Friday 31 August 2012

Water, water everywhere

Crazy weather! Half our car park washed away last week in the monsoon conditions on the Saturday. We are ready to get the holes in the road filled in, but we need a dry day to do it, which is easier said than done!
Its been a busy few weeks at the club - we have been trying to fit everyone in for lessons as they return from their summer holidays. It is often difficult at this time of year, as a few children who have reached secondary age can no longer manage 4p.m. lessons, so we need to do a bit of reorganising to fit everyone in! This is why we tend to do the assessments just prior to the summer holidays, so that we can organise lesson moves easier when everyone comes back after hols - its a lot easier if someone has been recently assessed.
Reggie now has his 4 expensive shoes on and is sound and well after his antics with the drill and his artery. I have told him that he needs to do at least 2 lessons per week average to keep himself in credit, as he's proving to be rather an expensive beast at the moment! I'm sure he'll soon outfox us by pulling a shoe off the day before a jumping lesson.
Things are getting busier for the ponies with RDA returning after their summer break and RGU due to return at the end of September. RDA is a great piece of work for the ponies, as its all mainly walk work and the ponies enjoy getting out of their stables for a  walk round the farm/indoor school. RGU work is slightly harder for them, but there is nornally quite a good mix of standards so that the horses get plenty of variety.
We are also organising a few educational evenings for our members - there is one tonight (30th August) at 6.30 p.m with Martin, titled " how to do basic lateral work and what the point is". There will be a riding school horse and member demonstrating the lower level stuff (turn on the 4hand/leg yielding) and then a more advanced livery horse doing some of the fancier stuff.
Hannah is also running an eduational evening on Sunday 23rd September @ 6.30p.m, titled "conformation and how it affects the horses way of going". Both evenings are free for ARC members, and you just need to add your name to the list in reception - there is no charge for either evening as we are keen to promote further training/knowledge within our membership.

Sally is also running a British Horse Society training evening on Friday 28th September at 7.30p.m. The evening will demonstrate all types of groundwork/handling that you can do with a horse and how to deal with behavioural issues in some horses. It will include youngsters, horses that don't catch and horses that can be difficult to tack up. We will also be demonstrating how to loose school and the benefits to this type of work - if you'd like to come along to this, it is open to both BHS members and non-members, and a donation will be taken on the evening (all proceeds to Grampian BHS).

Lastly, Murphy is sadly still lame. He is comfortable in the field with Henry and Reggie, but has not come completely sound after his fracture. We are happy to give him plenty of time as long as he is comfortable, but it looks at the moment as though he is heading for retirement rather than coming back into work. We're sure even in retirement he will keep everyone on their toes, especially the staff and he will be a good field companion!

Thats all for now!

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