DC with family’s horses

September 2023

Several of our members qualified for the Regional Championships and the Championships at Offchurch Bury. Well, done for getting out there and representing West Kent Meopham, as a committee we are very proud of your achievements.

We are about to release a new Booking System, which will hopefully will make rallies easy to book onto, as it will populate your details so you don’t have to repeat typing your children’s details.  Please bear with us while we also learn this system.

I think it is certainly time to reflect on why you are members of the Pony Club, for all
the training and learning opportunities that are there, making friends along the way
and remembering that competitions are there to mark your improvement, not as the
only goal of your riding experience.

Learning how to look after your ponies, in all areas of Stable Management, and then
carry it out daily rather than leave it to someone else, is very rewarding. Please put
yourself forward for tests when we suggest them as we have some wonderful
instructors who can prepare you for them during the year.

Many rallies have been organised for you in the coming months, we will release them
gradually but you can plan from the Calendar. Please only book on the free ones if
you can commit to it, don’t block book too far ahead as others lose out when people
drop out last minute.

I look forward to seeing you all more and meeting our  new members in the months ahead.

September 2022

It was lovely to see so many members, new and old, making friendships and having fun at camp this year.  I hope you all enjoyed the rest of your summer holidays even though it was rather dry.  Next year’s dates are on the website, so plan your summer holidays around that!

The committee have been busy organising the Calendar of activities for you.  With a massive membership of 135 we are trying to get plenty of rallies and time slots for you all.  One of our challenges during the winter is parking and we are often limited to venues with hardstanding.  Later in the winter we try to hire more indoor events so that especially the little members don’t get put off by getting too cold, but obviously everyone in Kent is trying to do the same thing!  The older members are well able to dress appropriately and keep moving to keep warm!

There will be some badge rallies that you attend without your ponies and these are and important part of learning towards your Tests each year so I would really like to encourage you to attend these.  The Blue Cross Badge is awarded once you have attained certain welfare orientated badges and really means you are ready to take some of the more advanced tests and have learned gradually rather than cramming it all the week before!

The calendar has our rallies on it and when possible we also put on Area 11 competitions in CAPITALS so you can ask around each other and see who is planning what. 

Please do speak to any of the committee if you have any questions or any ideas for rallies and we will do our best to organise what we can.

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AREAS AND CHAMPIONSHIPS AND REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

When any member is selected for Areas the branch will offer one free group training before the Area Event.

If a member then qualifies for the Championships the branch will pay their whole entry fee.  If these Championships move to Cheshire again the branch will pay for some stabling, but will review this annually.

If a member qualifies for the Regional Championships the branch pay their whole entry fee.

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President : Mrs Jane Scott

Vice President : 

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In 1947 Mrs Helen Walliker formed the Meopham Sub-branch of the West Kent Hunt Pony Club to enable children from the Meopham area to attend rallies as it was so far to hack to Sevenoaks and Penshurst.

In 1972 Col John Cordy-Simpson and Mrs Sue Batchelor formed West Kent Hunt (Meopham) Branch and Mrs Helen Walliker became the District Commissioner.

Mrs Jill Webb took over as DC in 1987, Mrs Walliker became President and Mrs Catherine French was made Vice President.

Mrs Jane Scott took over as DC in 2012 and Mrs Webb became Joint Vice President.

Mrs Julie Dinnis took over as DC in 2017 and Mrs Jane Scott became Joint Vice President.

Mrs Jane Scott became President in 2018