Brent Knoll Riding Club

January 2007 Newsletter

Hello and a belated Happy New Year to you all.

This will be the last newsletter for those of you who have not rejoined the club, so come on fill out your membership and post it off to me, you know you want to! Please remember that you need to have rejoined to be able to join in the lessons as these are subsidised by the riding club. Membership cards will be with you asap but in the meantime your membership number is in the top right corner on your address label.

We have put together a provisional schedule for 2007, still waiting for some dates to be confirmed, please let us know if you have anything in particular you would like us to run. Having talked to members and read the back of your membership forms for feed back, we think we have covered most things, ( expect we've forgot something!) A more frequent newsletter was a request from a few, these are quite time consuming and I don't always have much to put in, but will try to send out a monthly, What's on, to jog your memory plus any bits of news I have. I can include For Sale/Wanted items if anyone has anything to advertise. Just email me with the details and I'll add it in.

Well 2006 ended with Christmas drinks for members and their guest, very kindly held at Beverleys house in Brent Knoll. This was well attended with about 20 people turning out for a very social evening. The drinks and food were provided by the club and Boulters of Banwell, where new committee member Celia Lewis runs the Equestrian side, very kindly provided a raffle prize of a very useful body-warmer, which was won by Clare Nightingale, making her trip down from Felton a good one. The Christmas stocking went to Andy Pugsley, so we know what Izzy got for Christmas! Pictures will be on the web shortly of us gathered round Bev's Christmas tree!

The Festive ride was postponed as the weather was really not very nice and a few people cancelled, so we are going to do a Valentines Ride, in February which will include chocolate!!! This is going to be from near me in Hutton, going over the top to Loxton and round towards Banwell, mostly off road, but some small roads. Sunday 11th February 11am.

The annual January quiz and supper evening at my house was well attended as 21 people squashed into my lounge last Friday evening. The regulars thought the quiz was about right, not too hard or easy. We had a horsey one which was won by Laura and Carrie Caville who seem to have taken over the mantle from Bev and Camilla Gore, and a general knowledge one, in which Sally Webb and friend Christine, (who's a new member) beat John and Pat Drinkwater by half a point! John and Pat were very gracious in the narrow defeat. We had quite a few new members that evening so it was nice for people to meet each other.

The Area 12 Team show jumping at Badgworth took place last Sunday, Jan. 28th. It all ran smoothly and Brent Knoll had a very good day, taking 1st and 2nd in the warm up class, with Kim Hill on Henleys One & Only (1st) and Sarah Bryant on Henleys Rhythm in Black (2nd) We were 2nd overall in the Team Championships, all riders went clear in the first round and in the second round Kim and Sarah were clear again, Carer had 4 faults due to a onward bound Red Hot and Ready to Rumble and Carer only really having one good arm as she was in a car accident Thursday before, not her fault, Laura and Frankie didn't quite have the best of rounds so we ended on a final score of 4, same as West Somerset, but we were by far the fastest team so claimed 2nd place. Well done to, Kim, Sarah, Carar, Laura, all who helped and Laura who managed to put the team together.

There is a veterinary first aid and illness management talk night in Hutton with supper, in February by Scott Milnes of Bushy Equine Clinic. He'll go through what to look for and how to manage, illness and first aid situations. There will be a questions & answer session afterwards where Scott will explain all!!

I've asked Woodspring, Wessex and Blackdown Mendip if they would like to have an interclub Skittles evening and they said yes, so all you out there who know how to play please let me know so we can get a team together! This is to be held in March, Wed., 20th at the Walnut Tree Pub, 2mins from Weston Hospital and cost is £5 pp including light supper, Curry, Spaghetti, or Veggie option, need food orders Monday before.

We decided to run a Dressage show in the summer which will include Dressage to music classes, as there isn't one in the area, so start practising now!!. We are hoping to get Steve Hadley and Andrea Sexton back, Andrea said she'll do a days clinic, followed by a demo in the evening. I'm hoping to negotiate with the Hand for both Steve and Andrea. Quite a few people wanted a camp in the summer so I've looked at Pontispool and Stockland Lovell if there is enough interest then we'll run one, need to know when people want to go and where. Don't forget the Road Safety training is also on offer.

Sam Pepperall is going to be running a Show Jumping Course building training day at Wick St Lawrence on Sunday 1st July 10 am to 3pm, £7.50 including advice sheets and coffee. An excellent chance to learn from a very experienced and nice person.

That's it from me for now, hope to see you somewhere soon!

Hilary