Hi everyone and welcome to the November newsletter – we’re all starting to get ready for winter now which is a depressing thought but never mind!
CONGRATULATIONS LAURA
A huge congratulations to Laura this month (in the pic above with her friend Gizmo) as she passed her British Horse Society Stage 4 Dressage Ride assessment with flying colours. Laura worked hard in the lead up to her assessment working on riding a variety of school horses (and livery horses thanks to our kind liveries). The assessment involves riding a variety of levels of horse up to Elementary dressage level and discussing their way of going and training plans which would be suitable for the horse going forwards – Laura had great feedback with her results so well done Coach Cargill we’re all very proud of you!
AND YET MORE CONGRATULATIONS!
Also huge congratulations to Sophie this month – Sophie is our newest team member and started with us in the Summer and she has been training towards her BHS Stage 2 and went and sat the assessment a couple of weeks ago and passed with flying colours. For the BHS Stage 2 assessment Sophie is assessed riding 2 horses on the flat and 2 horses jumping a course of 70cm, then is also assessed on lunging a horse for exercise and all the horse care elements – so tack, horse health, legislative requirements and the skeletal and digestive system. Sophie worked really hard preparing for her assessment so a big well done Sophie – very proud of you!
XMAS AND NEW YEAR
As normal, we will be operating a skeleton staff and lesson timetable around Xmas and New Year so for this year, our skeleton lesson timetable will start on Saturday 21st December and the last day of skeleton dates will be Friday 3rd January. The riding school will be closed on 24th, 25th, 26th and 27th December and the 31st December, 1st, 2nd and 3rd January.
We will therefore be running skeleton lessons on 21st, 22nd and 23rd Dec and the 28th, 29th, 30th Dec. On the days we run skeleton lessons we will have a mix of private and group lessons on but less than normal as historically a lot of our members have been away over Xmas and New Year, so it gives us a chance to ensure our hard-working staff all get some extra time off over the festivities.
Do please remember to check in with reception about your lesson over the skeleton period – Ali will keep you right with which lessons are available for you on which day if you’d like to ride over the festivities. More importantly, if you are away over Xmas and New Year, please remember to book in for your first lesson back so we don’t end up having to disappoint riders as we don’t have horses in and ready for sessions.
PANTOMIME
It’s the news you’ve all been waiting for! We are going to do a panto again at ARC in 2024!!!! We haven’t done one since Covid as Sally got a bit “nappy” about doing one again as she wanted to delegate writing it e.t.c. to others J So it’s taken a few years, but Lynne Clark (one of our liveries) has kindly stepped up and written the panto and our cast have started rehearsing already!
So, the panto will be on Friday 20th December at 7.00p.m and tickets are available from reception from Monday 18th November (10.00am).
Ticket prices are:
Children (under 16) – £5.00
Adults (17 and over) – £7.50
Family ticket (up to 5 members of same family) – £17.00
There will be hot drinks and cakes available on the evening and it is normally a great fun event – regardless of whether you are “horsey” or not – everyone normally gets a good laugh at our staff and liveries making fools of themselves J It lasts around an hour and a half so isn’t too late an evening for the wee ones! We will also be holding a raffle in the lead up to it as the pantomime is always a fundraiser for various things – this year we are using it as a fundraiser for a project ARC is going to be working on in 2025 where we try to increase participation in equestrianism from an underrepresented group, so the panto is a great chance to fundraise for that.
MURPHY SUCCESS
So, Murphy has been with us for a good few weeks now and is proving really popular! We are delighted that our members have been enjoying their sessions on Murphy so much and our staff are delighted with the level he can do and how much impact he is having on riders’ position and aids. Our coaches have been on a learning curve with Murphy too, so here is what we have found out so far:
- We have seen really good improvement in riders when they get back on a real horse after even just 1 sim session.
- Murphy is seriously good at helping our riders understand how to apply a leg aid (yes – there have been quite a few riders that have ended up in canter rather than walk because of a rather strong leg aid!)
- Contact – we think contact is one of the hardest things to improve as a rider as it is subtle changes that make a difference. Murphy has a very nice mouth that is very consistent, so it is brilliant to see how much better riders hands are after a shot on him.
- Transitions – horses are limited with how many transitions they can do so we can only work on a few in a lesson and by their nature transitions are a very short period of time. Murphy can do unlimited transitions though!
GIFT VOUCHERS A reminder that we do gift vouchers for all ARC services that have a 6-month expiry date, so they can be a great idea for a Christmas gift for a rider. We can also offer gift vouchers for Murphy for both ARC members and non-members which are perfect for anyone from a complete beginner to an advanced rider, so if you’d like to organise a voucher for Xmas for someone, then please just visit reception and they can assist you. If you’d like an electronic voucher to either print off at home or email to the recipient, Ali can provide these by email (as opposed to a paper voucher) so just let us know if you’d like one!