Pleasant View Equestrian
Welcome to Pleasant View Equestrian
As a little girl I lived across the road from the Henderson Valley Pony Club in West Auckland. I watched the beautiful people ride to Pony Club on Sundays dressed in their red tank tops, white jodhpurs and shiny black boots. How I envied them: my parents couldn’t afford to buy me a pony, so I learnt to ride on the back of a couch, and took care of my horse obsession by feeding carrots and brushing a big black horse named Brigadoon who grazed in a paddock close by.
When I moved to Cambridge I got my first horse, a 4yr old TB mare straight off the track. I had Dime for 20 years and competed at low level dressage competitions. She was a tart, but I loved her despite her antics, including an unscheduled gallop down Racecourse Rd nearly sending me into cardiac arrest. After she broke her hip at age 24 I had to say goodbye and bury my best friend.
Some might say in my grief I lost my mind and bought my dream horse, a big dapple grey called Napoleon. I’m really good at listening to advice, so because Napoleon needs a friend, he now has 18 of them in all shapes and sizes- many of whom form part of our amazing Hitch a Ride team.
​After 21 years, I’m almost considered a Cambridge local. My most important job is as Mummy to my son Daniel who is 14. Daniel has Spina Bifida and developmental delays, and he is the brightest, chattiest, most amazing guy I know. Daniel has benefitted hugely from the amazing support of two local charities, Cambridge RDA and Conductive Education Waikato. With immense gratitude, every booking you make also supports these two local charities, that are so important to our family, and many other families.
When I opened Pleasant View Equestrian to riders it was my aim to donate $10,000 per year to be shared between two charities close to our hearts.
Thanks to the wonderful people who have streamed through the gates since July 2021, we have raised a total of $49,305.02 for RDA Cambridge, Conductive Education Waikato Trust, and Conductive Education Taranaki.
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Over the last couple of years Pleasant View Equestrian has flourished (particularly the Hitch a Ride service), which has meant that I’ve needed an extra set of hands to help out. I’ve been very fortunate to have the support of my partner David who has (among so many other things) been providing the funding for a staff member, enabling me to continue to operate PVE while doing my number one job: being Mum (and personal chauffeur) to Daniel. Now that Daniel is at Matamata College adding a daily commute of 4 hours, my time has become even more limited making the extra set of hands even more important.
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Everyone is feeling the pinch financially right now, and you will no doubt have heard of the extra challenges the sheep industry is currently facing. The farm is not immune to this, so David has had to make some hard decisions to meet these challenges. The upshot of which is that Pleasant View Equestrian now needs to fund our own extra set of hands from 1 June 2024.
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As such, after a great deal of soul searching, I have realized that while I take the time to figure out exactly what the future looks like, I need to temporarily cease making the charitable donations. My thinking cap is already on, and I hope to be able to continue to support RDA and Conductive Education in some way, while keeping Pleasant View as accessible and affordable for clients as possible.
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As always, your support means the world to us.