Hi everyone and welcome to the August newsletter! The pic this month is “Flynn” who is a new riding school horse we bought with membership fees in May – a great, live demonstration of how we re-invest membership fees back into equipment (or a horse in this case!) Flynn is a 16h.h. 14 year old Clydesdale cross who has a lovely quiet nature and we are hoping will take on doing our adult beginner/novice lessons and quite a few therapy riders/RDA sessions. He came from a local yard in Inverurie and has settled in really well to the routine so far so look out for him appearing in a lesson near you soon!
IMPORTANT DATES
As most of you will have seen from the last newsletter and our social media pages, we are holding our “August show” on Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th of August so the riding school will be closed for lessons on those days. Bookings for the August show opened last Saturday so all horses and ponies have been booked now, but it is a great weekend for all our members to come and watch – either the Saturday (riding school day) or the Sunday (livery day). We are also holding a BBQ on the Saturday night, which everyone is welcome to come along to – we will provide the BBQ so you just need to bring your food and drinks – children are very welcome – although we are asking that under 18s attend with an adult.
The show will run from 9.30a.m both days so do feel free to pop in and watch some classes – it’s a great atmosphere.
We are also closing the riding school on Fri, Sat and Sun (25th, 26th and 27th August) as it is “Blair weekend” so we find our lessons are quite empty normally and we are going to take the opportunity to close and power hose the whole building!
A last date is Tuesday 29th August, when we have a BHS Training Day on for local coaches and equine professionals and the yard will be closed to the public from 1p.m – 5p.m, but later lessons will go ahead as normal. As always our reception staff will keep you updated with lesson bookings and these dates as we get nearer to them.
BOOKINGS
A quick reminder to everyone just to ensure that they are booked in and paid for their lesson when they return from their Summer holidays. We know everyone has a lot on when they get back from hols, but please try to let us know your return date as if you come along for your lesson and haven’t booked in, it can mean we don’t have a horse/pony ready for you and you can’t ride so just give us a call or drop us an email.
ASSESSMENTS
We will be doing our annual assessments for all riding school riders towards the end of September once everyone has returned from holidays and has settled into the new term/routine. We will have the dates in next months newsletter for the assessments so that everyone is aware of them with a bit of warning. Please remember (as always) that the assessments are not a “test” and are very relaxed. It is one of our coaches that does the assessing and we are just checking that everyone is still in the correct standard of lesson and that they are following the correct syllabus in their current lesson – riders can then collect their assessment feedback form the following week from reception.
RECEPTION OPENING TIMES
Our riding school has been closed on a Friday for many years now as it means the horses/ponies all get one specific day off per week (and allows us to catch up on livery private lessons and staff days off) – as the riding school is closed, reception is also closed for the whole day. For info, our reception is open:
Mon 10a.m – 7.30p.m
Tues 8a.m – 7.30p.m
Weds 8a.m – 7.45p.m
Thurs 8a.m – 7.30p.m
Sat 9.00a.m – 4.30p.m
Sun 9.30a.m – 4.30p.m
Ali works Mon – Thurs covering the hours above and then we have our weekend receptionists on Sat and Sun. So do please be aware that if you call and leave a message on a Friday, we won’t be able to respond immediately but will call you back on the Saturday once reception is open again.
COACHING4ALL
A well done to Liam this month who has now completed all his practical sessions for his British Horse Society Coaching4All qualification – this is an inclusive coaching qualification designed for Level 3 coaches and above who want to develop more skills in working with riders and participants who have experienced barriers to equestrianism or have disabilities – the course aims to help the coach learn a variety of different coaching practices which ensure inclusive coaching. Liam was the recipient of British Equestrian funding for half the cost of the course and we funded the other half – Liam has a couple of in person assessments to do now and will then be fully qualified in this role.
LEADERSHIP AWARDS
Our Leadership awards for teenagers continue to be very popular on a Saturday at 4.30p.m with Sally. The group have almost completed their Bronze level Leadership award now and completed their course “activity” last Saturday when they took the lead to deliver a Pony Stars session, covering some basic stable management and doing some presenting on “role models”. We will be starting the Silver Level Leadership awards soon and we can intake participants at any point so if you have a teenager who would benefit from meeting some new pals, doing some group work to develop communication and problem solving skills, along with developing more resilience, then just book them in through reception – the sessions are £25 per session and we give them homework too!
MIND YOUR SPEED! Just our regular reminder that the speed limit coming along our entry road and into the car park is 10mph maximum because we have horses/children/dogs on the yard and crossing the road. We know it can be frustrating if you are running late for your lesson, but please don’t drive up the road/into car park too quickly.