NEWSLETTER

OCTOBER 2016

Don’t forget that it’s our AGM on Thursday 20th October, read down below for more details. We are offering a fish and chip supper for those that won’t have time between work, horses and the AGM to do simple things like eating dinner! It is always a lovely evening to catch up with friends and meet new people – we look forward to seeing everyone.

Please also read down for details on our open showjumping – we are raising money for Willberry Wonder Pony, but we need some help #kickingcancersbutt and we think you might be the person to help! We can't run the show without hands on deck to build the courses on Friday night and help on the day, stewarding and picking up poles. Or if you're next up for the Great British Bake Off (or are good friends with Mr Kipling) and fancy donating some cakes to sell for charity, step this way! Or perhaps you have a fun competition you can bring along to raise some extra funds? (Pin the scarf on the Willberry?!) Not only will you get the amazing satisfaction of helping to raise money for an excellent cause, but you will get a £5 voucher to put towards your next HWRC event! Please get in touch with Bryony (bryonyharper@gmail.com) to let us know what you can do to help! You might think you can only contribute a little, but a lot of 'littles' make a lot!

What’s happened so far in 2016 …….

Championship! National Championships – 11th & 12th August at Lincoln Showground

Back when I entered the showjumping qualifiers, I reassured my (relatively new) husband that I was very unlikely to qualify, given our love of knocking poles, and very unlikely to have to go to Lincoln for our first wedding anniversary. Needless to say, the rest of the team excelled and we qualified in the Intermediate Showjumping as a team! In the run up to the Championships, BRC got in touch with us to offer us several other invites. (Where the 1st placed team or individual can’t attend, the 2nd place team is invited). So we ended up having an area 6 team in the open showjumping, with Stephanie Read and Jane Adderley jumping from HWRC, the intermediate showjumping team of myself/Bryony Houston, Pauline Salisbury, Karen Salisbury and Zoe Furnell-Brennan, along with Bryony doing a novice dressage test and Ali Craft doing a prelim test. As I’m sure you can all imagine, John was delighted that I was taking Bea along for our wedding anniversary weekend!

We arrived on Friday night to abysmal weather – all night, we lay in bed hearing the wind howling and rain pouring down. It didn’t stop in the morning and I was first to jump at 8.45am. The ground was a bit squishy, but Bea did a lovely round with an unfortunate 4 faults. Pauline and Karen went clear with Zoe picking up another unlucky 4 faults. Quick change into my dressage gear and off to do the test – I think I was lucky that Bea wasn’t bothered by the pouring down rain and did a beautiful test. I think that dressage after showjumping might be the way forward for me from now on! She scored 68% and sat in the lead in her arena for much of the day. She ended up finishing 2nd in her arena, which delighted me as I finally won a sash! Lifetime ambition achieved! Onto the second round of showjumping and the rain was still pouring – we had 3 down, which was hugely disappointing. Pauline and Zoe both had a fence, but Karen pulled out another clear! The intermediate team finished 9th, with Karen doing a beautiful double clear and finishing 9th individually.

In the open ring, the Area 6 team with Steph and Jane in finished 7th. In the Prelim dressage, Ali did a lovely test, finishing just outside the top 10. So all in all, worth getting wet… but I think everyone will agree, they are only just drying out!

We fielded two teams at the London & South East Champships with Janette Thompson, Liam Spencer and Michelle Watts in one team and Phoebe Anderson, Alison Craft and Jemima Hopper in the other. Well done to all of you, but especially to Michelle Watts who finished 3rd and Liam Spencer, who finished 4th! We can’t wait to see you all out again next year!

Things still to come in 2016…

Qualifier! Festival of the Horse – 9th October at Wheatlands Farm

Good luck to everyone competing on Sunday – we have plenty of teams in the 100, 90, 80 and senior 80, as well as individuals in the 100, 80 and junior 80. I hope it’s a fantastic day and everyone has fun.

Annual General Meeting – 8.00pm on 20th October at Studley Green Community Centre

This is a great chance to celebrate the Club’s successes of 2016, meet new and old friends and generally catch up with what’s going on. HWRC always celebrate the achievements of the year with prizes for all of our many team members and trophies for those that have improved most through the year. If you won a trophy last year, please remember to bring it along with you! We also look ahead to 2017, looking at our future plans and hopefully meeting some new committee members!

Fish & Chips! We were talking about how it can be a real rush to get home from work, get the horses put to bed and have dinner before getting to the AGM, so we might have come up with an easy solution! If you are interested in ordering fish and chips, battered sausage and chips or just chips to eat at the AGM, please let Bryony know – bryonyharper@gmail.com /0778 7283781. Price to be confirmed once we’ve negotiated with the chippy, but if you are keen, get in touch and we’ll bring dinner to you!

Willberry’s Wonder Pony Open Indoor Showjumping – 22nd October at BCA

A great chance to start the indoor showjumping season with classes ranging from minimus to open. We usually have some great prizes to give out! Schedule and online entries available on the website. This year, we are fundraising for Willberry’s Wonder Pony and it would be great to see as many of our members there supporting us and fundraising with us!

Help Required! It takes a lot to run these events and we really need some help to #kickcancersbutt this time! Even if you’ve only got a couple of hours to spare, please get in touch and offer to help us with stewarding or pole picking. We would also love to have some gorgeous cakes or biscuits to offer for sale to raise a little more cash for the charity. Please get in touch with Bryonyharper@gmail.com to offer your help. For those that take part in the teams and the club has sponsored you to go to the Championships, it would be lovely to see you there giving a little back to the club by just giving up a few hours. It’s generally really good fun, you get fed and watered and you’ll earn a £5 voucher towards your next HWRC event!

Qualifier! Novice Winter Dressage – 30th October at Wellington Riding

Novice dressage teams (prelim standard) on a surface – more details available soon! If you are interested in being a part of the team – or just want to know more, get in touch with Steph Read (spacegirlsteph@rocketmail.com)

Open Indoor Hunter Trial – 20th November at BCA

This is always such a popular event that it is essential to pre-book – otherwise you will be disappointed if you leave it too late! All the fences in the indoor arena are made up of rustics and portable XC jumps and the classes include beginners pairs, beginners, novice pairs, novice, intermediate, local open and open. Rosettes go to 10th place and you may wear either XC colours or hunting dress to compete. Schedule available on the HWRC website and online entries available shortly!

Qualifier! Intermediate Winter Dressage – 11th December at Wellington Riding

Intermediate dressage teams (Novice & Elementary standard) on a surface – more details available soon! If you are interested in being a part of the team – or just want to know more, get in touch with Steph Read (spacegirlsteph@rocketmail.com)

 

Training

Zoe Furnell Brennan has taken over the role of Training Officer, many thanks to Sue Porter for her help over the last year.

Zoe is looking at running monthly training with the following suggestions:

XC Schooling @ Aston le Walls

SJ Training with Ross Irving in Prestwood

Dressage with Rob Wayne in Hedgerley

SJ Training with Jane Adderley in Aston Rowant

and finally, XC Training @ Rosehill with Jane Adderley

We are looking at booking these in, in late October, early November.

Please do get in touch with Zoe to register your interest.

Tel: 01753-516591 / 07900-907400 zoe.furnell.brennan1@gmail.com

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A note from the Chairman –

We still seem to be so busy in the world of Riding Clubs, with not only our two indoor shows coming up at BCA, in October and November, but the various Qualifiers too. Our horses will soon be asking if there’s to be no rest for the wicked! I don’t think I remember a busier time for Clubs than these days. We used to search the Horse & Hound frantically to find an event to take our horses to. Not any more!

Bryony has already mentioned our AGM coming up on 20th October at Studley Green Community Centre (almost opposite the Garden Centre on the A40, between West Wycombe and Stokenchurch). We are currently adding up the Points Table to see who will be the winners of the Cups, and the Committee and Team Managers have been contemplating which horse has improved the most this year, which rider has also improved the most, and of course, more categories for which there are cups. No-one will know until the night itself who the lucky cup winners will be, so do come along as it may be YOU! Don’t forget also that we give an award to each member who has ridden for the HWRC in our Teams this year. So again, if you’ve ridden in a Team, there will be an award for you to collect on the night.

We look forward to seeing many of you at the AGM, and if you would like Fish ‘n Chips, please contact Bryony.

Best wishes,

Jan Eedle-Wells (HWRC Chairman) Home : 01494-882041 Mobile : 07966-276690

jan.eedle-wells@talk21.com