Category Archives: Horse and Pony Care

Horse and Pony Care

AREA 5 Horse and Pony Care Competition

Centres Do Well on the day

A very successful Horse and Pony Care Competition was held at Pennant Park Centre September 5th hosted by Aberconwy Branch.  Thank you to John Gilbert and his team for organising the day.  It is a practical competition as much as a Quiz and the teams of 3 move round different “stations” which each have a particular topic.  There are now three classes – Mini, Junior and Senior and the winner of each class go forward to the Final in Lutterworth, October 23/24th.

There were 2 Centres – Springbank (Tushingham) and Gorswen (Anglesey) and  six Branches who took part (East Cheshire, Flint and Denbigh, Cheshire Hunt North, Anglesey, Aberconwy and Wynnstay).  Well done to them for supporting this worthwhile competition.

  • Mini Class – There were 10 teams entered.  The highest placed branch was East Cheshire but the overall winner was Springbank Centre who was entering for the very first time.  They were absolutely delighted to have done so well.
  • Junior Class – 10 teams again.  The winning team was Anglesey who will go forward but the 2nd placed team – Cheshire Hunt North has had an invitation too.
  • Senior Class – just two teams (Wynnstay Branch and Gorswen Centre) and the result was very close, just a few points between them but the winning team was Gorswen.

Gorswen, a relatively small Centre on Anglesey, deserves a special mention as they put forward SIX teams on the day and had obviously done a great deal of preparation.

GOOD LUCK to all teams going forward to the Championship.

Horse and Pony Care

Blue Cross Horse and Pony Care Day Results

On Monday 15th February, Foxes Riding School hosted the Area 5 Blue Cross Horse and Pony care qualifier. We welcomed Area 5 Pony Clubs, both branches and Centres to Foxes Riding School to take part in this Championship Qualifier. The competition is split into two sections; Junior and Senior. Senior and Junior teams make their way around different ‘stations’, each of which compromised of a different theory or practical based topic. Ten minutes were spent at each ‘station’, during which time the teams were asked a series of questions to be marked by the examiner. More details on this can be found here on the Pony Club website.

The Junior Teams went first in the morning and they all did fantastically well, the winning branch team and winning centre team go through to the Horse and Pony Care Championship so a special congratulations to team Badminton of Sir Watkin Williams Wynn’s Hunt Branch and to Team 1 for the Cheshire Riding School who qualified for the Championships.  Foxes Junior Pony Club Team came a 4th overall and put on a great performance missing out on qualifying by only 1 point!!! Well done to Freya, Juilette and Rebecca.

Here are the full Junior Results:

Pony Club Team Total Placing
Team 2 East Cheshire 76.5 5th
Team 1 Cheshire Riding Stables 79 3rd
Diamonds F&D 68.5  
Burghley www 67  
Red Rum Cheshire Hunt South 70  
Pony Sanctuary Foxes 78 4th
Aldaniti Cheshire Hunt South 73  
Team 1 Mobberley 74 6th
Team 1 East Cheshire 84 2nd
Team 1 Cheshire Hunt North 54.5  
Badminton WWW 89.5 1st
Ballabrigs Cheshire Hunt South 59.5  
Team 1 Gorsewen 59.5  

During the morning, the junior Pony Club teams were treated to a Dressage Demonstration by Anna Davey on Foxes very own Dallas, one of our Riding School horses.  Anna talked through warming up and showed our teams different movements from Passage to half pass, explaining as she rode what she was asking Dallas to do and why warming up your horse is so important, there was a huge round of applause when she finished – thanks Anna!!

The Senior Teams went next in the afternoon and we had 3 teams in total and we are delighted to say that the team going through to the Championships was our very own team Red Wings for Foxes Riding School – huge congratulation to Ruth, Millie and Morgan!!

Pony Club Team Total Placing
Gorsewen 101 3rd
Mobberley 101.5 2nd
Foxes Red Wings 120 1st

Big thank you to all the teams for making it such a fantastic day, all the winners won fantastic rosettes and the first place teams also won goodie bags courtesy of Colberry Saddlery who sponsored the whole day.  Also thank you to all the volunteers and judges that helped with the smooth running of the whole day.