Hyde Park Stables Access All Areas

Saved from closing for good, these London stables are back in business with two international showjumpers at the helm, discovers Martha Terry

- Martha Terry

IT’S the most unlikely location for a hack. To my left the street is blocked as a group of protesters denounce Donald Trump’s visit to London. Sirens shrill above the thrum of the capital’s traffic. Behind me is the Ferris wheel of Winter Wonderland, and all the while buggies, joggers and cyclists zip by. This is Rotten Row, a broad, sandy track in the south of Hyde Park — an avenue originally established in the 17th century. Over 300 years on, aboard a trusty piebald cob, Ivan, I trot down this same 1,384 metres of sand, and marvel at the thought of all the horses through history who have trodden this path — and the utter bomb-proofness of Ivan.

Rotten Row remains a bridleway through central London, and is in daily use; by the Household Cavalry and the only two riding stables in zone one — Hyde Park Stables and Ross Nye — both situated in Bathurst Mews, the only working mews left in London.

In October 2018, Hyde Park Stables looked to be consigned to history when its owner of 30 years, Dick Briggs, sold the property and horses. However, showjumping mother and owner Mandy Hall intervened.

“I felt that if we didn’t try to make a go of it, no one would, and it would just become housing,” says Mandy, who ran a large riding school, Strangeways in Borehamwood, 12 miles north, until six years ago. “I wanted to have a riding school again, and I was interested by the idea of keeping horses in central London. I gave up the old one because I was concentrating on my girls’ careers and it got too big, but that’s one problem we can’t have here.”