improve their jumping skills. We look forward to another lesson with Joao again soon.  
Blue Barn with Amanda,s Sunday group
Amanda's team led 2 of our participants in a Blackhorse competition and came second in her gold cup class! Well done Amanda and here is a picture of her with Rosa who came third. We think you are fab, all of you , as it was the biggest course you have jumped. 
Active Canterbury Sports Awards
 Some of the Paddocks volunteers went to the Active Canterbury Sports Awards, it was lovely as usual and well done to Rebecca and Giles for making such a nice evening for us. We had a great time and enjoyed all the food and entertainment . We did have a few giggles at Jean putting out a fire with a jug ! One of the serviettes fell onto a candle but Jean quickly extinquished it with a jug a water. Here is a picture of some of us cleaned up and out of our jodhpurs. 
November Dressage at Willow Farm Faversham
On Saturday 7th November The Paddocks entered 4 teams of 4 for the team dressage at Willow Farm . It took the organisational skills of 9 very patient volunteers. Everyone needed their horses plaited cleaned and well schooled and practised. The young people needed jackets shirts ties and boots and we needed to move 8 horses with all their equipment in 2 trailers. It was a bit like moving an army and my house was full of people all day. But we had so much fun. We laughed at our mishaps and challenges and rejoiced in our success. One of our teams came third in the team dressage and the rest of the results are below . We didn't get home to the yard until 10 pm and were not cleared away until 11pm. Well done to everyone that helped and took part. A special big thank you to Amanda s Dad! Who kindly gave up his time to be one of the volunteer drivers. Here is one of the pictures, more to follow, of our junior group. Well done guys , I am really proud of you.  Results – Team & Individual Dressage Willow Farm – 6th November Team of Three/Four 1st Royal Oak RC 2nd Moat View D Team 3rd The Paddocks A Team 4th – Moat View C Team 5th – Paddocks D Team 6th – Moat View B Team 7th – Misfits 8th - Moat View A Team Individual Result from Team Class (Prelim 10) 1st Harriett Jackson (Mossbrook Harry) 73.1% 2nd Stacey Ward (Bubbilicous) 72.7% 3rd Lorraine McGrotty (Rhakiki Bay) 72.7% 4th Sam Bradshaw (Tuscany Rose) 72.2% 5th Gemma Page (Rose) 70% 6th Jo Cocker (Jack the Lad) 7th Amy Widdows (Horton’s Pink Panther) 8th Cathy Wildish (Finn)        
Halloween 2010
Halloween this year was a lovely warm day. The children ( and volunteers) all dressed up in fancy dress ( some really scary ones too!) We played games on ponies and then the older group had a flour and water fight. Here are some snaps of all the fun. Jean Sharratt and her dog Hiedi  Sam Bradshaw as the man-eating pumpkin!  Some of the young people in the costumes.     Hey! Just a minute. I think i am getting something through on Pumpkim telepathy, yes .............. Its a Pumpkin World takeover ! Tonight!  And here is Rosa with her horns on her head.  Well done to everyone that helped today. And see you soon.
Louise Edwards new website
Louise Edwards, one of our freelance Instructors, has a new website. For all enquiries for hiring her teaching skills go to http://www.ridingsuccess.co.uk/Louise will travel to your chosen venue to help you succeed with your riding.
Lots of happy news ( better than Sky News ! )
We have been bouncing around all excited because we have BBC news coming to see us again. Its because of our Children in Need Project. They are coming to see why we think riding horses is a good healthy sport for all our children. Many of our youngsters will be coming in on Thursday to tell the cameras why. And show of their new riding skills. Also we are really really excited about our dressage day. Our volunteers will be driving back and forth all day on the 6 th November to Colette's show at Willow farm as we have a grand total of 16 young people competing!! That means a lot of driving all day with trailers. Thank you to all our drivers. Here is a picture of Lily. Lily is a star because she made a cake stall at her school and raised £170 !!!! Wow Lily! well done. And good job! to all those that made cakes  Here we have a picture of ' happy hacking'. Well done to our newcomers Rosa and Lily for taking in part in a 2 1/2 hour hack over a varied terrain, in all paces. 
17TH OCTOBER AT BLUE BARN TEAM SHOW-JUMPING
Here are some pictures of our teams that entered the show at Blue Barn today. Both teams gained 3rd place and rode their course of fences with great enthusiasm and skill. Well Done everyone! And thank you to Blackhorse1 shows for having us.  
October News -children in need project
Our children in need project has been running now for 2 months. Here are some pictures of our Saturday riders activity group. This young people are new riders that are just learning with the help of previously trained young people from last years projects.        This Sunday we will be taking 2 teams of young people to compete at Blue Barn in Blackhorse show-jumping and in November we will taking 4 teams for the Dressage competition at Willow Farm . Our students are practising hard. On Saturdays , the younger groups ride first and then the older more advance students stay on to practise for their next exam or competition. During half term week we will be holding a Halloween fancy dress games day on Saturday 30th October and on Thursday 28th we will be holding an extra riding session for the new riders with games again. Just text 07734189902 if you would like your child to join in or email sharratt_jean@hotmail.com
Barville Farm
On Sunday the 10th October we took a group of young people to Barville Farm to compete. It really was a lovely sunny day and I stayed all day to watch this time( despite the paper in the office calling me!) The girls all got up at 6am to see to their horses. Quinn was muddy as ever and needed a bath but the other ponies kept fairly clean. We loaded all our gear into the two cars with trailers attached and off we went . Paul Sharratt always gives our loaded trailers the' once over check' before we leave. Having arrived on this marvellous sunny day we all started to unpack and enter the classes and here are some pictures. Tora with Shadow, who got a fifth prize in her jumping class  Gemma and Prairie Jumping  Tabia and Quinn  Rosa and Ocean  Sam and Ocean  Sam and Shadow  Gemma and Nemo  Gemma and Prairie  Gemma in an awful panic to make her next class!  Some the girls walking the course and learning winning tactics from Sam Sharratt. 
October News
We had a lot of exams to get ready for over the last few weeks. Riding and road safety, 5 people passed and UKCC level 2, 10 people passed. The UKCC has been most helpful as it gives us a whole new angle on teaching. I think some of us were already coaches but it highlighted the differences in teaching styles and gave us many new ideas. On Sunday a large group are off to Barville farm for Colette's horse show and also we are making 4 teams for the team dressage in November. Below are some pictures of our new students, the first one is of James and Nemo.  The second is of Ashlie and Prairie  and the third is of Arron and Quinn 
Charles our dedicated bookeeper
Just a quick little note for all our participants/service users that come here. I thought it would be good to see the team that you don't meet. They work hard behind the scenes doing most important jobs. Firstly, here is Charles Muswaka. Charles is our bookkeeper/accounts clerk. He has changed the way that bookkeeping is done here and now is able to produce just about any cash analysis the trustees ask for. We just want to recognise the work many people like Charles do within sport industry but are never seen. We think you are great Charles!  And then we have PB Sharratt. He sits in his room dreading the moment someone calls, 'PB!!!! the network isn't working' or 'the printer is off-line'. He is great at fixing our IT stuff and created this lovely website. Recently, we also have Fiona helping us too, in the week when PB isn't here. Thank you to you too Fiona, your most kind. Edit from PB Sharratt: "What's that, a horse sat on the router? How's that even possi-.. *sigh*, ok."
Autumn is here
The beautiful colours of Autumn have arrived. We went for a hack through Denge woods and out to Sole Street. Then from there to Mystole, Chartham and back through Larkey Valley woods to home. It was a lovely ride and the young people enjoyed the gallop up the hill!
On Saturday the 18th September, we had another visit from the Ashford Actionaires, an activity group for visually impaired children. I think they must bring the good weather with them because it doesnt matter how bad the forecast is or has been, the sun always shines when they come. It certainly makes us feel cheerful to feel its warmth on our faces.
Next week is busy, busy , busy. We are working with our new children towards their exams . We have 5 children taking Riding and Road safety on the 2nd October, 14 people having their final assessment for their UKCC level 2 in October and we have eleven NVQ courses under way.
We will let you all know how everyone is getting on soon
And if any of you get a chance. Take the walk through Denge woods and also Wye downs, the colours are spectacular this Autumn.
City and Guilds Level 1 training
Hello Readers, We have started our sign ups for the NVQ 1 and 2 and we are hoping that the weather is going to be a little bit more pleasant than last winter. Here is a picture of our new group from Orchard School in Canterbury. The lads have started their riding training and will complete a 1 year course . Good luck to everyone and thank you to all the teachers and instructors that have been busy setting this course up for our young people. 
End of summer?
Oh dear what a August we have had. Amazingly though, the days we had really busy things planned were not too bad! Here is a picture of some more of our young visitors from SNAAP , they rode in our school, hacked around our farm and then had a picnic. It was very lucky as it didnt rain but was a bit breezy for August.  And for all those people that wonder who Jean Sharratt is....... i am in the far right corner. That day was really busy. We had 14 people taking their UKCC level 2 coaching award. It is a new exam promoted by the government to get all teaching of sport to adopt a different style of coaching and to regulate the knowledge for all sports coaching, into levels. Alex Hudson from Pony Club has been working hard to deliver this course for us and made sure we all have been well briefed about the programme. Our next busy day is Saturday 28th August when our young people will be hosting a horse show here and have included people from other clubs/yards to come and compete here. We have some lovely rosettes donated by MAIN RING ROSETTES. Thank you so much MAIN RING, without generosity such as your events like these could not take place. main_ring@btinternet.com 01580 752806 Here is there website address www.mainring-rosettes.co.uk We will put some pictures of the show on after this weekend.
Wild Plum Crumble made at the Paddocks!
On the 12th August, we went picking Wild Plums and also a few blackberries. We made the plums into a crumple pie, YUM! Here is a picture of Bridget and her pony, Clover, picking the blackberries and Bridget shared them with clover too!  
Endurance riding for the young people
On Sunday 15th August 5 people plus Jean Sharratt were dropped in the trailers by Paul and Sam Sharratt , at Hastinglea, near Ashford. The young people and Jean Had to navigate from there through the local bridle routes. It really was a fabulous long ride and we saw many beautiful parts of the South Downs. We all stopped at the Compasses Inn in Sole Street for lemonade and crisps.  We will be doing lots more of these rides. We are also hosting a small horse show at the end of August for our project children but first we are waiting to see what the drab August weather will do to set the date.
children in need
Thank you Children in Need for funding our next project!
If you look at the calender, you will find it has changed. Due to a new project we are taking bookings for new children, however there are limited spaces left as we have taken many children from our waiting list.
Former clients can apply too as we have another project starting shortly.
The Paddocks is busy busy busy! and we are happy
The concert and other news
The concert was a great success and lots of fun. Our helpers and performers made us proud as they worked so hard to make the event a good evening for all. Thank you to everyone that came. Here a picture of the headlining act, Van Dave.  And here is Luke Jackson who headed the solo artists.  Also, here are some pictures of busking in Canterbury Town Centre before the concert. ( Please note copyright to Lottie Simons )   I would also like to proudly show our award from EBP Work Experience. This year The Paddocks offered 26 work experience placements to local children. Well done to all the team leaders that supported a fun filled working week to them all . 
Concert Tickets
Apologies to all those that tried to get on our website yesterday and found it was not working. All is well now and the address to the concert site is
http://concert.thepaddocks.org/
You can scroll down the news to the link that says Concert Website or type the above address into google
It will be a great night, bring your picnics and see you there.
Pony Club
Pony Club Camp was a big success and the Paddocks would like to thank Herne Pony Club for all the organising they did and also the hard working volunteers that came with them, Jane, Philippa, Rosie, Donna and Natelea. All the children were delighted with the activities and lessons. The Tetrathlon was great fun. Food, tents, horse riding, shooting, games and swimming! We had 25 young people, 5 instructors and 7 adult volunteers I would also like to thank all the unpaid instructors that gave up their time for free. Sam Sharratt, Eleanor Andrews, Fiona Tonry and the washer uppers, Gemma Page, Tom , George and Sam. A big thank you too to Elena , Lucy and Sam B for giving piggy back rides and playing games to entertain the little ones. Thank you to for all the times the junior leaders willingly cleared jumps and lent a hand. We the trustees are proud of your team participation and enthusiasm. And here are a few snaps of the fun. Setting up the Camp with Nicky and her caravan.  The tents  Riding in the school  Riding in the field   Organising the day on the board   Gymkhana Games  Shooting  Swimming  Setting up the trophy stall  Parents day and Donna lovely lunch  Prize giving day  It was the best camp ever!!! See you all next year
Summer holidays and exam results
The trustees are delighted to tell you all that all 8 of our equestrian tourism exam students have passed. This is indeed very good news! After a challenging day of examining, the students demonstrated their knowledge and skills of horsemanship, health and safety and leadership. Well done to you all and we are proud of all the extra time and effort you all put in during the run up to the exam. And at our riding and road held here on Saturday the 25th July , all 5 of our students passed their riding and road safety exam. Brilliant work, all you young people! Good to see so many of our members doing so well. Pony Club Camp starts today for 5 days. 32 people camping here at the Paddocks, we will put some pictures on the site soon. And finally , some of the groups playing at our fundraiser concert will be in the town centre busking and selling tickets, do look out for us. Have a nice day everyone!
Exciting news from Canterbury District Local Children Services
Hurrah! Canterbury District Local Children Services have agreed to fund a project for us. It really is the best news for us. It will mean we can provide training days for our groups on our waiting lists and we will be able to provide activity groups that we could not have provided before. Please call me if you are one of the parents on that list and I will book you in. I will also be ringing around the people who have been waiting the longest as a priority. Thank you so much Canterbury District Local Children's Fund.
August Concert
Hello readers.
Hope you all have bought tickets for our fund-raiser concert on the 7 th August . We still have no news about any other funding coming our way to run projects for the future but please keep watching this site for information and updates.
Here are a few dates for your diaries about the riding days we will be running with the profits from our fund-raiser concert .
Please take a look at our calender and we hope to see all soon.
July Begins
Not long till pony club camp now and we have all been being making preparations. We have been given an old caravan for the secretary and 2 mums have volunteered to cook for 32 people for 2 of the nights. Bangers and mash is on the menu I think.
We have started working with the Coastal Inclusion Programme and receiving some of the young people they support. Our new recruits are from orchard school and also home education referrals. The young people have enjoyed the work we do here and we will be welcoming them throughout the summer holidays , to work with Louise our Instructor.
A very big thank you to Andy from Canterbury College for supporting our basic skills group. Andy has prepared his students from here, well, for next weeks exam and gone to great lengths to secure a private room to them to take their exam in. We are grateful to you Andy.
We would like to send Charles a big thank you too . Charles has been working hard to support the paddocks accounts and evaluation of projects. This has been a tremendous help to Jean and has meant she has been able to get on more with applications and plans for our next projects.
Our plans for next year are to support children aged 8- 18 and we hope to be able to run another adults project in the future. At present we are desperately trying to raise enough funds to be able to pay for our council license ( approx £400 ) Business rates ( £163) Insurance from November( £4300) and horse running costs (£ 18,000) and 2 salaries ( £24,500)
The other costs such as office, repairs, equipment and exam costs we are hoping to succeed with but no confirmation as yet.
This last few weeks we have been busy with our UKCC level one and two training, NVQ completion's and city and guilds . Some students are off to take their stages exams at other yards, so good luck to them and also we are hoping to run another Equine Tourism exam here. No news yet. Good luck to all 10 students taking their riding road safety on the 24th July also.
We will put some more photos on soon and thank you to all our readers and supporters. Don,t forget our concert on the 7th August, tickets on sale on-line or here at the Paddocks. .
Typical Day at the Paddocks
I thought our readers might like to see what a typical day at the Paddocks is like. Its Tuesday 22nd June and first we have our group of young people from Porchlight charity in Canterbury , helped by Richard Barnard. Our group of 8 young people are doing really good and hope to be able to join our summer training project. They had their lessons and then went home. All our trainees assisted them to learn. Also, here is a picture of Louise training Aloysis, one of our young trainees, learning his riding and road safety exam.  In Our riding arena, we have Nicky Teaching a group for their UKCC teaching awards. Here they are learning about pole distances.  And finally we have Andy from Canterbury College inspiring his group for their end of term exam. 
Funding News
We have been unsuccessful in finding someone to fund our summer projects for under 13,s. It is indeed very sad for us all.We have applied 3 times to Awards for all and all have been unsuccessful despite being successful for the last 8 years and we have tried many other sources. We think it is the lack of funds to demand . We are lucky to have four acre trust funding our part-time worker until September and we will be welcoming a group of 20 young people for the summer holidays but we are so sad we cant run our planned under 13 holiday projects. We haven't heard from 2 other funders but we are hoping that we will have more success for September onwards. We will keep you all updated .
End of term training for our students
All of our students have been studying for exams. Some have been doing A levels and GCSE, at their schools and some have been having their final assessments for their NVQ studies in horses riding here. I think we all need a little recreation and so if you go onto the gallery there are some very nice pictures of us all playing around the fields here on the horses. It was tricky with the weather being off and on with rain but we dodged the showers and had lots of fun.  Next week we have Nicky coming to train us for our UKCC and then Alex Hudson will arrive later in the week for our first session. We are also running a first aid course and we have riding and road safety exam for 9 people on the 24th July. Our Saturday riders group is now completely full and we are having to turn people away. On weekdays term time we are also very busy, we have welcomed 3 new young people from the Coastal Inclusion programme, that is supported by Kent Peoples Trust and 2 new young people on home education programmes. We also hope to welcome new people from other organisations if we get funding for September onwards. No news about any further funding yet despite many applications. Keep your fingers crossed everyone , we have a waiting list for our September programme and desperately need our applications to succeed. And , lets hope we get a spot of bar b que weather in the next few days!
June News
Hello Everyone. The summer is here at last and we are really busy getting out and about to competitions. Sam Sharratt has been sharing the driving to get everyone to horse shows and we had a bouncy day. Gemma Page had her 21 birthday here at the Paddocks and the next morning our Saturday groups got to have some bouncing fun too.  I will put some pictures on the gallery ASAP so keep watching.
Concert at The Paddocks
The Paddocks will be holding a concert in August, if you'd like to support us and have a great evening, buy tickets at the Concert Website
Gallery additions
Take a look at our gallery for the latest uploads of photos.
Happy Days out and about.
Thank you very much to Kent County Playing Fields association. Our youngsters have been having a great time. We had £300 given to us for our youngsters to use to enter local events. They have had a great time. Some have been to bigberry cross country course in Chartham Hatch. Picture below;  Some have been to limes farm for a Trailblazers competition. They did well winning many rosettes. We also have been to Chilham castle one day event and Barville farm for one of Colettes shows. We would like to thank all the people that made this possible for our youngsters.
May feels a bit chilly!
Brrr! Poor horses! Just start to shed their summer coats and Brrrr! THE NORTH WINDS BLOW AGAIN. We have been having some fun. The new bridle bridge over the A2 is finished. Thank you to all who made this possible and here is a picture of Jean, Bridget and Diane checking out our lovely new routes and stopping at Bishopbourne pub for a coke and crisps.  We have a new arrival. Pearl our new mare from Ireland gave birth to a lovely colt foal. Pearl has been tenderly looked after by Kim Cook. Kim fed and cared for Pearl all through her pregnancy. Well done Kim and thanks to all the people that stayed over at jeans house on foal rota watch for 3 weeks!  And well done to all the young people that competed at Trailblazers, Limes farm. You were fab. Lots of places and happy ponies and riders. Now......... a message to the Met Office. Where is our summer!
End of April news
Hello to all our readers. Just an update on what we have been doing . On the 18th April , a group of us went on the Blossom ride. It was a beautiful warm day and the ride went well. The route we rode had many blossoms out but not as many as on previous years. Thank you to the volunteer staff that organised the ride, we were made to feel welcome as usual and here is a couple of pictures of our riders and our picnic together.   We also had a visit from the Ashford Actionaires on 17th April. Our visually impaired group of young people rode in our arenas and they bought the sun with them again. Ashford Actionaires have always managed to bring the sun not matter what the forecast! Well done to all our young riders and we look forward to their next visit. We would also like to thank all the people that came and helped on that busy day, with out your help , the activities would not be possible. I would also like to thank Julie Biggs and Louise Edwards for their assessing of our 9 people taking their city and guilds level one equine studies with Canterbury College. Julie and Louise have working hard with our students to get them through the qualification . Thank you also to Marian Burch who has been extremely busy processing all the paperwork. Good work also to all nine students that have achieved a competed folder and hope to graduate soon, we are very proud of you all. Good luck to all the students taking their UKCC coaching awards with Alex Hudson. We have a total of 10 Students taking their level 1 and 2 coaching award. Alex Hudson has been working hard to organise the course and is always a happy cheerful person on the end of the phone when we need her. Thank you to Andy again who has been working with our English study group. Andy always gives a lively lesson and is an inspiration to our students. I would like to mention Richard Barnard from Porchlight who has been bringing students here for the last 4 years. Thank you Richard for your time and dedication to working with troubled young people and for the extra volunteer hours that he gives. The trustees would also like to thank our senior weekday group that help support all our new arrivals. These hard working useful trained group are made up of Robert Tappenden, Jeanette Jerome, Mandy Green, Paul Fridd, Christian Lang, Lynn Stringer, Diane Strong, Gemma Page and Stephanie Moss. Without your help guys we could not welcome so many new riders. Our Saturday support team are made up of younger trained volunteers. Kim Cook, Tom Redman, George Redman, Lucy Keyte, Megan Shead, Chloe Mutton, Samantha Bradshaw, Elena Wilse, Fiona Tonry, Amy Jackson and Eleanor Andrews. These young people have trained or are still training to become Instructors. Thank you to you all for helping so many others achieve. And finally our family Volunteers! Thank you to Paul Sharratt senior for the beautiful new stable block. Paul comes home from a hard days work and London and has worked so hard to build these stables and new equipment room for us. Paul Sharratt Junior has been helping teach IT skills and has been a builders mate to his dad ( A pressured job i understand!) and thank you to Sam Sharratt. Sam has been driving young people to shows and helps them to over come their nerves before they compete. I will be uploading all the pictures of the shows we have been to soon but there are so many! Keep checking for them as they will be coming soon. Jean Sharratt
April Warmth!
Hurrah for a little sun. At last. The ponies are losing their coats and the primroses and wood anemones have arrived in our woods. We have not wasted any time taking advantage of the dry weather. We took part in the Team Jumping at Blue Barn in Great Chart, organised by the lovely Colette! Colette runs the horse and dog shows throughout the summer for all local people to come along and compete with their animals. She certainly makes a lovely day out for all that attend. Our team came 7th and 2 team members came 2 nd and 4 th in the individual prizes out of 60 competitors. Pretty good! Well done to all the others especially to Kim who rode a fab round on Shadow, the biggest course she has done.  The adults horse show is on Wednesday( organised by the Junior group) and also our stables are being built too. Our old stables are getting very battered. Here is a picture of Louise ( our Instructor) schooling Venus, with a picture of our new stables going up behind.  On Tuesday the 6th April , We went on a magnificent ride. The adults and young volunteers joined together for a fitness work -out ride on our bridleways. We were a jolly group together and we all stopped at The Compasses Pub near Crundale for a cold Coca Cola. Yum. It was a 4 hour ride so we were pretty tired when we got back.     I think our horses took advantage of the break too! Watch out for the next news item. Some of last years trainees have now achieved the level to be able to take part in the Wye ride. The Wye ride is a cross country ride over 10 miles and 25 fences. We will be going along in force to see them off and then greet them with a picnic. Good luck to Paul, Diane, Lucy, Gemma, Fiona and Sam. Pony Club Camp is fully booked now for the summer but we do still have a few places left for 12 to 20 year olds to join our summer riding programme. Looking forward to some long hot sunny days.
Blue Barn and the Paddocks!
This weekend we took a trip out to Blue Barn to Colettes Horse Show. The young volunteers competed in the combined training and also in the show jumping classes.  And its often a squeeze to get ones top button done!  And we rush about cleaning and tacking up  But ...Phew we get on board eventually  I am pleased to say they did really well and won three classes! They also came home with 2 x 4th 2 x 5ths and a 3rd. We are so proud of all our young people.  I would also like to mention Sam Sharratt. Sam has worked very hard with Nemo, our Peoples Millions horse. When we first got Nemo, he was not long broken as a riding horse and had little knowledge of showing, dressage and jumping. Our novice riders found it hard to get him to jump and school well enough for dressage. We knew Nemo was a fabulous horse and so Sam schooled him as much as possible and showed all the young people how to bring him on. Now he competes and is always placed. I just wanted to say that Sam is a inspiration to all our young volunteers showing hard work and dedication will succeed in the end. So to all you young riders out there with ponies that you are working with, keep going, when you win your first rosette it will all be worthwhile.      Over the Easter Holidays we have a busy week. Wednesday 7th April we have The Adult NVQ Group Show and Thursday 8th April we have the Little Saturdays Riders in for the morning. Also, on Saturday 17th April we have a riding activity day for the Ashford Actionaires. We will also be taking part in the Easter team jumping at Blue Barn, Blossom ride and Wye ride, with riders coming from both Adult and Young riders groups. Welcome to everyone and we wish you success.
Spring is here!
On the 21st March , 3 of us went to the Primrose Ride. This ride is a endurance ride with a pleasure ride option also. It was a lovely outing and our first introduction to what goes on at endurance rides. The people competing, work to get their horses fit and the riders well prepared for their ride. The organisers must work very hard to get all the paperwork sorted for these events and they are extremely busy. These rides are different to the other pleasure rides because you have to run up and down with your horse before the ride and they are strict about how the horse is presented to the vet. The Primrose pleasure ride rules are the same as endurance rules which include the trotting up for the Vet. Other pleasure rides don't require this. This could be a bit tricky for some of our riders/volunteers with disabilities and they would need support.We hope we shall return next year with extra help. We always take people to the Blossom ride , Wye ride, Postling and Molash rides. We love these rides. We take picnics and have a lovely time riding the beautiful countryside. Our cheery hosts at the Blossom rides always remember us for the big picnics we have. We are looking forward to seeing them all this year too. Here is a picture of us on the primrose ride.  We have been working towards the city and guilds level 1 qualification and here is louise assessing the students on the yard.  And to all our Peoples Millions voters, thank you for helping us to buy Nemo , one of our new horses. Nemo has allowed people like Ed, pictured below, the opportunity to ride. Without Nemo , at least 30 people would not have been able to ride at the Paddocks. Thank you all ! 
Quick Update
We had a visit from Maureen from Action with Rural communities in Kent and we hope to get extra funding to extend our very successful ESF project which is really good news. Thank you Maureen. We have had a new Instructor here teaching our young people riding. Nikki Lewis. Nikki taught last year here when we held pony club. Everyone has being having some great lessons with her and so thank you to Nikki also. 
Marching on to Spring
We are working hard here at The Paddocks. We have some new recruits. Welcome to Alex, Leah and Joe and good luck to Joe, Dan, Lizzy, Jenny, Jenna and leah on their Riding and Road safety exam on Saturday the 20th March.  Well Done to Lynn, Gemma, Louise and Angela for completing their NVQ Studies with KEITS. Thankyou to Jackie and Jemma for giving their time to us. Canterbury College have been most supportive also with the NVQ for Paul, Amy, Christian, Stephanie, Diane and Mandy. Louise has been working hard in the cabin completing their folder work . Our under 14 groups have also been busy with their training with Kerrie on a Saturday. Their riding is progressing very well and thank you to our Volunteers Amanda and Diane for helping. It has been nice to be able to get out about with and youngsters now the weather has calmed a little. And here is a picture of our Farrier , Jason Paton-Smith , just to show our viewers he can ride as well as shoe our horses. Pictured here with Francesca, his wife and in the distance his Mum, Eileen, on her birthday ride. It was a lovely treat to get out with them to celebrate Eileens birthday  Also, we have a picture of one of our Porchlight groups, working hard in the school to learn horse riding skills. To the left of the picture was a 2 of our volunteers working hard to lay Cement for our new stables. Thank you guys, you were a great help.  Here are some pictures of Paul Senior and Paul junior, laying the bricks and mixing cement.   We have been to the Chaucer Riding Stables to enter some of our youngsters into a competition. They did very well! here they are with their prizes. Tora riding Coral  Megan riding Coral and Chloe riding Ocean .jpg) Sam and flicka  Elena and Conner  And Well Done to Diane, one of our volunteers, who entered a class at the last minute and got a rosette! 
March News
March has arrived and with it comes the sun we have all waited to see. Still rather chilly but we are certainly not complaining at all. Our young people are able to do more work outside for their NVQ folders. Here is a picture of Amy practising lunging a horse.  We have been for a few lovely treks out, my favourite being the ride to whitehill woods. Our group tried to spot a primrose or daffodil but there were none in sight. Bridget Carpenter tells me that all our spring flowers are late this year. We did, however , find some snowdrops, popping up to tell us that spring is coming....... despite the awful weather winter continued to give us. Here is a picture of the snowdrops we saw.  Paul Sharratt has been working hard outside to make a firmer surface to walk on. Jean Sharratt had applied for new concrete paths from various local trusts and Rural grant makers. Sadly, we were unsuccessful, which amounted to us having to put up with muddy pathways. Some of our clients simply couldn't come due to it being too dangerous for people a little unsteady on their feet and of course no wheelchairs go get along the paths. Paul Sharratt has laid down some road planeings.This is sort of recycling, as they are the waste product from road repairs. I would like to thank Ovendens Haulage and Simms milling Ltd both of whom delivered at a price we could afford to pay. The surface will make it safer for all to walk on but for wheelchairs it is needs to settle and get well tracked in. The other problem with the planeings is they don't last long. If we get another wet winter they soon disappear into the mud on the paths and then we have to begin again. We need concrete paths or one of the new plastic/rubber mat solutions.  The weather is dry though and we are happy! We have busy weekends and productive weeks and thats what keeps us all cheery. Welcome to V involve new volunteers and welcome also to all the new students that have signed up for the city and guilds. On the 20th March, we are hosting a Riding and Road safety exam here for 8 people and on 21st April, it is our big exam, the Equestrian Tourism Exam. Good luck to all our young people. 
Community Placement Visit
Just to say thank you to Nic Couttes who came to volunteer with us for 2 days. Nic is a police officer in the Kent Police and came to meet us all and see the work we do. Nic was very brave and overcame her fear of horses to ride Flicka. Below is a picture of her with Flicka.  Also , here is a picture taken just as the sun is starting to shinel across the very wet fields. 
February News
Its still very chilly here at the Paddocks but at least we have had a few days when we have been able to get out and about for hacks. Our little ones have been coming to ride wrapped up like little parcels in their extra cloths. Our older group have been doing really well with their exams. Well done to Elena Wilse on passing her her Stage 1 Riding and care and well done also to Lynn Stringer for completing her NVQ 2 . KEITS deliver some of the NVQ ,s here and they have been very busy too as the weather stopped them from getting out to many places and its put them behind on assessments. Canterbury College have been very helpful setting up the city and guilds courses for us and also helping us to sign up our new NVQ students. We are currently delivering the City and Guilds level 1 for 9 students and also training riding and road safety for 12. Other studies include. An alcohol awareness course for a group of 10 people, First aid 4 day at work course for 8 people, Training and exams for 8 people on the next trekking centre exam in April, 17 people currently doing their progressive riding tests and we still have 'Super Andy' from Canterbury College teaching English and Maths on a Tuesday in our Cabin. We have been making plans for our 2010 programmes. In April our funding from Pilgrims Trust will run out, which be very sad as it supports one of our groups participants but we do have some funding to continue with our 14 years to 25 years groups. We plan to offer more intensive training with more opportunities to compete. Our junior committee have told us they are very glad to have to come and learnt to ride but they want to compete more and on a level that other advanced riders do. It is called affiliated competing. There are 3 areas of interest that have been bought to the trustees attention. Junior and senior affiliated Show jumping, Affiliated Dressage and Eventing. 2 of our participants would like to go endurance riding. Our English team has had much success this year according to the BHS magazine and this has made our youngsters want to have a go at this sport. So, to keep up with the requests , we have been making applications to people to help us get our youngsters and adults the cash/ extra instruction they need to take part in Affiliated competitions. It is very expensive to enrol members and so we need funds to get these people enrolled. We also need a lot of cash to get them there and back with our horse trailer. The fuel to tow even a short distance is costly. Thank you to Gemma Page, Samantha Bradshaw and Louise Edwards who have given up their spare time to learn how to seek grants and search for funding. And welcome to our V Involve new trainee volunteers. They are looking forward helping us with our projects and we hope also to gain some funding for them to be able to take exams and training in the Summer. Here are some pictures of our youngsters hard at work for their NVQ ,s    
The Big Freeze
My goodness its chilly here at The Paddocks. Its hard work keeping all the animals fed and watered. Water freezes here in about 30 mins so its a constant job filling and thawing. Our little members haven,t been for two weeks now as little fingers and toes get frozen so quick but well done to our really dedicated volunteers, Tom Redman, Samantha Bradshaw , Elena Wilse, Gemma Page , Paul Fridd and Kerrie Bundock. And well done too to Louise Edwards for getting up the hill in her little old Postman Pat van. Here is a picture of our young volunteers being towed out to the fields with the barrels of water. 
Exciting News
We would all like to wish Fiona Tonry congradulations for being offered a place at the Royal Veterinary College of London. We are all so proud of you Fiona! Well Done. Fiona has been a member of the Paddocks for 5 Years and graduated from participant to trainee volunteer and is now a fully trained volunteer staff member. She will continue to work here as a volunteer in her holidays.
ET Exam and Christmas Party
We are pleased to say that 11 people passed their Equestrian Tourism Exams. Well done to everyone. It was a good day for everyone and we all felt we learnt a lot from this exam. 3 People will re-take their exam in the spring having achieved almost all the elements required. In the afternoon of the day it started to snow, everyone was very cold but happy. Our Christmas dinner was on Friday the 18th December for our senior group. Jean cooked food for 18 people. .......... they said they liked it so thats good! I think we all ate too much and after we played in the snow and built a very big snowman 
December News
. Well what can I say about December! Phew we need a rest. Take a look at our gallery to see how busy we have been. We have held a Equine Transport Exam for 18 people  There are 7 NVQ Students 17 under 16,s studying for exams 14 people booked for an Equestrian Tourism exam here on the 16th December and this week we have had a grand total of 21 people taking their first aid exams. In between all this we have attended 3 outside Equestrian Events, hosted extra training sessions for our under 16 groups Saturday and Sundays and also a really big WELL DONE to our cabin studies group. Under the marvellous teacher skills of Andy from Canterbury College our Tuesday group completed their Maths exam. Hurrah for Andy and the Tuesday group. The Exam on Wenesday is a big exam. Our examiners fly in from Ireland and all over the UK. The exam takes all day and has various parts to it such as team leading, equine care, pasture management. It gives a person that passes, evidence they have the skills required to work as a trek leader. A trek leader is someone that can take a group of first time riders safely around a pleasant country hack and cope with any unexpected events Our Christmas party is on the 18th December for all our students. And I shall be preparing the Christmas lunch . Over the holidays we have many fun sessions for all our younger groups and so....... Merry Christmas and a happy new Year to everyone!
Busy November
This month we are busy training students and we are hosting an exam for 18 people on the 27th November. The exam is the new Equine transport exam and is important for our trainees to take. The exam qualifies all wishing to work in the industry to travel as attendants with horses on journey. Students learn how to take care of animals on journeys and it counts towards their NVQ studies. Good luck everyone and thank you to Haddon Training for providing the training and exam day at our venue. The Paddocks will also be hosting a Equestrian Tourism ride leader exam for 14 people, on the 16th December and also the first aid exam throughout December. Thank you to the British Horse Society for providing us with 3 examiners for the Tourism exam .
Also, Thank you again to Canterbury College for the NVQ programmes here, to KEITS training services, To Andy from Canterbury College for the Maths Studies in our cabin. And of course a big thank you to all our volunteers, for helping train our students and supporting us through all the recent bad weather.
We are all looking forward to a productive 2010!
Busy November
The Paddocks is proud to say that it has won a runner up award for the Canterbury and District Sports . The Paddocks was one of 3 senior clubs to go to the awards ceremony at Darwin Wing of Kent University on the 20 th November. Jean Sharratt went to collect the award and support the other two Paddocks team members that also received an award. Liz Woods received runner up for the Senior disabled sports person award and Louise Edwards received the runner up award Coach of the year. Take a look at the website on http://www.activecanterbury.org/main.cfm?objectid=49 to read all about it. Well done The Paddocks team!
November 14th
What a windy day! Today we all took part in stable management because the weather was so bad we couldn't ride. But we fed and dried the horses and took them their hay. Last week we were training for the assistant ride leader exam in December.We have 13 candidates, the most we have ever had. Here is a picture of the map reading lesson. 
Job Vacancy
The Paddocks needs part-time teaching staff to work with our children. The person we need must be dedicated to working with horses and challenging young people. They must also hold a recognised horse riding teaching qualification . Please can you look at what we do on this web site and contact jean if you are interested on 07734189902.
Halloween 2009 - sports relief project
looking ahead
Watch out for more pictures on our gallery . This weekend is Halloween rides for our younger members. And...actually some of our senior team are getting well into it too! Take a look next week for pictures.
And , back to work on Tuesday for all. Half term is over and fun studies begin again. We have riding and road safety on 2nd December, Progressive riding tests, Maths with Andy and Trek exams on 16th Decmber. Busy Busy Busy!
Bigberry Cross Country
On Thursday the 29th October, a group of young people went to Bigberry Cross Country course, Chartham Hatch. We always love a trip there to ride around Martin Caseys marvelous Cross country course! Great fun and such a lovely day too. Very mild for October. The jumps are perfect training for our young people. They provide practise for competitions and exams , also great fun! 
Training trip in Ireland
On Thursday 22nd October some of our volunteers went to learn more about the industry in Ireland. We visited the Connemara pony sales and saw how the ponies are produced and sold. Some of the ponies are shipped to Belgium to buyers there and some as far as the USA. The irish farmers having been producing ponies for many years and have a reputation for good horses. We also visited a local trekking Centre in Moycullen where we were welcomed by the staff there. The system to assess and keep the particpants safe, was quite similar to ours and the countryside beautiful. Moycullen riding centre is in the connemara also, not far from Galway. Here is a picture of us on our ride.  If anyone is going to galway, we highly recommend this establishment, so do ring them for a trek on Moycullen Riding Centre Poulnaclough, Moycullen, Co. Galway. Ph. 087 204 3944 Our young students said they look forward to passing their exams and travelling to work in other centres. So, good luck to all our students on the 16th December 2009. This will be the biggest exam we have held with a total of 12 students, working all day, to show the examiners they can lead and keep a group safe out trekking. They must also demonstrate a sound and wide knowlege of equine care and business. The exam is called the Equestrian Tourism exam and starts with level 2 assistant ride leader. The examiners come here from Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England and are employed by the Equestrian Tourism Board and also the Britsh Horse Society. The paddocks have been training students for this exam for over a year now but also delivering a NVQ programme along the exam, for the students. This means those who are not sucessful on the exam day , still have the NVQ in Equine Studies. Not all of us fair well on 1 day exam situations.
The Canterbury and District Sports Awards
We have been told this week that The Paddocks has been nominated for 3 categories of The Canterbury and District Sports Awards. Louise Edwards, Liz Woods and also 'The Paddocks Club' will all find out if they have won or are runners up at the Award Ceremony on the 20th November. Thank you to everyone that voted for us, it was very kind of you all. 
Paddocks news October 2009
Synchronised riding in the school
Our young volunteers have been learning a riding display which is really differcult. They must ride shapes in the school and cross between their partners at the centre. They did really well and managed to complete the tasks. Here are some pictures of our riders. 
Farewell Kate
We will all be very sad to see Kate leave us as she is going back to New Zealand, on 27th October, to help on her fathers dairy farm. This time of year is very busy for Kates family and they need her home for the milking season.They have over 1000 cows! She will be very sadly missed by all, as she has been a great teacher and friend to us. Lets hope she comes back to help us again next summer. Bon Voyage Kate! Here are some pictures of her using her talents in woodwork to build a office couch with the young volunteers.   And here she is riding Ocean at a local show with the young people. 
October news
Term began again on the 1st September and it was back to the studies for some of our students. We welcomed 33 new partcipants on our programmes and our first exam is on saturday 17th October. Andy from Canterbury college is back with us again teaching this years Maths to our group in the cabin. We also would like to thank Juan our accounts volunteer for data input and sage accounts upload. Miranda Hayes from Action with local rural communitites in kent also gave up a whole day of her time to help. Thank you so much you guys have been great.
September news
The weather has been very windy of late but this weekend it seems very calm and warm. Last week we had some new people working on our sport relief funded project and also our esf project. Our first exam for sport relief is on the 17th October. 8 Young people will be taking their first BHS exam in riding safetly on the road. Also, on 19th September a group of young people will be competeing in the Hickstead Qualifier championships at Barville Farm near Dover. We will take some pictures and lets hope that they all have fun and maybe win a place. On our gallery are some pictures of September activities and some new trainees at the Paddocks. 
More News
This next week coming, we will be welcoming 7 new people to the Paddocks that wish to train as a volunteer. It is really helpful to have people come at this time of the year, as we are looking ahead to winter and our workload increases. We are still trying to raise funds for a new tractor as poor old Duncan is really feeling his age and cant keep up the work. Duncan the tractor has been here for the 10 years since we have been here and he was also here with the previous owners, as we purchased him from them. Here is a picture of the Ford 3000 1967 which has the name ' Duncan' on the cab  We look forward to a visit from Miranda, from Action with Communities in Rural Kent, on Tuesday. Miranda will be coming to meet some of our students and also has promised to help us understand the SAGE accounts package we have bought. And the following week we will be seeing Andy again from Canterbury college. You will remember how he came to teach basic English skills last term in our cabin and he is back to teach us Maths. We missed you Andy!  And here is one of our pictures taken recently. It shows the last day of the school holidays and a large group hack out to see the beauty of the fields after the harvest has been collected. 
Esf Programme
Our project funded by ESF is in full swing and our new clients will be particpating in the following training programmes;
Basic Skills in Maths on Tuesdays from 1-3pm , delivered by Canterbury College Teachers, in our Wooden Cabin.
Training for progressive riding tests 1 and 2, BHS riding and road Safety, Assistant Ride Leader , NVQ level 1, 2 and 3 and City and Guilds Level One.
Our Clients come from many local referral agencies and seem to be enjoying the programme very much so far. Do keep looking on our gallery at our pictures and good luck guys! We are very proud of you all.
Start of sports relief project
We have now started our new project funded by sports relief. It is to train young people to enjoy this sport to a higher level. Our young people have been to Barville Farm to compete and won many prizes. Next week we will be preparing for the championships and will let our readers know how we do.
Our younger members will be taking part in a competition to win a beautiful statue of a horse and rider. It involves showjumping and dressage and we will put pictures of the day on our gallery soon.
Our young people all have an exam to work towards over the next 8 weeks. Some will take riding and road safety, city and guilds, progressive riding tests, equestrian tourism and BHS stages exams. Our instructors are working hard to help all our young people on this programme to achieve and enjoy the opportunity to compete in a local competition.
Some of our young people are here from schools weekdays, for extra curriculum programmes. It is a good opportunity to show another form of sport that can also be used to gain qualifications, get fit and possibly jobs.
On Saturdays and after school , we also have young people from our under 14 groups that come to ride and take lessons. We are trying to make use of the daylight before its dark at 4 once again.
Thank you Sport England for helping our young people to enjoy our horses.
22nd August to 29th August
Throughout this week our 13 students for city and guilds level one , have been working hard to finish their folders ready for Marian Burch to come and check. Louise and Kate have been busy all week doing the assessments and preparing for the IV visit on Thursday. We are happy to say that all 13 students completed their files and are now awaiting the results of their course. We also squeezed in a visit to Ascot horse sales. Tom and George bought a horse named Harvey. Harvey is a lovely kind tempered horse with great potential, he is an excellant addition to our workforce and will help young people aiming to take their stage 2 and 3 exams in the coming months
August 22 nd 2009
On saturday a group of young volunteers had a lesson with a freelance instructor, Nikki Lewis. The lesson was very helpful to the young people and they all learnt something new to practise for their exams. Thank you Nikki!
Riding and Road Safety Exam August 19th and 20th
Well done to all 10 pupils that passed their riding and road safety exam on the 19th August and 20th August. It was the hottest day of the year on the 19th so our riders rode well in the scorching heat. The ponies all got a well deserved wash down and treats after their day. Good job to everyone that helped too. 
KIDS day out at the Paddocks
On Tuesday 18th August we had a lovely day with visitors from KIDS , an action group for young people with learning difficulties. The young people came and had a pony ride and lunch. A big thank you to all our volunteers that helped on this day. It was very hot and they walked around leading our young visitors and preparing the ponies and riders. Well done all.
New equipment for our volunteers
Our latest new volunteers had their equipment arrive this week. It always nice to open the box and take out the long awaited items. Volunteers at The paddocks are awarded their own equipment to use, as they become fully trained. We buy boots , hats and jodphurs for our young people. Snowhill Trade Saddlery have supplied us with nearly 50 pairs of boots, hats, gloves and jods this year alone. 
V project
Take a look at the gallery for pictures of the riders on the V project. They are working towards City and Guilds Level One, Progressive Riding test one and Riding and Road Safety. Thank you to, Marian Burch from Canterbury College, Dee Manford, Dawn Deemer from the BHS and Jackie Pritchard from KEITS training service. The exam for Riding and Road safety is on the 19th and 20th of August. We have a total of 16 people taking their exam on the two days. Good luck everyone! 
Porchlight Camp
Thank you Richard Barnard from Porchlight for taking the time and trouble to make the camp so lovely. Richard spend a hours playing games with the participants and organising the food and tents. The moon was out late that night in full bloom and we all sat round chatting whilst Christian played his guitar. 
News of how we are all doing this summer
Hello Readers, After a pretty shakey start to our summer the weather has now warmed up much to the delight of our young people and adults attending here. There is nothing more lovely than sitting on a chair looking out across the paddocks after a hard days work. We have all been busy as usual. We had Ashford Actionaires visit again. 21 young visually impaired riders all working towards their BHS progressive riding test 1. It was a lovely day again, not too hot and not cold so everyone was comfortable working hard on that day. We look forward to their next visit and cracking on with some more work for their certificates. We took 14 people to the Faversham and district horse show at Dargate. Paul Donovan gave up his day off to drive the trailer back and forth with ponies and Kate Lepper kept everyone together for their classes. A lot of work goes into getting to a horse show. The horses have to be bathed and plaited so many of our students in training do this for their NVQ work. The tack has to be loaded, as do the horses and not all the ponies are agreeable to stepping up on to the trailer. A few buckets of food and a mountain of carrots later we finally get in the car looking dishevelled. Its Kates job then to put all the kits together at the other end. Things go astray, we can be late for our class and then everyone pulls things from the cars, it really is a team activity to get everyone with everything they need into a class. And then there is the food for everyone. This is Jeans job. Keeping everyone hydrated and sugar levels up for their classes is hard especially on a hot day. So Jean gets up at 5 am and starts to prepare the daily food needs, whilst the team are outside preparing the horses. Paul Donovan hitchs and checks the trailers and Kate , Sam Sharratt and whoever else can lend a hand, helps the people competing to check all the equipment is loaded. But what fun we have. It was a lovely day.  Just a quick mention to Emily and Sam from Kent Police. Thank you for popping by to see us, its so good for everyone here to meet their local police officers. We are grateful to them for taking the time to come and see us. 
Faversham and district horse show, Dargate
The Paddocks volunteers and young people will be attending the show at Faversham. We will be taking 11 horses and 14 young people. Our new horse provided by peoples millions will be attending and entering his first showing and jumping class. Good Luck Nemo! And just to let all our readers know, Nemo has now grown to 17hh! He is a big gentle giant.Thank you peoples millions again for giving this horse to us, he is a joy to have and he is helping our young riders to learn how to ride a big horse.
Pony club show
The Paddocks and Herne pony club will be holding their horse show on 8th August when we will holding competitions such as handy pony and show jumping. The new volunteers are competeing and also helping. Lets hope we get a lovely day.  
The Paddocks Prom
The Paddocks prom was great fun. Our friends from Beech Grove came and taught us lots of new dances in the fields. We played games and ate snacks and it was a lovely evening when it didnt rain for once. We were luckey given this summer has been a little wet. Thank you young people from beech grove, We had a lovely time. 
V Project
Well done to all our new trainees volunteers who are helping us on Saturday 1 st August, when we will be hosting a training day for Ashford Actionaires. The group of young visually impaired students will be learning to tack up their horses and ride off the lead rein in our new round pen funded by Kent Peoples Trust. Do look at gallery next week for the pictures.
Hello to all our readers!
Take a look at the Herne pony club/Paddocks young volunteers camp. There are lots of pictures on the gallery. We are all enjoying the fun events laid on for us by Herne Pony Club. And delicious sandwiches for lunch too.
The Paddocks prom
The Paddocks prom takes place on the 25th July and will consist of music and dancing provided by Beech Grove Community young people. The young people from the bruderhoff community will be teaching our young people dances from Iran and Irael. Our volunteers and particpants will dress in long formal wear and dance into the night in our paddock. Thank you beech grove for offering to come and entertain us.
Pony Club camp
On tuesday 21st July, Herne Pony Club are hosting a 4 Day camp at the Paddocks. The3 nights and 4 days will be packed with activities and equine tests. Lets hope the weather stays good and good luck to everyone in the events. A big thank you to all our V project volunteers that kindly offered to help and organise the events for the young people. 
County show
Well done to Amy and Sam for taking the time to compete at the county show. Amy and Sam got up at 4.30 am to groom and clean their ponies to be at the show at 8.30am. Many volunteers/particpants went with them and they all had a lovely day out at the show. Its good to support our local show with many exciting animal displays and learning activites.
Well done to our students
We are very pleased to report that the following people have achieved the grades below in English studies. Well done to all of them, excellent work!
Amanda Green E2
Amy Mathews E2
Lynn Stringer E3
John Damien Ryan E3
Paul Fridd E3
Jeannette Jerome E3
Also, our students have been very busy taking their progressive riding tests this week and we are very proud to announce that 9 people have passed their tests 1 and 2 this week. Great work everyone. We have now starting our V project and some of our students are doing their city and guilds level one in Equine studies over the next couple of months. Others are taking their riding road safety test( level 2) and progressive riding tests.
We would also like to thank Michelle from Kent Constablary for helping us last week. Michelle mucked in with the stable work and lent a helping hand with our students. Thanks Michelle hope we will see you again soon.
latest pictures
Take a look at our gallery for the latest pictures showing the Paddocks open day and other events.
Canterbury College, City and Guilds ,level one in Equine Skills.
Throughout the summer, our new participants for our Vproject , will be studying for a level one qualification. We are able to deliver this qualification with the help of Canterbury College and we thank them for their support with the projects we run here. We look forward to publicising the results of our new volunteers in due course. Each new volunteer will choose a subject competition to attend. For example a cross country event, showjumping, dressage or endurance ride. Good luck to all our new trainee volunteers.
The Paddocks dressage test
Today, Thursday 9th July, we are holding a dressage test for our particpants. Rachel Silk is our Judge for the day and she will have to see 24 people ride their tests, each individually. This will take 4 hours and is hard work for the judge. The tests are to see how rider and horse can make certain movements at points of the arena.For Example , walk at A marker, Trot at C marker. Rachel then marks and scores the sheets and makes comments on them, about how they perform. These comments can then be used to improve for other exams. The scores are added up on each persons sheet and a winner is found by the highest score from each training group. Good luck everyone and watch this space for the results!
Henry Smith Charity
Thank you to Henry Smith Charity for agreeing to fund our running costs. We are very grateful to them for helping us to buy the basics we need to run our projects here. Grants for running costs are few and far between, so it was a great relief and welcome news to hear that they would fund us. Thank you so much To Henry Smith, from all at the Paddocks.
Thank you to our examiners
The Paddocks would like to thank our examiners. Dee Manford and Dawn Deemer have been coming here as volunteers from The British Horse Society to examine us. They have made many long journeys to us due to the shortage of examiners to come and examine our students. We really appreciate their time and effort to help get our students a qualification. Thank you to both of you.
The Steel Charitable Trust and Lankelly Chase
We wish to thank The Steel Charitable Trust and Lankelly Chase for their donations to our charity. Thank you to both charities for helping us to do the work we do here and we want them to know how encouraging it is to have a positive response to our applications. Below is a little about the history of the two charities and how they formed.
The Steel Charitable Trust
Mr Walter Reginald Steel and Mrs Marjorie Maud Steel created The Steel Charitable Trust by Deed on 15th September 1976 with the objects 'to pay the income and, in so far as the Trustees think fit, the capital to such charitable bodies or for such purposes as shall be exclusively charitable as the Trustees may from time to time decide.'
Mr W.R. and Mrs M.M. Steel, with Nicholas Edward Weatherley Wright, were the first Trustees. Mr W.R. Steel died on 20th January 1983 and Mrs M.M. Steel died on 15th January 1999.
Lankelly Chase
The Chase Charity and the Lankelly Foundation were established through the generosity of two separate entrepreneurs who successively developed a complex of property companies operating in and around London. The Chase Charity was founded in 1962 and the Lankelly Foundation six years later. From their beginnings they shared an administrative office.
In 2005 the two Trusts resolved to amalgamate to form the LankellyChase Foundation. The new Foundation continues to concentrate its work within the United Kingdom, seeking to promote social justice, highlighting unpopular causes and working with others to tackle them. The Trustees’ policy is to encourage applications from organisations making a difference in areas which do not easily attract charitable funds and in which the Foundation’s programme directors have developed particular skill and understanding.
Wednesday 25 th June
Today we greeted some new students and also received a visit from Lindsey from Kent Police. Lindsey is here to see what we do and she was a great help to us. She helped us with the staff appraisals for our volunteers. Lindsey was able to give some valuable input into our paperwork and showed us how the police appraisals are done. We welcomed her efforts and learnt much from her. Tomorrow will return the favour with a riding lesson! Also today, in the afternoon, we had Andy and Shauna here from Canterbury College carrying out the first English exams for our students.
In the morning, Paul Donovan and Kate Lepper took 6 horses and 4 students to Bigberry cross country course so they can practise their skills on Martin Casey’s beautiful course at Chartham Hatch. Take a look at the pictures; everyone had a very good day out.
Tuesday 25th June
Today we had our riding groups from Porchlight , Scrine and KCA . It was a lovely sunny day, a little busy perhaps, as Lynn and Louise were off to do their dressage tests in the evening. A lot of preparation was needed for this. The horses were bathed and plaited. Our students were able to take part in this and plait the horses, put their boots on and clean all the equipment. This can all be used as evidence for their NVQ and progressive riding tests. Well done all for your great efforts, the horses looked lovely. Pictures on our gallery.
First aid course at The Paddocks
On Monday the 22nd of June the Paddocks had 16 people doing their first aid course. All the pupils passed and everyone had a fun filled day along with refreshing their life saving skills. Do look on our gallery for pictures. 
Tuesday 17th June and Wednesday 18th VProject sign ups
On Tuesday we continued to hold our sign up days for VProject. We are creating 20 new volunteers throughout the summer holidays. Sadly we have a pile of paperwork to do but we are getting through it slowly! The new volunteers will be training for 6 weeks and then gaining a qualification in Equine Management. On Wednesday, 2 of our new recruits and our current Trainees came out for a beautiful ride through Petham. We went along to Upper Hardres, then down through the back of Petham and then up watery lane to one of the permissive bridle routes we use. It was a fast ride, everyone enjoyed it and its back to school work techniques today. Do look on our Gallery for pictures of our ride. We also have 2 more new recruits here today for their introduction to the course, lets hope the sun shines. It is very unpredictable lately. This weekend, we have some new under 12 years starting their training and on Monday we have 14 people taking their First Aid course here. Looks like we will need to move the furniture in my front room to get everyone in! Chris from Pro-Medical will be here to deliver the course and lets hope everyone passes. Coming up we have 3 entries for the County Show. 3 of our Connemara ponies and 1 Appaloosa pony will be entered. Our support team of volunteers will be working hard to get the ponies ready for their big day out. We are also holding a Pony Club Camp here from the 21st July to 24th July. Eunice from Herne Pony Club has been most hard working to organise the event in which our young people can also join. Herne Pony Club will be training for pony club badges and holding a Tri-athlon here, supported by us. All the young people will take part from Herne pony club and also from the Paddocks. I will update soon as to any other events or news.
June 9th and 10th
On June 9th we had the first sign up day for VProject, Our new clients signed up for the next project to train for a qualification in equine studies. Despite the down pours of rain we still managed to get a nice ride in our schools and had a chance to enjoy tea and coffee in the cabin. On Wednesday our college tutors delivered yet another really interesting lesson in English, featuring excerpts from Britain’s got talent! Heidi the terrier insisted that she should be the next contestant having heard all about 'Tippy toes' the now famous collie dog.
After the lesson, Andy joined our students on a pleasant ride around the woods on 'shadow'. We all think Andy has very goods natural skills in horse riding. Well done Andy!
Ashford Actionaires
Today we had a visit from Ashford Actionaires. Our young visually impaired group were able to learn to ride off the lead rein in our newly created round pen funded by Kent People Trust. It has been a lovely day, hot dogs and drinks were being served in the cabin and we have been lucky enough to have no rain today. Thank you to all our volunteers from our very willing volunteer bank, for making this a great day for all. Pictures will be on our gallery soon of all our latest events.
Exam Passes and studies this year this year so far
In April on the 12th We had 16 people take their riding and road safety test here. This is a BHS exam and a level 2 qualification. 12 people passed . In January all 6 people passed and recently all 9 . So we have had 27 exam passes for riding and road safety so far. We have another 15 studying.
We have had 8 people pass their first aid certificate and 8 further booked for the 22nd June.
We have 7 people taking a NVQ through KEITS and a group of 12 students taking a basic skills qualification through Canterbury College held here on a Wednesday afternoon.
Also, we have 17 progressive riding test passes and 37 people studying or signed up to study on next project during this year .
6 people have passed their Assistant ride leader ( level 2 ) and 1 person passed their Ride leader( level 3 ).
There will be another exam held here this year for this exam and we have 5 people we will put forward for this exam so far.
This exam is a Equine tourism exam. Successful students can then use this exam to travel abroad or in this country to take a live in position in a trekking centre.
There are another 13 people getting ready to take their stage 1,2 or 3 exam.
We will keep you posted as to everyones progress.
Exam passes Well done to our students!
Once again we are delighted to tell everyone that all 6 of the Paddocks students passed their Riding and Road safety exam. This exam is a level 2 qualification on the national database of accredited exams so it is a great achievement to all our students, Kate Lepper, Mandy Green, Paul Fridd, Amy Mathews, Cloe Legg, and Lucy Keyte. Well done from all the staff and trustees of the Paddocks. And a big thank you to Paul Donovan, Amy Jackson, Alison Jackson, Kerrie Bundock, Fiona Tonry, Samantha Bradshaw, Gemma Page, Kim Cook, George Redman, Elena Wilse, Eleanor Andrews, Lynn Stringer, Jeanette Jerome, Damian Ryan and Bobbie Petman. All these volunteers have given up their spare time between doing their own exams to help others. We value our volunteers and would like to say how much difference they make to helping others achieve the same success as them. We are so very proud of you all, students, volunteers and new volunteers.
VProject
This year, Vproject has offered to fund us again for a summer holiday project. The project will commence July for 6 weeks and will help some of our keen new young volunteer recruits to train as volunteers so that they can help us regularly with all our forthcoming new projects we have planned. It is a busy time ahead as you can see from our news and we also have Ashford Actionaires bring 20 visually impaired young riders to us on 6th June. Creating these new young volunteers means we can offer other activity days to groups like the Ashford Actionaires and more fun days for them! Thank you VProject.
ESF Community Grants Programme
ESF are funding a project for young people from our homeless charities. This is needed greatly to enable us to run a new project for people which include our cabin tuition delivered by Canterbury College. Our previous project has been a big success and we wish to thank our college tutors for all their effort in making fun English and Maths lessons for our young people. The money we have been given will mean that young people will be able to come here funded from August 2009 until May 2010, where upon our new young people will have all sat and completed one exam each. Thank you ESF!
Good news from Sport England
Sport England is going to fund a project here from August till November this year. This project will be for young people to train for exams and go to local shows to compete. It is super to have funds for exams and competitions, the young people love to enter shows and in the past have had great success, as our gallery pictures show. So, thank you Sport England for your help, from our dedicated young people.
Ireland Trip
On the 23rd may till the 26th May, 20 young volunteers and youth workers went to Ireland to see the place where our Connemara ponies come from. We took off from Luton airport on a small propeller plane which was a first for some of our group. We stayed at youth hostels and went for a pony trek through the cliffs and along the coast. Our host, Stephanie Brooks of Errislannon Riding Centre, showed us the delights of the views from around her home on 20, mostly white, Connemara ponies. We finish our stay at Galway City, where the yacht show was on at the harbour. Live bands were playing and other entertainment. It was a lovely 3 days away and we hope to do the same again soon. Pictures are on the gallery.
Exciting news from the paddocks and Kent Peoples Trust
The Paddocks has been awarded funding for a round pen. This is a round sand school that makes it easier to learn to ride in, especially our visually impaired. Many of our service users love to volunteer on our special project days. The round pen will be useful for everyone. Our new learners from porch light and scrine can use it to learn in and also help our other people to learn in such as Ashford Actionaires. They will be coming to see us on June the 6th and we can’t wait to let them have a go in our round pen. It is much easier to steer a pony independently in the round pen ,for our visually impaired and also it makes more sense to put any of our newcomers in here to learn whilst our regulars advance to further riding exercises. Thank you Kent People Trust, we are grateful!
Recent activity days
On April 28 , The Paddocks hosted a stand at Canterbury College to show the volunteering opportunities that come available at the Paddocks. Many young people there asked about the next planned volunteer training programme. We also were able to show the exam and training we deliver and our latest planned events. For instance, on 22nd May, the Paddocks will be hosting a Duke of Edinburgh Award meeting. Canterbury Gold will be coming here to sign up as many young people as possible to the award. Much of the trekking, team leading and volunteering that our trainees do, can be used for a award such as the Duke of Edinburgh award. On Sunday the 3rd May, 6 young people went to Barville farm horse show and competed in many classes. Do look at the Gallery for pictures and a special well done to Kim Cook who came first in the Mini -Open on Shadow. This week , from 5th to the 7th May, The Paddocks has been hosting the Equestrian Tourism Exam, which is an exam where outside examiners come to test our student’s knowledge. The 5th and 6th May were the training days delivered by Paul Donavon( Our local volunteer) Paul is a local Police officer that volunteers at The Paddocks. He had 8 students to take through the syllabus, to refresh all their accrued knowledge. He was very though and all his students passed their exam. Well done all 8 of our students and thank you also to our 3 examiners from the BHS , who travelled from Cornwall to do this. We would also like to wish Susie Brooks and Emily Plummer the best of luck with the group they are forming in Maidstone, on their establishment. The Paddocks has been offering support to Susie and her young volunteers to form another group similar to ours, aimed at the people in her area needing support. Both Susie and Emily have passed their Equestrian Tourism Exam and will now be able to form their project. We will see them again soon when they come back here for their First Aid course being hosted here at The Paddocks on the 22nd June .  
News from the Paddocks team
Our clients and volunteers plan to hold a Open Day on the 3rd June at 10am till 2pm. We have invited all our supporters and will be putting on a riding display for everyone to come and watch. Hot dogs and tea will be on offer so do come along to see what we do here at The Paddocks.
The Whitehill Woods Bluebell Hack April 29th 2009
We all went to Whitehill woods on the 29th April to ride and take pictures of this years Bluebells in full bloom. What a sight they were! Our horses and riders had a relaxing ride( until Jean sang the first line of Bohemiam Rapsody to them) We came back through Upper Hardres and stopped off at the Granville Pub for a cola. The field opposite, is our route home and we would just like to say thank you to all the local farmers that kindly open their fields for us to ride around. We really appricate these extra routes so thankyou to all of them.
The young peoples gymkhana and barbeque
On Wednesday 22nd April , we had a great barbeque and some Gymkhana games. You can see all our pictures on our gallery. The weather has been so super, we thought we would take advantage of it and have a few games. We played egg and spoon race( with potatoes for obvious reasons!) and walk and trot races. We all decided that Richard (Porchlight youth leader) is extremely competitive( you can see a picture of him on the gallery, i think he likes winning!) And Ian is a great cook at the barbeque. Thanks everyone it was fun.
23rd April bluebell hack
Today we went for a hack through Larkey Valley woods. The blue bells are out in full force. And what a sight they are. Dotted amoungst them are the wood Anemone . This name, directly related to its botanical name is derived from the Greek. Greek legend says that Anemos, the Wind, sends his namesakes the Anemones, in the earliest spring days as the heralds of his coming. Well, we certainly enjoyed the colours of all the flowers in the woods today. Our trainee volunteers from SCRINE and KCA thought the colours were beautiful. Many butterflies were in the woods today , as the woodsmen have created new habitats for them to live in. I saw a red admiral and peacock butterfly. It really is a long time since i have spotted these in our countryside. Well done the woodsmen!
Back to term time training
Now the Easter holidays are over, its back to term time fun for all our other trainees from Scrine, Porchlight, KCA , Laural House, Thanington Youth Centre and Stonham Housing. What super weather we are having too! At last, all our trainees that have been brave all through the winter cold, will now enjoy the beautiful warm summer at the Paddocks and some lovely rides out around the countryside. Colleen from Canterbury College, is ready to teach us some more skills for life, using her interesting equine general knowlege quiz questions. Cant wait till our next fun filled lesson. See you soon everyone.
The Blossom Ride
Take a look at our gallery. Whilst 4 young volunteers competed at Blue Barn for the championships, 10 Paddocks clients/volunteers went to the Blossom ride. We had a great picnic too. The ride took us all through the orchards around Shottenden and Molash. It was a long ride but really beautiful. Well done to Kim, Rosie, Emma, Eleanor, Elena, Annie, Bridget, Jane, Jean and Alison. It was a little chilly at first but great time had by all.
Collettes Horse Show ,at Blue Barn ,championships
19th April 2009
The Paddocks are very proud to say that Amy Jackson and Gemma Page , two of our young volunteers, have won 1st and 2nd place in the 60cm Hickstead championship at Blue Barn in Ashford.
Four of our young volunteers qualified for the show, Samantha Bradshaw and Samantha Sharratt also competed at the show. They did really well to qualify on their horses too. We are very proud of all of our competitors. Well done everyone that represented the Paddocks.
Easter Rides
During the Easter holidays we have had lots of things going on here. They have included, A beach ride, The Wye ride, A trip to Bigberry cross country course, a beginners trip to first horse show, The Blossom ride( on sunday 19th) A trip to blue barn on sunday the 19th where our young volunteers have qualified for hickstead qualifier classes,The Wincheap Childrens Centre Project riders aged 3 to 5 years and the Promoting Health and well being project for families and young people.
Our little children had a great time riding the ponies and also they even braved the heavy rain on thursday 16th April.
Well done young riders! You certainly are not the fair- weather riders we often meet.
Collettes Horse Show Tuesday 7th April Blue Barn
4 New Young Trainees took part in a horse show at Blue Barn in Ashford. And what a lovely day as it didnt rain as forecast. Manaline and Abbi completed a clear round on Jessie and Shadow and got a lovely bright coloured rosette. Lucy and Jenny took part in the bottom hole competition and gained 5th and 6th place. Well done to our young people.
They all looked very smart in the jackets and worked very hard to make their ponies clean for the show.
Thank you to Lyn and Amy our volunteer helpers for the day and all the support from the mums and dads.
The Baily Thomas charitable fund
The Baily Thomas Charitable Trust have been able to grant us £1000 for the summer holidays to enable our young volunteers to 'buddy' our new particpants. Our instructors are often busy during the day giving lessons to new recruits and when their lesson is over, we want them to learn all the other fun aspects of volunteering at the Paddocks. During in the summer holidays , we have new young people wanting to join our group. It takes a huge amount of time to train new recruits on all aspects of safety and the needs of the horses. The buddy system will mean we can use the young fully trained volunteers to mentor and train a new recruit for a full day of activities. This will provide a lovely welcome for them and they will quickly learn how to help, work and participate at the Paddocks. Thank you from all of us for giving this opportunity to our new recruits.
The Abbey Charitable Trust
Today we have recieved a donation from the Abbey Charitable Trust towards some of our equipment. We are very grateful for this cash and it is for some new computer desks and the chairs we so desperately needed to comply with the LSC regulations. We needed to have height adjustable chairs for people to sit on and work at the computers. We also needed to 'kit out' some of our new participants from porchlight and other groups. They needed some hats, jodhpurs and boots of their own to work and help all day at The Paddocks. Also 30 new books to teach and train our people for exams in the Equine Industry. Thank you Abbey Charitable Trust we will find all this equipment very useful.
The Hedley Foundation
Good News from the Hedley Foundation! We have received a cheque from the Hedley Foundation to help us with our unexpected costs. We are so grateful to them for supporting us. A big thank you to all the trustees for their decision and we hope they will view the pictures on our website of our volunteers and particpants working at our yard.
The Hedley Foundation
A charitable foundation which supports young people, the disabled and the terminally ill.
The Hedley Family and The Hedley Foundation
William Hedley was born in Newburn, Newcastle in 1773 and went to school in Wylam, 8 miles to the west. He became a colliery manager at the age of 22 and was one of the leading engineers trying to improve the system of transporting coal by horse power along wooden trackways. Cast-iron plate rails (with the flange on the rail rather than on a wagon wheel) were laid at Wylam Colliery in 1808 and William Hedley developed the system of coupling of wheels which gave locomotives with smooth wheels sufficient adhesion, even on smooth rails, to haul a train of loaded wagons. This he patented in 1813, the year in which he also unveiled his famous locomotive, Puffing Billy, with a revolutionary and reliable design to carry power to the coupled wheels.
Puffing Billy marked a major stage in the development of railway locomotion. George Stephenson, generally credited as "father of the railways" (and also brought up and living in Wylam, though it was said he and Hedley were not the best of friends) did not produce his Rocket until 1825. Puffing Billy remained in use until 1862. Although they later moved to the Lake District, William Hedley's descendants remained coal mine owners until nationalisation in 1947.
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