Meet Simon & Emma Oliver
Meet Us
If you're like me you want to know who it is that you are dealing with when you are booking something as important as your dog holiday or break.
We are Emma & Simon. We have both had significant birthdays 5 years ago - mine now starts with a 5 (eek!) and Simons with a 6. Our family consists of a German Shepherd who is a retired police dog and a Belgian Malinois who until recently was guarding prisoners at Belmarsh Prison. We also have 2 horses.
How We Met
Simon and I have been married for nearly 30 years, having first met out riding on our grey horses — which probably tells you everything you need to know about us.
Dogs and horses have always been at the heart of our lives.
I grew up at Pencarrow in Cornwall — a beautiful (if slightly crumbling) old family home which is open to the public to try and keep the roof on — and it’s where we were married.
We even left our wedding reception on our horses, Simon in a 19th-century military frock coat and me in a velvet riding habit, sidesaddle of course. It was only the second time that I had ridden side saddle and we had a first married argument before we reached the end of the garden as Simon wanted to jump the park rails and I did not!
Our Pre Quantock Cottage Lives
Simon was an officer in the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards when we met, serving for 22 years before moving into headhunting in London, and later running his own office design and logistics business.
Meanwhile, I started my first company at 19 in the rather unexpected world of fire management and counter-terrorism. After ten years, I sold the business to Chubb Fire.
Before moving to this most stunning of areas, Simon and I searched, selected, imported and produced high goal polo horses from around the globe.
I was terrible at polo but I loved the horses and training them, and Simon hated polo but was incredible at the logistics (which were immense, as you can imagine) in terms of organising import/export paperwork, co-ordinating vets, customs and transport.
Finding Beech Hanger
Our Country Estate On The Quantocks
Having done our time in high finance and high equestrian, we decided we wanted a change of life and lifestyle and when looking for that "perfect" place we stumbled upon this most stunning of areas. To have 9,000 acres of stunning AONB heathland at the back door, being able to look out to the sea, yet be in easy reach of London and the Midlands - it was just perfect.
We have now been here in Somerset for 16 years.
Having been and indeed are the owners of dogs, we always struggled to find a place where we could holiday with our furry children that was at least as comfortable as our own home.
We also wanted a place that did not have a million rules, and that was truly dog-friendly and not just tolerant.
Couple this with those that would accept the dogs that we had, which were German Shepherds and Staffies. It was impossible, so our mission was to create the perfect combination of home-from-home comfort with a big dollop of luxury for our 2-legged guests.
But more importantly a paradise playground for our 4 legged guests – they are, after all, the VIP’s of the family; you know that as do we!
So for the furry family we have the properly enclosed gardens, the 3 on-site private-use secure dog exercise fields and of course the best playground that you could ever imagine, which is the Quantock Hills themselves.
We built Coleridge & Greenway cottages in the first year that we moved here. We had a year off from building and then we built the Quantock Hide. This year in 2026, we added La Caravane, our woodland glamping retreat to our collection of luxury dog-friendly retreats.
We have been terribly lucky; since the get-go, the cottages have enjoyed nearly year-round occupancy and huge returning-guest rate, as it seems there are many folk who like us, struggle to find that perfect dog holiday.
We should perhaps warn you that once your dogs have stayed here, they may not be entirely thrilled about going home again!!
Oh, and you'd better lock up your credit cards so they don't have a chance to steal them to book their next holiday with us - it has been known to happen!!
We are very lucky; we do tend to get booked quite far in advance, as not only do many of our guests come back year-on-year, but they often come several times a year - their dogs insist on it!
Three beautiful cottages and an enclosed woodland glamping retreat, each with its own character, private enclosed garden and space for you and your dog to properly switch off.
For your dogs we have 3 secure dog exercise fields. Each cottage garden and our woodland glamping retreat has 6ft fenced gardens and they back on to 9,000 acres of Quantock AONB perfect for walkies.