July 2024

The British weather hasn’t, so far, been over kind to DFRC as we have had to hold events in the whole gamut of conditions but thank you to all who came, competed, helped or supported.   The Club, as you know, is at a bit of a cross roads currently as we look to consider our best way forward at a time when so many clubs (of different disciplines) are also facing challenges in numbers – but more details can be seen below.

PAST EVENTS

Clear Round Show Jumping at Forest Gate  on 1 April

As always, this proved very popular with a stalwart group of DFRC members having a go round Richard’s well thought out course.     Numbers were greatly increased by non members who enthusiastically took advantage of an opportunity to go round an interesting course which definitely asked questions of both horse and rider.    The Club was praised for the encouragement and help that the organiser provided (any rider experiencing any problems were helped to complete) and the relaxed and friendly atmosphere – as well as for the sought after chocolate bars that were available to those who got a clear round (and to some horses who really thought that the reward should be going their way).

Monthly Dressage Competitions

These have continued at Forest Gate Farm with mixed success as we are  struggling  for numbers on most dates and was one of the subjects of discussion at the informal social  meeting on 5 July.   

Dressage Test Riding

The test riding clinic was requested by members but very few attended – we only had a total of 5 people which enabled the session to go ahead but was a little disappointing when Jane Carruthers had allocated 3 hours for us.

This time each rider was given a 20 minute slot which was plenty of time to warm up outside, then ride the test, address separate movements and then ride it again with coaching. Jane gave excellent advice to those who attended this clinic which, hopefully will result in them achieving even higher marks than previously. If there is enough interest we are happy to run this again so let us know.

Camp  31 May to 2 June

We were very fortunate that the rain stopped and we had a dry weekend; warm but not too hot as in past years. From a full camp and a waiting list, we lost several people due to the usual non-cooperation from our equine friends with their sick notes. 25 horses and riders managed to stay healthy and all had a great weekend with mixed lessons from trainers Sarah Johnson, Katie Holden and Amy Lennon. The ‘hack & splash’ cross country lessons are a firm favourite and seem to be the new XC.

It is always a great weekend away with a total of 32/33 people camping over and many friends and members coming for the day on both Saturday and Sunday. The whole weekend is a lovely social event with amazing people (and horses).

Megan Smith from MV Photography took some great photos of people and groups which everyone with a FaceBook account will have seen.

We have been asked if we can have another camp each year ….. NO – Cathy is too tired to organise more than one a year!

Combined Training 6 July

Many apologies to everyone for having to change the date twice for this event and running on a Saturday; but at least the ground was dry enough to park the trailers on grass at Church Farm and eventually run the event – despite heavy rain on the day.

The helpers and early competitors got soaked and a few decided not to jump as the course was on grass. Dressage was on the arena which was really useful as the grass was so wet.

Thanks to Bill and Lesley Ince for running the show jumping, which we are grateful that they do every year. The reports were that the excellent course built by Katie Holden jumped well and no horses actually slipped on the wet grass.

The July dressage also took place on the same day so there are points to carry forward towards the dressage trophies.

Informal Social Meeting to discuss Club Future

Further to the email questionnaire that was sent to all members, a meeting took place at Church farm on Friday 5 July.    Thank you to all those who responded to the email and those who turned up at the meeting.  A discussion took place in respect of low numbers of members attending the competitions and training that we had arranged, also mention was made of the fact that numbers of people joining the Club had decreased over recent years.    It was really helpful that a number of suggestions were made and these will be taken forward with the outcome reported in due course. 

Ideas included trying to combine our Dressage comps with other Clubs;  including Juniors; changing venue.    It was mentioned that the atmosphere at our events was so relaxed, friendly and helpful that we should promote this more so that people who needed a confidence boost, maybe lacked competition experience or had young horses that needed to be kept relaxed etc, would want to have a go at our events.    

Running dressage comps every two months rather than monthly.

Running Combined Training monthly during the summer months.

Putting on more training – especially pole or grid work

Running more social events

We will keep you advised of progress but, if anyone has any further ideas, please don’t hesitate to let us know.

AREA  EVENTS

QUALIFIERS AND CHAMPIONSHIPS

Clare Whitfield and Zippy were invited to take their place at the  Winter Novice Dressage Championships  earlier this year, following a successful qualifier placing.   As always competition was more fierce and they did really well to finish in 12th place. 

Dressage and Show Jumping Qualifiers

These will be held at Llanymynech on 28 July.   Anne Boothroyd and Katie Holden are representing the Club in the Dressage Qualifier with Anna Griffiths flying the DFRC flag in the Show Jumping.   We wish all three competitors good luck and will look forward to learning how they get on.

*Last minute change*  Area 20 has had to change the date of the SJ Qualifier and unfortunately Anna is unable to attend on the new date.  This is obviously a disappointing alteration and we thank Anna for putting her name down to represent the club.

Arena Eventing Qualifier

This will take place at Kelsall Hill on 26 October.  As yet, there are no further details but we’ll post information on the web page as soon as we get it.  All club members will be contacted to see if they would like to take part and hopefully we’ll get a strong local team together.

FUTURE EVENTS

As always, full details of all our competitions, training events etc, can be found on the web site but, briefly, the following is a list of diary dates for the next few months :

Dressage competitions at Forest Gate Farm

Dates for the winter dressage competitions at Forest Gate farm hare being finanlised.   As always, full details as to dates, tests, entering the events etc will be posted on the web page very soon.

Next Dressage Competiton is on 4 August at Forest Gate Farm.

Tests are Intro B,  Prelim 1,   Prelim 14,  Novice 30,  Elem 42 and  Med 71.       Entries, as usual, through EntryMaster on the DFRC web page.

Please note that there will not be a dressage competition in September due to the One Day Event on 8 September.   Entry forms for this will be on line around 15 July and we look forward to receiving a strong list of applications for places at this very well supported competition – both from members and non members alike.

FUTURE TRAINING

Please keep an eye on the DFRC facebook page as we are hoping to arrange a training session at Smallwood (prior to the ODE) so that members can have a good go at the fences and therefore put in some strong entries. 

Going forward, and in line with requests at the meeting, we will also be looking at further training in the near future. 

Similarly we are looking at the feasibility of organising more social events.

MISC

Dressage sheets – we have been told that a number of the current dressage test sheets have been revised.  Please can you therefore double check any year mentions on the test lists to make sure that you don’t learn the wrong one – and we’ve all been there !!!

Forest Gate – Richard and Jane have an elderly dog that they try to keep inside if we’re running an event.   However it does try to escape where possible so please, if you are driving through the yard, can you go slowly just in case its got out.

Competition Rosettes

As we have recently run competitions in which we only get a few entries in a class, we are considering reducing the number of places that we award.    The suggestion being discussed is that, if less than 6 entries, we award to 3^rd place;   less than 8, we award to 4^th.    If anyone has any thoughts about this, please don’t hesitate to let us know.

Trophies

This is just a very early call for all last year’s trophy winners.  We start to collect the trophies around the time of the one day event so please can you ensure that (where applicable) they are engraved.  Anne would be really happy if they could be returned having been cleaned and polished!  They can be returned at any of our early Autumn events or given to a member of the committee – many thanks in advance.

Emails

We have received a request concerning emails that are sent out to all members.  Currently we send these as “Blind copies” so that all addresses are kept hidden.  However we have received a request that addresses are shown in order that members may contact each other.   Please can you advise how you feel about this ?   Many thanks