About Us 

Our names are Smári and Mandy Slater and we have a little son called Oskar who was born on 25th October 2004 . He has already sat on a horse!

Both of us were born with a passion for horses and we are both hoping that this is hereditary and will be passed on to our little boy !

Smári has always been in contact with horses in some way or another. Born in Iceland where most families used horses on their farms. He started working with them and training them full time in the 1980's in Iceland , and there was no looking back! He moved to England in 1994 to help look after and train the horses at Bentleigh Farm in Pitton, where he still works today. Only today the horses are his and his time is his own. He devotes his life to his family and his animals and takes great pride in introducing new people to his equine heritage.

Smári loves to breed and start his own horses and many of his homebred horses can be seen on the farm today. He loves to spend time with the youngsters, starting them slowly, getting them used to shoes, tack, rider and teaching them to enjoy working with us humans.

He first gets on them in a stable, then does a lot of work with them in the round pen where he will do much of the initial riding before venturing out into the school, or down the lane. It is important that he can stop, start, and turn before he takes them anywhere too exciting.

Mandy was born in England and started riding at age 4. Her background was with dressage and eventing when she was younger, and later in life spent her free time working with her own horses for her own relaxation. She first saw Icelandic horses at Littlecote show, in 1998 and was completely taken with them. In 2000 she bought her first mare, Skessa and her collection has grown steadily since then (though she does have an Arabian too!). Mandy spends much of her time at the moment raising the young Oskar, but goes to the farm at every opportunity to ride.

When not on maternity leave, Mandy works in IT, but has been plotting her escape for years. Her other interests (apart from her family and horses), are Reiki and Equine Shiatsu massage (though not fully trained in the massage currently due to falling pregnant with Oskar before her final year). The horses respond fantastically well to both, though there aren't really enough hours in the day to do this very often.

Both Smári and Mandy compete the horses regularly and have been successful in the Icelandic UK Championships in past years. Some of the winning horses can be ridden on our holidays!