Escape the rat race with these dream equestrian properties for sale on the Isle of Wight

1. Smallbrook Farm, Isle Of Wight

For you: a Grade II-listed main house with four bedrooms, two holiday cottages and another cottage that is being converted into holiday accommodation. There are mature gardens, an orchard and a lake.

For the horses: a barn with six boxes, a tack room and an adjoining yard, with around seven acres of grazing divided into paddocks with post-and-rail fencing.

What’s the damage? £1.6m

Agent: Biles & Co

Telephone number: 01983 872335

Visit: www.bilesandco.co.uk

2. Moons Hill, Isle Of Wight

For you: a Victorian country home with a master bedroom suite with “his and hers” bathrooms and a dressing room, plus five further bedrooms. There is also a wine cellar, tennis court and landscaped gardens with outstanding views.

For the horses: a block of four stables and a large barn for storage. Set in 8.5 acres.

What’s the damage? £2.15m

Agent: Knight Frank

Telephone number: 01962 850333

Visit: www.knightfrank.co.uk

3. Hill Farm, Isle Of Wight

For you: a Georgian-style Grade II-listed farmhouse set in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, with four bedrooms, as well as a two-bedroom annexe.

For the horses: there are substantial stone outbuildings with a stable block with six boxes and a tack room. There’s a large tractor barn and threshing barn, plus a 15x35m sand school. Set in 12.7 acres.

What’s the damage? £1.45m

Agent: Hose Rhodes Dickson

Telephone number: 01983 538090

Visit: www.hrdcountryhomes.co.uk

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4. Wacklands, Isle Of Wight

For you: a Grade II-listed Georgian manor house with four bedrooms, a wine cellar, heated swimming pool and small lake, as well as three holiday cottages.

For the horses: six stables plus a feed store/tack room and a loft, with access to a network of bridleways. Set in 12.5 acres.

What’s the damage? £1.275m

Agent: Spence Willard

Telephone number: 01983 200880

Visit: www.spencewillard.co.uk

Next week: Equestrian properties in remote locations

Ref: Horse & Hound; 8 September 2016

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A woman who runs a horse and carriage service has been banned from keeping equines for life after pleading guilty to neglecting seven horses.

Beverly Knight, of York Avenue, East Cowes, appeared before Newport Magistrates yesterday (Wednesday, 26 August).

Knight pleaded guilty to charges under section 4 and section 9 of the Animal Welfare Act of failing to treat problems with the legs and feet of two horses and leaving the group of horses in unsanitary conditions.

She was also given an eight-week suspended sentence and ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work, as well as being fined £250.

In March the RSPCA was called to the regal Osborne House Estate on the Isle of Wight, after members of the public raised concerns about the way horses being used for a horse and carriage rides to the house were being treated.

The service was being run by Knight, a contractor working for the historic site, and seven horses were being used to pick visitors up and take them to the house.

The RSPCA found the seven horses living in “unsuitable conditions” in stables that “had not been cleaned out for months”.

Two Clydesdales, named Claude and Reilly, were underweight and covered in mites that had not been treated.

“These horses had been left to suffer living in awful conditions,” said RSPCA inspector Mark Buggie.

“One of the horses was even standing on top of a pile of muck so high that his head was in the rafters.

“The defendant cooperated fully with our investigation and obviously regrets that the situation became as bad as it did.

“This case is a reminder that owning animals can be a big responsibility, both financially and otherwise, and owners have to make sure they can provide for the needs of the animals dependent on them.”

All seven horses have now made a good recovery and have been rehomed by the RSPCA.

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A wealthy widow has left £100,000 to the Isle of Wight Donkey Sanctuary in her will — despite only visiting it once, ten years ago.

Sanctuary founder Cherryl Clarke said 89-year-old Irene Day’s legacy is the largest sum ever donated to the charity.

She told a local newspaper: “It was absolutely amazing and we are very, very grateful to Mrs Day, because for a small charity like us, this was a massive amount of money, which will help donkeys for many years to come,” said Cherryl.

Despite only making one visit to the sanctuary, Mrs Day, who lived in the Portsmouth area, used to send a donation every Christmas. They found out about the legacy earlier this month.

The sanctuary won’t receive the money for another 12 months but it will help finance a new facility.

“We have just borrowed £260,000 to develop another farm at the sanctuary and the donation will help pay some of that back, as well as the upkeep of the building,” said Mrs Clarke.

The Isle of Wight Donkey Sanctuary was one of 16 different organisations in Hampshire to receive a share of £1 million from Mrs Day in her will.

She died in 2008 and was the widow of George Day, founder of GA Day Builders’ Merchants.

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Countryside Alliance chairman Kate Hoey and Isle of Wight MP Andrew Turner have written to the chief constable of Hampshire Police following the dawn arrests of four men on Thursday, 3 May (news, 10 May). They are understood to have written to express concern at the way in which the arrests were handled.

The men are connected with the Isle of Wight hunt and were arrested on suspicion of breaching the Hunting Act during an incident in November 2006. As H&H went to press on Monday, Hampshire Police confirmed the men will not be charged, and rebuffed claims that their action was disproportionate.

“Any complaints we receive will be dealt with proportionately,” said a spokesman for Hampshire Police.

The same spokesman refused to comment on whether the force would carry out dawn arrests for a motoring offence, which, as a non-recordable offence, is on a par with a breach of the Hunting Act.

This news story was first published in Horse & Hound (17 May, ’07)

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Four men connected with the Isle of Wight hunt have been arrested on suspicion of hunting a wild mammal with dogs.

Police carried out a number of raids, including one on the Isle of Wight hunt kennels at Gatcombe in Newport, at 5am this morning.

Hampshire Police have confirmed to H&H four men are currently being held in custody: a 41-year-old from Ryde, a 61-year-old and 36-year-old from Newport and a 36-year-old from Ventnor.

“This follows an incident in Shepherds Chine, Isle of Wight in November last year,” said a police spokesman.

Stephen Lambert, chairman of the Council of Hunting Associations (CHA), told H&H of his “total astonishment” that the police had prioritised this issue to such an extent that they carried out dawn raids.

Alastair Jackson, director of the Masters of Foxhounds Association (MFHA) added: “Clearly, with these sorts of allegations, the police have slightly overreacted.”

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