25/10/2021
Hello all, this is a fairly long and sad post I’m afraid but here we go…
We should start at the beginning: 40 years ago we spotted an advert and went for the opportunity to move down from the rural North East of Scotland to start a new riding centre in Liverpool.
Prior to this I had completed my instructors training in Sussex and had spent time also in Switzerland learning from the best! We met with a selection board (at that time this was Merseyside County Council) and all agreed that the aim was for affordable lessons and worthwhile training for all, providing sport and healthy exercise outdoors, fitting in with the ethos and heritage of the newly opened Country Park and using the outer park trails. We also ran show-jumping competitions in the Events Field with support from the park which were always well attended.
In these first years I also met Chris, then a Park Ranger, got married and in the 1990’s our family grew with the arrival of our daughters Alex and Heather. Luckily both girls were pretty pony mad - helpful when growing up around the yard! Our girls grew up being members of the Pony Club (as I had myself) and learned so much, had so much fun, as well as making lifelong friends.
When approached by the Pony Club to become one of their new centres, where children without ponies could join the Club – we jumped at the opportunity. There are now thousands of Centre members across the country. We have run Pony Club Camps, rallies and competitions each year since. We have loved giving our members the opportunity to venture out to Pony Club competitions, creating lots of memories along the way. Our CPRC members have competed and had great success in: The PC National Quiz, PC Horse & Pony Care finals, PC Mounted Games, PC Area Eventing, PC Area and finals of Show-jumping and Dressage, PC Pony Racing days and of course the Centre Equitation at the Championships.
More recently we have been part of a great Pony Racing Authority (PRA) scheme to get more children into racing. Our CPRC riders have been very fortunate to be trained by top jockey Carrie Ford, including training at Aintree Racecourse and taking part in races at several courses. The PRA funding has meant our budding jockeys received free training and racing – what an experience!
We have always been passionate about keeping the standard of our horse welfare, training and coaching super high. So, we decided fairly early on we wanted to be a BHS Approved Riding Centre & have been ever since. We have trained many members of staff to achieve their BHS Stages over the years which remain the most esteemed qualifications within our industry. We also enjoyed our trips down to Warwickshire to compete in their riding centres competition and are very proud of our riders who represented us so well. The BHS has been a saviour to many riding centres during the pandemic and we are truly grateful for all of their help.
CPRC has always run with a fantastic team of staff, most of whom we had known for years and had regarded as part of the family, and our dedicated volunteers over the years have been second to none. We always love when our old helpers come to visit, some now with their own children riding! We’ve always thought of ourselves as a community riding centre, with many of you riding here for years (and hopefully many of you have gained friends along the way too!).
From 1st November, after much agonising and regrets, we are suspending all our activities. This is for three reasons which, combined together, have caused us to reach this decision:
1. The Covid Effect
2. Staffing crisis in our industry
3. Ongoing lack of lease with the Council
The pandemic didn’t really help anybody did it!? Our gates may have been shut but our horses still needed the same standard of care they are used to all during lockdown. This meant our staff weren’t furloughed and our bills (feed, bedding, vets and farrier bills, wages, rent, utilities, etc) remained the same, or higher. It was indeed a very tough time and ran down our resources but we are very grateful that we all have so far kept healthy and that when we re-opened our client base remained. Our thoughts go out to all those that have been less fortunate.
Secondly, there is a massive staffing crisis within the equestrian industry at present at all levels. Although caring for horses may be seen to be a simple (and mucky) job it is actually very skilled as in all industries there are huge difference in standards. There is a national shortage of qualified staff at present. Although a lot of people would like to work with horses there are few qualified coaches especially in our area.
Every business needs some security in terms of planning for the future – but we’ve not been able to as our lease with the council expired seven years ago which has left us in limbo. Unfortunately, this made it impossible to make plans and secure funding for different projects which we had in mind. Businesses can only limp along on an annual basis like this for a finite time. During this time the council has been trying to decide about the overall future for the Park management, at one stage including leasing it to a private operator. Some decisions were made with other lessees but not for us.
Many of you are close friends now and we know Croxteth has been a sanctuary to many over the years, and as well as all of the laughs I’m sure we have all had a reassuring cuddle from our favourite horses when needed. We will all miss you. One thing I will ask is please do not enquire about buying our horses or ponies, we are making arrangements for them all to go to new homes etc and it is a difficult time as it is. You will still see them in the fields for a while I’m sure!
This leads us into the end of this post which I’m afraid got a bit wordy and nostalgic!
Overall, we’re happy that we’ve kept to the vision and upheld the standards we set out to do over forty years ago. So two big “thank you”s, firstly, to you, the people of the Liverpool region, for welcoming us all and keeping us so busy! Second, thank you to all of our horses and ponies over the years for being so kind and teaching so many people new skills and helping them fall in love with horses.
Viv
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