Stansted District Riding Club

News

Riding Club National Championships at Lincoln.

Congratulations to Daisy Osborne riding Kilafin Boy and Natalie Pettitt on Parting Gift.


Daisy came first in the individual Junior Riding Test despite having learnt the wrong test!
She managed to borrow the correct test and learnt it  5 minutes before she had to ride it. Brilliant!

She received a silver tray, 2 sashes, 2 rosettes and some NAF goodies.

Action Replay Photography took this gorgeous photo of Daisy and 'Killy'.

Natalie came 2nd individually in the Senior Open Dressage riding Novice 24 with 70%
 and was 7th out of all the arenas as an individual.Photos of Natalie Pettitt on Parting Gift below.

Simon Battram's 'In hand Clinic' - 20th August (Photos are in the Gallery)

Fifteen members attended this fascinating clinic. Helene's horse Rocky was used in the lungeing demo.

Lungeing is a discipline most of us use on a regular basis but we all picked up loads of tips and recognised the mistakes we had been making.

Natalie's horse' Rory' was used to demonstrate long reining techniques. He was an excellent candidate because he has a high head carriage and was not easy to relax into an outline. When it came, it was all the more rewarding and showed so clearly the benefits of the work.

Simon uses the Iberian method for the final part of his In hand work. (You can view details of this on his website 'Step into Dressage' where you can see a video of him working 'Ted in hand'.) For his demonstration he used Buzz, who showed how cleaver she was at piaffe.

Following the three phase lecture/demo, refreshments were served --- thanks to Tricia.

Simon then worked another four horses for their owners.

Photographs of horses and audience on this sunny morning can be viewed in the photo gallery.

17th July, Dressage Qualifiers at Stratford Hills.

Junior Team. – Daisy Osborne on Kilafin Boy. P12. Franki Jarvis on Yogi, P12 and Jessie White on Talponciau Last Symphony N24.

Junior riding test individuals, Daisy Osborne and Jessie White.

Senior Open Team. – Natalie Pettitt on Parting Gift N24 (N28 Individual) Shelley Andrews on Mittenoski Pet N28, Jane Jarvis on Mallow N34 (E45 Individual) Kerri White on Talponciau Last Symphony E45 (shared ride with her daughter in juniors.)

Senior individuals, Caroline Spurrier on Rioja E45 and Lissa Collin Smith on Domain de Courcel N24

Results juniors -- Daisy came second in the Junior riding test scoring 69% and 4th in P12. With Franki and Jessie scoring well against strong competition.

Results seniors –FIRST-- we won the team qualifier! Fantastic team result and individual performances. Jane was first with 68% N34 and 3rd individual E45 with Kerri 4th and Caroline 6th.

Natalie gave us another two first places in N24 and N28 scoring 74.2% and 75.4% respectively and Shelley was third N28 and Lissa 8th N24.

Congratulations to all our riders for a brilliant result.

Thanks also go to our helpers, Tricia, Pep and Sally.

 3rd July, Senior Show Jumping Qualifiers at Tendring.. 

Natalie Pettitt jumped clear in the Novice first round riding her ex-race horse. In the intermediate, Claire Fielding jumped clear in the 1st round and Natalie jumped double clear finishing second riding Parting Gift. Congratulations to you both and thanks to Helene for helping on the day.

24th June, Newmarket Nights trip.

An exciting evening was spent at the races. It was a surprisingly busy evening, trekking off to view the brilliantly turned out horses, checking form and odds, before deciding which one to put the money on. Then rushing back to see the race and off to collect the winnings! Well, some did quite well and others not so. Hardly any time to fit in the eating and drinking! The racing finished soon after 9pm and the evening was rounded off with a brilliant performance by the band Texas.

The Horse Trials qualifier at Keysoe held on May 30th.

We were represented by Daisy Osborne riding Kilaffin Boy, Harry Horton riding Toby, Franki Jarvis on Merlin, Lucy Brett on Half Penny, Jane Jarvis on Mallow and Ian Marsh riding Mr Glen. In the Juniors, Lucy finished 6th individually and Harry was just outside the placings. In Senior Intermediate Lucy also finished 6th individually.

Well done and thanks to you all for representing us.

Amy Brookbanks continues her winning streak with Anky. Last time out at Brook Farm on March 19th she won both her Elementary dressage tests scoring 71.5% and 70.8%. Horse and Hound have taken an interest in Amy and Anky particularly as Amy has to train without much professional help and because Anky is really an event horse. Amy events at Novice level, having ridden 5 events last year and gaining 19 points, qualifying for the Novice regional finals. All competing is currently on hold as Amy is studying for work related exams that take place at the end of May.
Janet Bradshaw and Sam won a BE80 at Solihull in April!

Claire Fielding has had a good start to the season coming second in a discovery at Keysoe and jumping an almost double clear at Milton Keynes with her new horse but for missing fence 15.

http://www.clairefielding.co.uk/

The Ethical Equine Extravaganza
An exciting new equine event to be held at World Horse Welfare Charity's Centre over the weekend of 18th & 19th June.
There will be a wide range of entertainment, demos, lectures, debates and shopping.
More info can be seen on the website www.ethicalequineextravaganza.co.uk
A percentage of all gate receipts from the event is going to World Horse Welfare to assist in their remarkble work.

Event News

At Norton Heath, Matthew Gibbs won the junior Windsor Dressage Qualifier. Congratulations and good luck at Windsor.

At the Essex Riding Clubs Liaison Committee  Horse Trials held at Keysoe, the intermediate trophy was won by Jane Jarvis, Alyson Parker and Amy Brookbanks. Congratulations team!

AGM

This was held at Ugley Village Hall on 24th February. After the formal part of the meeting the gathering enjoyed an excellent supper and sociable chat. As our club, SDRC, has been running for 10 years in 2012, we decided to  organise a celebration of some description next Summer.

Pep's Day with Princess Anne

 This November Pep Brookbanks was presented to Princess Anne at the regional RDA conference, which was held at the Bedford Lodge Hotel in Newmarket. Pep received this honour in recognition of the contribution she has made over many years to her RDA branch. She had a wonderful day and after HRH had given an excellent speech, those who were chosen to meet her were charmed by her friendly interest in their groups.

Pep first got involved with the Herts and Essex Border Group of R.D.A. in 1983 when her youngest child started playgroup.

Two years later, ferrying her three growing children to different schools and DIYing the children’s ponies, she found she was unable to tee in with the RDA schedule and so became very involved with the Puckeridge branch of the pony club instead.

 Years later, on retiring as D.C of the Puckeridge P.C she decided that, having given so much time to privileged children, it was time to return to RDA to help less fortunate youngsters.

All R.D.A. groups are independent and the groups are run to suit their individual needs. Pep’s group work with local schools and aim to provide riding for well over 100 children a year. Their aim is not to charge the children for their riding and in order to achieve this, they have to fund raise. This, together with liasing with the youngster’s schools, forms the major part of their work. Pep, as organiser of the group, is responsible for raising £7000 annually, which in the current economic climate is increasingly hard to do.

The group is always desperate for helpers and would welcome anyone who felt they could spare an hour or two once a week during school term time. They operate from the Contessa riding school on the old A10 and sessions take place on Monday afternoon, Tuesday and Friday mornings.

. If you would like to find out more or offer help, please contact Pep on 07977034693 or email pepbrookbanks@hotmail.com

April's Competition Win

   

Do you ever enter competitions in the Horsey Mags?

April does, and has had a recent win. The competition was run in the Chiltern and Thames Rider by Winergy Feeds and the superb prize she won consisted of, a lesson with Katie Jerram, a showing makeover for her horse ‘Monkey’ and £200 hundred pounds worth of Equilibrium feed vouchers. Not bad.

April had her lesson and Monkey had his makeover back in August at Katie’s yard in the Rodings. She had a fantastic afternoon with Katie, one of her grooms and Katie’s mother.

They were extremely warm and friendly, and Katie got stuck in immediately, pulling Monkeys tail while the groom worked on the other end. About an hour later, plaiting, trimming, quarter marking completed and various gels and sprays applied, Monkey looked a million dollars.

Photographs were taken throughout the process and during her lesson afterwards.

MOUSE RACING

Our Autumn fund raising event was held in Albury Village Hall on October 23rd. The evening was timed to coincide with half term in order to provide entertainment for younger club members during the holiday. And for their parents, an evening when they didn’t have to hear ‘I’m bored’! Of course, bringing a child was not compulsory and the unsaddled adults had a great time drinking, gambling and eating.

Our entertainer, Dick Duthie and his helpers arrived with mice, race track etc at about 6pm. --- just as the cooker malfunctioned, tripping all the sockets and leaving pounds of half cooked sausages looking anaemic. This also played havoc with the electric carving knife, which should have been employed cutting up three huge gammons. Dick didn’t know too much about electrics so after a few frantic phone calls and fumblings in the fuse box, help arrived. The cooker never was revived, but the plug sockets were up and running, allowing the sausages to be laboriously cooked in small batches under the microwave’s grill.

 The mouse racing was hilarious and the screams and shouts of the children cheering their mouse on, got louder with each race. Those betting on Mouse track no 3, seemed to clean up. (Mouse doping was suspected but not proven).

 The buffet was served at half time --- the gammon by now, beautifully carved and accompanied by a selection of salads. One of the helpers managed to squirt tomato ketchup down the dress of a surprised little girl,-- having missed her aim at the child’s hot-dog -- but other than that, there were no casualties. There followed dessert and cheese and then  more racing.

 We raised £465 for club funds and The Air Ambulance. So many thanks to Susanna for organising the event, and to her family who were all involved on the night. Also, thanks to Una for all her time and effort and to her family who all helped on the night and to Claire and Jean for their contribution. Thanks are also due to Dick and his mice for providing a fun evening for all.

Congratulations to the Stansted RC team in the 105cm Blenheim Team Challenge!!!

Please see Photo Gallery for Photos

The team were Caroline Jenks (Just Joking), Amy Brookbanks (Anky), Claire Fielding (Prime Suspect) and  Alyson Parker (Moloko)  It was really lovely to ride at Blenheim and they all had a great time.  They were 3rd by a very narrow margin out of 35 teams!   Caroline's was the fastest round of the day ...!  They came back in high spirits and are hoping to do even better next year!

 News from Amanda Watts on her fab day at the National Championships in Lincolnshire

We decided to go early on the Friday, as such a long way to go there and back in one day. Susie and I left just after lunch, and Clare and Liz left slightly later in convoy. Car was duly loaded with tent, sleeping bags, extra blankets, chairs, food, wine, fizz, tack, more wine....and the trailer with just about enough haynets to keep Sunny busy, and Sunny himself!
After a slow start, we managed to avoid the worst of the traffic, and arrived around 5pm, to chaos! Trailers and horse boxes everywhere, all carefully parked up in teams where possible, but sadly we were too late for that. Note to self - arrive early and save space next time!
 
We unloaded Sunny, and took him down for his passport check, carrying as much as humanly possible at the same time, as we were a LONG way from the stables. He duly passed, and we found his stable for the night. He was very happy eating the grass on his stable floor, and once he was settled, it was time to get ourselves sorted too. But perhaps a cheeky glass of vino, and then we'll put the tent up....
Liz and Clare then arrived, so we gave them a hand to get settled in, and then we all gathered for a fabulous picnic and perhaps a few more glasses of vino....  Susie and I crashed and burned early, but Liz and Clare managed to get a lock in (horse box / tent in) until the early hours.
Rain + wind = very little sleep.
Up early to plait, etc before being on duty for the morning at the novice show jumping, picking up poles, and the odd rider or two (but none from Stansted RC!)
Then a quick dash to change and get on to warm up.
Sunny's first time at Lincoln, so lots to take on board - I think there was around 1000 horses there on the Saturday, with another 1000 ponies due for the Sunday. He coped really well, and I was pleased. Could have done better as always, but considering his third outing this year, and one of those was at the regionals, then not a bad effort all in all, and great to be part of it.
Clare did a great riding test and came ? in her arena.
Liz was dressaging and show jumping, so had a really busy day, and we stayed to give her support for her second round of show jumping, before packing up, and heading for home. Tired, happy, and in need of a shower!

Senior Camp, 2nd to 4th July - photos to follow

The camp was held at Burnham Market in Norfolk on the beautiful estate run by Emily Lochore and her husband Alec.

The camp was organised by Kate Hornsby and she along with April Farr, Kerry White, Louise Beattie and myself had signed up for the weekend’s proceedings. 

Four of us travelled up on the Friday  -- an easy trip except for the last mile, as Sussex Farms is rather tucked away down a narrow lane. There is no mistaking it once found, as some of the jumps on the international  cross country course, can be seen from the road.

We caused some confusion on arrival because we were directed to park near to where a wedding reception was about to take place. For some inexplicable reason, the bride was not happy to see us and we were redirected to a more secluded spot!!

Once the horses were settled into their traditional stables, we set off to find the cottage that three of us were sharing. The cottage was lovely and we were soon reviving our selves with the rations we had brought with us.

The plan was to go to the beach on Friday evening and the horses were more than a little surprised to be loaded again so soon. It was late by the time we got there, and even later by the time we had hunted change for the parking machine (£12 per box in one pound coins ) and thereafter decided not to pay as the man had apparently gone home at 5pm and wouldn’t be back. A wrong turning took the sand seekers  along a track for 40 minutes that didn’t go to beach and the flies ! --- OMG they were bad! Eventually, the sand was found but the sea was miles away.

Not the best start because the fish and chip shop had closed at 8 o/c, but we were directed to the Chinese takeaway in Burnham Market which saved the day. We ate outside Honeysuckle Cottage at about 10pm, washed down with the first of the weekend stash of wine.

April arrived in the morning to complete the contingent and we all had flat-work lessons with Emily. She quickly tuned into our individual requirements and was very good at explaining and tireless at teaching. We watched one another’s lessons, took photos and Kelly organised us to film each other using her camera.

The afternoon programme was jumping for those who did and pole-work for those that didn’t. A thoroughly good day’s riding all round.

That evening, we had booked a table at a nearby pub. The atmosphere was buzzing as it was busy with holidaymakers. We later retired to the cottage to do further damage to the wine!

On Sunday we resumed our training sessions with Emily. We built on the work we had done the previous day and all felt the benefit of the concentrated training.

These Sunday sessions had the added bonus of being duelled with a beauty treatment. The hot wind was powering across the arena and the airborne sand did a brilliant exfoliation job!!

The cross country ground was very hard and after much deliberation, Kate decided to give it a go. She returned with a big smile on her face!

And so our weekend concluded, with five very happy participants wending their weary way home on Sunday evening along with a few thousand Norfolk weekend holiday makers! A Club Camp experience we are all keen to repeat next year.