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WVS Charity Ball

As you all know, WVS is famous for not only our wonderful horses and riding but also our fabulous social events and THE big social event of our year is the WVS Annual Charity Ball.     This year it will be held on Saturday 3rd March at the Cannizaro House Hotel.   It will be the 7th year running that we have used the facilities of the Cannizaro House and they have come to know us well and accommodate us brilliantly.    We actually take over the hotel for the evening and many people book rooms and stay over, giving the event a real country house party feeling. If you wish to make a weekend of it by taking advantage of the very special room rates that Cannizaro House offer our guests we would advise you to book soon to avoid disappointment! (Phone Cannizaro on 020 8879 1464 quoting ‘Special WVS Room Rate’)

Reserve your ticket now to avoid missing out!

Our evening starts with a champagne reception, followed by a three course meal, which is a great way to meet the friends you normally ride with and perhaps introduce non-riding partners, family or friends.  We have tables of 10 or 12 which, if you wish, you can pre-book.  If you would prefer to come on your own, no problem, we can easily arrange for you to be on a friendly table which you will enjoy.   The evening will include a short break for “presentations” including the annual passing on of ”the Vivian Colyer Cup” to the winner of the dressage competition.   There will also be our famous raffle and will be rounded off in style with dancing until the early hours to the music of our amazing DJ.   During the course of the evening we shall be entertained by magicians who will come around the dining tables and we have once again booked the very popular Party Photo Booth which has proved a real highlight both on the night and when we look back on the photos afterwards! Tickets are £90 each.

Apart from the fun part of the Ball, we also strive to raise funds each year for the Royal Marsden Hospital.   Over the years we have raised over £130,000, a significant sum for which they have expressed grateful thanks to everyone involved.   If you are able to help this year with either a raffle prize or to sponsor any of the things which make the ball so much fun, it will allow us to put more into the fund we are finally able to transfer to the Royal Marsden. Please contact the WVS office to chat about what we need sponsorship for and what you may like to donate.

We would like to thank the following for their generous Sponsorship:

DeVere United Kingdom
Rob Booth
Christopher Denniston
Barbara Arnheim
Angela Stewart
Sheena and Patrick Evershed

Also a big thank you to those who have donated raffle Prizes:

Dinner and overnight stay at the Cannizaro House Hotel
£ 250 Hobbs voucher
A weeks stay in a Cotswold Cottage (sleeps up to eight) (Caroline & John Bowis)
‘Rushmere Pond XI’ Pre-mounted, worth £500 (Patrick Steele Photography)
£150 Harrods Voucher (Donna Few)
Pilates lessons to the value of £160 (Gillian Greenwood)
Two dozen bottles of wine (Cathy Williams)
Private Riding Lesson (Patrick Print OBE FBHS)
One years VIP Membership at Hemingways Lounge Bar, worth £250
Exclusive Designer Evening Wear Hire (Having a Ball Dress Hire)
4 tickets to the musical Mamma Mia (Andrew & Sandra Treagus)
One night stay, dinner for two with bottle of wine at the Rose and Crown
Gift Box of Fragrances (Value £90) from Senti
Voucher for £50 towards Beauty Treatments (Dawn Painter)
Two £30 Vouchers for The Bayee Village 

Latest News

A wonderful winters day of riding on Wimbledon Common (click for more photos)

2012 promises to be an absolutely electric year in London and here at WVS we too have been planning our own exciting programme!   Please take a look at the What’s On page to make sure you do not miss out on any of our events.    We have some fascinating speakers coming to give talks, including Olwen Law, a riding holiday specialist, and Captain Anton Wallis from the Household Cavalry.     Our ever popular workshops will cover the care of the horses and ponies for both those who know “nothing” and those who want to learn more.  There will be a free dressage demonstration to instruct and inspire you as well as a dressage competition which will be great fun and open to each and every one of you who know how to ride a horse in walk, trot and canter.

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Photo Competition

1st Place

3rd Place

We are delighted to announce the results of our Facebook Photo Competition which was kindly judged by the renowned photographer Patrick Steel.  As well as taking into account the number of votes each photo received, he also considered the composition and the quality of the photographs.  The winner was ‘Wardrobe Malfunction’ – a brilliant shot captured by Peter Cox.  Patrick particularly liked the fact that it was such a great action shot as well as the expression on Sasha’s face before the inevitable happened.  We would just like to reassure everyone that she did not suffer any injury – apart from maybe her pride!  Second place went to ‘As good as it gets’ – a lovely tranquil shot (again taken by Peter Cox) which demonstrates really clearly one of the reasons we all love riding.  Third place with by far the most votes was ‘Careless Whisper’ – a super photo, taken by Marie Noel Lemaigre showing a lovely equine/human interaction – it would have been placed higher if certain things in the background had been cropped out!

We would like to thank everyone who took part, everyone who voted and also the donors of the lovely prizes as well as Patrick for judging!

2nd Place

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WVS Annual Sponsored Ride 2011

Sponsored Ride 2011

Congratulations to all 45 riders who took part in the 2011 Wimbledon Village Stables Sponsored Horse Ride and raised over £11,000 for the Royal Marsden Hospital, £1,000 for the Holly Lodge Centre in Richmond Park and £1,000 for the Wimbledon and Putney Commons Conservators.

As usual the ride took part over two days and on Sunday 23rd October our highest sponsored rider was Rob Booth who raised an impressive £1213.75 and the prize for the highest sponsored on Tuesday 25th October went to Donna who was sponsored £1000.

We are very grateful to Christine Frazer from Savills who judged the Fancy Dress competition on both days and awarded Eduardo and Pauline on Dora and Winnie first prize on Sunday, dressed as a Spanish Indian and Cowgirl and the winner on Tuesday was Donna on Alice dressed as an oompaloompa followed up by ‘The Cats’, Kirsty and Fernanda, 3rd were Kim and Jess as Fairies and fourth ‘Three little Piggies’ Genna, Jess and Kate. The Sunday Rider of the Day was Grace on her lovely pony Hazy, and the Tuesdays was Christine on Mario.  Do take a look at the wonderful photographs that our official photographer Peter Cox took – they are all on his website.

We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who took part, and to their very generous sponsors and also to the Members who usually ride on a Sunday and Tuesday who gave up their rides so the event could take place. We could not have raised such a magnificent total without you.

It is not too late to make a donation - please just click on this link.

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Free Shopping Bags for Members

Next time you come riding please pick up one of the superb Wimbledon Village Shopping Bags which we are giving out free to all our Members.  The bags which have been made by Bags of Ethics are environmentally friendly, and have been provided by the Wimbledon Village Business Association (Carol is on the committee) and it it hoped that they will encourage people to be ‘green’ and also promote our lovely Village! Please leave your e-mail address to receive details of any special offers and promotions in the Wimbledon Village Shops.

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Winter Riding Wear

Sealskinz gloves

Equitector boots

Brrr!  The first snap of cold weather has hit us and are you ready for it?  If you are wearing the right clothes then riding in winter is just as much fun as any other time of year.  We highly recommend the Equitector Riding Boots which keep your feet warm whatever the weather.  For hands the best gloves are the Sealskinz from Horse Health, not only are they warm but they are waterproof too!  The best way to keep warm is by layering up: thermal vest, polo neck and top layer and an absolute must is thick wool tights under jodhpurs (maybe thermal long johns for men are more appropriate!).  You can also buy on-line from our Shop warm waterproof jackets, waterproof over trousers and sweatshirts, rugby shirts etc.

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Members’ Lecture

Sasha riding Adonccy

Jen on Lilly

We had an excellent turnout for our Dressage Demo that was held on the Common by the Causeway. It was lovely to see so many of our members so keen to learn more about riding a dressage test. Jennifer rode Lilly and Sasha rode Adonncy and they demonstrated how to ride Prelim No. 12 (2005) which is the test that we will be using for our Annual Dressage Competition in February.

It is quite a tricky test so it was good to see the girls highlight the more challenging movements and give tips on how to achieve the best results.

A big thank you to Emily for the fabulous photographs and if you look on our Facebook page you will be able to see more.

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Royal Marsden Hospital

Caroline and Carol were very honoured to be invited to attend the opening by their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge of the new Oak Centre at the Royal Marsden Hospital.

The Oak Centre for Children and Young People will be one of the largest comprehensive cancer centres in Europe for children and teenagers.

Over the last 8 years Wimbledon Village Stables has raised over £130,000 for the Hospital through our Sponsored Ride, our Charity Ball, the Carol Concerts and other events.

Following a tour of the Oak Centre, their Royal Highnesses unveiled the plaque and declared the Centre officially open.  The event attracted huge media attention and it was very exciting being there.

As the Royal couple departed, patients and hospital staff crowded on to the building’s balconies waving Union flags and a huge cheer erupted as the royal car pulled away.

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Annual Awards Evening

WVS Annual Awards

Wimbledon Village Stables Annual Awards Evening was held on 25 September at Hemingway’s in Wimbledon Village. It was a fabulous evening, very well attended and a great time was had by all.

Our award evening is a light hearted event and is an opportunity to bring together fellow riders & members who ride at different times and don’t usually meet at the stables.

We don’t take the awards too seriously but we felt the following are worthy of note:

Most Improved Rider – Rosan. Kate (her instructor) says of Rosan “‘she has worked so hard over the past year; she never says ‘can’t’ and she always strives to do the best she can”.

• Jumping Rider of the Year – Pat. She has shown unrivalled dedication and her drive to succeed and improve is infectious; she has been a pleasure to teach.
• Rider of the Year – Lucy. She is a talented rider who always has a positive approach to her riding. She is very modest but always enthusiastic about whichever horse or pony she rides.

We would like to say a huge thank you to Kelly and her team at Hemingway’s wine bar for their hospitality and professionalism and for looking after us so well and to all our Members who attended the evening and helped to make it such fun.

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Merton Business Awards

Russell Payne, VINCI Construction UK Limited, presenting the Best Hospitality and Leisure Award to Caroline Stevenson and Carol Andrews

Two hundred and forty people from local businesses, as well as the Mayor of Merton, attended the prestigious Merton Business Awards held recently at the All England Lawn Tennis Club.  We took a table of ten members of WVS staff to the event.  Other Village businesses were located around the room and they joined with those on our neighbouring tables, who had been charmed by our girls, in celebrating our successes with the loudest cheers of the evening.  We were thrilled and delighted to win the Hospitality and Leisure Award and to be the runner up in the Small Business Award.

Thank you for your support over the last year and for your testimonials which contributed to our success and made clear how much you, as well as we, appreciate and recognise the work of our brilliant team.

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Annual Members’ Show

2011 Members' Show

Our Annual Member’s Horse Show on the 30th August was a great success.  Well done to our Show Champions, Jess on Casper and our Show Jumping Champions, Marian and Alice.  Both very worthy winners.

We would like to thank our judges Penny and Pat for all their hard work in choosing the winners of all the classes.  Condition & Turnout was won by Jo on the immaculately turned out Mario.  The two Best Rider classes were won by Sophie on Jazz and Solene on Cracker.  Riding Horse was won by Jess and Casper and the Riding Pony was won by Deborah and Rolo.

Working Hunter winners were Sandra and Winnie and Jess again on Casper. Peter Cox took some brilliant photos which can be seen on his website. One of the stars of the show was Patrick and Kate who finished the day off by jumping a whopping 1.15m fence to come second to Sasha and Pod who won the staff jumping by clearing a massive 1.25m!

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