Natalie was awarded the MBE ‘for services to the disabled and to the community’. HRH the Prince of Wales presented it to her in one of the first investitures that Prince William has conducted since the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

We’ve been so impatient to share our plans, but we needed to know they were achievable and ready to submit to Richmond Council before we did. We love our architect’s vision for the refurb and we hope you’ll share our excitement!

We’re having an open morning on Friday 16 December from 11am till 1pm. A chance to meet the Park Lane team and ponies over a cup of tea at our lovely temporary Petersham home.

The Park Lane Stables story over the last two years has been all about change, as we lost and then secured our Teddington home, and settled into life at our temporary home in Petersham. Volunteers have been our constant.

The Queen’s Green Canopy was established to mark the late Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee, and the planting of over a million trees so far are a lasting legacy to the Queen.

On the day we heard that the Queen had died, we suffered our own shock bereavement. Marcus, loved by all who met him, decided that his time was up and passed away.

Our local MP Munira Wilson paid tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in the House of Commons – and we were honoured that our own recent experience of the Queen’s generosity was one of the three local stories shared by Munira in her moving speech.

Some weeks we’re so absorbed welcoming new faces and old friends to Park Lane Stables that we almost forget to come up for air. But if you ever wonder what we get up to, here’s a quick review of summer highlights.

Annie was a pony mad little girl, a proud member of Park Lane Stables’ Pony Club whose Dad regularly brought her to ride by tram, train and bus all the way from Croydon. The 10 year old’s positive attitude to life cheered up anybody around her who needed it

Park Lane Stables is all about people, and when we met architect Sam Kamleh we could tell she was the right person to work with us on renovating our Teddington home.

How did a little girl growing up in Birmingham with no connection with horses develop a lifelong passion that was to set her on an unswerving path through life? Read how it all started, in this short extract from the beginning of Only Heroes and Horses.

Before Peaches came to live with us she was at another RDA Centre. Then I got a call from a friend there who said Peaches was not happy, and they thought she may prefer to live with us. How right they were!

We were running to raise funds to help keep our hard-working therapy ponies in fine fettle with regular hoof care. So how better to do this than by dusting down our own hooves and pounding the paths around Petersham?

Natalie was interviewed live in the BBC studio on the morning that Only Heroes and Horses was published.

In the week of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s Jubilee celebrations it’s been announced that the team of volunteers behind Park Lane Stables in Teddington has been recognised with a Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service (QAVS).

Only Heroes and Horses, the story of Park Lane Stables, publishes on 26 May and we’re getting very excited! Find out how Natalie ‘an ordinary girl from Birmingham’ ended up running one of London’s few urban stables, about her tenacity in ensuring its survival, and about the biggest challenge of all in 2021 – raise £1million or face eviction.

We will be celebrating Her Majesty the Queen’s Jubilee and also taking the opportunity to say a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who supports us.

Not long ago we didn’t have a future. Now, with the trust placed in us by all who supported us, we’ve been given not just the ability to buy our home, but to plan ahead with confidence.

Carriage driving is such an important part of what we do, and on 27 March we were named Driving for the Disabled Group of the Year in the 2021 Carriage Driving Awards.

Much of our recent focus has been on the process of securing the Park Lane site, but we thought it was time we gave you an insight into what we’ve been up to daily and weekly, during the busiest few months we’ve ever had.