 |
Online Newsletter |
|---|
Summer News
Hi everyone, I hope you are all OK. It will soon be the school holidays and the start of our summer camps. There are a few places left so for those of you who have not booked yet - GET A MOVE ON! Booking forms are in the office, or speak to me or Sally.
Thanks to those of you who made it to Shirley's "HELP FOR HEROES" on Sunday 20th June, we were able to help raise over £100 pounds. Despite so much else going on that day, including Fathers Day, those who came had great fun.
Once again, very big THANK YOUS go to Lynda and Val for their sterling work with the refreshments, and to Lloyd and Rowena for selling the raffle tickets.
Sally continues to do very well with her horses - keep up with them on the WEC website.
The school horses and ponies can't wait for their holidays which start after lessons on Saturday 21st August and they return to start lessons on Tuesday 7th September.
There is a questionaire attached to your newsletter. Please find the time to sit down with Mum or Dad and fill it in. There will be a box in the office for your replies.
The next rally dates will be Sunday July 25th and Sunday September 26th.
Pam
Welcome to 2010
Hello Pony Clubbers, I hope you all had a good Christmas and are looking forward to the coming year. I plan to arrange some interesting visitors to W.E.C. for your enjoyment throughout the year but more about that later. First of all I would like to say a big THANK YOU to all of you who supported the Handy Rider and Fancy Dressage on Sunday 13th December and the Christmas fun on Saturday 19th (despite the freezing weather).
Full results and photo's taken on both occasions can be found if you click on Reports and Gallery. Winners of my short story competition were Emma Maris and Lizzy Robson. Both girls recieved a gift voucher kindly donated by Equicentric. Thank you to those of you who took part. Lloyd Jones won Shirley's Google Witcham competition, taking home the biggest basket of fruit you have ever seen.
The W.E.C. year was once again rounded off with the annual trip to Olympia. We were very lucky with the weather - at one stage it had looked as if we might have to cancel it. We enjoyed world class show jumping, a most touching display of trust and loyalty from Jean-Francois Pignon and his horses, awesome riding from the Metropolitan Police Activity Ride, and much more. Thank you Val and Sally for organising such a brilliant day out.
COMING SOON TO W.E.C. - please keep your eye on the centre's notice boards for events for your enjoyment. POSTERS WILL BE DISPLAYED.
THERE WILL BE NO PONY CLUB FOR JANUARY (far too cold!)
Our next Pony Club MEETINGS are as follows:
Sunday, March 28th...2pm to 3.30pm
NO MEETING ON SUNDAY, 28th Feb 2010
Pam
JANE's TALES FROM THE TACK ROOM
Hello, please let me introduce myself. My name is Jane (best known as Calamity Jane or Potty Jane for reasons which will become apparent!). I am one of these mad people who help out with horses for no return except getting covered in mud/muck, getting soaked or sunburnt, and all for the satisfaction of seeing the darlings win a rosette!
I have known Sally who is the owner and Chief Instructor at WEC since we competed on ponies and have kept in touch over the years. When my old horse sadly went to horsey heaven, Sally was the person I called asking if I could help out at the stables. Since then I have helped with her competition horses, and generally on the yard, and we have recently bought two horses together. You will hear more about the horses as my diary progresses through the coming months.
The idea of this diary is to tell you more about what happens at WEC and especially when we go out to competitions. Please feel free to contact me with your thoughts or comments and come and say hello if you see us out and about. Sally can be spotted easily by her elegant and professional riding and I can usually be found on the floor under a heap of tack (my ability to fall over is legendary!) or charging round like a headless chicken trying to find out which ring we are in!
The exciting news from last Sunday (22 November) is that Jouet du Chene (Buzz), who was bred by Sally, qualified for the Winter Regional Dressage Championships at Elementary level! Buzz has had various foot problems this year and just getting to the qualifier was an achievement in itself. Getting soaking wet and nearly blown away was worth it when he won his class with the score he needed. It made all the grooming, tack cleaning, plaiting, and hard work on the riding side from Sally, worthwhile.
We are not going to a competition this weekend, so if I get some time after mucking out, tack cleaning, mucking out some more, grooming, mucking out yet more, riding, mucking out yet again, I will be able to tell some more tales from the tack room!
Jane Badcock
Adventures in Thetford Forest - Another Tale from the Tack Room
Hello and welcome to the second instalment from the tack room at WEC. Last Sunday three horses and riders - Sally and Woody, Tracey and Tess, myself and Molly - went to Thetford Forest for a fun day out.
Once we had found the actual forest (okay, I know is a big area full of trees, but to start with all we could find were roads and railway lines) we had a great time cantering around the tracks and finding some logs to jump. The going underfoot was so much better than along the muddy tracks around Witcham and the horses loved the opportunity to stretch out.
A special thank you should go to Val (Sally’s Mum) who insisted that the weather would brighten up if we were patient and, exactly when she said it would, it stopped raining!
Hopefully we will return again sometime for more fun, and I can certainly recommend a ride in the forest to anyone, but do remember the big brakes for the horses or you might just end up going further than you planned!
This coming weekend sees a competition at WEC involving a Handy Rider class and dressage. Molly will not be competing as she does not “do dressage”! Woody can do dressage, but chooses not to, but Tess will be competing with Lucy.
Bye for now,
Jane
NEWMARKET EQUINE HOSPITAL
On Monday 26th October, a group of us visited the fantastic new premises of Newmarket Equine Hospital (NEH).
The first impression that strikes you as the huge black gates slide silently open is one of enormous space and extreme cleanliness.
While we were treated to tea, coffee, juice and biscuits, Stuart and Charlie, two of the hospital's vets, gave us a brief history of the practice. The NEH story started in the 1920's at Reynolds House on the High Street, finally moving to its present location beside the July racecourse and National Stud today.
With 30 vets (including ten specialists in different fields), more than 80 stables, and over 75 staff, this hospital with state of the art equipment runs like a well oiled machine.
We split into two groups, Lucy and her gang going with Charlie and Stuart and Pam going with the others.
We had the "Grand Tour" and were shown all around the hospital and grounds, visited the resident farrier, inspected the day boxes, trotting up and lungeing areas, isolation units (way in the distance), intensive care unit,scintigraphy unit,xray unit,mri scanner,operating theatres, weighbridge and pharmacy.
We all enjoyed our visit to NEH and would like to thank all who came along, especially Lucy for helping me keep an eye on everyone in the party. Pam has sent a message of thanks to Stuart and Charlie for taking the time to make our visit fun and understandable.
The vets who provide their services to us at WEC are from NEH.
For further details, please contact us.
Remember to check the WEC Dates page for upcoming Pony Club dates and more events.