Old Town Support Service

02/03/2026

🐴✨ It’s Never Just Horse Riding ✨🐴

This is so true and so many families at Old Town say the same 💚

Horse riding is never just horse riding 🐴✨

A question often asked is,
“Why do you pay so much for your child to ride?”

But perhaps it isn’t really about paying for riding at all.

It’s about what riding teaches.

It’s about the evenings when they’re tired after school — but still go to the stables 🌙

It’s about the moments they want to give up — but don’t 💪

It’s about learning Discipline 🌟 Responsibility 🌟 Patience 🌟

It’s about caring for an animal before themselves 🤍🐎

It’s about teamwork 🤝
Handling disappointment.
Trying again when something feels hard.

It’s about setting goals and understanding that success takes time, effort and resilience 🌱

It’s muddy boots 🥾 Cold mornings ❄️ Early starts 🌅

It’s confidence that grows quietly 🌼
Friendships that last 👭
Belonging that feels real 💚

It’s choosing the arena over the screen 📵
Connection over convenience.
Growth over comfort.

So maybe it’s not paying for horse riding at all.

Maybe it’s investing in character.
In life skills.
In resilience.
In calm.
In confidence.

At Old Town Riding School, we see it every single day — children and young people growing not just as riders, but as people 💚🐴

And from what we see …… it’s one of the most powerful investments a family can make ✨

🌿🐎💚

12/02/2026

🐴✨ Half Term Next Week at Old Town Riding School! ✨🐴

Looking for something horsey to do next week during half term? We’ve got two lovely sessions coming up that are perfect for children who love ponies! 💛

⭐ PONY AFTERNOON
📅 Tuesday 17th February
⏰ 1:00pm – 3:00pm
💷 £44

⭐ PONY DAY
📅 Friday 20th February
⏰ 9:30am – 2:30pm
💷 £86

Both sessions include riding, grooming and lots of pony fun 🐎💕

We’ll also have pony rides and private lessons available during half term.

📩 To book, please email: [email protected]

Spaces are limited, so get in touch soon to avoid disappointment! 🐴🌟

10/02/2026

☕✨ Tomorrow is Our FIRST LTR SEND Coffee Afternoon! ✨☕
We’re so excited to share that SENDwise has joined up with Liberty Tea Rooms to host our very first LTR SEND Coffee Afternoon. A relaxed and welcoming space for parents of children with SEND to connect, chat and feel supported. No pressure, no judgement — just a friendly coffee afternoon with others who truly understand 💛

📅 11/02/2026
⏰ 1pm – 2pm
📍 Liberty Tea Rooms, Hemel Hempstead

Spaces are limited, so booking is essential. To secure your place, please contact SENDwise:

📞 01442 916308
📧 [email protected]
🌐 www.sendwise.uk

06/02/2026

Over the last six months, I’ve become so much more aware of my ADHD (undiagnosed) …… not because it’s new, but because life has been louder, fuller, and more demanding. When there’s more responsibility, more pressure, and less rest, the things I used to mask or push through become impossible to ignore.

I can procrastinate for hours. My alarm can go off in the morning and it can still take me a full hour to actually get out of bed. ⏰

But once I’m up? I’m up. Out the door ASAP. No faffing. No breakfast. No slow morning routines …… my brain just wants GO.🏃‍♀️

My day lives as a plan in my head. When that plan changes (daily …… sometimes hourly), I have to pause, breathe, and reset. Mindfulness isn’t a luxury for me, it’s a tool 🧘‍♀️ I work with children and animals, so flexibility is part of life, even when my brain craves structure.

The flip side? My ADHD gets things done.✔️ Invoices, reports, emails …… if they need doing today, they will be done today …… after it’s taken days of mental build-up, avoidance, overthinking, stressing about it, and carrying it around in my head before I finally sit down and do it in one intense burst.

But then there are days like today …… sit down, focused, in the zone. One task becomes five. And suddenly it’s 3pm and I realise I haven’t eaten all day. 🍽️

If I have an idea, it has to happen now. Do I speak before thinking? 100%. Do I jump between conversations and thoughts? Constantly 💬.

Why am I noticing it more now? Because I’m tired of burning myself out. Because I’m carrying more responsibility. Because I’m finally giving myself permission to notice instead of minimise.

It’s messy. It’s exhausting. It’s frustrating. But it’s also passionate, driven, deeply caring, and creative in ways I wouldn’t trade.

ADHD isn’t about being lazy, disorganised, or not trying hard enough. It’s a nervous system that works differently, one that struggles with transitions, time awareness, and regulation, but can also bring intense focus, creativity, empathy, and drive when supported properly 💛.

I’m learning — slowly — to work with my brain instead of fighting it.

If this resonates with you, how are you learning to work with your own brain instead of against it? 🤍

💛🧠✨

02/02/2026

💙🐴 So following on from my post nearly three weeks ago on.

Nancy is still Nancy. Still fiery. Still clever. Still a Welsh dragon 🔥 But the biggest change hasn’t just been in her.

It’s been in what this reset has reminded us about young people.

When we reduced pressure, removed constant demands, and made things predictable and safe, Nancy didn’t just calm …… she regulated. And once she regulated, learning followed naturally.

That exact pattern is what we see every day at Old Town.

Young people don’t thrive when they’re overwhelmed, rushed, or expected to cope without support.

They thrive when expectations are clear, pressure is reduced, adults pause instead of push and nothing bad happens while they find their feet

This reset wasn’t about doing less care …… it was about doing care better.

More space. More listening. More emotional safety. More wellbeing for young people.

Because wellbeing isn’t a “nice extra”. It’s the foundation for learning, behaviour, confidence, and trust.

Nancy didn’t need fixing. And neither do the young people we support.

They need regulation before expectation. Connection before correction.

When nervous systems feel safe, progress follows 🤍

30/01/2026

January at Old Town Riding School and Support Service feels a little different — slower, quieter, and shaped by the weather ❄️🐎

As equestrians, we know January isn’t about perfection. It’s about turning up when the days are short, the ground is heavy, and the cold seeps into your bones 🧤🌧️ The weather can limit what we do, but it can’t take away why we do it. Horses still need care, consistency, and kindness — and so do people 💚

This time of year reminds us that wellbeing lives in the basics. In familiar routines. In steady rides rather than fast progress. In moments of connection — a calm pony, a deep breath, a child or adult finding confidence just by being around horses 🤍🐴

At Old Town, January is about listening — to our horses, our riders, and ourselves. Adjusting expectations. Valuing rest as much as effort. Celebrating small achievements, whether that’s a relaxed groom, a brave first step, or simply making it through a tough week ✨

Winter won’t last forever. Until then, we keep going together — wrapped up warm, supporting one another, and finding comfort in the quiet strength that horses bring, whatever the weather ☕🐎

26/01/2026

25/01/2026

💛 🐴 Apologies that we haven’t posted for a while – and for not being as regular as we’d like at the moment 🤍 January always feels like a long month, and with the weather being pretty horrid, we’ve taken the chance to slow things down a little 🌧️🥶

My own horses have enjoyed some well-earned time off and rest, which is so important for their physical and mental wellbeing 🐎💤 Sometimes winter is about listening, resetting, and letting everyone recharge – horses and humans alike 💆‍♀️✨

Despite the grey days, our young people are absolutely thriving at the start of the new term and new year 🌈💚 They are loving the sensory play that winter brings …… mud, mud and more mud – plus plenty of muddy puddles! 🤎👢💦 Learning doesn’t stop just because it’s messy!

The good news? Spring isn’t too far away now, and every horse person knows that feeling of hope when the days slowly start getting lighter 🌱☀️

✨ New Year 2026 Special – Year of the Horse ✨
To kick things off positively, we’re running a limited-time New Year offer:

🐴 Book 5 lessons & get the 6th lesson FREE
🐴 30-minute riding lessons
🐴 Normally £40 per lesson
🐴 £200 for 6 lessons – just £33.33 per lesson
🐴 Perfect for beginners & returning riders

📅 Keep an eye out for our February half-term activities too – it’s only 3 weeks until half term, and we’ll be sharing details very soon 👀✨

Thank you, as always, for your patience, support and understanding 🤍 We’re quietly getting ready for a brighter, busier season ahead 🌼🐴

— The countdown to spring is officially on 🌸


🌱✨

16/01/2026

💭🐎 A reminder as we head into the weekend…

Sometimes the most powerful thing we can do is stop.
No agenda. No fixing. No “we must get this right”.

Just space.

That’s the thing about resets 🔄 They don’t work instantly. They work gently.

Weekends can bring pressure too — More expectations. More time together. More “we should be doing something”.

So this is your reminder:

💙 It’s okay to do less
💙 It’s okay to pause
💙 It’s okay to choose calm over progress

Whether you’re heading into a busy family weekend, supporting someone who’s overwhelmed, or carrying a full nervous system into Saturday morning.

Let this be the plan:

Nothing is being asked.
Nothing bad happens.

From there, everything else grows 🌱

Have the gentlest of weekends 💙🐴

15/01/2026

💙🐴 This is Nancy. A full-on Welsh dragon 🔥. Clever. Sharp. Opinionated. Too many ideas and not always enough brakes.

Over Christmas 🎄, when the place went quiet, I spent a lot of time with her doing liberty work. No rush. No pressure. No constant noise.

And she was a different horse 🐎. Calm. Collected. Present.

Fast forward three weeks back into normal life …… busy yard, expectations, stimulation and she’s been …… honestly? An absolute nightmare 😅. Wired. Reactive. All over the place.

I’ll be real …… today I was frustrated. Angry. Properly disheartened.

So I stopped. Sat in her stable. Did nothing.

And that’s when it clicked.

When Nancy doesn’t understand what’s being asked of her, she doesn’t become “naughty”. She reacts. She uses what she already knows.

👉 I don’t know what you want. I need space. Leave me alone.

And if that doesn’t sound like humans when they’re overwhelmed, I don’t know what does.

This is exactly what we see every day at Old Town. When children, young people, or adults feel confused, overstimulated, or pushed too hard, behaviours show up. Not because they’re bad …… but because they’re coping.

So instead of pushing harder, correcting more, or expecting better, we’re choosing a reset 🔄

A proper reset. Nothing asked. Nothing expected. Nothing bad happening.

I noticed the problem and stopped the trigger behaviours and that’s good horsemanship.

And it’s good wellbeing and support practice too.

Sometimes progress isn’t about doing more. It’s about stopping. Removing the pressure. Letting the nervous system breathe 🤍

A reset where:

“Nothing is being asked. Nothing bad happens.”

And from there - for horses and people — we rebuild calmly, clearly, and with trust 💙🐎

11/01/2026

As always.
Here’s your Sunday evening reminder 🌙 "don't let Monday steal your Sunday"

You don’t need to have everything figured out.
You don’t need to feel motivated, organised, or ready.
You don’t need to turn tonight into a planning session for a better version of you.

If all you did this week was show up...., that counts.
If you’re tired, flat, emotional, or quietly proud ....all of that is allowed to coexist.

Let Sunday evening be a soft landing, not a runway.
A pause, not a performance.
A breath before the week — not a judgement on the last one.

Drink the tea.
Stroke the horse (or think about stroking the horse).
Put the pressure down for the night.

Monday can wait.
You are already enough ....exactly as you are, right here. 💛

10/01/2026

✨ A little reflection today… ✨

So, 7 years ago, I met this young teenager and his family. He was a bubbly, energetic 14-year-old, and I remember thinking, “Wow …… how are we meant to support this young person with such challenging behaviour? Can we really meet his needs?”

Fast forward 7 years, and this once-young teenager is now a handsome young man, a true part of our family and an absolute firm favourite 💙 With us, with the staff, with the other young people, and with the amazing teachers and mentors who come in each week 🙌

This has been a whole team effort 🤝 — supporting him every day and giving his family back their life and sanity. And what a family he has ❤️ They have never stopped fighting for him or believing in him. They often joke that he’s with us for life …… but honestly, it’s no joke — this place simply wouldn’t be the same without him.

Now, don’t get me wrong 😅 he’s still a handful! Just the other day he hid the top of our toilet, and when he realised we knew, he legged it back to put it in place 🚽💨

But looking at this photo from 7 years ago ……. I can’t help but feel incredibly proud 🥹✨

Look how far you’ve come 💙👏