Hi everyone and welcome to the August newsletter – our pic is Lilly out working hard checking the haylage crop when it was cut. Our haylage is all baled now and we have a good crop in for the winter which is always a big relief as we spend a lot of money on it earlier in year and then for it to be made, so having it wrapped and stacked and ready means we have enough on site for another year which is great and the horses are delighted as it looks really good stuff!
WELL DONE LIAM
A well done this month to Liam, who passed his BHS Stage 4 event ride, getting his results at the end of June. Liam had worked really hard for the assessment, so we’re delighted at his results – the assessment involves riding 2 different horses on the flat, showjumping to 1.10m and x-country to 1m all on strange horses, so Liam did a great job. Onwards and upwards now with training for his Stage 4 management!
GREAT PONY STARS!
We are mid-way through the summer holidays now so lots of our younger members have enjoyed coming along for Pony Stars sessions and they’ve all learnt lots and made new friends. The next Pony Stars weeklong sessions that we will be running will be in the October holidays – we will set the dates for them once everyone is back to school after the holidays and will advertise the dates on both the Club Facebook page and our next newsletter. Please remember that the ridden spaces fill up very quickly, but don’t panic – we can normally accommodate quite a few extra in the grooming only part of the course. For our younger members who have enjoyed the Pony Stars sessions, remember that we run the same type of content on a Saturday afternoon at 3.30 with Liam for an hour for Dartmoor Dazzlers (the yellow book) and on a Monday at 4.30 with Laura for Welshie Wizzers (the blue book) – you can just book in for the sessions as and when you can manage so let us know if you have a young rider who would like to take part.
A FEW REMINDERS
A couple of reminders to our members this month – we try to avoid having too many rules as it can make it a bit difficult to keep up with, but these two are really important!
CARROTS – it’s great that our members like to take up treats for the horses and we have no problem with them being fed carrots. However, quite a few members are taking up carrots which they have chopped up by cutting across the carrot – so making little cylindrical parts. Feeding carrots this way is really high risk for our horses as the carrot is the perfect shape to get lodged in the horse’s oesophagus – horses can’t be sick, so anything stuck in their food passage normally involves a lot of distress for the horse and a vet coming out to try to clear the blockage. So please – either feed the carrots whole (the horses will bite them off to correct size) or slice them lengthways – like carrot fingers!
The other thing that we need to remind members about is taking pictures/videos in group lessons. We know that everyone likes to take pictures and videos, but in a group lesson it’s not permitted as you end up inadvertently taking pics/vids of other riders. Whilst it’s understandable that we might not realise the issue with that, we can never assume that other people are happy to have their picture/video taken and it can make other riders uncomfortable. We also do quite a bit of work at ARC with vulnerable groups and often a rider who is participating in a group may wish to do so fairly anonymously with no pics/videos of them taking part in their activity, so please – if you want pics, then let us coaches know and we’ll happily let you take pics at end or of an individual part of lesson. Equally for videos – in a private lesson you can video as much as you like – we like that members can re watch their lesson/progress, but we just can’t permit it in group lessons so please just bear that in mind and don’t be offended if one of our coaches asks you to stop filming/taking pics.
HORSE/HUMAN BOND
As our members will be aware, there has been a negative story in the press in the lead up to the Olympics regarding a British Equestrian athlete. The video that was shown in the news and online was inexcusable – it showed training methods that we would never use at ARC and was detrimental to the public perception of equestrianism. Our view is that these things should be investigated by the governing bodies, and we should have faith in their investigation process.
Our view is that what we should be doing is promoting all the amazing positives about spending time with horses – whether that be having a relaxing lesson after a busy day, attending ARC for therapy sessions, or just visiting to spend time with the horses and feed them carrots. So, we will be working hard over the next few months to provide the positive narrative around horses and how much we all adore being lucky enough to spend time with them!
CHANGING LIVES THROUGH HORSES
We have had some great interest in our equine facilitated learning provision so just a reminder for anyone who may be interested as we will be starting to look at start dates for sessions and courses in time for the schools returning. The sessions are aimed at young people who are disengaged or at risk of disengaging with education – the course runs for around 2 hours once a week (sometimes more) and delivers training in key skills to the young people with the aim of them either using these skills and new confidence to re-engage with education, or to equip them with the skills they need to progress into a workplace/ apprenticeship/career. If you are interested in the course, then please contact Ali who can send you an information sheet on the course which will provide much more detailed info.
LEADERSHIP COURSE We still offer our leadership training with Sally on a Saturday at 4.30p.m (1 hour) for young people (aged 12 – 18 years). The sessions cover team work, communication, learning about role models and how to carry out new tasks as a group – it’s a really popular course with those who already attend, but we’re always happy to have new folks join the session, so if you’d like to come along then just get booked in with Ali.