The amazing Wimbledon Village Stables team
We are very proud to introduce our wonderful WVS award-winning team.
You can be sure that whichever member of the team you ride out with, they will be interesting company and look after you every step of the way. Take a look at the testimonials to see what we mean! We encourage our staff to study for further qualifications and provide them with training from leading experts in the equestrian community. They also compete – in either dressage or jumping, they bring horses on and take them to shows for their owners, and regularly come home with ribbons.
We can confidently say that there isn’t a team like this in the country, a claim supported by the numerous awards we are very proud to have won for customer service as well as certificates of excellence from the British Horse Society.
Please do read the profiles of our staff, all of whom have interesting and very varied backgrounds. We look forward to welcoming you soon at Wimbledon Village Stables.
I learnt to ride at Coombe Hill Stables in nearby Kingston, passed my BHSAI at South Weylands Equestrian Centre and I have competed in all equestrian disciplines, although show jumping was my passion.
Wimbledon Village Stables truly is a family business, as both my daughters – Sasha and Steff – are keen riders as is Ella, my niece, and her mum Caroline (my sister-in-law) is our Chief Instructor.
Developing and improving the business has been always fun and fulfilling, especially being able to raise so much money over the years for some very worthwhile charities. I am thrilled that the stables continues to thrive and is going from strength to strength.
Kyle moved to the UK in 2017 after selling his showjumper back home. He first worked at a Scottish polo yard, followed by a competitive dressage and showjumping yard in London. Kyle then had a holiday back home and apparently accidentally qualified for the South African mounted games team! This took him to the mounted games world team championships in 2019, handily back in Wales, where he fell in love with his loan pony for the games. He bought that pony and based himself in Chesterfield doing a bar job while pursuing his passion for mounted games. This is where Kyle has been for the last 2 / 3 years before deciding he needed a new challenge and coming south again to join us here at WVS.
Kyle’s twin brother has been based in London for around 6 years so he already has great connections in the city, but he says the best thing about this job so far is the friendliness of all the staff and the clients! Kyle is very sociable so you will find that he is very chatty on your rides and he loves to meet new people and find out all about them! He has also done a lot of teaching from a young age so he has already been taking lessons and imparting his very wide-ranging knowledge on us.
When out of the saddle, Kyle is always busy and is a keen sportsman, often with a tennis racket, frisbee or hockey stick in hand – failing any of those, a beer!
We are excited to have Kyle as part of the team and will definitely make the most of his varied riding experiences to teach us all a few new tricks!
Tash will be working her way through the horses here at WVS starting with an initial assessment to identify any dysfunction, asymmetry, discomfort or pain. Depending on her findings, she will then tailor a treatment plan incorporating manual techniques, dynamic stretching and active exercises. Tash has already treated a few of the horses and they felt so relaxed afterwards which is fantastic. We can’t wait to see some more results after the horses have had a longer treatment plan. And if the horses seem happy with it we may ask Tash to start work on our well deserving staff or even clients, so watch this space!
Looking for a change, Jackie came to London about 5 years ago and has spent most of that time here with us at WVS. She has been very focussed and has attained all of her BHS exams up to the Complete Stage 3 and is now working towards her stage 4 exam. She most recently gained her Stage 3 Teach which we knew she would fly through as Jackie has been such a fantastic coach in her time here. She enjoys teaching all riders from beginners to advanced and will always strive to find a way to help a rider if they are getting a bit stuck! Jackie is also fantastic at teaching on our Simulator and she will often use a specifically tailored lesson plan alongside a regular ride on the Common to achieve understanding and improvement.
If you haven’t seen Pepper busy on the yard or taking out a ride then look no further than the yard dogs, she is determined to befriend, and possibly steal, any waggy tailed friend that will come with her!