Raynham Stables

01/28/2025

And thats the second clinic of our ❄️ winter clinic series ❄️ wrapped! A huge thank you to Jessica Phoenix () for running such an upbeat and informative clinic! 🐴

Jessica provided some key takeaways from this clinic, including:

1. Focusing on riding a consistent “system” of straight lines and turns. She explained that the rider should find and ride a line parallel to their fence, and from that line, choose an adequate turn to approach the fence. In doing so, one keeps the horse’s rhythm consistent and puts their horse in a balanced, straight, and confident place to jump from. Straightness was key to the exercises she challenged our riders with.

2. The importance of using your eyes. Jessica explained that our eyes guide the horse’s energy in the direction we want to go. If our eyes stray from our next jump, we may fall off our line and miss our straight turn off of the line parallel to the fence.

3. Finally, Jessica importantly made sure every single rider had a fun, positive, and confidence-boosting experience. Thank you Jessica, for emphasizing the amazing things about each and every rider while still providing critical feedback!

Keep a look out for our next winter clinic: once again, Meredith Risk from Nobleton Dressage is coming back for another round of lessons! See you there! 😉

01/18/2025

Last week we said goodbye to our beloved friend, Ernie.

Formerly an upper-level competition horse and most recently a treasured member of our school program, Ernie captured all of our hearts at Raynham. Ernie competed up to Preliminary level with Lindsay, and Training level with several students, even travelling to the US to compete.

Anyone who knew Ernie also knew of his many quirks! He liked to sit like a dog before rolling in the paddock, always seemed to injure himself just in time to get a nice vacation at the beginning of summer, and most recently loved to roam around the property grazing to his heart’s content.

We love you and will miss you dearly, Ernie. Thank you for being such an amazing horse and member of our Raynham family. ❤️

12/21/2024

LESSONS CANCELLED - Saturday, Dec 21st

Hey Raynham Riders,

Brrrr!! It is going to be mighty cold tomorrow! Our policy is to cancel if it is colder than -12c before the windchill and it's forecasted to be -12c or colder all day tomorrow. We have already bundled up the horses with extra blankets and feed to keep them cozy!

As this is the last Saturday in the fall session, we will send out an email tomorrow with options to do a make-up over the break.

Stay warm tomorrow!

Nikki

Send a message to learn more

12/08/2024

Yesterday Raynham took on Schomberg’s Community Santa Claus Parade, and it was so much fun! Patches and Buttercup were absolute SUPERSTARS 🤩

Thank you to our wonderful volunteers for riding the float with us, and Rachel and Alyssa for all their hard work decorating and preparing for the parade! We couldn’t have done it without you 😉

12/04/2024

Wednesday, December 4th - Lessons ARE Running

Hey All!

We have been spared snow so far this year but is finally starting to look like winter around here! Thankfully it is only snowing lightly and the roads are cleared/just wet right now. If the driving conditions are poor in your area, let us know. We have some spaces available on Friday!

11/30/2024

Congratulations to our 2024 award winners!

Last night was Raynham Stables’ 15th annual awards banquet where we celebrated the incredible accomplishments of our show team riders from the 2024 season. We couldn’t be prouder of the incredible community of riders at Raynham, and can’t wait to see what you all achieve in 2025!

11/29/2024

With the 2024 Raynham Stables banquet almost underway, we have to give a huge shout-out to tonight’s sponsors! Thank you to Sky Ridge Homes Ltd., Kingsdale Animal Hospital, and Ridley Windows & Doors Inc. for sponsoring our event! We can’t wait to see everyone there 💙💛

11/25/2024

Hey all!

We have some make-up spots available tomorrow and Wednesday if anyone needs one!

Tuesday @ 4:30pm w/ Gabb
Tuesday @ 5:30pm w/ Lindsay
Wednesday @ 4:30pm w/ Lindsay

Let me know if you're interested!

Nikki

Send a message to learn more

11/08/2024

Congratulations to our 2024 Show Team!

This past weekend was the Ontario Eventing Association’s Annual Meeting of Members and Awards Presentation and we are so proud of the incredible results of our Raynham riders! This is an insane number of awards to win out of the 1000+ OEA members across the province!

10/24/2024

Halloween Schooling Show start times have been posted! We can't wait to see you all there!

Hey Raynham Riders, Below are the start times for the Halloween Schooling Show. If you are missing from the times, don't panic; send us an e...

10/12/2024

Congratulations to Julia and Smokey! 🎉

Congratulations to Julie DeSario at Glenarden Farms HTs 2, last Sunday for her excellent score coming out on top among Juniors from EV85-EV110. We're delighted to award Julia the Zara Buren Legacy of Excellence saddlepad and will get in touch to arrange delivery. Well done for a super ride!

Next up is the Eastern Canadian Eventing Championships at Wesley Clover Parks & Stevens Creek on Saturday-Sunday, October 12-13. We hope to see you there!

Thanks to Bahr Saddlery and to the Zara Buren Memorial Foundation for their continued support of Ontario's Junior eventers. 🙂

https://ontarioeventing.com/zaras-legacy-of-excellence/

09/30/2024

This! 👏👏👏

All I Want To Do Is Jump

I ran a fairly large lesson program for almost 20 years. This is a statement I have heard over and over, both in my lesson barn days and from colleagues today.

All I want to do is jump.

There are a few problems with this. Let's start with the horse. I love the old horseman's saying " horses only have so many jumps in them ". Is that 100, 1000 before it becomes lame.... No one knows....but horses certainly weigh a lot and the concussion landing on those small little legs is significant. Horses also get bored, burned out....and let's face it...sour.
Respect for the horse . The riders job is to do the best thing for the horse. Most horses only need jumped a few days a week. That means if a lesson horse works 5 days a week, only 2 of those are jumping days. 3 of those are purely flatwork or hacking.

Riders : most of jumping well has NOTHING to do with jumping. Riders need to work on pace, transitions, straightness, their position, effectiveness of aids, balance, ability to change positions smoothly ( from 2 point to sitting etc ) and so much more.

So if you are one of those students who Just Wants To Jump , please replace that with "I want to be an effective rider and horseman or woman . I want to do what is best for the horse "

And instructors who cave to this plea from students
Only YOU can set the CULTURE of your barn. Talk frequently about horsemanship and doing right by the animals.

08/27/2024

FALL SCHEDULE HAS BEEN POSTED!!

Thanks so much for your patience everyone! There will definitely be MANY changes to this tentative schedule -the final schedule will be posted Friday.

Hey Raynham Riders, Thank you very much for your patience as we worked through the schedule for the Fall session. Please find the link to...

08/26/2024

Hey Raynham Riders!

Thank you for your patience in awaiting the fall lesson schedule. We are just working out a few issues and will be sending it out via email blast later this evening! I will update this post once it is sent out 🙂 Rest assured, we were able to fit in all returning students from last school year and this summer!

If you have not already subscribed to our mailing list, sign up now so you don't miss the email when the schedule is done! https://tinyurl.com/rs2024mailinglist

Nikki

08/09/2024

2024/2025 Lesson Registration!

Hey Raynham Riders!

Did everyone watch the Olympics?? Wasn't the riding incredible! Did it motivate you to want to improve your riding? I know it inspired me!

The summer is flying by and the fall lesson availability form has been posted! If you took the summer off, we can't wait to see you back in the saddle!

Please let us know if you have any questions!

https://raynhamstables.com/20242025-lesson-registration.html