Coach: Kirsty Moat
Having been a member of the Fitzwilliam as a child I moved on to start for coaching for them almost 30 years ago (makes me feel very old!). Some of the children I taught as a young coach are now Pony Club parents themselves. Some of my lifelong friends are those I went through my Pony Club journey with or have coached with through the years. It’s a special organisation!
These days I specialise in dressage and spend my time coaching clients of all ages and abilities, producing my horses and being logistical support and general dogsbody to my three boys, all of whom have been members and enjoyed their time with the Fitz.
We run regular flatwork training sessions at a variety of venues and are happy to include riders of all ages and abilities. I am a firm believer that good flatwork is essential for development of both pony and rider to move forward in all disciplines, and aim to start at a young age with fun flatwork exercises and to move progressively through the scales of training to produce balanced, happy horses and riders who are able to perform the work asked of them with ease, harmony and relaxation. At the heart of everything is FUN. Learning should be enjoyable – challenging, but enjoyable. Every session is approached with this in mind.
The Area Dressage Competition runs on the 30th June this year and is being organised by the Blankney. The competition includes classes for Junior, Novice, Intermediate and Area teams and individuals. All classes can be entered as individuals or as teams of three or four with the best three scores to count. We try to run sessions to prepare before competition day and these are often included in our regular training sessions. On competition day itself I am on hand all day to help warm up, get to tack checks and correct arenas – and any other assistance, fetching, carrying and moral support needed for an enjoyable day to be had by all. Usually powered by Haribo!
