Results from the dressage and the hunter trial which were held this weekend (8/9 October) are now posted up on the website events pages.
Photos from the hunter trial, kindly taken by Katie Withers are now on the Gallery 2022 page. If you would like a copy of your photos emailed to you, please contact Kathryn on katytudornwsc@yahoo.co.uk with a description / identification of the photos, and I will attempt to send them on!
Well the rain has softened the ground a bit, the fields have good grass cover, and forecast for the weekend is looking good – fingers crossed anyway!
Don’t wait for another year! Now is the time to enter what is probably going to be the last running of a hunter trial at Ravensbrook Farm (although the xc courses will be available for schooling hire). To enter, click on the following link: https://northwiltssaddleclub.com/hunter-trials-09-oct-22
The results and photos are now up on the website.
The results are on the event page https://northwiltssaddleclub.com/hunter-trials-17-sep-22/
The photos are on the Gallery 2022 page: https://northwiltssaddleclub.com/gallery-2022/
Thank you to all who attended to compete and all the helpers – We couldn’t run without you!
If the photos tempt you, we have another hunter trial on Sunday 9th October!
The course is all up and running, and although the course did have mostly a good covering of grass, the rain is helping (just don’t want too much!).
The entry closing date has been extended to Wednesday 14th September.
Look forward to seeing you there.
The two arenas are set up and all ready for the show on Sunday. Entries close today, Friday 29th July, so please enter if you have not already.
Think the forecast is set to be dry (well hopefully!), and we are hoping for a fun day for all.
Weather is set fair, good grass cover in the fields, judges and stewards are ready, and we are looking forward to a successful day!
Please note that the closing date has been extended to Friday 29th July.
Look forward to seeing you there.
NWSC Newsletter- Sept 2021 – April 2022
Dear All.
Firstly apologies for not providing a “write-up “ of our Autumn events last year – life somewhat over-took me, but better late than never.
September 2021
Sue Conway, a member, kindly hosted a Harmony Horse demo with Fliss Bell, in which she demonstrated how to connect with the horse and work at liberty, initially working with Sue and Strado and then with her own horse. Must say it was a very pleasant & informative evening, even if a little damp. We do hope to have a follow-on session again this year.
Michelle Bowe – was the Le Trec trainer for the second clinic of the year, which was fully booked out, with new rider/ horse combinations enjoying their first experience.
A dramatic start to the clinic, as a riding accident occurred at Ravensbrook Farm, Kate Cullum has thankfully recovered, but we had to do an emergency re-location at very short notice, thank goodness for mobile phones and Clive for dashing about to tell those hacking to the event.
The sun shone and we all had a fabulous time, next one is scheduled for 14th May – bookings now being taken
Sept Hunter Trial, was well supported with 4 pairs and 18 individual riders tackling the course, which is always well maintained by the Hall family and invariably new fences are added every so often, and I know for certain that another new “stonking “ fence has just been made in readiness for this year.
Katie Withers again took lots of photos of the day and these can be viewed in our Gallery section of our website.
We are always looking for willing helpers on the day to fence judge etc – rest assured you are provided with food and drink, lovely baps and luscious cake.
Remember that for 2022 we are running on 14th Aug HT with a Twist ( SJ on grass arena ) and 17th Sept standard HT, delighted to say, have already taken an entry for the Aug fixture !
October 2021 – Dec 2021
Towards the end of the year, the club ran a variety of clinics; poles, XC & SJ, riding test/ flatwork at Ravensbrook Farm but also Rabson Manor, Seven Bridges Farm & Forest View Dressage with great trainers Rhian Jones, Jonty Evans , Jo Lees and Katie Withers – many thanks to them all.
In the main, clinics have again been fully booked out but from a personal perspective can be tricky to organise and of course organising anything takes time. Remember too that costings for these clinics are calculated on the basis of a full complement of riders and we always strive to keep the clinic fees as low as possible – particularly now even more important with ever rising costs.
I would therefore encourage all riders to give as much notice as they can, should they need to withdraw – because of their or their horse’s health – and note that only in exceptional circumstances will refunds be made, as both the venue and trainers still have to be paid – Rant Over! 😊
Our last dressage competition was held in October and our local RDA group joined in the fun, after an absence of 2 years due to Covid. For some of the RDA riders & ponies, it was their first time at Ravensbrook Farm and it was a delight to have them back and see their beaming faces when it came to presenting the rosettes.
They will be back again next week on 23rd April – when our non-virtual dressage competitions resume.
So far this year 2022
From Nov 2021 – March 2022 the club has put on “virtual” dressage competitions, which have once again proved to be very popular, entry numbers ranging from 12 – 19, each month and one local riding school has joined in the action thus allowing those , who haven’t their own horse or transport to partake and from the feedback received they can’t wait for the online comps to resume later in the year.
We’ve already had SJ clinics with Rhian and Jonty and plan to add more dates to our events diary shortly, so keep on the look out.
Dates for your diary; All events in blue are live on our website, so you can see full details there and make your entries. Hope to see you soon.
May
Sun 1 – Flatwork Clinic with Jo Lees (1st May 2022) 1 place left
Sat 14 – TREC Clinic (14 May 22)
Sun 22 – Dressage incl FSM class (22 May 22)
Sun 29 – Polework Clinic with Katie Withers (29 May 22)
June
Thurs 23 – Evening dressage from 5.30pm (23 Jun 22)
Sun 26 – Charlton Park Pleasure Ride (26 Jun 22)
July
Fri 22 – Evening dressage from 5.30pm (22 Jul 22)
Sun 31 – Ossie Ward Showing Horse Show (31 Jul 22)
August
Sun 14 – Hunter Trial with a twist (14 Aug 22)
September
Sat 17 – Hunter Trial
Rita ( chair)
Why did the horse miss the joust? He had the knight off!
The photos from the hunter trial on 19th September are now up on the Gallery 2021 page of our website. Happy browsing through them, and thank you to Katie Withers for taking them for us on the day.
Also a gentle reminder that entries close for our dressage competition on Monday 27th September….
Look forward to seeing you soon.
The results 1st to 6th place are now on the website, and if you go to the gallery 2021 page on the website, you will see that there are photos from today for you to look at. There will also be other photos on Facebook, so hopefully you will be able to see a happy memory in one place or the other!
A massive thank you to all those who have helped today, and to Katie Withers and the Hall family for providing us with such a fantastic venue and course. Without you all it would not be possible to run this event. Thank you also to all of you who took part today, and provided us with such a great morning of sport.
The hunter trial course is available for schooling, just contact Katie Withers (07754 970318).
We look forward to seeing you at the next Hunter Trial which is on Sunday 19th September. Book online via the website.
NWSC Newsletter May – Aug 2021
1976 – 2021 – Club’s 45th Year
Dear All.
What a Spring and Summer the club has had so far, stupendous, am absolutely over the moon, that so many riders have supported our events, although we are having to “live with Covid” we can crack on and enjoy our horses and good company.
Our membership numbers have been slowly creeping up since January and we are just shy of 50 paid up members, with well over 800 FB followers. Good to see some new members have embraced the club and virtually entered every fixture held, an especially big thank you to them, they know who they are.
In May, we were able to provide polework\sj grid and flatwork clinics, with Katie Withers and Jo Lees respectively – most sessions being booked out completely, but sadly due to inclement weather we had to put back our Le Trec to June.
The pole clinic was especially challenging, Katie having set up a sort of spider’s web with the poles and then prix caprelli curve of poles, so the end challenge was to see if the horse would do flying changes when going through the centre of the web, some did, even if not deliberately ridden – the session was brilliant and another is already up on our events page for booking on 28th Aug.
We also re-started doing “real” dressage competitions, as opposed to “virtual”, it felt so good 😊
June, what a busy month that was.
The Le Trec clinic was ran by Michelle, of Wiltshire Horse Training, an hour spent negotiating PTV obstacles, really testing the partnership and trust of both horse and rider, such great fun. I took a rescue pony, just a youngster, whilst a friend rode my other youngster, they were both fantastic and very brave!
Both sessions were fully booked and the club has arranged another such clinic on 26th Sept, so get booking.
Rhian Jones was the trainer for our second XC clinic of the season, over the course at Rabson Manor, again both sessions were fully booked and all riders, from very nervous beginners to more established partnerships, had a brilliant time and all achieved their goals and MORE.
Rhian is such a skilled trainer across XC, knowing how to encourage the rider and assess what they can achieve, without losing their confidence or their horse’s trust.
We certainly plan to run another clinic either later this year or in 2022.
Our Evening dressage resumed in June and July, both extremely well supported- so much so, that we had to set a limit of 22 tesst to be ridden, otherwise we would have lost the light and the poor judge would have had to don night- vision goggles. Next dressage competition is scheduled for 2nd Oct.
The highlight of the month was our Charity Pleasure Ride in Charlton Park, virtually single-handedly organised by Claire Lawson (committee member). Due to the Covid step-by-step plan to loosen the restrictions, we opted to take pre-entries only, which if anyone has organised an event, is the way to go, and at the same time allocate approximate times for groups of riders to go out, which meant that there was steady flow, without too much bunching up on route itself.
A huge thank you to Claire & Phil and all the other helpers pre-event and on the day itself and Beccy Auston who provided refreshments and Molly Western for the super photos.– the weather decided to play fair so the 100 horses/ riders taking part weren’t drowned rats, as has happened before, and all the profits from the event was paid out to our 3 chosen charities, £350 Charlton PCC, £465 to both Wilts Air Ambulance and Watershed RDA.
July / Aug
Further XC clinics have been held, in July & Aug, over the course at Ravensbrook Farm with Katie Withers, and once again have been booked out with some more novice p’ships taking the plunge. They have enjoyed the experience of a well laid out course with fences in open fields and in woodland, so you get the experience of going from light to dark, which sometimes can upset the horse, so all good education and of course in the woodland setting the jumps appear to come up faster and you’ve got to steer to avoid those blessed tree trunks ! These sessions are always an excellent taster should you then go on to enter the Club’s Hunter Trials – 15th Aug (with SJ option too) and on 19th Sept.
The 15th Aug event has seen an unprecedented level of entries – so be sure not to miss out on 19th Sept, which will also include a Pairs class.
The Ossie Ward Showing Show was held on 1st Aug and was affiliated to the South-West Pony Association. We were a little unsure as to how this would go, as the last time the club ran any showing class only about 5 people turned up, but we needn’t have worried.
Having been guided, by one of our judges, Ruth Mullen, as to the type of classes to run, how the schedule should be set out etc – thank you Ruth !!! – we were delighted to receive entries from 60 competitors, most entering two or more classes.
What a day, weather good, first lorry arrived just after 8am, classes started bang on time at 9.30 am and ran through till 5pm. Hugh thanks to both judges, Kate Woodhams and Ruth Mullen, Molly Western for photos and Beccy Austin for refreshments and Kathryn Mattingley for Clippety-clop tack shop.
We have ideas to run some additional classes nest year, perhaps with children in mind to bring on the next generation and also an in-hand and ridden championship, so make sure you save the date 31st July 2022.
The winner of the Ossie Ward Trophy given to the member who had the highest points over the days competition went to Fi Boughton on Real Milan.
Massive thanks as ever to Katie Withers and the Hall family for their hard work in prepping the venue for our events and allowing us to use their farm as our main base.
Note – all results for all events are posted up on our website.
Dates for your diary;
Sat 21 – Flatwork Clinic with Jo Lees
Sat 28 – Pole and Gridwork Clinic with Katie Withers (28 Aug 21)
September
Thurs 9 – **DATE CHANGE** Evening Harmony Horse Demonstration with Fliss Bell (09 Sep 21)
Sat 4 – Riding Test Clinic With Jo Lees
Sat 11 – Cross Country Schooling with Katie Withers at Ravensbrook Farm (11 Sep 21)
Sun 19 – Hunter trials (19 Sep 21)
Sat 26 – Trec Clinic (26 Sep 21)
October
Sat 2 – NWSC Dressage comp with invitation to local RDA group.
Rita ( chair)
Why did the horse miss the joust? He had the knight off!
North Wiltshire Saddle Club 