EMMA WOOLLEY
The Rider
Emma has ridden all of her life having been brought up in a horsey family. As a child and teenager she grew up competing in showing classes from riding club and progressing up to National level. When she was twelve fate introduced her to a fell pony which she starting showing with a lot of success and a love for the breed by the whole family flourished. The breeding business Littletree Stud was born and before long the family had up to 70 ponies at one time on their farm in Cumbria. Emma would break in the often very wild ponies to show or sell throughout her teenage years. She competed at HOYS once and Olympia four times with them.
At the age of eighteen her interest transferred to training and dressage, and along with it a love for dressage horses! Throughout her early twenties Emma ran Littletree Dressage with her family sourcing, breaking, selling and competing dressage horses with a lot of success, including winning the 4 year old National Championships at Stoneleigh with the stallion Eldorado in 2013, and being second with the homebred horse Don Fulcher.
Emma met Sam in 2012 and in 2014 they had the opportunity to start a new business together in the south of England. Today WSC Dressage based at Keysoe Equestrian centre is an elite training yard dedicated to scouting exceptional horses and producing them to the top of the dressage sport. Emma is trained by Charlotte Dujardin, Nikki Barker and in-hand specialist Jenku Dietrichsen. Emma has a massive amount of experience and is responsible for the physical development of the horses and has Olympic aspirations. She has currently competed up to Intermediare II level and has an exceptional competition record on a huge number of horses, picking up Regional and National titles along the way, and has competed internationally at the World Young Horse Championships in Verden, Germany the last time it was held there in 2015. Emma is well known in the industry for a having a fair and systematic approach to training and is especially skilled at developing young horses. She is a perfectionist, patient and very motivated to keep improving herself.
With such a diverse background in horses, she is also a sought after trainer for riders of all levels.
SAMANTHA SYNGE-CRAVEN
Co-owner
Before meeting Emma, Sam completed two university degrees. She has a degree in English Literature from Brunel University, and an Architecture degree from Manchester University.
She started working by chance with Emma and her family and quickly fell in love with the dressage sport before moving to the south of England to start up WSC Dressage. She is the backbone of the business, organising all of the books and the finances as well as managing the day to day running of the yard. Sam is responsible for the welfare of the horses and spends her days making sure that they all get what they need. She researches feed and gives them all an individual diet and feeding plan which she monitors daily by checking the condition of the horses and liasing with Emma about how much work they are getting. Sam is completely dedicated to the care of the horses and keeps them in tip top condition.
She is also skilled at web design, and has built and maintains this one, as well as photography, capturing many moments which are used to publicise the business. Putting the music together for the freestyle classes is another of her talents, and one of her pieces has earned a third place at the National Finals.
Sam covers everything behind the scenes and takes great pride in watching the horses compete and seeing all of the hard work come to fruition.