Foreword, by Natalie Porter
I hoped that we were going to be slightly more back to normal now, but unfortunately we are still in a fairly similar situation as we were in 2020 so far in 2021. I hope that all of our members’ family and furry friends are providing them with some happiness and peace of mind whilst we are stuck in another lockdown. My pony time has been very limited recently, so helping at a number of our BRC shows has helped massively! It has given me the opportunity to not only cuddle some of my favourite fluffy ponies, but also to see lots of you members that I haven’t had the chance to see in months! I hope that you are all keeping well. Please enjoy this edition of the HWRC newsletter!
HWRC Subscriptions
As a club, we are very aware that 2021 has started with a lot of uncertainty for everyone, and that there is a lot of unknown financial pressures for everyone during these times. As a result of this, High Wycombe Riding Club have decided to RENEW ALL 2020 MEMBERSHIPS FREE OF CHARGE. (If you have already renewed for 2021, we will be in touch with you!). We will also be offering a reduced rate to any new members until April 2021 (this will be reassessed when we know how the year plays out).
Statement from British Riding Clubs Regarding the 2021 Championships and Membership (14 January)
The BRC Advisory Committee met on Wednesday 13th January to discuss arrangements for the 2021 Championships. The committee discussed the current lockdown situation across all nationals, and the implications this would have on the ability of areas to run qualifying competitions, as well as the Championships themselves, and the potential mixing of people from across the UK.
It is with great disappointment that we must announce further cancellations to our calendar of events after losing many of our competitions in 2020. All options were investigated thoroughly, and we feel we have come up with the best solutions available to use, ensuring we adhere to government guidelines and keep our staff, officials, volunteers and competitors safe. Please be aware that the calendar may be subject to further change depending on government guidelines, and the evolving situation with the pandemic.
Arena Eventing Championships on 13-14 March: This event will be postponed from its original date and will now take place on 22 and 23 May 2021 at Aston le Walls.
Novice Winter Championships (Incorporating the rescheduled 2020 and 2021 Novice and Intermediate Championships) on 26-29 March: This event will be cancelled. All dressage classes will be run as an online competition with further details to follow in due course. The show jumping classes will not be re-arranged. We know this is disappointing, but there are no viable options within the current climate.
Intermediate Winter Championships on 23-25 April: This event will be cancelled. All dressage classes will be run as an online competition with further details to follow in due course. The show jumping classes will not be re-arranged. We know this is disappointing, but there are no viable options within the current climate.
Combined Training Championships on 22-23 May: This event will be cancelled with the rescheduled Arena Eventing Championships taking place on this date.
Horse Trials Championships on 6-8 August: This event will go ahead, but will run as a short format competition (no roads and tracks or steeplechase). All classes will run as one-day events.
(Summer) Nationals Championships, Dressage to Music Championships and Quadrille: We are monitoring the situation closely and will issue another update that covers these events later in the spring.
2021 Membership Invoices & Insurance Certificates
These have not yet been sent for 2021. Please rest assured that you are still covered by the BRC insurance policy at this time. We are currently looking at all options to find the best outcome for our members and finalising some insurance details. A further update will be issued as soon as possible, and the documents will be with you as soon as they are available.
If you require your hard copies of the 2021 Handbook urgently, please contact megan.gibbs@bhs.org.uk and they will be posted out to you.
Meet the Committee
Jan Eedle-Wells Chairman
Irene Harper Vice Chairman and Secretary
Gary Wells Treasurer
Marj Herring Membership Secretary
Natalie Porter Dressage and Combined Training Team Manager, Newsletter Editor
Bryony Houston Horse Trials and Arena Eventing Team Manager, Website Editor
Jessica Coupland Horse Trials and Arena Eventing Team Manager
Laura Salisbury Show-Jumping Team Manager
Zoe Furnell Training Organiser
Pauline Salisbury Committee Member
Jo Lovett Committee Member
Sue Porter Committee Member
Previous Events
Arena Eventing Qualifier at Cherwell Equestrian, written by Bryony Houston
It was absolutely lovely to be able to go out to a show at long last! As Team Manager, it was with slightly mixed emotions as it was lovely to see our Team Members out doing what they do best, but I was unable to ride after recovering from surgery.
We kicked off the day with the 100 team, consisting of Jane Adderley on Harmony Z, Linda Newell on Music Man, Jade Hall on Diamond Ex and James Tappin on Urkell's Diamond Jubilee. Linda and Jane did cracking double clears, which was no mean feat as both were on borrowed horses! Linda won with Jane coming a close 2nd. Jade had a cracking round with Malcolm the fabulous showjumper just misunderstanding one of the skinnies and James had a most unfortunate (and very unusual!) disagreement with Diamond about the murky water. The team did enough to win and qualified for the Championships.
We then had a 90 team of Jane Adderley and Linda Newell again, coupled with Harriet Coupland and Steve Newell. Jane and Mary Star did a beautiful round to finish 3rd with Linda and Summer Thyme having a lovely round with just a little hesitation at the water. Harriet and Chillbrid Mermaid were on for a speedy double clear until Hattie made a very stylish dismount at the final skinny. Such a shame! Special mention must go to Steve, who hadn't been to a competition in nearly 15 years, but took one of the family youngsters around. They had a few poles down as Gerald was a bit overwhelmed, but they did a sterling job. The team came 3rd overall.
Last but not least were the 80 teams. We had two teams of Pauline Salisbury, Lucy Chappell, Jo Lovett and Andrea Haslam, then Harriet Coupland, Laura Salisbury and Jade Broughton. Pauline and Citerswood Senator, Lucy on Waterton Heights and Andrea on Broadley's Prophet were just outside the individual placings, but did enough for the team to win, so jolly well done ladies!
It was a really lovely day out, seeing both familiar and new faces riding for the club. We hope it won't be too long until the next event! For the winning teams, the Championships will now take place on the 22nd and 23rd May at Aston le Walls.
Intermediate Dressage Qualifier on Sunday 11th October, at Wellington Equestrian, written by Natalie Porter
High Wycombe Riding Club had a very busy, but successful day at the Winter Intermediate Dressage qualifier at Wellington. I attended the qualifier to volunteer as our club’s designated helper, as well as doubling as the team manager and trying to meet lots of new members who are new to the club. It was amazing to see so many new faces taking part at the qualifier, and many of you also came to the Novice Dressage qualifier a couple of months later!
Everyone who competed on behalf of the club pulled fantastic tests out the bag and there were lots of very shiny ponies! We had two Senior teams entered, coming 7th and 10th respectively. Those teams consisted of Laura Salisbury, Jade Broughton and Jane Adderley on the White team (7th as a team), and Pauline Salisbury, Lucy Chappell, Bryony Houston and Jade Hall on the Black team (10th as a team).
We also had a number of individual placings, with Laura Salisbury coming 3rd in Preliminary 18, Lucy Chappell coming 3rd in Novice 28, Constant Swart coming 4th in Novice 28 in the Juniors, and Jane Adderley coming 5th in Elementary 42.
Thank you so much to everyone who came and took part in the qualifier, and well done again!
HWRC Open Eventers Challenge on Saturday 24th October, at Snowball Farm, written by Bryony Houston
We hosted a lovely friendly open show at Snowball Farm on the 24th October. With classes from cross poles to 90cm, all the classes featured some fun obstacles, such as skinny fences and angled doubles. We were delighted to offer some fun Thelwell style face masks from 1st-3rd place in all classes. We hope that it put a smile on everyone's face at a difficult time. The courses were very educational for horses and riders that hadn't been too many competitions in a tricky year - and we look forward to seeing everyone improving on their rounds in 2021.
Novice Dressage Qualifier on Sunday 13th December, at Wellington Equestrian, written by Natalie Porter
It was definitely a Winter qualifier at Wellington with it being absolutely freezing cold all day! Despite this, High Wycombe had an amazing day with qualifications to the Winter National Championships!
Flying the flag for the Juniors, we had Jodi Carter in the Preliminary doing a lovely test to come 7th individually. We also had Constant Swart competing in two Novice classes individually, one of which he won with just shy of 70% to qualify for the National Championships!
We also had two Senior teams competing with some Christmassy names! Our Elves team, consisting of Charlotte Osmond, Jo Lovett, Jane Adderley and Lucy Chappell) came 2nd out of 24 teams to qualify for the National Championships! Individual placings included 3rd for Laura Salisbury, 8th for Charlotte Osmond, 2nd for Jane Adderley and 2nd for Lucy Chappell. Our Reindeers team, consisting of Linda Newell, Laura Salisbury, Bryony Houston and Jane Adderley, also saw some brilliant performances from everyone in the team.
Massive well done and thank you to everyone who braved the cold and rain to come and compete!
High Wycombe Riding Club Annual General Meeting (AGM), written by Sue Porter
Due to the pandemic, we have not been able to hold a face to face Committee meeting since February 2020. However we have been able to utilise the online tool, Zoom, to continue to meet virtually, stay up to date with all the latest regulations, discuss and plan the way forward as best we can and ensure that our members are kept informed. We also held our AGM on Zoom and were delighted that so many of our members took part. This provided the opportunity to meet new members , ask questions and discuss future plans. Whilst we all look forward to the day when we can meet in person again, virtual meetings have enabled us to stay in touch and carry out the necessary business of the club through these challenging times.
Upcoming Events
HWRC Open Show-jumping on Friday 2nd April, at BCA, written by Irene Harper
As most of you will know, the Winter Show-jumping Championships have been cancelled due to Covid-19, and so sadly we will not be running a qualifier this year.
In these uncertain times, we need something to aim for and look forward to so we have booked BCA for Good Friday, 2nd April, and hope to be able to run an Open Show-jumping show.If we are able to go ahead, we will run classes starting at 60cm and going up to 110cm if the demand is there. Please support us and tell your friends - the schedule will be available shortly.
We also want to give something back to our frontline workers in the NHS who are working so hard. I’m sure you’ve all seen the horrors that they are experiencing - with huge fatalities whilst also worrying about the health of those dear to them. So, we will be supporting a charity that specifically looks after the Mental Health of these heroes and will be asking for donations to the charity. Save the date and help us raise a substantial sum!
Area 6 2021 Training Grant Supports BHS Challenge in Horse Health Course
Every year, BRC Area 6 try to use their part of their £1,000 training grant to support something to do with Equine Welfare.
For 2021, Lisa Oram will be running an online BHS Horse Health Challenge course open to all the paid-up members of all the clubs in Area 6. It will be incredibly good value, especially for members who are new to horse ownership, on their own or at small private yards without swift access to knowledgeable support when things start to get tricky. You might even save some money on vet’s bills!
The flyer below goes into quite a bit more detail and includes a convincing case study from the November issue of Rider magazine.
The course will start in March so we do need a swift response to get it up and running. You can either get in contact with us as a club to register your interest, or you can get in contact with Lisa directly on lisa.oram@yahoo.co.uk.
HWRC Riders who have Qualified for a BRC Winter National Championships
Natasha Bonnick and Canderija – Winter Intermediate Dressage Championships (2020) in Junior N30 and Junior N34
Anita Sunthankar and Independent Spirit – Winter Intermediate Show-Jumping Championships (2020) in Senior 100 Team
Bryony Houston and Harmony Z – Winter Intermediate Show-Jumping Championships (2020) in Senior 100 Team
Zoe Furnell and Lord Soley – Winter Intermediate Show-Jumping Championships (2020) in Senior 100 Team
Linda Newell and Music Man – Winter Intermediate Show-Jumping Championships (2020) in Senior 100 Team
Lucy Chappell and Waterton Heights – Winter Novice Dressage Championships (2020) in Senior P7
Jane Adderley and Jenny Jones – Winter Intermediate Dressage Championships (2020) in Senior P14
Constant Swart and Funny Boy Fortuna – Winter Novice Dressage Championships in Junior N27
Charlotte Osmond and Sumeida – Winter Novice Dressage Championships in Senior Team Dressage
Jo Lovett and Fudge – Winter Novice Dressage Championships in Senior Team Dressage
Jane Adderley and Another Time – Winter Novice Dressage Championships in Senior Team Dressage
Lucy Chappell and Waterton Heights – Winter Novice Dressage Championships in Senior Team Dressage
Jane Adderley and Harmony Z – Arena Eventing Championships in Senior 100 Team
Linda Newell and Music Man – Arena Eventing Championships in Senior 100 Team
Jade Hall and Diamond Ex – Arena Eventing Championships in Senior 100 Team
James Tappin and Urkell’s Diamond Jubilee – Arena Eventing Championships in Senior 100 Team
Pauline Salisbury and Citerswood Senator – Arena Eventing Championships in Senior 80 Team
Lucy Chappell and Waterton Heights – Arena Eventing Championships in Senior 80 Team
Andrea Haslem and Broadley’s Prophet – Arena Eventing Championships in Senior 80 Team
Jo Lovett and Fudge – Arena Eventing Championships in Senior 80 Team
Chairman’s Report, from Jan Eedle-Wells
First of all, my thanks to Natalie for putting together this edition of the Club’s Newsletter. We’ve not been able to send them very regularly as nothing has really been happening over the past few months, so we hope you all understand. From listening to the Prime Minister’s report today, it seems we are in lockdown for a while longer, (until at least the 8th March) so by then, it will have been a year since we had what we consider were “normal times”. But we’ve got to be brave – and sensible - and get through it as best as we all can.
My thanks also to the contributors for their articles in the above Previous Events sections. It’s really strange to have had so few events to report on. I would imagine that most of you have had to contend with hacking out and, if you have access to an arena, a bit of schooling, but however tiresome this may have been for you, I do envy the fact that you’ve been able to get out at all, as you’ve had to see to and look after your animals. When I get a touch of prison fever, I think of those living in flats, often high rise, with no garden to escape to. It puts matters into a sort of perspective for me.
Subs for 2021
The Committee hope that the fact we are covering the cost of your Subs for Membership to HWRC will be helpful during these very difficult times. Many people in this country are struggling financially during this pandemic, so if we can help those of our Members who are maybe finding it tough at the moment, then that’s what we are trying to do. The handful of those who had already paid, someone from our Committee will be in touch with you about this. Any newcomers will be welcomed as always, and the month of April will be when we look at their particular situation.
Good Friday 2nd April Show Jumping Show……..we live in hope!!
We have booked BCA for an indoor Open SJ Show in the hope that we may be able to run this event. If we can, it means that riders and their horses will have the opportunity to come out and play! I certainly enjoyed getting out on 24th October at Snowball when we held the Mock X-C event. I hope that those who came to that will also come to the Indoor Show (if we are able to go ahead, of course) and will help to spread the word so that we have good entries.
As you will have read earlier in this Newsletter, we aim to give a proportion of the entry fees to a Charity who are actively helping and supporting NHS staff who are experiencing Mental Health difficulties from what they are seeing and working with on a daily basis in the Covid Wards. It must be heart wrenching for each and every one of them, so if we can help, then we will, and we can’t think of a better way than this. Even if people won’t be actually competing themselves, we will welcome any donations from anyone else, so please spread the word for us.
Snowy Weather
We had a bit of a taste of real winter weather a few days ago, which is always difficult for people with animals to care for. I understand that we are due for some more of the “white stuff” pretty soon. I hope you have managed to ensure you have enough hay and winter feed in store? The cost of hay is rising, which is never good to hear at any time, but especially now. It’s always infuriating when our horses tread their decent hay into the mud. Such a waste, and such a mess! When I had just two horses, when they were turned out in the mornings and were given their hay, I came round to the idea of feeding it in their hay nets which I tied up on to a sturdy iron gate that had been left in the field (as a stand-alone feature!) from when it was previously and supposedly two paddocks. The gate posts were deep into the ground so there was no movement of the gate. I tied one hay net on one side and the other on the other side so there was no squabbling between the horses……and no wasted hay either. They ate every bit, and even ‘hoovered’ up the small amount that fell to the ground. Having worked on a farm where the cattle were fed their hay on the ground, I knew what a mess the animals made trampling it into the soil, so I found the hay net method very suitable. However, I do realise that it wouldn’t suit everyone. Not everyone has a sturdy heavy iron gate abandoned in their field!
Useful Reading!
I was given as a gift a subscription of the magazine Horse & Rider, not a publication I had ever purchased before. I have always been a Horse & Hound reader, as well as the BHS and BRC mags. But as I flicked through the pages of the latest delivery (March 2021) I was amazed at what good reading it was. So many useful tips, but also, some very interesting articles. One in particular caught my eye from an equine Vet explaining just how vaccinations actually work, why it’s important to vaccinate, how often they should be given, competition disciplines and their guidelines (yes, we know about those, don’t we?) but also other conditions dangerous to horses that we may not have been so sure (or knowledgeable) about – plus more. I rarely suggest to anyone what they should or shouldn’t read, as we all have our own interests and tastes, but even if it’s just as a one off, if you happen to see this edition on sale, I would recommend buying it. I feel sure you will find something of interest in it and something that will increase your equine knowledge.
I hope that you are all coping with our new ways of living and managing to still get much joy from your four-legged friends (dogs and cats, rabbits and guinea pigs included). Your Committee hope very much that we will all be able to meet together again face to face in the not-too-distant future. Whilst we can’t do much, we are always here for you to contact should you need to, by phone, email or text.
Our very best wishes to you all,
Jan Eedle-Wells
Chairman jan.eedle-wells@talk21.com For preference 01494-882041 or 07966-276690
If there is something that you would like me to include in the next edition, or if you have any news and achievements that you would like to share with our membership, please email me on nataliekateporter@gmail.com.
And most importantly, stay safe and positive everyone!
Natalie Porter
