Dear OS&B Members and Parents,

I hope you all had a lovely Easter! We have had a very busy start to the year – regular winter training sessions in dressage, SJ, gridwork, arena eventing, mounted games, swimming and shooting will all pay dividends in the next few months. The awful wet weather has thwarted most of our attempts at xc schooling but thanks to Suzie’s perseverance, ten enthusiastic members managed to attend a successful, if wet, schooling session at Munstead at the weekend with Angie Whittington. Our younger members enjoyed their Easter Egg Hunt despite it being held on foot.

We ran two very successful competitions in March. Our annual Tetrathlon Competition was very well supported by Pony Clubs both within our own area and neighbouring areas and we coped with 138 entries, raising substantial funds to subsidise our Rallies and to help cover the costs of running our lovely Pony Club field at Carewell. We also ran the Area Dengie Dressage Competition at Merrist Wood which ran like clockwork!

Our members have been out and about at numerous competitions since the New Year, being very successful in all disciplines. Sarah Gordon, Sophie Preston, Ronnie Harding-Good and Lucy Thomas have all qualified for the Dengie Dressage Championships at Milton Keynes on the 14th April and we wish you the very best of luck girls! Harriet Gillam has qualified for the Grassroots Mitsubishi Motors Cup at Badminton on her lovely horse Milchem Las Vegas and we wish her huge luck at the beginning of May! We are very proud of all of our members’ achievements, however big or small. Parents, please do message me if your children have done well at an equestrian event or tried especially hard at something or overcome some particular difficulty. I do love to hear from you and it is not being boastful!

Our Rallies have all become very popular and do fill up quickly. Please book and pay for these as far in advance as possible – this helps our organisers tremendously who are all very busy with their own horses, children and work. It is also difficult to book our instructors at short notice as they are very much in demand. The weekly Summer Evening Rallies at Carewell will be starting in May so please do look at the dates on our calendar NOW and get your bookings in to Suzie Vickery asap.

With the busy competition season just around the corner, it is worth reminding everyone that one of the aims of The Pony Club is “to promote the highest ideals of sportsmanship, citizenship and loyalty to create strength of character and self-discipline”. Parents, please share this with your children. Also, please remind your children to always thank both their Instructor and the Rally or Competition Organiser. It makes such a difference.

The Pony Club’s Code of Conduct for Parents can be found here: http://www.pcuk.org/uploads/dcs/Role_of_Parents_and_Guardians_-_Code_of_Conduct_Display.pdf

and the Code of Conduct for Members here: http://www.pcuk.org/uploads/dcs/Role_of_Members_-_Code_of_Conduct_Display.pdf

I look forward to seeing you all out and about over the next few months and I am currently to be found doing a sunshine dance!!

Caroline Matthews