July  – Sept 2019 Newsletter

It’s a late Sunday afternoon, the spell of gorgeous dry, sunny weather has finally disappeared, as we tiptoe in Autumn, my favourite time of year, still lots on offer though, till the end of the season, and already planning a basic dressage to music clinic in January 2020 and possibly a showing show next Summer, watch out for further details !

Update of past events;

We held two very successful evening dressage competitions, one on a Friday, the other on a Thurs, as felt we wanted to make sure those riders committed elsewhere on Friday’s didn’t miss out, we were delighted with the level of entries, both sessions filled to capacity with 20 or more riders, and we welcomed two local professional riders, one specialising in dressage , the other in eventing, who were on “novice “ steeds – to be fair to all, we did re-arrange the classes to suit. Based on this experiment of different evenings, we hope to do likewise next Summer and perhaps slot in two day-time competitions, one Saturday, the other on Sunday.

Late August saw the second ever Ossie Ward Pick-your-own ODE – numbers were roughly the same as last year, although we opted this time to hold the show-jumping on the arena, with the dressage out in the field, given that we hadn’t had a serious drought this time, the going was much improved and all those taking part seemed to enjoy themselves, and it was lovely to have Tucktruck on site to provide a full range of refreshments.

The NWSC senior club member, Kate Rayner, retained the Ossie Ward trophy, but sadly no junior club members came forward for the event.

The club is aware the ODE is a “slow- burner” especially as there are lots of similar events on offer locally which does tend to affect entries, but nonetheless we feel that the club should continue to run this.

As always, full results of all our competitions can be viewed under the events page of our website.

The first of our Hunter Trials took place on 15^th Sept, entries were on par with last year, the sun shone, it was hot enough for several of us to don our shorts 😊. Some riders were local, others had travelled from Newbury to attend, all riders came over the finishing line with beaming smiles, from children, no more than 7 years of age, to adults, let’s say in their “senior” years, sadly one such rider did have a bit of a moment, jumping a lovely round over the main XC course, only to be told that she’d jumped the last fence first, so the wrong course. She was philosophic about it though, as she was so proud of her Blue Cross rescue horse to have ridden clear, although shame about, quote “the numpty jockey “. Simon our website guru and great photographer took some great shots, which you can view in the gallery on our website.

Our next HT is on 5^th October, so please refer to our FB page/ website for full details and entry form.

Today, the club held its second annual Pleasure Ride, this time over local byways, bridleways in the Braydon/Brinkworth area. Entries were well up on last year, but sadly the British weather let us down, but did that put a damper on things, NO, if didn’t ! Delighted that all but two riders turned out ( the others had lame horses ) and despite the rain being persistent to start with, they came suitably attired and ready for the challenge, no-one seemed to have issues with the written directions and thankfully all returned back to the yard, incident free, the ride took most 2 hours to complete. After settling their horses & drying themselves off, we then had the chance for a chin-wag in the barn with hot drinks and plenty of cake and the horses didn’t lose out either, as they were provided with carrots. The club has received some great compliments from those taking part and it is an event that we shall continue to run, but it may well be that we alternate between locations, so perhaps back to Bibury in 2020.

There are plenty of great pics of this event on our FB page.

Forthcoming dates for your diary;

5^th Oct – final Hunter Trial

12^th Oct – Riding Test Clinic, with Alyce King, currently full, wait list operating

20^th Oct – polework / gridwork clinic with Katie Withers

9^th Nov – final dressage competition, to incl FSM

16^th Nov – polework/ gridwork clinic with Katie Withers

Details of our fixtures are on our website/ fb page, look forward to seeing you all in the coming weeks.

Rita.

A pony goes to the doctor and tells him, “Doc, I think I’m dying. I have this terrible sore throat.”

The doctor assures him, “It’s okay—you’re just a little horse.”