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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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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