January Newsletter

So firstly, a big fat Happy New Year to everyone and best wishes for 2020! It seemed fitting to use a picture of Twiggy in this month’s newsletter as we sadly had to have her put to sleep late in December after she had problems with her back end getting up. Twiggy had reached the grand old age of 27 which is a really impressive age for a big Clydesdale, but she leaves a massive hole with us all as she was such a sweet, generous horse. She was also our main therapy riding horse for adults, so we are now on the lookout for a new therapy horse – the chosen one would need to be around 16h.h., a heavyweight horse who could carry up to 15 stone and the priority is temperament – the horse has to be incredibly patient and bomb proof, particularly when riders are mounting. It doesn’t actually matter if the horse doesn’t canter/jump as most of our therapy riders are in walk and trot – so it may suit an older horse. We can offer a great home for the horse, so if anyone hears of anything that may be suitable out there for loan, then please ask the sellers to contact us or let us know by email/message!

EASTER STABLE MANAGEMENT

The bookings for Easter stable management courses open on Monday 20^th January at 10.00a.m. We are running the following courses:

Beginner – Mon 6^th – Thursday 9^th April inclusive.

Novice – Monday 13^th – Thursday 16^th April inclusive.

Both courses run from 9.00a.m – 2.00p.m and include a riding lesson, theory session and supervised practical grooming. You can book onto the courses by paying a £50 deposit when bookings open and at that point you specify which pony you would like to have for the week.

Beginner stable management is suitable for any rider aged 6 years and over and of a beginner/novice level riding.

Novice stable management is suitable for any rider from 7 years upwards who has started cantering in group lessons and has already achieved their Beginner stable management or Bronze Challenge award level.

THE “BIG” RAFFLE FOR MURPHY

As noted in our last newsletter, the pantomime marked the start of the huge fundraising task that we are undertaking this year – to buy a mechanical horse J

We need to raise 90k for this project, through a mix of fundraising projects which include the raffle, a quiz night and auction (likely in March) and then some Educational evenings.

We did a “big raffle” around three years ago, which was really popular – the idea is that the raffle has one winner who picks from the following prizes:

1. A private lesson each week for a year (48 weeks) – value £1920.00
2. A group lesson each week for a year (52 weeks) – value £1456.00
3. Free stable livery for a year – value £2847.00
4. Free grass livery for a year – value £2774.00

As the prizes for this raffle are so big, the raffle tickets are £50 per ticket (or 2 for £90) – the idea being the most members just buy one ticket – but think of how good it would be to get free lessons for a year! There are a few terms and conditions: