Enjoy pictures from Eventing magazine’s photoshoot at Norton Grounds Equestrian, which is owned by Clare and Andrew Valender and is the new base of Italian eventer Vittoria Panizzon.
Vittoria has 16 horses and her team of head girl Sarah Mann and working pupil Alice Riggins on the smart yard. Norton Grounds is a 120-acre working farm and has been in Andrew Valender’s family for three generations.
Vittoria had a surprise when she first saw her new base. “The main barn was full of cattle,” she says. “However starting from scratch was fantastic, as I’ve been involved in the planning process from the start. It’s been great fun and I’ve ended up with exactly the pratical layout I wanted.”
The yard comprises a modern main barn, and an adjacent barn housing a wash bay, tackroom, feedroom and rug room.
The facilities on the estate include a 20x60m all-weather arena with showjumps, a grass dressage arena, a horsewalker and miles of off-road hacking.
“At the moment, there are no corss-country jumps, but I don’t really need those. I get my horses fit through hacking and hillwork.
Vittoria did have gallops at her previous base, but she has already solved that problem here.
“If I want to gallop the horses, I box up and go to racehorse trainer Dan Skelton’s base. He has amazing gallops and fantastic views too.” she explains.
There is also unlimited turnout for the horses.
“They are all in through the day and out at night,” she explains. “They love it and it also makes sense economically. We save on the amount of bedding we use and mucking out is so much quicker.”
Read the full “Through the Keyhole” article in the October 2014 issue of Eventing magazine.
