SATURDAY 22ND OCTOBER 2011

Today June revisited Wild Birds for a bit, with the members all choosing a bird to colour in and assemble. They were given a general outline of a generic bird along with a pair of wings, and instructed to colour in a REAL bird (some wanted to create their own weird & wonderful feathered friend). A few of the members wanted to do more than 1 bird & almost managed to complete both before their parents came to collect them.

Paul took the members for field maintenance, and all enjoyed that. For some reason, the all seem to like Poo Picking the fields & mucking out stables, and when faced with a choice of that or grooming, they will nearly all of them choose the Former over the latter.

Grooming was done with June & by the end of the sessions we had 2 extremely clean ponies which adore being groomed & pampered – Jack & Ella.

Jenna did most of the riding lessons again today and concentrated on Figure Work, Accuracy, Position, Control, Riding with one hand & Balance. All of her riders had a turn around the Riding Track & that helps to reinforce what they have learned. Hannah N was her most improved rider this week very well done Hannah

June took the last 2 lessons of the day and worked on Position Accuracy & Control. We did a series of exercises in the school that lead to a drawing by the ponies hooves in the sand of a spiders web! We started off with several changes of rein at different points to connect the ‘Spars’ of the web then followed it with a spiral in the centre of the school to complete the ‘Web’. We then took the ponies back to the outside track of the school where the ‘Web’ became visible! This exercise needs a lot of accuracy to do as well as a lot of control and the members all did very well. June’s most improved rider this week was Nathaniel, Very well done Nathaniel!

While June was in the school Jenna was in the yard filling Haynets & Water buckets with the members, and this is yet another job that they all enjoy doing.

Jenny went into the school with the members while the birds were being done, and each of the members had a turn at being the instructor. They had to mount unaided from the Mounting Block with Jenny Holding Freddie (the only help they received was from Jenny holding & leading Freddie) The instructor then gave them exercises to do, after a couple of turns round the sand school they then dismounted and it was then the instructors turn, with the next one to ride becoming the instuctor. A lot of fun was had & some of the exercises done involved dancing & riding backwards. Everyone seemed to enjoy this immensely.

The following members have passed badges: GROOMING MINI ACHIEVEMENT BADGE-
Harmony, Lillian, Georgia, Maya
HANDLING & GROOMING ACHIEVEMENT MERIT BADGE – Hannah N
WORKING DOGS MINI ACHIEVEMENT BADGE – Nathaniel
‘E’ RIDING TEST FELT – Nathaniel

Very well done to all of you!

SATURDAY 15TH OCTOBER 2011

Talking about Fire Safety, (when you want a piece of straw to burn - you can be sure that it wont!)



Today we concentrated on Fire Safety! We enacted out what to do if they see a fire on the yard, they play acted about getting the horses out of their stables & releasing the into the paddocks. This was done by some of the members being the horses & the others either discovering the fire & ‘Calling the Fire Brigade’ while the others were putting headcollars onto the ponies & releasing then into the paddocks. There were a lot of shouts of ‘FIRE’ and all had a turn ringing the fire alarm. All of the members enjoyed this section immensely. We also discussed some of the possible causes of fires in stables, from incorrectly stored Hay, Electrical faults & the Muck Heap spontaneously combusting. Unfortunately now that our muck heap is back in the trailer, we were unable to feel how hot it gets inside this time but they were able to see the steam coming off from it which shows just how much heat there was in it.

Jenna took most of the riding lessons this week & concentrated on Balance, Figure work, 20 meter circles Changes of rein, 3 loop serpentines & working without stirrups June taking just one of the afternoon lessons. All lessons also rode around the track which all of the members like immensely. Her most improved rider this week was Hannah B.
In June’s lesson, she concentrated on steering & control and all of her pupils without exception did extremely well in their endeavours.

We also did Field maintenance, grooming, points of tack and I am pleased to say that both Yasmine & Alice have both passed their Points of the Tack Mini Achievement Badge. Well done to you both. We also covered Feeding your Pony, & learned the difference between Pony Nuts & Sugar Beet and how you must never ever feed Sugar Beet until it has been soaked for 24 hours as it will swell up to at least 5 times its original size!

Pony Nuts or Sugar Beet?

We also learned the difference between Hay & Haylage by look, feel & Smell!

We finished the morning session with a spot of grooming,skipping out the stables, cleaning & refilling water buckets & hula-hooping by popular demand.

The afternoon session was finished up with a pony club relay obstacle course, where they had to weave in & out of bending poles, run along stepping stones, throw a ball into a bucket, Hula-hoop and finally jump into a sack & jump back to the bending poles before leaping out of the sack & sprinting back to the rest of their team.
They didn’t want to stop at all & finally, Jenny & June decided to call it a draw as we had both lost track of how many times the teams had gone. They were all worn out at the end of the day, and so were we! I think that everyone will have slept well last night!

Belated Birthday Wishes go to our youngest member Sienna. We hope you had a very happy 5th Birthday on the 12th October! Belated Happy Birthday to you, from all of us here at Pine Ridge Pony Club Centre.

We have the first Sunflower photo in, this is Libby’s sunflower! Please can we have any other pictures of sunflowers as soon as possible – Thank you.

I am sad to say that one of our working pupils Teddy, has decided that he no longer wants to be at the stables. Ted had been at Pine Ridge for many years now, and has finally decided to finish. He has been an extremely popular pupil and has become a very proficient helper who will be very sadly missed. We would like to take this opportunity to wish him all the best in whatever he decides to do next. Good luck Teddy and thank you very much for all of your help & efforts over the years.

Ted through the years!

SATURDAY 8TH OCTOBER 2011

We had a real treat today with a talk followed by a demonstration on Polocrosse. Polocrosse is a game that is a cross between Polo & Lacrosse played on horseback.

Jenny introduced our speaker Ashley, who besides being aPolocrosse player and a Barefoor Farrier, is also an ex Pony Clubber who has competed as a Junior in the Pony Club mounted Games, Show Jumping & Eventing and now plays in the ‘B’ grade Polocross League.

Ashley& his team came to the stables and while the horses were being warmed up, told the members a little bit about the game and how it is played also the pitch and its size. The width of the polocrosse pitch is actually wider than our Sand School so the riders had to show amazing control with both their aim and their riding skills.

After he had described how the game is played, he changed places with one of the other riders and with the 3rd team member acting as umpire, Ashley & his brother showed us some of the throws, catches & manouvers that are used when playing this game.



Afterwards it was the members turn to practice, without ponies I might add. They were shown how to catch the ball in the nets, throw the ball from the nets and also picking it up from the ground in the nets. The nets are fairly small approx 6” x 9” on a long handle. There is a lot of skill involved just being on the ground with throwing & catching into such a small area, so to do all of this while on a galloping horse, with sharp turns, stops & accelerations thrown together, balance & control come into play in a very big way.

All of the members had a lot of fun trying this out and trying to get them away to ride was a bit like pulling teeth, however we managed to get all the members riding at one time or another with many of them saying “can we go back & practice the polocrosse please”

We would like to say a very big thank you to Ashley & his Team for coming to give us such an informative and entertaining demonstration of Polocrosse.



For more details on this sport please go to www.polocrosse.org.uk or www.pcuk.org/disciplines/polocrosse

Riding was done on in the school for the 1st session followed by riding on the track in the following sessions due to the sand school being used for polocrosse.

The afternoon session was a little different as we didn’t have the demonstration. So we covered a wide range of subjects. The members took a bridle apart and then had to put it back together again. We did field maintenance, looked at poisonous plants, mucked out, cleaned & filled water buckets, rode, covered horse handling, grooming etc.

Everyone had such a good day and all were very attentive & hopefully some of what has been taught today will have stayed in their memory for future reference.

Olympia Indoor Horse Show

For those of you who don't yet know - We have arranged a trip to the Olympia Horse Show on Monday 19th December. Book & pay for you tickets before the end of October! Price includes Coach! Other pick-up point in Swanley to be confirmed - if needed!
Ring Jenny on 01959 533161 to come & enjoy the most festive Horse Show in Britain - enjoy the following events:

Evening Performance - from 6.45pm
(The Shopping Village will close half an hour after the last interval)

The Martin Collins Eraser Stakes

•The Kennel Club ABC Dog
Agility Stakes Final
•The Lusitano Ride from Portugal
•Osborne Refrigerators Shetland Pony Grand National
•Lorenzo The Flying Frenchman
Interval
The Kingsland Olympia Grand Prix

•The Christmas Finale supported by The Hilton London Olympia

Lots of shopping bargains to be had in the shopping village - come & join us for a great night out!

All of these events are to be seen on the night we are going.

SATURDAY 1ST OCTOBER 2011

Today we once again did the same things in the afternoon session as we did in the morning one.







Paul taught the members a bit about ‘Public Speaking’. This is one of the Pony Club Achievement Merit Badges for the over 8 year olds. He tried to teach them how to project their voices, so that we could hear them at the bottom of the field. He did an exercise with them that gave each of them in turn the chance to be the speaker, while the ‘Audience’ were coached how they were to behave. They went from being loud & unruly to most attentive, bored, heckling, and even at one point getting off their seats and walking out! All of the different attitudes were chosen by the members without the speaker of the moment being involved in the decision. Every member had a go so no one was left out, everyone had a hand in making the decisions on how to react to the speaker and there was a lot of noise from the members. All in good fun I might add!

While this was going on Jenna was teaching & concentrating on position & control. The members did exercises as well as questions & answers on their riding. Each member is being taught to verbalise their aids on the horse to help them understand better how they work. Eryn is Jenna’s most improved rider this week.
June worked on Balance & accuracy as well as position. We did a lot of riding without stirrups to help get their seats well down in the saddle, and to improve their leg positions. Hannah B is her most improved rider for this week.

While Jenna was teaching, June & Jenny were with the members & Jack! Jack is proving to be quite the little star, suffering once again to have a lot of fluorescent stars stuck all over him labelling up the different parts of the pony. All the members really enjoy this exercise and seem to learn a lot faster this way as it is much more fun than just sitting with a diagram and having points of the pony shown to them!

They also labelled up June afterwards just for a bit of fun but had trouble finding her Chestnuts, so she decided that the belly button was a good place!!!!

We also did parts of the bridle in much the same way. The only difference being that Jack wasn’t wearing it at the time!

Hannah & Jenna did Horse Clothing while June was in the school, and covered Tendon Boots, Double Bridles, stable Rugs & Turnout Rugs as well as some Bits & other items of tack!

All in all, we had a very good day and to top it all, the weather was absolutely fantastic!!!!

Well done everybody – you all worked so very hard!
See you all again next week.



+ + + + + THIS WEEKS BIRTHDAYS + + + + +

Abigail H will be 10 on the 2nd October
Millie T will be on the 6th October
and finally
Satine will be 9 on the 7th October

May all of us here at Pine Ridge Pony Club Centre, take this opportunity to wish all of you a very happy birthday!