Mud. Glorious (or not so glorious) mud! That just about sums up the winter- oh and gale force winds which cost us one dressage day at King’s Sedgemoor in January. We hope you and your horses have survived and are ready to come out and join the activities of your summer programme.
Winter training has gone well – only two lost to the weather- and again has attracted a considerable number of non members which shows that we must be offering popular trainers! There were regular clinics with Nikki Stephens, Gaye Farquharson and Amanda Edmonds. Gaye has had her knee operation and Ed Hobbs kindly stepped in and took over the later sessions when Gaye was indisposed. There were full day clinics with Steve Hague, Sue Petty and Jane Holderness-Roddam. If you have any photos from any competitions or training sessions we would be grateful for these for our Facebook page or indeed a short account to go with it for one of the equestrian magazines.
Some of our teams have already been in action- Carol’s dressage divas tied for first place at the Novice winter qualifier and it had to be decided by the fourth score which put us in 2nd – but a fantastic performance. The eventers challenge team and the novice show jumpers have also been in action. We would remind you that Team Managers do not have the time to ring everyone on the membership list and the onus is on YOU to contact them and offer yourself for team selection. Their contact details are given below SO PLEASE GET IN TOUCH!!
- Sara Bartlett (07967 208 778) SHOW JUMPING
- Mandie Bown (07968 146 209) HORSE TRIALS AND COMBINED TRAINING
- Carol Plested (07973 360 968) DRESSAGE AND RIDING TEST
While talking about teams it is opportune to remind you all that BRC have introduced the new rules regarding hats for 2016 – all the information can be found on the BRC website and next year the focus will be on body protectors.
Some of you will have completed the questionnaire which was sent out last autumn. We are still scrutinising the main observations but one thing that stood out was venues. So – IF you know of any affordable venue within the club catchment area that has 2 all weather arenas, one competition size and one 20 x 40 for warm up, with good access, facilities ( loos , power etc) and plenty of hard surface parking for up to 30 – 40 boxes plus cars – please let us know details and availability.
For members who don’t compete – we wonder where you are when we put on social events which are intended for ALL members. We recently ran a quiz night to provide funds for our annual support of World Horse Welfare – it was a really fun evening and in the end we had 11 teams taking part but up until a few days before this was looking to be very badly supported. Ed Hobbs did a wonderful job as Head Chef and the supper was well received, Margaret ran her usual amazing raffle, Carol Plested excelled as Quiz Master and Alison Crommelin crunched all the scores. Kathy Emery’s team ran out the winners in a tightly fought contest, closely followed by Pam Thomlinson’s team and in third place Fiona Britten’s team.
If these social events don’t appeal to you – perhaps you would consider coming to help at an event occasionally – your help would be very much appreciated and can also be a very enjoyable experience. Just contact us please!
So to the Summer Programme ~ we have training with Gill Longhurst at World Horse Welfare, Amanda Edmonds at Kingfisher, Jumping and pole work clinics at SBEC at Sparkford Hall with either Ed Hobbs and/or Gaye Farquharson depending on their availability. There are three day clinics planned with Sue Petty at Kingfisher. Please book early for all training sessions.
On the competition front we have two jumping competitions at King’s Sdegemoor on July 3rd and August 7th. For these days we need two organisers – you will need 4 – 5 helpers plus yourself. Please contact Margaret if you could run one of these dates.
There are two dressage days booked at Kingfisher – May 28th and August 14th. Again if you are happy to help on one of these days please contact Marian.
We will also need help for the Annual Show at Wincanton Racecourse on June 12th and the Combined Training at Wincanton Racecourse on September 25th. Please contact Margaret or Marian.
We are also looking for prizes for the Annual Show – so if you have any spare or duplicated Christmas presents which you could spare for a class prize or a raffle prize, please contact Margaret. If you have used or eaten all your Christmas presents – if you wanted to donate a prize, something like a brush or a haynet etc, it would be gratefully received.
We hope to have another Supper Night at the Northover in the autumn to celebrate the Rio Olympics – so watch this space!!
We hope you find something to interest you in the Summer Programme ~ we look forward to seeing you out and about soon. Please help us by getting your entries in early for both training and competitions. See if you can spare time to help at one competition! Just a few hours will be appreciated. Safe Riding!