News

ABRS certificates

ABRS certificates are now ready to collect from the office!

Helpers, entry forms and Summer Camps

Please ensure that in order to claim your 50 point reduction for summer camp that you have booked to have your ABRS helper entry form completed and signed off. This half term the only days that this can be done, will be Tuesday 28th May and Wednesday 29th May between 10am and 4pm and the next available time will not be until the start of the summer holidays. The signing off is free but needs to be booked in advance.

May Pony Club topic…

May’s Pony Club topic is plaiting and show preparation.

New pony found

New pony Lottie has now arrived at Wellgrove Farm. Lottie is a 13hh, five year old bay mare, and will become a pony for Wellgrove’s Riding for the Disabled.

March photo competition winners

These were the winners of the March photo competition: “Silly Horses”

Winner:

Runner up:

ABRS examination results

Congratulations to the following in our first set of ABRS (Association of British Riding Schools) examinations.

• Equitation test 1: Ruth Stevenson, Melisa Chen, Jessica Commane
• Equitation Test 2: Lynsey Puttock, Alice del Marmol, Clara Goyeneche, Isabelle Kwan, Kinari Tsuchida, Tinki Chan, Wera Ruan
• Stable Management 1: Wera Ruan, Ruth Stevenson, Lynsey Puttock, Isabelle Kwan, Clara Goyeneche, Alice del Marmol

Short-notice Pony Days on snow and inset days!

Kids off school for an inset day?

Schools are closed because of snow?

No problem!

Wellgrove Farm Stables can cater at short-notice for full and half Pony Days mid-term. Qualified, experienced, CRB-checked instructors will always be available on site to provide instruction – just get in touch if you need our help on those difficult days in the school term!

New adult weekday classes available!

We’ll be starting new special-rate tariff adult classes every weekday (term-time only) at 11am (walk and trot) and 11.45am (walk, trot and canter).

The cost for these 45 minute classes is just £20.

Dressage results

These were the results from our dressage competition.

Class 1 – walk and trot:

1. Annette Green and Mo 65%
2. Evie Green and Mo 49.4%
3. Mimi Brown-Griffin and Pumba 46.25%

Class 2 – intro

1. Stephanie Witchell and Bart 66.7%
2. Gemma Boorman and Penny 62.5%
3. Sophie Whittome and Maggie 60.8%
4. Grace Brown-Griffin and Foaly 55.8%
5. Alex Witchell and Molly 40.8%

February photo contest winner

The February photo competition subject was Me and my favourite pony, and the winner is Annette Green with her pony Mo.

Gymkhana and Pony Club results

These were the winners of our Tack and Turnout competition and Gymkhana Games from half-term:

Turn-out competition: Leah Faircloth with Socks

Bucket Elimination: Emily Hooker on Babysham and Alex Witchell on Beano
Sweet Race: Gemma Boorman on Sweep, Victoria Thorne on Socks and Red Robinson on Marcus
Ring and Post Race: Emily Hooker on Babysham
Flat-Out Race: Evie Green on Molly

Pony Club Awards:
Bronze 1: Mimi Brown Griffin
Bronze 2: Sofia Croft, Mary Lambert, Phoebe Everett-Kately, Grace Brown-Griffin
Bronze 3: Imogen Saker, Leah Faircloth, Millie White

Wellgrove hits Twitter!

Wellgrove Farm Equestrian is now on Twitter!

Follow us @WellgroveFarm for all the latest news and photos from the yard.

Go-ahead for Riding for the Disabled

We have been granted the go-ahead to set up a disabled riding charity on site, under the umbrella of the RDA (Riding for the Disabled Association). This will take a little while to set up, but the main thing we will be doing over the next few months is consolidating volunteers and beginning volunteer training with the aim to take our first clients at the beginning of the summer.

Volunteering could be of any type from assisting with rides to paperwork and fundraising, so if you think that you might have any skills to offer then please do not hesitate to contact Emma with what you can offer and when so that you can be called upon when needed!

It would be nice if this could become quite social for the helpers too, so we will be organising a few social outings etc once organised too.

January photo competition winner

The winners of January’s photo competition Cute and Furry were Sophie, Emma and Joe Gower with their photo of Marcus:

The runner up was Red Robinson’s photo of Mitmoo:

Thanks to everyone who entered, and don’t forget to enter February’s photo competition – the subject is My favourite Wellgrove pony and me.

BHS commendations for Wellgrove

This is the most recent report on how the British Horse Society rated Wellgrove at the end of 2012.

• Cross Country Course – N/A
• Instructional Facilities – Commended
• Customer Care – Commended
• Riding Out – Commended
• Feed Room – Highly Commended
• Show Jumps – Commended
• General Facilities – Commended
• Stabling – Highly Commended
• Indoor & Outdoor Arenas – Commended
• Tack Room – Highly Commended
• Instructing/Coaching – Highly Commended
• Working Procedures – Highly Commended

(Possible ratings: Highly Commended, Commended, Approved)

Snowy days

A few brave riders rode in the snow on Saturday. Our road remained clear thanks to Steve and allowed us to ride up to our top fields for a beautiful view. Only Ella seemed to prefer the view from the ground!

We are also running progressive Bronze award riding tests this week for pony club members whatever the weather, so will release the results of these later in the week.

Wellgrove Riding for the Disabled

We are beginning the foundations of setting up a Riding for the Disabled Charity Centre at Wellgrove. Although this will be based at Wellgrove, it runs as a completely separate entity. I am currently training with Gilly Roper over at Bradbourne’s in Sevenoaks which has been an established centre for 50 years!

As well as the paperwork behind the formation of a charity, the main and overwhelming task is to gather up volunteers to assist in all the duties involved. Not all of these duties are horsey or even people-related, and could consist of anything from making tea and running fundraisers to being a trustee on the committee. Please contact us at Wellgrove if you think you can commit any time or skill to this as I really feel that horses have so much to offer everyone that we need to open the door to those we have not been able to cater for in the past.

Information can be found on the RDA website which will tell you about the ethos of the charity and Bradbourne’s RDA website is also worth a view as to looking at how a very well run centre is functioning. (They are also always in need of volunteers!)

Achievement badge update

We are updating how we run the achievement badges.  From now training will continue as usual, with a new slot being introduced on a Wednesday again from Feb 2013. Achievement of badges will only be done by attendance on our testing days that will be run on every school break. This will allow for fairer testing and the organisation of outside testers for the more difficult badges to make it fairer. We will also be offering the ABRS tests and certificates on these days as further achievements to add to your string. Please contact us if you need any special help in how you learn as our aim is for everyone to find these as encouraging as possible.

We will also be running lots of ridden tests this year both through The Pony Club and the ABRS so please look at the website and check out the syllabi as you may find that these prove to be quite fun and a good way of proving your abilities to the outside world.

Monthly update – January 2013

This year, 2013, we plan to focus on offering outside and different experiences to our riding school clients. With the renovation of our old arena imminent, we aim to use the much-needed extra space that it will provide to act as a forum to try new things. We have lots of Pony Club competitions planned with a championships points structure being put in place. We are also planning to try to get our reticent adults involved and there will be lots for them too, from evening jumping to video judged dressage tests and demonstrations.

It would be great to get some feedback on what kind of things we could offer, so please email us with any ideas and I can work on arranging it.

Please check out the events diary regularly as event details will be updated there and will only be able to run if we have sufficient interest.

Photo competitions

Please submit your photos for us each month. The winner of each competition will win a half hour private lesson with us , so it is well worth entering! This month, the competition theme is cute and furry, so please send us your Wellgrove-connected photos that come under this category. We’ll be displaying galleries of all the entries, so please email us your best shots so we can get a great gallery display going!

Horse and pony videos

We’d also like to be able to feature video of Wellgrove’s horses and ponies on each of their profiles. If you have video (five minutes or shorter please) of a Wellgrove horse or pony at their best that you’d like us to consider putting on their profile, please let us know!

Wellgrove horse and pony rosettes

Rosettes with a picture of your favorite Wellgrove horse or pony are available now – an ideal last-minute Christmas gift! £2.50 from the office.

Farewell to Tuppence

Unfortunately Tuppence had to be put to sleep on 11/12/12 as she had a tear in her gut that could not be repaired. I remember Tuppence being born, but only just as I was only 5/6 years old, so she had a good innings. Her mum was called Sixpence and her dad Twinkle, and Tuppence had never known anything but the yard (she never travelled in a lorry or trailer even). As a foal she used to graze around the gardens of the house. As a young pony to ride she was a little crazy, loving cantering with her head vertical on hacks, catching clods of mud in her mouth from the pony in front. As teenagers we cracked riding Tup, who was very fast and loved jumping (not scary fillers) We used to call her Tangerine Tiptoe Tuppence due to her colour and speed. In later life, Tuppence taught nearly every current child rider at Wellgrove in the beginning due to her lovely lead rein nature. Once a year she still went crazy in the summer in the gymkhana, and still had the satisfaction of being able to ditch the odd child in the process. Tuppence and Sixpence were only separated when Sixpence died five years ago and I know both of them will be truly missed both as individuals and also the era of Wellgrove that they represent. Only Babysham still remains of Mr Whittaker’s (Grandad’s) old breeding stock.

Please leave your memories of Tuppence on her profile page, which will stay on the website in memorial to her.

End of summer show results

The weather for the 2012 summer show just about held. Thanks must go to the judges, Megan and Lyndsey, and the shouter Lucy for all their hard work. Thanks also to Faye for the wonderful Trilby award for the winner of set 3, and to Sal for the much-needed doughnuts. Ponies all behaved themselves and all the girls (and boy!) rode well apart from a small area of carnage at the start of the novice show jumping! Work was diverse from a prelim dressage test to show jumping and walking over babies (those who weren’t there won’t understand this!) but all performed well and looked very smart doing so.

Competition results

Mini Show jumping

1st Olivia Pingault and Molly
2nd Tabitha Ballard and Ronnie
3rd Alex Witchell and Beano
4th Briony Walker and Pumba

Best Rider

1st Briony Walker and Pumba
2nd Olivia Pingault and Molly
3rd Alex Witchell and Beano
4th Red Robinson and Princess

Handy Pony

1st Alex Witchell and Beano
2nd Olivia Pingault and Molly
3rd Tabitha Ballard and Ronnie
4th Victoria Thorne and Socks

Novice Show jumping

1st Lucy Sutton and Babysham
2nd Erin Hollands and Beano
3rd Olivia Pingault and Molly
4th Gema Boorman and Penny
5th George Ballard and Beano
6th Jess Donmall and Socks

Riding Club Horse

1st Elinor Steward and Princess; Jess Donmall and Socks; Erin Hollands and Beano
2nd Olivia Pingault and Molly, Gemma Boorman and Penny, Georgia Ballard and Beano
3rd Coral Salter and Foaly, Ella Stanbury and Pumba, Katrina Briers and Blue, Lucy Sutton and Babysham

Bucket Elimination

1st Gemma Boorman and Penny, Lucy Sutton and Babysham
2nd Olivia Pingault and Molly, Georgia Ballard and Beano
3rd Jess Donmall and Socks, Erin Hollands and Beano, Georgie Cogan and Babysham
4th Ella Stanbury and Pumba, Elionor Steward and Princess

Dressage

1st Gemma Boorman and Penny
2nd Lucy Landmore and Molly
3rd Bella Donmall and Beano
4th Sophie Whittome and Apple
5th Red Robinson and Marcus

Working Hunter

1st Bella Donmall and Beano
2nd Sophie Whittome and Apple
3rd Gemma Boorman and Penny
4th Lucy Landmore and Molly

Intermediate Show jumping

1st Sophie Whittome and Apple
2nd Bella Donmall and Beano
3rd Gemma Boorman and Penny
4th Lucy Landmore and Molly

Winner of the Trilby of Trewint Award: Bella Donmall