Dear Member,

Dare we hope that these strange times are getting a shade nearer to normality?

Your Riding Club has seen quite  a few changes in the last months as we cautiously try and get going again. We have lost some committee members  for various reasons and Andrea Jones has kindly stepped into the role of Chair. Which with her knowledge of BRC and the Area 12 committee, this can do us nothing but good.

Sadly we have also lost our Membership Secretary – Carolyn Edwards and we thank her for all she has done and also applaud Judith for holding the fort on Membership at present.

This is a good point to remind you that Memberships are due on January 1^st, since BRC changed the rules to make all clubs function Jan to Jan. Please check that your standing orders are correct. We realise that there are some members who do not compete but for historic reasons like to stay in touch with the club and we are offering a reduced rate for these people – as we realise that some mandates have not been changed. For such people their details will not be sent to HQ and therefore will not have the benefit of the insurance. For further clarification  please indicate this on your membership form ( attached) and discuss with Judith.  We don’t want to lose touch with  you!!

We have run two successful dressage competitions at Half Moon Stud and a third was sadly cancelled due to lack of entries – but entries are low everywhere at present and when we have to hire premises, unfortunately sometimes this becomes unviable.  We have a Championship series planned for the winter  – again at Half Moon – and look forward to seeing you there with excellent prizes on offer to Champion and Reserve in April.

Training has also seen a dip in participants – but both the Amanda Edmonds clinics at Kingfisher and the Gill Longhurst ones at World Horse Welfare will continue through the winter. Sara Bartlett and Jaki Dyer will be pleased to hear from you – the relevant flyers are sent with this mailing.

There are two clinics with Sue Petty booked at World Horse Welfare and we also have a Test Riding Clinic at Half Moon in January with Frances Turner.  This will be an excellent opportunity to ride a test of your choice – have it assessed by a List 1 judge, receive instruction from her and then ride it again trying desperately to remember and put into effect all the things you have just been told!!  Hopefully the marks on the second sheet will be better!! Places for this are limited so do book early.

We had a very successful day at the South West & Wales Regional Championships at Hartpury in August and Carol’s Dressage Diva’s came home with rosettes all round. We have a core group of riders going very well at the moment  and this bodes well for the next qualifier for the Novice Winter Dressage at the end of November. Remember that Carol is always looking for new combinations and you can compete as an individual so that you are not under pressure of being in a team, Come and have a go!

The ever popular charity Quiz Night – postponed from March will run  on Saturday December 11^th at Long Sutton Village Hall. It is always a fun night and if you feel you don’t want to be in a team we are looking for helpers as well. Your ticket includes a supper and your first drink is complimentary too – with one of Margaret’s amazing raffles , what more could you want for a fun evening!

At the time of writing we have no date for the AGM – which will also be at Long Sutton Village Hall – but this will be advised in the New Year Newsletter.

However, don’t wait for the AGM – if there are other things you would like to see your club put on  – please do let us know.

Meanwhile – Safe Riding!

Your Committee

Dear Member,

I am sure you are all wondering when we will ever get the club going again – it certainly has been frustrating with mixed messages regarding the status of indoor schools differing from one lockdown easing to another.

We were back briefly at World Horse Welfare and will hopefully be back there again soon – so for Gill Longhurst clinics at the moment the best option is to contact Jaki Dyer directly (07929 716 070).

For the Amanda Edmonds clinics at Kingfisher speak to Sara Bartlett (07967 208 778).

New booking forms for these clinics will be available when we are more certain of the way ahead – so Jaki and Sara are the best contacts at present.

It is no longer going to be possible to run Dressage competitions at Kingfisher as we cannot use the outdoor school for the warm up – so we are trying a competition day at Half Moon Stud at Motcombe. Many of you will remember when this was a regular venue for us. For those of you who are not familiar with this venue – it offers a nice Polytrack warm up arena and an indoor school which can accommodate a 20 x 60 arena, Please support this venture.

Do contact Martin Boreham if you are interested in a weekend camp at Stockland Lovell in September – this will include flatwork and jumping (SJ and XC) and I understand  some good food and fun evenings.

We will run the Quiz night later in the year when Village Halls are declared safe – strange that you can have a tattoo but not sit near anyone to do a quiz!!!

The Sue Petty clinics will return as soon as possible.

If there are other clinics that you would like us to offer or maybe some test riding – do let us know.

Sadie Berners has left the committee due to work commitments and we thank her for her work over the past years.

Jaki Dyer has been co – opted in her place and we welcome her to the committee.

Thank you for your support during these strange times

Safe Riding!

Your Committee

AS  YOU WILL HAVE REALISED WE ARE NOW UNABLE TO RUN ANYTHING EITHER TRAINING OR COMEPTITION.

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUERIES REGARDING TEAM QUALIFIERS AND WHETHER THEY ARE BEING RE-SCHEDULED PLEASE CONTACT CAROL OR MARTIN DIRECTLY.

OTHERWISE KEEP SAFE AND WE WILL GET BACK TO SOMETHING APPROACHING NORMAL AS SOON AS WE CAN.

Dear Member,

I am sure none of us will be sorry to see the back of 2020! What a year!

First of all your committee would like to say a huge thank you for staying with us through a year in which we have been able to run so few events for you. I know it may seem that some of the centres have been able to offer more than MSRC have, but this is purely down to economics, in that they own their facilities –but for us to commit to big hire fees in such uncertain times and having to adhere to Covid protocols which changed all the time – was just impossible.

We did not run the Area Novice Winter dressage qualifier for the above reasons but kindly Charlotte took it on at KSEC and Carol’s report of a very good day follows later in this newsletter. The Intermediate qualifier had to be changed from it’s original date and will now take place on January 17^th 2021 at KSEC. A reminder to potential team members to ensure that your 2021 membership fees have been paid on time!!

World Horse Welfare locked down their facilities for a long time but we are now back using the indoor school. There are strict protocols in place and no access to the visitor centre is permitted which means no loos! For this reason I have not asked Jane Holderness-Roddam to offer a clinic this winter – for an all day clinic some basic facilities are essential. Hopefully, the Sue Petty clinics can start again soon and the Amanda Edmonds and Gill Longhurst ones are currently running. The only change with these is that they will be organised by different people. Sara Bartlett has kindly agreed to take on the Amanda Edmonds ones and Jaki Dyer has kindly agreed to take on the Gill Longhurst ones. I have been running 34 + clinics a year for more years than I care to remember and I just hope you will give Sara and Jaki as much support as you gave me.

The situation has meant that of course it was impossible to have our popular Supper Night this year and our Quiz Night scheduled for March 2021 also looks in danger of having to be delayed. The Injured Jockeys Fund were delighted with our £500 donation from our 2020 Quiz and we hope at some point in the future to arrange a staged presentation like the one we did with Brough Scott last year.

Our Annual General Meeting is due in January, but quite how this will be achieved is still under discussion, but we will be presenting our annual trophies as the winter programme was just about complete – so instead of winter and summer trophies we will be awarding ‘total points’ trophies in the  various categories. If you were the lucky recipient of a trophy last year – you should by now have returned it to Sophie Savage – if not – please do it NOW!!!! ( And return it clean please!).

Report from Carol on Novice Winter Dressage competition at KSEC on Dec 6^th

The area Novice Winter Dressage qualifier took place on 6 Dec 2020 having previously been cancelled due to Covid regulations. Charlotte and John at KSEC kindly took it on – so a huge thanks to them. It ran like clockwork and was an enjoyable day. We only managed to field one non – qualifier team which finished 7^th out of 13 teams. Anita Wilcox riding her new horse, Casper Rebel, came 2^nd in the Individual Intro class. For the team Anita came 10^th in Prelim 2. Jane Surmon on He’s The Man came 4^th (Prelim 7). Emma Doyle on Esme came 9^th in Novice 24, and only just stepping up to this level, Rosey Bradburn on High Spirits came 4^th in Novice 27 – so we finished on 17 points. The next Area Qualifier (Intermediate) is planned for January 17^th 2021 at KSEC so if you would like to be in a team please let me know as soon as possible. Carol.

We all hope for a better 2021 – so stay healthy and keep safe – we will get through this and we are lucky to have our horses to help us through all this.

Safe Riding!

Your Committee

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 18^th. 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