Wimbledon Village Stables

“An absolute treasure find of a riding stable! If you are an experienced rider, and comfortable at the walk, trot and canter gaits and are visiting or live in London, do yourself a favor and pop over to the Wimbledon Stables! Such an enjoyable ride through Wimbledon Park. The horses are so nice and everybody that works at the Stables are just wonderful! You take the district line all the way to Wimbledon and walk up the hill or take the bus up the hill to High Street. The stable is right off High Street which also has great shopping and lunch spots. This is the best place with superb horses and super friendly staff and instructors! Thank you so much. The absolute highlight of my visit!”

“Holistic Horse Course - a truly lovely experience. The team at Wimbledon Village Stables were warm, welcoming, and professional. The Holistic Horse Course was both calming and enriching. It gave an insight into the way horses think and behave as well as the healing effects they can have on humans. A perfect Saturday afternoon spent learning, connecting, and slowing down with beautifully natured horses.”

“The Cleanest stable I have ever visited! Can feel the horses here are enjoying interacting with people. All Staffs are friendly and responsible. Thank you Carol, Caroline, Tash, Claire for good experience here. Will definitely come back again!”

“Finding a good riding school at a new place of residence is never easy, and I was hoping that Wimbledon Village Stables would be “the one”. I liked that it is centrally located, “adults only”, offers both hacks and lessons in the beautiful Wimbledon Commons and aims to encourage social activities among its members. On paper, I could have barely been more happy. However, in the end this stable still wasn't right for me. The horses I got to ride during my seven months of being a member were all well trained and looked after – they are all privately owned and you can tell. If anything, they often felt a bit too “safe”, especially if you are used to riding a bit more independently out on a hack. I eventually preferred the lesson/short hack combination, since the lesson part provided a bit more of a challenge. Unfortunately they weren't available every weekend. What I missed even more were some hands on activities. WVS provides an all inclusive package. You come, you ride, you leave. I would have loved to spend a bit more time with my assigned horse of the day on ground level because I haven often enjoyed grooming, tacking up, feeding or some ground work more than the actual ride. I was aware that this is not a countryside stable (which is what I am more used to), but I didn't expect it to be so different. I heard that you can volunteer to come early in the morning to help the staff, but I have unfortunately never been an early bird. The membership package this stable offers might have certain benefits, but in the end it was a bit too unflexible for my needs. This wasn’t entirely clear to me when I signed up for a Sunday spot, and I am not sure I would have had I known this because I travel quite a bit. I missed a bit more accommodation for the "can only do weekends" riders. As for the social activities: some of them are stable yard parties which take place in the middle of the horses and get quite noisy. I personally do not think that horses should be exposed to loud music without having a chance to escape. People told me the horses were “used to it”, but it still goes against my idea of proper horsemanship. So I only went once and just didn't enjoy it. I would like to end this on a happy note: the staff really does an overall wonderful job, and I do understand why people enjoy this stable. However, I wished I had found a more detailed review before becoming a member because I might have just looked somewhere else for my "happy horse place". It unfortunately isn't in Wimbledon, as convenient as it would be.”