The new stable block at Stockleigh Lodge

Several members of the Exmoor Holiday Group offer accommodation for guests with horses. Some of these are bed and breakfast establishments and others are self-catering. Please look at our website www.exmoor-holidays for details of each property.
For bed and breakfast vacancies information, please ring Patricia Vellacott on (01398) 323722.
For self-catering vacancies information, please ring Victoria Eveleigh on (01598) 752310
One place which specialises in offering quality bed and breakfast accommodation for guests with (and without!) horses is Stockleigh Lodge, which is owned by Mike and Myra Ellicott. A brand new stable block has just been completed at Stockleigh Lodge, thanks to gales last December which brought three beech trees crashing down on the old stable block. Luckily, no humans or horses were hurt.

Stockleigh Lodge, near Exford in the heart of Exmoor
To view details of Stockliegh Lodge please visit the website www.stockleighexford.freeserve.uk

For up-to-date information about Exmoor Holiday Group accommodation, including vacancies and prices, please ring:
Patricia Vellacott (01398) 323722 for bed and breakfast information
Victoria Eveleigh (01598) 752310 for self-catering information.

During the winter, the holiday cottage at West Ilkerton www.westilkerton.co.uk has been re-decorated. There are three new windows, including the panoramic windows in the living room and the master bedroom. Also, satellite TV has been installed. No more compulsory Welsh TV and poor reception! Hurray!

Pimpernel and Lovage, West Ilkerton, February 2007
The other news from West Ilkerton is that calving has started. To date, there have been two bull calves and three heifers (Pimpernel, Primrose and Pennywort). The heifer calves are given the names of British wild flowers. This year the names begin with P. The choice of names for 2006 (N) was interesting: Nipplewort, Naked Autumn Crocus and Night-Flowering Catchfly, to name a few!

www.exmoor-holidays.co.uk

Andrew Caldwell from Weatherham Farm is a keen fisherman, and has given us the following news about fishing on Exmoor:
Last year was not a fisherman's year. The long, dry summer was great for most visitors but not for water temperatures and river levels.
However, after heavy rainfall this winter, Wimbleball Lake is currently full (it even overflowed at the end of January) and the rivers on Exmoor are looking very healthy; so it looks as if there will be an excellent start to the trout season (31st March on Wimbleball).

Water overflowing from Wimbleball Lake. An idea of scale is given by the blue car
Salmon numbers should increase steadily in the next few years thanks to the stopping of the Irish nets - and half the Exe estuary nets - and also The Exe Project, see www.wrt.org.uk
All in all, things are looking good for Exmoor fishermen in 2007, provided we get plenty of rain this summer.
So if you're on holiday on Exmoor this summer and it happens to be a bit showery, rejoice and think how much good it's doing the fish!
There are 'fishing facts' and 'fishing news' on the Weatherham Farm website www.weatherhamfarm.co.uk
Linda and George Leigh-Firbank at Handley Farm www.handleyfarm.co.uk have a fishing lake on their farm which guests can use.

Monitoring salmon on the River Exe

I hope our website www.exmoor-holidays.co.uk provides you with all the information you need for a wonderful holiday on Exmoor, whether you know and love Exmoor or you'll be visiting it for the first time in 2007.
The photo above is of silage-making at West Ilkerton Farm, 2006. Summer isn't very far away (honest!) and several places are already getting booked up for the summer holidays, so please book early to avoid disappointment.
Perhaps this is a good moment to say that holidays on Exmoor in the winter, spring or autumn have many advantages: not many visitors around, plenty of parking spaces in the car parks (which are often free in the winter), lovely walks and rides, cosy evenings by the fire and lower-priced accommodation, to name a few. Many accommodation providers will take bookings for short breaks during school term times, too.

If you can't make up your mind which property to choose for your holiday, or if you're having difficulty finding a vacancy for the week you want, the Exmoor Holiday Group vacancies secretaries are there to help you. There are new vacancies secretaries this year:

Bed & Breakfast: Patricia Vellacott, Tel: (01398) 323722, Email: bb@exmoor-holidays.co.uk

Self-catering: Victoria Eveleigh, Tel: (01598) 752310, Email: sc@exmoor-holidays.co.uk

Camping: Oliver & Jill Edwards, Tel: (01643) 831216, Email: cottages@westermill.com or
Laetitia Brown, Tel: (01643) 851259, Email: ehgbrown@halsefarm.co.uk

The Exmoor Holiday Group is a self-help group and all the above contacts are busy running their own farm and accommodation businesses. If they are out working, they will reply to your enquiry as soon as possible. Please leave a clear message, by phone or Email, saying what you are looking for and the dates you would like, and giving your contact details.

Our first piece of news is from the Sareens at West Hollowcombe, www.exmoorselfcatering.co.uk Amanda and Michael Sareen provide a foster home for a couple of young Exmoor ponies from the Moorland Mousie Trust (www.moorlandmousietrust.org.uk) every year. This year, they have Billy (who featured in Johnny Kingdon's TV programme about Exmoor) and a nine-month-old pony called Cocoa. Here is a photo of the ponies in a field at West Hollowcombe:

Billy and Cocoa spent the first months of their lives running with free-living herds on Exmoor's open moorland. Their first contact with humans was when they were rounded up, weaned, inspected and branded; not a good foundation for a trusting relationship with people. Through careful, gentle, consistent handling, the Sareens will prepare these ponies for a life with humans. Amanda's main problem is that there isn't enough traffic around Hawkridge to provide props for traffic-proofing the ponies. Exmoor is one of the few places where you can have a problem like that!
When the ponies are about three years old and ready for the next step in their education, they will go back to the Moorland Mousie Trust Centre at Ashwick to learn how to be safe and reliable riding ponies. Merion, the pony who was at West Hollowcombe last year, is now at Ashwick completing his education.
Keep visiting this site for updates about the ponies from West Hollowcombe, together with news from other group members.