Hi Everyone, Murphy here – I’m writing the newsletter again because I’m the only pony clever enough to read – as you can see from the pic above, where I’m swotting up on the Challenge awards but more about them later………
POLITE REMINDER!
Just a regular little reminder to let all our members know that the speed limit on our access road and in the car park is 10mph – as per the speed limit signs on the road. The reason for the slow limit is that there are lots of kids and dogs enjoy ARC and they can be in the car park going to cars or going to get collected – please be aware of this and drive into the car park nice and slowly. We also have staff turning horses out across the road and whilst the staff wear high viz so are visible from a distance, some of our visitors have been driving past them a bit fast recently. Please obey the speed limit to keep everyone safe!
SWINGS AREA
As our eagle eyed visitors may have noticed, there is a new addition to the swing/slide area taking shape. It’s a trampoline ☺
The swing/slide/trampoline are provided by club members whos kids have grown out of them and they have kindly donated them to the club – they are really popular both with our riders and their younger siblings e.t.c. whilst they are waiting for their siblings to finish riding.
Now the boring bit ☺ :
Children need to be supervised on the swings/slide at all times – it’s not a service ARC provides as part of the facility, its just an area you can use if you like. The trampoline will have full safety netting on it, but children still need full supervision on it – so you guys are welcome to go and enjoy the equipment, just make sure you leave it tidy and use it safely with supervision!
AVANSCE LESSON
Want to improve your contact? Want to understand more if your hands are sympathetic and asking the correct thing down the rein? We can offer private flatwork lessons with the rein contact system fitted to any school horse, which works live time to a laptop at the side of the school so that your coach can tell you exactly at any point in time when the contact you have is correct! The rein system is a great piece of kit and is already proving popular with our riding school members, so if you would like your lesson in the equipment, just let reception know in advance so that we can have it fitted in preparation for your lessons – it’s suitable for adults or children and will really improve your knowledge of what to do with the contact.
CHALLENGE AWARDS
We have now launched The BHS Challenge awards at ARC. The awards are designed for recreational riders and are a structured learning course in stable management and riding. The riding awards can be signed off during your existing riding lessons (either private or group) and then we are offering stable management sessions (weekly) to work towards the “care of the horse” awards. The awards are suitable for adults and children (although they will do different training sessions) and are totally flexible – you can dip in and out of whichever sessions you want to do, or choose to work through them all for the complete set of awards. The awards start at bronze and work up to silver, gold and then platinum with varying content in each one which builds on the last award done. The sessions we are initially running (and will likely start at the end of August) are:
Monday at 4.30p.m with Laura (children) one hour session.
Wednesday at 5.45p.m with Sally (adults) one hour session.
Saturday at 8.15a.m with Sally (adults) one hour session.
We will be putting all the information on the challenge awards sessions on the riding club closed Facebook page and the sessions are £15 each. In order to take part in the sessions, you need to be a member of the British Horse Society (either Silver or Gold membership) but membership costs just £3.66 per month for silver membership or £5.75 per month for Gold membership. You can do the challenge awards with either silver or gold membership – membership includes a great magazine you get five times a year, discount to various events during the year and with gold membership, you also get public liability and personal accident insurance which is a really good idea if you ride!
If you would like to take part then the first stage is to join up to the BHS which you can do by calling them – contact details can be found at https://www.bhs.org.uk
OCTOBER STABLE MANAGEMENT
We will be running stable management courses during the October school holidays – beginner stable management will run from Mon 14th October – Thursday 17th October inclusive and the Novice course will run from Monday 21st October to Thursday 24th October inclusive. Stable management courses are £165, with a £50 deposit payable on booking. We will be opening the bookings for the October stable management on Monday 2nd September at 10.00a.m
We will also be putting on two or three days “Challenge awards” training during the October holidays for both adults and kids who want to do some more of those so lots on offer for the holidays!