National dressage competitor Tahley Reeve-Smith shares a quiet moment at her stables in Hertfordshire . For anyone with a passion for horses, it’s as close to paradise as you’re likely to find. Not only does Keeper’s Cottage offer a charming family home, it also boasts stables, a tack room, paddock, Olympic-size manege (training area) and five-and-a-half acres of land to ride on. It’s no surprise then to learn that its current owner is a successful rider and trainer who has horses galloping through her veins – national dressage competitor Tahley Reeve-Smith has represented England and is currently being trained by 2012 Olympic Gold medal winner Carl Hester. And the love of all things equine doesn’t end with her – Tahley’s family are horse-mad too. ‘Even on my mum and dad’s wedding day they went off and bought a horse!’ she says. Tahley’s determination to compete is so strong that she has even taken to the saddle with a broken leg. ‘I was at an event and a horse trod on my leg,’ she says. Her leg was later immobilised with a plaster cast, but that wasn’t going to stop her. ‘Two weeks later I got a letter asking me to represent England. So I got in the bath and got my cast all wet and soft and pulled it off. I put a bandage on and managed to get into my boots. My leg swelled up horribly but I won a bronze.’ Tahley and husband John bought Keeper’s Cottage, near the village of Great Munden in Hertfordshire, eight years ago when they were looking for the perfect place to bring on their best horse, the appropriately named Special. Since then they have resurfaced the manege, making it perfect in all weathers, increased the number of stables to seven, and installed mirrors and floodlights so a rider can always see how they look as they practise. Tahley, who is also a dressage judge, uses the manege to train novice horses and riders. Keeper’s Cottage itself is an attractive and spacious home – the red-brick house has three bedrooms, a study, family room, drawing room, dining room and office. And there is planning permission for two more bedrooms and a sitting area. ‘It’s a really characterful house,’ says Tahley. ‘You always find new things, like a switch you didn’t know existed.’ Tahley has to cross only one quiet road and then she can go hacking for two hours and not see another. The only interruptions might be steering around a herd of deer. Yet this is Hertfordshire, and Keeper’s Cottage is close to the A10 and not far from the A1 and M25. On to a winner: Keeper's Cottage, near Great Munden, has seven stables and is on the market for £1.1million . As well as boasting seven stables, the family cottage has a tack room, paddock, Olympic-size manege (training area) and five-and-a-half acres of land to ride on . Keeper’s Cottage itself is an attractive and spacious home – the red-brick house has three bedrooms, a study, family room, drawing room (pictured), dining room and office . Special has taken Tahley to the verge of representing the country again and she will soon be competing in the British Dressage Championships at Hartpury in Gloucestershire, near Carl Hester’s yard. She says Keeper’s Cottage and its facilities have really benefited Special, adding: ‘The horse completely chillaxes because of the whole environment.’ But however special Special is, no horse could top Tahley’s first, a New Forest pony called, again appropriately, Topper. ‘He would throw me, take me into rivers and roll with me on his back, buck me off and reverse back over me so I would find hoof-prints on my clothes.’ Price: £1.1million . Location: Near Great Munden, Hertfordshire . Bedrooms: 3 . Unique features: Stables for seven horses, tack room, paddock, Olympic-size floodlit and mirrored all-weather manege . Tahley rode throughout her childhood and says she used every spare minute she had at school to get homework done so she could spend time with horses. And when she and her sister Shelly didn’t have a horse to ride, they would sit on 35-gallon drums and pretend they were horses. The sisters’ love of anything equine seems only natural since they wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for horses. ‘My dad says he fell in love with Mum when he used to watch her climbing over the gate to feed her horses at my grandmother’s stables,’ Tahley says. Tahley’s father Justin was renting a house near the riding school in Hertford. A physicist by training, he used to run a company in the metals industry but loved being around horses so much that, in his mid-30s, he retrained to become a farrier, and later became qualified as a fence-builder for showjumping. Tahley’s mother Susan had less of a conversion – spending all her life around horses has led her to become an expert on horse bloodlines, their potential and breeding, and she has found future champions for Tahley. Tahley and John are leaving Keeper’s Cottage to be closer to Shelly and Susan, who has 35 acres of land. They will run a horses’ yard while Tahley continues to compete in dressage and train other riders. ‘I’ve loved living here,’ she says. ‘It’s been the best thing ever for my career.’ mullucks.co.uk, 01279 755400 .
England dressage rider is selling family cottage and stables for £1.1million . Charming home in Hertfordshire comes with an Olympic-size training area . As well as seven stables, it also has a paddock and 5.5 acres of land . 3-bed house has study, family room, drawing room, dining room and office .