Toton riding school left with £60k flood repair bill

Tara Carnelley, who co-owns the riding school, said the arena they used for the lessons was completely gone

The cost of repairs at a riding school where 50 animals were evacuated due to flooding are thought to be £60,000.

Staff at St Leonard's Riding School, in Toton, Nottinghamshire, moved their horses and ponies to safety within two hours on Friday once the floods began.

Their arena for lessons is "completely gone" and a bridge connecting one yard to another has been destroyed.

Co-owner Tara Carnelley said she felt "helpless" and the amount of money needed was rising.

She said: "We've got damage to our main arena which is where we teach all our lessons and have competitions in there.

"When the water had subsided, we were not prepared to see what we saw. Everything had been so badly damaged.

"In the floods we could see the tarmac had come up form the yard. We couldn't comprehend how bad it was - it's like an earthquake."

Horses had to be rescued from the flooding and moved elsewhere

Ms Carnelley said: "It is horrible to come down here and there be no horses. It's how eerie it is not having them here and not knowing where to begin with getting things back on track - we are losing money as the days go by.

"It is the kids' holidays and we had all events on and obviously none of that can happen.

"It is a vicious circle. We need the money to rebuild but we are also losing it at the same time."

She added they were unable to obtain insurance as the stables sat on flood land.

"I think if we'd paid a ridiculously high premium, maybe we might have got a little bit of cover, but it's so unusual for it to flood this bad," she said.

"We have dealt with it and had small floods - we would never imagine we would have been in this position."

She added: "I feel massively helpless. We've done what we can the clean-up but when it comes to huge works like building a bridge and repairing the damage, it is out of our skills set."

Instructor Katie Hanstock found herself in water up to her middle when she went to rescue a horse

Instructor Katie Hanstock told BBC Radio Nottingham they got people with lorries and trailers to help get all the ponies off site during the flooding, which took two hours.

"It has never been like that before. Normally our fields go under - never the yard, never the front paddock. That is where our horses were," she said.

"I went up the field to get one wandering pony and the water was up to my middle. It was scary wading through it all and with a horse next to you - it is a lot of water pressure."

The riding school has been part of the community since 1946

Meanwhile an animal sanctuary - Field Farm Animal Sanctuary in Costock - also had to move their animals due to flooding.

Marie Breedon, who owns the sanctuary, said they had to move chickens and tried to get the ponies off the field but could not because they were too far back.

Owner Marie Breedon said the amount of water was scary, as well as the speed of it

She added: "We didn't have a single fatality, thank goodness, but we did have an awful lot of damage.

"It was just running like a river."

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