Everything for
horse & rider
- Home
- News & Articles
- Shows/Events
- Reviews
- Outings
- Riding Schools
- Business Directory
- Images For Sale
- For Sale
- Links
Welcome to Middridge Meadows
Category: Diary of Middridge
Published on 09/07/2010 by Jen Green
Published on 09/07/2010 by Jen Green
Middridge's first show (click for larger)
Middridge Meadows is a newly established livery yard on the outskirts of picturesque Middridge village, near Newton Aycliffe. We opened our doors just eight weeks ago and already our stables are full of lovely horses. But how did we get there?
The Middridge Meadows team consists of business partners Tony Capstack, Ian Craig and Steve Churm, and me; Jennifer Green, the Yard Manager. We launched the yard in May 2010, and held our first show in early June. (If you want to see photos of the show and read the HorseEvents review you can find this in our reviews section.)
Launching the yard required lots of planning; it’s not as simple as building a few boxes and then waiting for the horses to arrive. Amongst other things, we had to ensure we had the correct insurance to run a yard, as well as making sure the whole place was safe and up to standard. Once we’d done all the “behind the scenes” work, it was time to open our doors. This was the nerve-wracking bit; would anyone be interested in what we had to offer?
We needn’t have worried – within days of the adverts being printed the phones were ringing with potential clients. We invited each one down for an informal chat and a look around, and fairly soon all six boxes had been filled. All of our liveries are lovely people and it makes the yard a pleasant place to be; already people are making friends, organising to ride together and beginning to socialise outside of the yard. We are aiming to make the yard a friendly, supportive place to be, but we can’t do that without our liveries. Everyone is happy to help and support each other, and share their knowledge and experiences. Even the horses are making friends!
The first thing we decided to do was run a show to raise awareness of the livery yard, so after weighing up the pros and cons of different disciplines, we opted to run a showing show on the 5th June. We put the show together in little over three weeks; we had to check our insurance, notify the local council and police, draw up schedules, book a judge, order the rosettes and trophies; the list seemed to be endless and there were times when we wondered if we were doing the right thing.
The morning of the show dawned, the weather was beautiful and everything was in place; A&J Equine Photography had arrived and were setting up, Durham Sandwiches pulled in and began cooking, and all the stewards were ready and waiting. There was a definite tension in the air that morning – I was very nervous, after all, this show had been my idea! What if no one came? What if everything went wrong? I was delighted to see the first trailers arriving just before 8.30am, and they just kept coming. The show was a roaring success – feedback was fantastic, everyone seemed to have a great day and the show ran like clockwork. A loose horse in the lorry park was soon apprehended by our lush grass, which was apparently more inviting than freedom, and one unlucky horse and rider suffered the only fall of the day just after they arrived, but luckily both were unhurt and the combination went from strength to strength in their classes after that shaky start.
The next show is now organised; show jumping on 18th July with classes for everyone. Here’s to hoping it goes as well as the last one!!
Back to Articles