In relative terms, our daughter started horse riding at Grovely fairly late. For her eighth birthday we offered her a choice between having a party or some horse riding lessons. No prizes for guessing which she chose. We were very keen to make sure that before she started riding lessons that she was able to follow instructions and do exactly as she was told. Horse riding is considered by many to be a dangerous sport and not following instructions on an animal with a mind of its own would be extremely silly, we thought. It turns out we waited needlessly as the instructors at Grovely are extremely experienced at handling new riders and never push them to do something before they are ready and in those early stages are walked round by more experienced students until they are ready to go it alone. Nine years later and she still rides at Grovely at least once a week. She has experienced lessons from most if not all the instructors but she found very early on that the way that Sam Stockley teaches suits her very well. All of the instructors are demonstrably extremely good, but for her, the way that Sam teaches is just perfect. As a result she now books all her lessons with Sam and it is clear that the two of them work extremely well together. In those nine years she was won a horse riding scholarship, attended various hacks, ‘own a pony’ days, clear round clinics and pretty much all the other activities that Grovely offer. She achieved various certificates in stable management and progressive riding and has brought home countless rosettes. Outside of Grovely she has driven carts, cared for a number of ponies and horses and even had a short stint as a stable hand at a racing stable where it’s safe to say exercising the horses at gallop was the highlight of the weekend. All of this serves to underline that what Sam and the team at Grovely have done is nurture a lifelong passion in horse riding into practical, usable skills that she can take forward as a career or as a hobby. There is always that one teacher. You know, the one that gets you. At school, most of us are lucky enough to have had that one teacher who we remember throughout our adult lives. They were most likely strict but fair, had a great sense of humour, understood you and somehow brought out the best in you. You were always keen to please them and if you were naughty or didn’t try your best they never humiliated you, more likely you were always left with the feeling that you had disappointed them, but you felt they knew you had it in you to do better next time and were willing you to show them what you were capable of. For our daughter Sam is that teacher. Each group lesson contains people younger and older, including some mature students and even a teacher from her old school. However, everyone in the group is at the same level and everyone gets equal time in the lesson. I think for many others Sam is also that one teacher too, as we see the same people every week and every week people leave the school tired but with the same great smile on their faces. When our daughter leaves education and goes out into the work place we are certain that, wherever she ends up, she’ll still be back every weekend for lessons with Sam at Grovely. Maybe then we can finally stop paying for that eighth birthday party.
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