Dear All.
What a year, probably one that we’d like to forget but most probably won’t, I am sure that our horses have “saved” us during the last few months from going “stir crazy”, God love ‘em !

Despite having to cancel a good deal of our planned fixtures, we nevertheless managed to run in total 20 opportunities to either compete or improve you and your horses’ skills, via flatwork and XC clinics, thanks to our trainers Jo Lees and Rhian Jones , to virtual & real dressage competitions to Hunter Trials, thanks to Katie Withers, for the use of her facilities.

The virtual dressage competitions certainly have been a learning curve for all concerned , judges Jo Lees and Casey Stickland to get to grips with judging via videos – play, pause, rewind, play again, springs to mind as well as for those taking on the task of filming the tests, not as easy as you might think, thoughts being, is landscape mode better than portrait, a definite yes, and did I actually track the horse during the whole test, not always ! 😊.

As we were not allowed to use BD tests, we had to go elsewhere, some of the Canadian ones proved to be rather challenging, as their tests seem to be one level up from BD, eg their prelim tests equivalent to our novice and so on, but the riders stepped up to the challenge well.
These were well supported and no doubt appreciated by those without transport and we do plan to run them during the months of Feb & March 2021.

The Club has tried in the past to set -up XC clinics, with little or no interest, but something good came out of 2020 first lockdown, and so It was a delight to be out on the XC course at Rabson Manor with trainer Rhian Jones, such a confidence boosting trainer, both sessions in Aug and Sept were well attended and we received great feedback from all riders, so the club hopes to do similar sessions next year too.

Our ever popular Hunter trial ran in September with a larger than expected turnout and we had glorious weather and the ground conditions were superb with some great new fences on the course. Whilst checking out the fences myself the night before, I did cross paths with some of the riders course-walking, who were a little worried about either their horses, the fences , their confidence but wow on the day itself they flew around – with some fence judges being unable to contain themselves (me) shouting YEEHA – GO Girl !!

What a pity the second HT had to be cancelled due to water-logged course in October, but we plan to move the dates forward slightly next year to Aug & Sept in the vain hope that we can beat the weather.

Membership Year runs from 1st Jan 2021 – 31st Dec 2021, the fees remain unchanged at £15 annual fee for an individual to £23 for a family membership, any queries address those to our membership secretary Kathryn Tudor; katytudornwsc@yahoo.co.uk

You might ask why bother to join us, well for one we are a happy welcoming group of people who try really hard to make sure that we run as many events as we can to cover all tastes but ultimately to make sure that YOU just enjoy your time with your horse and with your fellow club members and if that wasn’t enough, all entry fees for members are discounted, usually by a min of £2 or max £5 per event, so what’s not to like ?

Dates for your diary;
16th Jan – Flatwork clinic -with Jo Lees ( indoor arena ) – 3 places left.
27th Jan – AGM viz Zoom at 8pm. – open to all.
Feb 2021 – Polework clinic( Prix caprilli) & SJ grid – postponed from 14th Nov – tbc.
13th March – Flatwork clinic with Jo Lees ( indoor arena )
Online dressage comps in months of Feb & March – schedules to follow.
Charlton Park Pleasure Ride – June – tbc

We also hope to put on a “harmony with your horse” demo with Fliss Bell, sometime in Autumn of 2021 and also a Showing show during the summer and of course run “real” dressage competitions, ODE, and HTs – keep yourselves up to date with our fixtures list via our website and FB page.

I know it’s rather early but as the club is not running any events in December, I shall take this opportunity to wish all our club members and those who follow us via the website , a Happy Christmas and healthy 2021.

Rita ( chair)