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A B O U T |
all about westway stables |
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We are pleased to announce that we are now open after extensive refurbisment and looking forward to seeing you all back in our brand new arena. We have launched a new website which will be completed soon. For more info phone 0208-9642140 or email us at westwaystables@aol.com
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Horse riding, with its many disciplines from show jumping to polo, is one of the top five participant sports in the UK today. There are more than 2.5 million people who ride horses regularly for leisure and sport and it is growing, rapidly. Riding doesn't just happen in the country but also in urban locations all over Britain.
London has an illustrious and continuing horse riding and driving tradition. All those expensive, pretty little 'Mews' houses, for example, once sheltered horses and carriages. Riding for exercise and recreation was invented on Rotten Row in Hyde Park in the 1600s. Wormwood Scrubs in West London, 103 acres of woodland and open grass, is not nearly as famous but it also has more than 150 years of continuous equestrian history. People used to learn to ride on the Scrubs before they exposed themselves to high society on Rotten Row. Westway Stables are located a quiet 10 minutes walk away.
The Westway Stables were purpose built in the 1960s to replace those demolished as part of the extensive road improvements on the A40 - the Westway elevated section. The stables, just off Latimer Road, were originally used to house the ponies belonging to the 'totters' or rag-and-bone men who made their living patrolling the streets with horse and cart to collect second-hand goods and useful junk. The best known totters are "Steptoe & Son" in the classic BBC TV sitcom. Some episodes were even filmed at Westway Stables as the BBC is just around the corner. By the 1980s the totters had passed into history and the stables fell on hard times.
Sarah Tuvey, born and bred in Notting Hill Gate and a lifelong horse enthusiast, set about bringing Westway back to life. With the help of her mother, June, other family and friends, the local police and the RSPCA she battled to transform the derelict stables into a haven for horses and people who love horses. In 1995 she opened a riding school. Today there is a varied programme of lessons and events to suit all kinds of people but a unique feature of the yard is the amount of work done with under privileged or troubled children.
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