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MSRC Autumn Update 2020
Dear Members,
Well – who would have predicted this time last year what a mess we would find ourselves in during 2020. We are SO lucky to live in the South West, where so far the incidence of Covid-19 has been much lower than in some of our densely populated regions.
Most of us, too, will have had our own outside space to enjoy during the lockdown. I cannot imagine what life would have been like in a high rise flat with not even a balcony.
But – to Riding Club issues! Your committee have met, in the open air and socially distanced, and have tried to plough our way through the edicts from BRC.
You are probably thinking that your membership fees have been an expensive waste of money this year – so we would like to take this opportunity to explain to you that we really don’t make a fortune at your expense. BRC had chosen this year to increase the affiliation fees to £15 per head (half of your subscription gone in one fell swoop!). Area 12 affiliation fees account for another slice and then there are two insurance policies for public liability and our assets. So at the end of the day we are not left with very much. Now that all the disciplines have introduced grass roots initiatives such as BD Quest and BE 80 T, this has had a detrimental effect on the membership of all Riding Clubs and we are not alone in seeing our membership fall.
Training is one aspect of the Riding Club ethos that we subsidise and of course all training had to be halted during the national lockdown. However, we did get going again quite early thanks to Carol Plested offering the use of her very nice outdoor school. We are now back up and running with clinics at Kingfisher (Amanda Edmonds) and World Horse Welfare (Gill Longhurst).
Day clinics such as Jane Holderness-Roddam and Sue Petty are on hold at present due to lack of loo facilities being available.
At the moment, all competition activity has stopped. We know that some of the centres are running competitions again and it is very different when these are their own premises and not us hiring venues and having to comply with tortuous risk assessments and issues such as paperless scoring and judge’s welfare. We find it impossible to run the Novice Winter Dressage qualifier this year which had been booked for KSEC on October 18th. As I write this there is no alternative proposal for this competition and it sounds as though we may be in some sort of lockdown again very soon so the October date may have to change anyway. Please still let Carol know if you want to be in a team.
Clearly our Supper Night cannot happen this year and because of the changes in the BRC year the AGM will not happen until January 2021 and again will be subject to the regulations in place at that time.
This sounds to be an update of doom and gloom but try and enjoy your horses at home and maybe continue your one to one training and then come out at the end of this ready to get going and put MSRC back on the map. Better still come to some of the training that we are running in a Covid safe environment. Don’t forget that you can always keep involved by sending Martin anything you would like to share on our Facebook page.
Thank you all for your patience and continued support and above all keep safe and look after yourselves.
Your Committee
MID SOMERSET RIDING CLUB
March 18th 2020
Dear Member,
It will, I am sure, come as no surprise to you that BRC have issued an edict regarding forth coming Riding Club activities in the current coronavirus
pandemic.
All Riding Club activities will cease until reviewed on June 30th.
Some of you who have qualified for Spring Championships – these have now also had to be cancelled. Such a pity after your hard work.
In the light of these circumstances we will not be putting out a Summer Programme at this time.
For information purposes, I know that some of you train independently at World Horse Welfare – this is now closed until a further review at the end of April.
I am sorry to have to bring you this news but we will keep you informed and the main thing is that we all keep safe.
Take care,
Marian
CANCELLED DRESSAGE COMPETION
Due to a unfortunate circumstance. The Dressage competition on the 15th FEBUARY at Kingsedgemoor has had to be cancelled.
FRIDAY MARCH 6th 2020
at
LONG SUTTON VILLAGE HALL TA10 9NT
A fun evening of General Knowledge questions and an excellent supper for teams of 4 or 5 players. Excellent prizes! Superb Raffle! Donations to charities including World Horse Welfare and the Injured Jockeys Fund will be made from the proceeds. Come and have a really entertaining evening.
For More info please see link MSRC Quiz 2020
Dear Member,
Happy New Year to you all!
I am sure you are all fed up with the mud by now – the winter so far has been so wet – but when I saw the first crocus in flower in the garden this morning, it does give us hope that the days are lengthening and Spring will come!
You will probably have realised by now that our membership year has changed – (an edict from BRC) so you have all gained two free months. This will have given you time to adjust to the change so if you have not paid your 2020 sub by now, please do it at once or Carolyn will be after you and you will no longer qualify for member’s rates at our events.
We have had a busy year with competitions, training and teams out and about and doing really well. The dressage divas did well at Hartpury in August and the jumpers have also had a good year, with Martin going to two Championships to fly the flag for us and is also already qualified for one in 2020. It is so good to see Mid Somerset doing well at National competitions again. Carolyn has also qualified for the Championship of the Novice Winter Dressage at Arena UK. We wish them well.
Do remember that being a Team Manager is really hard and very often thankless work, these managers do not have time to ring everyone on the members list – so the onus is on YOU to contact them and make yourself available!!! So please pick up the phone and talk to the relevant team manager for whichever discipline suits you and have a chat to them – we will get MSRC back to the very top! To refresh your memory and for new members – our Dressage team manager is Carol Plested who can be contacted on 07973 360 968. Martin Boreham on 07813 132 949 deals with any discipline that involves leaving the ground – so HT, SJ or arena eventing – Martin is your man.
Mid Somerset once again ran the Area 12 Novice Winter Dressage Qualifier at King’s Sedgemoor in October and thanks go to the whole team that made the day such a success. We have agreed to run this qualifier again in 2020 for the 2021 Championships – so Marian will be after you for October 18th!
Our Quiz Night goes from strength to strength and it will run this year on Friday March 6th at Long Sutton Village Hall – with another fabulous supper prepared by Ed Hobbs! So, get your teams together in good time.
The uptake for our training and competition programme has been patchy in the last year and we would encourage you to support these events – or lose them. We have already lost our usual event at Wincanton Racecourse this year – the Combined Training last year that we tried instead of the annual show (which had become less and less popular), also struggled and was a huge amount of hard work for so little return. We still have training sessions this winter with Jane Holderness-Roddam, Ed Hobbs, Gill Longhurst, Amanda Edmonds and Sue Petty so getting booking for these and the competitions!! Please remember to be vigilant about the flu vaccination requirements which can vary from venue to venue and be aware that BRC have now opted for the 6 monthly boosters.
The Supper Night with Mary King was a really good evening – not as well supported as our racing themed evenings, but we still managed to give her £1000 for Unicef and the Devon Air Ambulance for which she was very grateful.
From the raffle at the AGM we sent a donation to Horatio’s Garden at the Spinal Unit at Salisbury, where Jenny Frampton is continuing her treatment. She was very touched that we had done this.
We hope to see lots of you out competing in the New Year. Just a reminder – please, please enter early and please, please if you change your e-mail address or mobile phone number don’t forget to let Carolyn know!!!! Jane Surmon would love to hear from you if you can help at any of our dressage competitions (07771 548 317)
We are in the transition period between treasurers at the moment and we owe Julia a huge debt for her many years of service to the club – Judith Hall is now taking the reins and I am sure you will give her your whole hearted support in this change over. Sadly, neither Judith nor Julia are in the best of health at the moment – so we wish them both well.
Wishing you all sound and healthy horses and a Very Happy and Successful New Year
Your Committee
AT
Our Annual meeting followed with a talk by Anna Risius MCSP SRP P.G. Dip Vet Phys, Cat A member of ACPAT
Anna will give us in insight into her work with both human and equine athletes.
Remember! This meeting is YOUR chance to have your say regarding the programme that the Riding Club puts on for you. We need to know what YOU want from YOUR club so please make every effort to attend this meeting.
Please also remember that we are ALWAYS looking for more helpers at events and YOUR help – even if only for a couple of hours – would be invaluable to the Club.
Dear Member,
As I write this, the rain that we were desperate for a few weeks ago, has arrived and now doesn’t seem to know when to stop! Dry, cracked fields have turned to squelching mud. However, there was a lot of nice hay made this year which should bode well for the winter.
Mid Somerset has had a good year with some good results in our team activities, of which you will hear more in the Team Manager’s reports at the AGM. Martin Boreham has made it to not one but two National Championships, which keeps MSRC on the map.
We did not run an Annual Show this year but ran a Combined Training event which sadly was not well supported. Dressage continues to attract competitors and we did not run any summer show jumping this year. Training continues to be popular and well supported. This winter we will have training with Gill Longhurst, Ed Hobbs, Amanda Edmonds, Sue Petty and Jane Holderness- Roddam.
We recently ran the Area 12 Novice Winter Dressage Qualifier at KSEC. This is a huge undertaking and a big ‘thank you’ to all of you who wrote or stewarded, scored, collected sheets or braved the chaos of the office. We couldn’t have done it without you.
This year, our long term treasurer, Julia is going to hang up her calculator. She has performed this role for more years than we can believe and will be very much missed. At the time of going to press her successor is not yet in place. Membership in its entirety will now be done by Carolyn Edwards. Because BRC have now increased the affiliation fees – we are having to increase our membership costs. There has been no increase for many years so we hope that you will understand this.
Also BRC are insisting that all clubs start their year on January 1st. As you know we have traditionally had November 1st as the start of our year – but we now have to comply – so in fact you will be getting two months membership FREE!!!! It does mean that all standing order mandates will have to be changed for the new date – so please ensure that you do this.
We hope that there is something for everyone in the Winter Programme – if not – it is up to you to tell us what you do want! We are still DESPERATE for helpers at events – so please come forward and volunteer your services.
Many of you will know that Jenny Frampton had a horrible accident in her school at home and is now in the Spinal Injuries Unit at Odstock – we wish her well. It does bring it very close to home to hear of such incidents. At the AGM, Fiona Britten will demonstrate a new app called What 3 Words – which can pinpoint your whereabouts to a 3-meter square and could be lifesaving in many applications other than riding.
We look forward to seeing you at the AGM on November 25th at Long Sutton Village Hall – don’t forget that there is a free supper. The Annual trophies will be presented and our guest speaker will be Anna Risius who is a top class human and equine physiotherapist who works with top class riders at the big national and international events and was a member of the physio team at the 2012 London Olympics.
Finally, do remember to check flu vaccination status of each venue that you attend and always have your passport ready for inspection.
Meanwhile – Safe Riding!
Your Committee
Main Club Contacts:
Our Team Managers are:
Mary King needs no introduction – her illustrious eventing career is legendary. She has three Olympic medals to her credit, silver in 2004, bronze in 2008 and silver again in London in 2012. Her dynasty of King horses have been one of the most successful in the eventing world and of course, daughter Emily is now herself riding at the very top level of the sport.
Two course supper.
Tables will seat 8 and there will be a maximum of 120 tickets on sale.
Tickets available from Margaret Peverley. Tel 01935 473 188. 31, Yeovil Marsh Park, Yeovil Marsh, Yeovil, Som BA21 3QQ.
for More details and menu please see the booking form here Dinner Evening M.King 2019
Fantastic day at Kingsedgemoor area 12 summer show jumping qualifiers.
Team 80
Dani Flintan, Helen Robert’s, Patricia Saintey, Debbie Shields.
Team 2nd. Helen 4th Indervidual.
Team 90
Martin Boreham, Lizzie Clark, Rosey Bradburn, Sue McCulloch.
Team 3rd (& 2nd in the Championship Qualifier). Martin 6th Indervidual (& 3rd in the Championship Qualifier). Lizzie 4th Indervidual in the Championship Qualifier.
Absolutely Well Done Everybody.
Mid Somerset’s Show Jumping teams are now firmly back on the map.
Ace doing his photo bombing bit and deservedly so after his clear round.
The jumps are up ready for tomorrow at Wincanton Racecourse
Don’t forget there is also Clear round, https://msridingclub.files.wordpress.com/2019/04/msrc-combined-training-25.05.19.pdf
we look forward to seeing you there!
