PARENTS MEETING 4th NOVEMBER 2014
Welcome to Parents Evening. Great to see so many of you here tonight. Apologies from
Another year has flown by with a very busy program and generally speaking, good weather.
Our Membership is strong with 104 members which is an increase of 11 over last year. We are considered to be a fairly large Branch especially in Scotland and we try to cater for most disciplines. At present we don't cover Polo, Polocrosse, Pony Racing or Endurance but if anyone is interested in these, let me know as there is access to these with training days etc and Polo Camps available in the summer and SERC hold several Endurance rides in the Area. Christine Little would help you with the latter. I am hoping to introduce a taster towards Polocrosse in the coming year which is both fun and very good for the riders balance. As you know, the cost of membership includes Insurance for members whether at a PC Event or at home. Please check out the PC website of what is and is not covered.
Our Autumn program again began with Stable Management and badge nights. Our enthusiastic members turned out in all weathers and their hard work paid off with some great results during this year. We have already begun this Autumns' program with Test Training for C and C+ at John Anstey's Yard using Lynne Thomson's ponies with Instructor Josella Scott and helpers and the younger group D and D+ going to The Nairn's yard at South Hayrigg with Sheena Bulman and Nikki . Thank you so much to all involved in these - especially to the Yard owners who are being invaded by loads of kids.
Before Christmas, we were asked to participate in St Mungo's Christmas Tree Festival which Fiona Haley took on and she decorated a beautiful tree with rosettes in PC Colours andphoto's of members and their ponies. We have been asked to participate again and this year the theme is to be Carols which again Fiona has taken on. All help gratefully received as it is meant to be the kids doing the work not Fiona!
Pistol Shooting at Dalton took place weekly open to everyone over 7years old - children and adults can join in the winter postal shoot where you shoot competitive targets monthly at Dalton but are competing against other branches members. The shoot training is also a necessary element of the Winter Triathlon (Run, swim, shoot) series and the Summer Tetrathlons.
The Party and Prize Giving took place in Kettleholm Hall this year. Hazel Nelson and Ali took this on and although the kids had a great time - I didn't! It was too difficult to arrange the cups etc with all the fun going on in the background and with no microphone to get myself heard. We have decided to go back to the Ice Rink for this years' party and it is on the 3rd January. Can everyone please return their trophies by the beginning of December engraved with year 2013 and name so that we can make any repairs required and don't end up chasing them on the day.
Quiz training started in January at Marjory's house under the tutelage of Marjory and Marion. This culminated in us hosting the Area Quizat Lockerbie Town Hall. The questions for the Quiz are set by the Area Rep and we fielded 4 teams out of 18 teamswho attended and we are running it again in 2015 on Sunday 22nd February. Our victorius team of Amy Coupland, Laura Vernon, Abbie Haley and Isla Cooper qualified for the Championships down at MoretonMorell where we had a great time overnighting in a Days Inn so that the brains were in top gear. I'm not sure if the peaceful night was quite achieved as I set off the "assistance Alarm" in the disabled room and Amy and Pam flooded the place - not their fault but it was like sleeping in a sauna. We finished a very creditable position of 13th out of 28 teams the practical round being our undoing. If anyone has any unusual tack etc or old bits that they no longer require, we would be interested in borrowing them for identification purposes. The rounds for the next one are The Pony Club, Recognising Horse Ailments, Around the Countryside, Breeds Colours Markings, Practical Round (Individual), Travelling and Road Safety (pairs), Know your Spellings and Picture Round - let's try and get to the Champs againso the sooner the kids start researching the better! Training for this will commence on Tuesday 7th January, venue and time to be advised.
We held another fundraising Pie and Pea supper and quiz at the Masonic Hall, Lockerbie. There was a good turnout, delicious food and testing questions yet again! I'm going to have to go into training for this year's event on the 28th November as I'm always hopeless. Thanks to the Masons for letting us use the hall again and to Janet Parker, Fiona Elliot, Lynne Thomson and all those that helped make the evening a success.
Marjory once again organised a lovely sponsored ride in February around Birkshaw and Dalton Woods. Thank to Marjory for organising this and topping up our funds.
Games training started at Hartwood then Hetland Hill in February with a great turnout again. After an absence of a couple of years, we managed to field a Junior Area Team of Isla Cooper, Robyn Hunter, Rowan McMaster Rachel Parry and Lindsay Porteous who showed what an improvement can be made when they finished 5th. Unfortunately the seniors had to pull out due to lameness etc. Some of our juniors will now be seniors so let's hope the improvement continues. Training will again start in February.
In April there was a SJ training at Craigbeck with Aileen Craig and flatwork with jumping with Liz Love. These were quite well attended but we could do with more people supporting these specialists. They are open to all levels off the lead rein. We held a fun SJ Competition at Greenlands to help with our funds with an Easter theme and some very spectacular Bonnets. We also had SJ Training with Karen Dunlop, Dressage with Gaynor Ranshawe and XC with Marion.
There was again a fun Easter Egg Hunt, this year in Birkshaw forest organised by Fiona Haley and Marjory..
I attended the National Conference in Epsom and DC training in Edinburgh and many of our Instructors attended the Instructors Conference at Blackdyke in April. All our Instructors have to attend an Accreditation day every 2 years. They also have to have attended a Safeguarding Course renewable every three years and a First Aid Course and have PVG Clearance before they are fully accredited. If anyone knows of any Instructors in the area who might be interested in instructing, Ali and I would love to hear about them.
For many of our male parents, last winter was hard work but I think you will all agree that the effort and time they all put in to rebuilding the Raehills course on the new site, was well worth it. A special thanks has to go to Andrew Porteous who galvanised the work force and constructed a brilliant course but the thanks goes to the whole team.
We had a hugely successful training day over the new course which we shared with the Peebles and Tweedale Branch which brought in valuable funds.
May 18th was our long awaited Raehills XC and Show Jumping day. The extra parking space was a huge boon and the day was very successful with entries well up and the course jumping beautifully. A huge thank you to all our sponsors, fence judges, stewards and anyone else who helped to run the day and to Lord David Johnstone.
The weekly summer rallies began at the beginning of May and continued till the end of August. We only moved a couple of these due to weather, one being held in Lockerbie Town Hall on space hoppers. Space hoppers are a brilliant way of improving core stability and balance as well as being fun. Thanks to Sir John Buchanan Jardine for the use of the PC field once again.
In June we held the Show Jumping League which wasn't quite as well supported as previous years. Because June is so busy with rideouts and Gala's etc we have decided to run next years with one a month instead of one a week, probably beginning in April and also we will be revamping the rules to make it fairer.The shield for this year will be presented at the Party. Big thank you to Marion, Marjory, Nikki, Chris and anyone else involved.
We entered a couple of teams in the Area Horse and Pony Care competition which was held by Eskdale . The Junior Team of Harriet Graham, Laura Vernon and Kirsty Cooper did a wonderful job and won the Junior section and so qualified for the Championships at Cholmondley Castle. Our Senior team of Amy, Heather and Tyne were second. Our visit to the Championships was a great experience and the girls did a superb job finishing in the rosettes with a 10th place out of 22 teams. All three girls were great ambassadors for the branch and we all had a chance to watch the Games and SJ to inspire us for the future. The Area's will again be held by Eskdale in June.
As it is the Pony Club's 85th Anniversary this year we decided that Camp should have a theme of the different era's of the PC. Hartwood was transformed with some very classy new stables in the sheep shed and the use of Francesca's stables which meant we could have a record numbers of participants with 49 attending. We also offered a loosely termed "residential" camp for those over 14yrs old with Lynne, Caroline and Tracey taking on the evening entertainment for the residents. I think this was a success but we would like your views on this later. Our BBQ was the usual highlight with each troop doing a skitt from their era and some parents reproducing my life much to my embarrassment but beautifully performed and good fun especially seeing Malcolm mounted in a kilt! That was artistic license as my Father never rode in a kilt - much too risky. Once again Linda and Norman Imriecame and helped with the food and Lianne Kennedy brought the burger van. Janet and Fionasupplied salads and pudding etc all delicious. Thank you so much to them all.A huge thank you to Malcolm Bell Macdonald for allowing us to use his farm and he has declared that as long as he owns the place, we may have camp there! Our Mini’s only had one day of camp run by Marjory and Nikki this year as time seemed to be short to fit two in. We may go earlier in the year with this.
July as usual was the month for the Area Competitions. Our Tetrathletes were once again out on the trail. Our team members can be covered by 2 surnames, Argo's and Dodd's. Matt was unchallenged in the Intermediates with a score of 4028. It is such a shame that there are so few Intermediate Boys in Scotland as it takes the competitive element out of it and you end up just trying to beat your previous score.Joe as a Junior has much more competition and did very well. He was representing Scotland in the National Triathlon and the team came 6th out of 57 teams. In the Area's he was 1st in Area 19 and 3rd in Scotland. Michael Kerr is also a good Triathlete but poor Sunny is not quite up to the heights for the Tet but Michael was 4th in the run. Kerstin came out of retirement to compete in the Junior Girls and finished 6th in Area 19 and 14th in Scotland. Not bad for someone who had retired! Kyla Dodd was in the Minimus class and she finished 2nd in Area 19 and 5th in Scotland. In the Mini mini class Robbie Dodd was 2nd in Area 19 and in Scotland and Euan in the intro class was 2nd in Area 19 and 4th in Scotland. Well done to all of them and if anyone excels at running or swimming, why not go the whole hog and try shooting. The winter Triathlon series is a great starting point and I think the next Tri is in Annan on 6th December.
The Eventing and Dressage was again held at Auchinleck in Ayrshire with the weather this year being kinder. We fielded lots of teams starting with the Junior Dressage Roosters team of Hannah Sykes, Grant Nelson(Brant!) Kyla Dodd and Lily Brown who finished 5th out of 14 teams with Grant and Hannah being 5th in their arena's and Lilly being 4th in hers. The Fledglings did some amazing tests for beginners so great hope for the future. Novices Jessie Brown and Emma Dodd were individuals and Jessie finished 7th. Our Intermediate's rosette was awarded to Amy Copeland who finished 5th in her arena.
In Eventing the Juniors were great with Iona Ross doing a lovely dressage test and sitting in 2nd place then went clear SJ but decided the junior jumps were too small and jumped a Novice jump on the xc course so was eliminated However Kirsty did a flyer with a double clear on BA, Grant on a young horse for the first time as Mac was off, finished with only 4 jumping faults and Kyla did a lovely double clear and finished 6th in her arena. The team finished 7th out of 15. The Novices were last to go and finished 8th out of 18 teams with Emma Dodd 5th Matt Argo 8th Kerstin Dodd 9th Joe Argo 10th and Catherine Wilson 10th. A good showing for young horses and competitors. Our Intermediates were represented by Samantha Howatson, Amy Copeland and Fiona Anderson. Fiona was 7th with a double clear on Jack. Alice in the open was 4th.
The Show Jumping was at Ingliston again this year. It was on the opening day of the Commonwealth Games so we were slightly worried as to the traffic in Glasgow. However our worries were unfounded and all got there on time. As usual we did very well in Tack and Turnout and some good efforts in the Show Jumping. Alice Spence and Anna Dunlop were our Open competitors but it wasn't their day although Anna won T & T which is not what she went for. We had a team of three in the Intermediate -Samantha Howatson, Fiona Anderson and Amy Copeland. They finished 6th with Fiona finishing 6th individual. Our Novice teams weren't placed but Kirstin Dodd finished a magnificent 2nd individual and qualified for the Novice Championships where she again performed brilliantly finishing 9th out of 73. Many congratulations to her. Our Juniors' were a very young team with lots of new members so although they weren't placed, they all had a good time and will learn from their experience. Well done to you all and thank you for representing us..
Ali Coates took on the organisation of the Open Show this year at Guardsmill with huge thanks to Gary and Sheena Beattie. Unfortunately the weather decided to spoil the fun and we ended up in a bit of a quagmire. However the Beattie's have not been put off and we are invited back next year. The RidgehillRobina Trophy will be presented at prize giving.
The Mini Tetrathlonat Breconside was another fun day and a big thank you goes to the Liddons for running the shooting and to the Tulloch’s for allowing us to use their pool. My challenge for next year is to order the correct rosettes having fluffed it for the last two years!!
Our second Raehills was again very successful with 135 contestants taking part. There was a slow start as one of the first competitors on the course left a trail of destruction at the far end of the course which woke Andrew up on the repair front. It's a shame we have to move quite so many jumps between events but we have to fit in with the Eden Festival and the Carriage Drivers. It means our hard working course builders don't get much peace. It would be great if at the end of the event, any of you who are waiting around for results etc, could help to pack up poles , numbers, flags tent etc as most of us have been flat out for several days getting things ready and it can be quite frustrating to see Parents lined up along the fence watching as we clear up. Please help us in this.
Our team Show Jumping at Greenlands went well thanks to the 18 teams we fielded. Graeme did a great job revving you all up. The Arena is getting a bit tired with quite a few electrical issues however we survived. Because it clashed with Nikki's 30th birthday, we lost our commentator Marion so John Anstey who commentates at Raehills very kindly stepped in. We were down by 10 teams on last year which was a shame but at least we avoided the extra charge for running after 5pm as the rental for the arena has gone up steeply..
As you all know Marion has retired as Chief Instructor and Nikki as Rally Organiser but Ali Coates has very kindly stepped in to help out. Her official title is Rally Organiser and she has a helping hand in Claire Porteous who is her "Techy Helper". Ali's first job has been to organise the Stable Management pre Christmas sessions which I have already mentioned. Please all help Ali as much as possible by letting her know of your intentions re rally participation etc. well in advance. 12 hours notice or less is not acceptable unless there are extenuating circumstances.