Saturday 24th September 2011

Today with both sessions fully booked we were extremely busy indeed!

Jenny covered Equine First Aid with the members, and explained what to do in the case of an emergency, how they were to stay calm and call for help! Normal temperature was discussed, and there were a lot of Urgggh! Sounds when Jenny told them how to take a horses temperature. Then came the demonstration, with even more eughhhhhh!!!! That’s horrible from the younger members when Jenny inserted the thermometer in the horses rectum! Happily both ponies used had normal temperature of 37 degrees, the same as us humans.

Jenny then finished off with a quiz type game sticking the names of body parts onto Jack, who, bless him took it all in his stride and was very well behaved throughout, even though he had all of these brightly coloured stars stuck all over his body.

Hannah, meanwhile was round the back introducing the members to Dressage. She taught them about the dressage arena, and introduced them to a small variety of dressage moves (on foot), there were sounds of ponies in collected trot, extended trot, flying changes in canter & passage.

Jenna & June again shared the riding lessons! Jenna worked on position, balance, control & accuracy and was most impressed with Eryn who rode in a group with much more experienced riders, and managed to ‘up’ her riding skills to be able to keep up with them in ability. Well done Eryn!

June took the younger members and also worked on Balance & position as well as transitions from halt – walk & back to halt again. Her most improved riders were Chloe P & Harmony (Harmony had her 1st impromptu canter) who have only been riding for a few months & outshone some of the members who have been riding for over a year. Well done guys, keep up the hard work!

We have four Birthdays this week!!!

Annabel G will be 7 on the 25th Sept
Alice will be 11 on the 26th Sept
Grace will be 9 on the 30th Sept & finally
Abigail H will be 10 on the 2nd Oct

May we take this opportunity to wish you all a very Happy Birthday from all of us here at Pine Ridge Pony Club Centre

SATURDAY 17TH SEPTEMBER 2011

Today we had a super time, riding was once again with Jenna & June, & the members were made to work really hard on getting their position correct as well as accuracy in their aids. They worked on transitions and their positional changes in trot.

The older members worked hard on improving their seat in canter, their accuracy in the school, correct use of corners & control, they also worked in the two point position.

Back on the yard the members did mucking out, grooming, field maintenance, bandaging, poisonous plants, wildlife, paddock construction, water & hazards.

We recapped poisonous plants with the older members & taught the new members about them. When it came to bandaging however, the star turned out to be Josh, his bandaging skills were extremely good, well done Josh!

Meanwhile out in the paddocks Sienna turned out to be the star, just 5 years old is able to pick up a whole fork of dung and spot Ragwort very quickly indeed, and when asked to change jobs with another member, insisted on keeping the fork to continue picking up dung.

We also did some tests on care of the hoof, and I am pleased to say that the following members have passed their care of the foot Mini Achievement Badge. Eryn,Chloe, Yasmine, Tam, Millie T, Josh & Millie J – well done to all of you!

Hannah N meanwhile passed her perfect Paddock & the Saddlery Achievement Merit Badges – very well done Hannah.

SATURDAY 10TH SEPTEMBER 2011

We did a wide variety of things today. The usual things such as riding, mucking out, Field maintenance & grooming were interspersed with varied subjects such as Knots, Tack, Horse Handling, points of the pony, quizzes, grooming brushes & their uses etc;

Both June & Jenna took the members for their riding lessons and concentrated on position and control of the horse in walk & trot. Accuracy in steering has to be learned by the younger members. The final goal will be to be able to control the pony while playing mounted pony club games, to be able to control the pony while out riding on the roads and to keep safe while taking part in a number of equine sports or just being a happy hacker!

While June was teaching in the school, Jenna was doing mucking out & grooming with them, and then their roles were reversed.

Paul did field maintenance with them & he informed me that the best in this endeavour was Madison W.

Meanwhile back in the yard Jenny did an amazing array of subjects with them from horse handling & points of the pony to points of tack, bandaging & rugs & Knots!

Everyone tried really hard, and hopefully had a good time!










+ + + + + This weeks birthday + + + + +

Robyn will be 15 years old on the 16th

All of us here at Pine Ridge Pony Club Centre would like to wish you a very Happy Birthday!

SATURDAY 3ND SEPTEMBER 2011

<b>OLYMPIA HORSE SHOW

A reminder to all our members, we have a block booking for the Olympia Horse Show on 19 December at 6.45. We have excellent seats plus return luxury coach for £55 per person. Olympia is a fantastic show with loads of entertainment plus an extensive shopping village. Every member of the family will enjoy it. We need to finalise bookings by the end of September, so if you would like to book, please phone Jenny on 01959 533161 to reserve your place.

Pony Club Rally - 3 Sept.


Today we again split the riding between Jenna & June! June worked on position and transitions between walk- halt & halt – walk as well as walk – trot & trot - walk, balance of the rider and their strength & fitness. My most improved rider this morning was Chloe P & this afternoon was Yasmine.

Eggbut Snaffle Bit



Jenna also concentrated on position (As riders progress, position needs to be adjusted to avoid bad habits creeping in) also every time a rider changes transition from one pace to another, new position changes have to be learnt. Jenna also taught them how to use their corners correctly, and did exercises with then to improve both balance, seat position & rider fitness. Her most improved rider was Emily S.

Yew Tree or Bush (Our most poisonous plant) just one mouthful is enough to kill a horse within 1 hour!




In the yard the subjects covered were varied, Mucking out, grooming, horse clothing, bits points of the tack, Poisonous plants & field maintenance.

Full Cheek Eggbut Snaffle Bit



With many new members, all these subjects needed to be covered again and the reasons for doing them explained. The older members needed to cover all of this again to enhance their knowledge & understanding & to cement their learning.

Rhododendron, another exteremely toxic plant common in woodland as well as in gardens. Death usually occurs within a couple of hours of being eaten!

Dutch Gag Snaffle Bit



The members learned about different Bits from the Snaffle family, (the most commonly used bits in the horse world) and how they work on the horse.

Loose Ring Straight Bar Vulcanized Rubber Snaffle Bit.

Travel Boots




They were shown the difference between stable rugs, fly sheets & turnout rugs & they were shown travel boots & tendon boots.

Tendon Boots.




All in all a whole lot of learning was up for the taking, hopefully, they will retain some of the knowledge passed on to them.



THIS WEEKS BIRTHDAY
This week we have 2 birthdays, Poppy will be 11 years old on the 7th September
& Eryn will be 10 years old on the 10th September. May we wish you both a very Happy Birthday from all of us here at Pine Ridge Pony Club Centre.