Symondsbury Fun Ride
October 2008

We had a dodgy start to the day with an unexpected locked gate - Hattie ended up doing surgery on the padlock with a hammer!... But the routes and the jumps were a great success, no casualties, no-one lost and everyone seemed to have had a lovely day.

Julia Colfox was a great hostess and the Symondsbury Estate couldn't have been more obliging. They seemed really pleased with the event, praising the organisation and the numbers on the day.

A huge Thank You to Kitson & Trotman Solicitors (specialists in Equine Law) for their sponsorship, it made the whole thing possible and meant that the charity (DCFCT) did well. Everyone got a rosette, apples for the horses and choccies for the people!

Picture one is Millie demonstrating the use of the pessoa (with the help of a very patient Molly!)
Picture two is Gilbert being put through his paces with the use of the long reins.
Picture three is Harry again behaving very well on the lunge.

It proved to be a very interesting and informative demo, we all came away inspired to give it a go ourselves.
Many thanks, Helen Evans.

Earlier this year I nearly gave up riding. I semi-retired my horse and sold my trailer. I just lost the ‘Joy’ somehow; my daughter and long time riding buddy had ‘retired’ to go to Uni, my horse (Breeze) was diagnosed with arthritis and needed time off, but most importantly I had been introduced to Parelli!
 
It started with an SRC demo by Rene four or five years ago, then two years ago I met Harriet Laurie and she helped me with loading. Breeze went from a two/three man broom up the bum loader to a point and go loader (staying in is still a bit stressful for her, but it’s a work in progress). Finally, I made the decision to go for it and bought a part share in the Parelli Level 1 DVDs and set off full of hopes.
 
Unfortunately, like so many others out there, I’m one of those students who needs to be constantly told “yes, you’re doing it right” or adversely I find it very comforting to have someone shouting abuse at me when I go wrong.  So I paddled, for about a year or more, which brings me to earlier this year when I wanted to give up horses altogether; being halfway between the two camps of traditional and natural, unable to go back but not moving forward.  I was stuck.
 
Then I went to a Parelli demo at Bicton, watched Alison Jones (Parelli 3* Professional) with her horse Cookie and immediately signed on for a 3 day Level 1 to 2 course in Tiverton.  I booked B&B, borrowed a trailer and Breeze and I set off all on our own.  Which is how I came to spend my 48th birthday with no family, just my horse, but hey it was different.  
 
Well, I had a fantastic time!  I loved every minute of it, apart from the getting on and off the ‘Indian’ side, which I found very hard to do.  Our daily routine for the three days was to start at 9am in the classroom, then we would work online in the school, have lunch and all afternoon was spent doing ridden work in the school until 5pm.  I was so proud of Breeze, she was an absolute treasure (as usual).  Even when things were hard or she didn’t quite catch on, she tried – like going backwards under a pole.  And for those of you thinking “but why would you want to put your horse backwards under a pole?” you never know when you are going to be in a tricky position out riding, but its also good for her loading.  When she’s in the trailer, it’s her rear end that she’s concerned about and so working her backwards under the pole achieved two things:  she learnt to trust me; that I didn’t want to hurt her, and we added to her bum desensitising.
 
Which brings me to the picture.  On my last day Alison gave me the challenge of using any obstacle in the school to do the Parelli 7 games from, ie tarpaulin, poles, jumps, cones etc and yes, a barrel.  When I chose the barrel she was expecting me to ask Breeze to do things with and around it, but I thought it would be more challenging to get in it.   If you know Parelli, you will probably see that we are doing a reverse yoyo and at the end of three days Breeze could go back to about 20 foot with me just gently tapping my finger – no more ugly rope shaking (well almost!)
 
At the end of three days I did my Level 1 assessment and passed.  I was, and still am, on such a high.  I went on my first public ride (the Shipton Fun Ride) with just the Parelli halter on last week and it was a complete eye opener.  Although Breeze is very sweet natured, she has a very hard mouth, gets excited/worried in company and is a jogger.  She was an angel, as was her field mate Storm, ridden by 11 year old Bronwn, who was also in a Parelli halter.  They were perfectly behaved and it was the final proof I needed that natural horsemanship is not just about playing with your horse, it’s the whole deal.
 
Thank you Rene, for sparking the interest, Hattie for stoking it up and especially thank you to Breeze, because she makes it all worth while.

SHIPTON SUMMER SHOW
SUNDAY 24TH AUGUST 2008

These photos taken at the SRC Summer Show held at Bricky Farm on bank holiday Sunday show what a good day was had by all. From Leading Rein SJ to the Chase Me Charlie class and from the Coloured horse/pony proper showing to the fun Fancy Dress class!
 
This show is a really fun family day out. The low key classes and the friendly atmosphere appeal to all those riders who just like to 'Have a go' as well as those who are a little more serious. There were entries from all over Dorset as well as Devon and Somerset.
 
Nearly everyone who helped out before/during and after the show is either a SRC member or has someone in their family that is a member which makes the show a real club effort - and all their time was given free of charge including all our judges.
 
Everyone who entered a class went home with a rosette and some with prizes - all thanks to our many local sponsors.

CHILDRENS FUN SHOW 25/7/08

The weather stayed dry for the Shipton riding club’s fun children’s show on the 25th July at higher park farm, Broadwindsor by kind permission of Graham Diment, this gave all the children a chance to show their ponies in a verity of classes, with the help of Wendy Foot who judged the show classes and the gymkhana, veronica Leatherdale who set the show jumping course and all the parents who brought their children along to take part, Linda Paget and Gill Randall, who organised the event achieved their goal of a fun, enjoyable day for all.

William Aburrow took photographs of the day including the fancy dress class that was won by the Chubb family and friends as characters from the wizard of Oz .

All entry fees and money raised from the cream teas and refreshments went to the Air Ambulance charity.

Area 12 Festival 14/6/08

Here is a team photo of the juniors that went to the riding club area 12 festival last week-end. They are Poppy Douglas-Johnson riding McCavity, Samantha Miners riding Piper, Emily Simons riding Rosies Raffle, Katie Hills Riding Downlands Gunga Din and Nicola Hills riding her new pony Bronze Lyric. The show jumping team came 3rd. overall with Poppy 6th. indivitually, the style jumping team came 1st. with Poppy coming 1st. individually,so the team and Poppy qualified for Lincoln, on the next day the riding test team came 2nd. with Katie coming 3rd. individually and the dressage team came 3rd.with Nicky coming 6th in the prelim and Katie coming 2nd. in the novice and she qualified for Lincoln. I am very  proud of them all, they tried so hard and were very supportive of each other. I think the juniors are going to have to raise some money towards their trip to Lincoln, maybe a cake stall at the show.

SRC gang at Pontispool... 13 -15 June 2008

On the 13th June 8 src members and their horses set off to Pontispool for their adult camp,with 30 other ladies. We all arrived OK and soon got out on the cross country course for an hour,then with all horses settled in there stables we sat down to a lovely dinner and(some) drunk rather a lot of wine. On Saturday after horses and humans had all had their breakfast we set off for 2hrs of instruction in the school or on the x country course, then again after lunch another 2hrs of instruction.The evening we sat down to dinner then we had a funny talk by a retired point 2 point jockey and a photo show from carol of jay photos she had taken of us earlier in the day. On Sunday morning we all set off in our groups and attacked some more of the x country course. After a lovely Sunday lunch we had a small show jumping competition, where some of us came home with a rosette. We all had a great time everyone is very friendly and it doesn't matter how good you are at riding. Thank you to carol of jay photos for taking our src group photo, those that went were: Gillie Brugge &Finn, Gwen Lawson &Bertie, Steph Miller &Tiff, Emma Bailey & Olly, Helen Evans & Molly, Kimberley Randall &Toffee, LindaPaget&frosty and Lucy Vickery & Nell.We are all planning to go next year so if anyone would like to join us let me know, linda

I just wanted to tell all that Anna Knight's Zoopharmacognosy clinic at Mapperton farm was brilliant! I found it all very intresting and to see if/what my horse could be craving! Her 'needs' were for emotional oils which were rather surprising. I am so glad I went. It would have been nice to have seen a few more faces but same time it was all very cosey just the small group of us. I have gone on to purchase the oils that Jay chose to help her eliminate those hidden dark emontions and having fun at home offering them to the horses with facinating and positive intrests. I highly reccommend anyone to go if Anna puts on another clinic.
 Claire Fowler

Her name is morning glory
She was born last Wednesday 14/5/08
And her stable name is midnight
Rosie's foal

Jack Bailey

BROADWINDSOR DRESSAGE 13/1/08

Our first dressage rally of the new year (re-scheduled from Dec 07) got off to a dry but blustery start! 32 tests were ridden on the day. We had 3 new faces each of whom took a membership form away with them.

 Annie and Veronica were our judging and writing team and did, as usual, a sterling job despite getting cold in the breezy conditions.

Thanks to everyone, especially the young Baileys, for their help. The final total raised for the air ambulance charity was £100 .

The pictures show Emily Chubb on Stormy and ??

For further info on the monthly Dressage at Broadwindsor, please contact Linda Paget