Needs pro shootA saddlery you
can walk into.
Riding jackets, back protectors, hats, boots, jodhpurs, chaps, tack and fleeces, on the yard at Woodside Road. There is no basket on this page. Everything here is fitted on you, or on your horse, before you buy it — by people who ride.
- 9 am – 6 pm
- Wednesday to Sunday
- 7 days
- a week in the school holidays
- Fitted
- on you, or on your horse
- Free
- hats and boots for every rider
Six shelves, and
what is on them
It is a yard shop, not a warehouse. What it carries is what riders here actually wear out, break or grow out of.
Riding hats
Skull caps and peaked hats, tried on your own head rather than guessed from a size chart. Head shapes differ far more than head sizes do.
Fitted hereBody protectors
Back protectors for jumping, for cross country, and for anyone who would simply rather have one on. Measured along your back, not taken off your dress size.
Fitted hereJackets and fleeces
Waterproof yard coats, show jackets, and the fleeces people actually live in from November to March. Yard kit with the club name across the back.
Boots and chaps
Jodhpur boots, long boots and half chaps, tried on with the socks you will ride in rather than the ones you drove here in.
Jodhpurs
Children’s and adults’. Sizes run narrow in some makes and generous in others, which is the whole argument for standing in a pair before you buy them.
Tack, grooming and yard kit
Bridles, girths, numnahs, headcollars and lead ropes, plus brushes, hoof picks, shampoos and fly spray. If the horse is here, the fit gets checked on the horse.
Needs pro shootFitted here, by people who ride.
Nobody behind this counter learned it from a catalogue. They tack up in the morning, teach in the afternoon, and know which makes come up narrow. That is the whole argument for buying a hat in a yard rather than in a box.
A bridle, a girth or a numnah can go straight out to the stable and on to the animal it was bought for, before any money changes hands.
If the hat you already own is fine, or the boots will last another winter, that is what you will hear. It is a small shop in a working yard — we would rather you came back.
You are already here for a lesson. The shop keeps the yard’s hours, so it is open while you are standing in the middle of it.
The two you should never buy blind.
Everything else in the shop is a preference. These two are the reason the shop is in a yard at all, and the reason we would rather you came in than clicked.
A hat is fitted to a head
It should sit level, feel firm the whole way round, and not shift when you shake your head. A size printed on a box cannot tell you that. Five minutes and a mirror can.
A protector is fitted to a back
It is measured along the spine and across the chest. Too long and it catches the saddle when you sit down; too short and it is guarding the wrong part of you.
A hat that has had a fall is finished
It does its job once, and it does not look any different afterwards, which is exactly the problem. Bring it in and you will be told straight.
If you are buying for a child who is still growing, say so. There is usually a sensible answer between the cheapest hat on the shelf and the one meant to last three years.
Safety and insuranceThe shop keeps the yard’s hours
If the yard is open, the shop is open. That means Wednesday to Sunday through term time, and 7 days a week in the school holidays, from nine in the morning until six in the evening.
Come at the start or the end of a lesson and nobody is rushing you. The middle of a Saturday afternoon is the busiest hour of the week, so if you want a hat fitted properly, pick a quieter one.
Ring ahead and someone will go and look.
Sizes come and go, and a stock list on a website would stop being true inside a week. Tell us the make, the size and what it is for. Someone will walk over to the shop, look on the shelf, and tell you honestly whether it is worth the drive out.
We reply within one working day.
You do not have to own a thing to ride here.
Long trousers and a rain jacket. Riding hats and boots are provided free. They are fitted for every rider, every time, whether it is a first trial lesson or the fiftieth walkout. Please arrive 15 minutes early so hats and boots can be fitted.
Buy a hat when you know you are coming back. Not before.
The shop is at
the yard gate.
Woodside Road, Sandyford — fifteen minutes from the M50, or the Luas to Sandyford and a short taxi. Free parking, and thirty heads over the stable doors on the way in.