PARENTS MEETING 24th NOVEMBER 2016
Apologies from: Carrie Wardhaugh, Katie Nairn, Karen Walker Jones, Andrea Cranston, Christine Little, Zoe Graham, LouiseAngelini, May Howatson, Tracy Ireland, Hazel Nelson, Josella and Sam Smith-Houston.
Rules of the PC is that I give you a report on the year's activities. This will be followed by Ali who will give the rally report and Lynne who will give a Treasurers report then the floor is open to you.
Our Membership is down this year with a couple of families leaving the branch but we are still relativelyhealthy with 82 members. We are a fairly large Branch which obviously makes running it quite difficult trying to accommodate all disciplines and standards along with those that are competitive and those that just want to have fun. We try to cater for most disciplines but we can only really cope with taster sessions for themore unusual disciplines of Endurance, Polo, Racing and Polocrosse. As you know, the cost of membership includes Insurance for members whether at a PC Event or at home. Membership for 2017 will be £72 for an individual and £180 for a family of 3 or more and the PC year runs from 1st Feb to 31st Jan. If you haven't re-joined by 28th Feb then you will be unable to be considered for an area team and your insurance will expire.Please check out the PC website for what is and is not covered insurance wise. I think it's fair to say that Howdens the Insurance Company will cover you but it is as the last resort. I have been discussing the case of Sheena/Kennedy's cover with HQ.
Our Autumn program again began as usual with Stable Management and badge nights. These ran through until the beginning of December with over 250 badges being handed out.
Pistol Shooting at Dalton took place weekly open to everyone over 7years old - children and adults can join in the winter postal shoot where you shoot competitive targets monthly at Dalton but are competing against Members and parents from other branches. This was not well attended last year so at present has not been organised for this year. We may just hold a few sessions in March prior to the mini tetrathlon as our senior members are doing so well that they now train at Bisley. If anyone is interested in the Winter Triathlon (Run, swim, shoot) series and the Summer Tetrathlons, then please let us know and we will try and arrange training.
We returned to the Ice rink for the Party and Prize Giving last year and getting the cups back in advance made prize giving much easier. The Prizes this year were handed out by Hannah Hutchings Hunt secretary. I hope you've brought your cups back tonight suitably engraved for the party which is on 7th January next year and again at the ice rink. If you haven't got them, please get them back to me asap so that I can check them and get any repairs done in advance.
Quiz training started in January at Tracy Irelands house with Tracy taking on the training with a little help from Anna. The questions for the Quiz are set by the Area Rep and we fielded 1 team this year of Kyla Cranston, Lucy Armstrong, Olivia McQueen and Kiera Graham who finished 10th.The rounds for the 2017 are
*The Pony Club & Ex Pony Club Equestrian Celebrities
*Non Equine Achievement Badges
*Competitive Disciplines within the Pony Club
*Spanish Riding School
*Keeping A Pony at Grass, Worming & Paddock Maintenance (Pairs – Junior’s & Senior’s)
*Practical Round - The Tack Room (Individual)
*Picture Round – What is this?
*Equestrian Disciplines at the Olympic Games
*Music Round
POINTS:There will be 30 points available for each round (15 questions per round), therefore 2 points per correct question. The winning Branch and Centre teams will be the team with the highest number of points. In case of equality, total points gained in The Pony Club round will be used first to decide the final placings.
Also, once again, there will be a competition for the best homemade display or collage from each team representing their Branch or Centre, to be judged on the day.
Training for this will commence on Tuesday 3rd or 10th January, venue and time and Instructor to be advised.
We held another fundraising Pie and Pea supper and quiz at the Masonic Hall, Lockerbie. This has become a popular annual event with some professional Quizers coming along this year. The prizes once again were brilliant and sponsored by Enesco and kindly organised by Lynne, however I'm not sure what will happen this year as Lynne no longer works for Enesco. Thanks to the Masons for letting us use the hall again and to Janet Parker, Fiona Elliot, Lynne Thomson and all those that helped make the evening a success.
Games training went very well this year starting at the end of Feb when the Quiz was finished and it took place at Graitneywhich can be a bit exposed so well done to those that braved the elements. We managed tofield a Junior Area Team of Maddy Nairn, Imogen Spence, Kiera Graham and Cameron Nairn and a senior team of Kirsty Cooper, Isla Cooper, Robyn Hunter and Elizabeth Wardhaugh. There was a big improvement and I'm sure this year we will take everyone by surprise when we take to the field at high speed! There was again a fun Easter Egg Hunt held at Rammerscales this year which was very well supported. We had SJ Training at Greenlands and D D+ and C training at Graitney and Orchard Farm.
I attended the National Conference at Aintree where the focus was on the rebranding of the PC and on the continuing development of the IT system. Following research over 2 or 3 years it has been found that the PC was becoming increasingly "un-cool" hence the rebranding exercise. The declining membership numbers over the last decade has had a huge financial impact on the organisation so this has to be addressed and we will see if rebranding helps in some way. The introduction of the Grass Roots level competition was introduced and explained to us. The conference was very volatile with some attendees being very rude vocally and very negative regarding the rebranding and giving the CEO a hard time which subsequently resulted in her retirement. Not a good example of how DC's etc should behave and at present she hasn't been replaced
We had a successful training day at Raehills with Marion and Trish Harvey instructing. Again we shared with the Peebles and Tweedale Branch which brings in valuable funds.
May 15th was our Raehills XC and Show Jumping day. I reported on the record entries for Raehills last year at 160 however this year it was hugely up reaching 195. This, as I am sure you're all aware is mainly due to the time and effort that Andrew Porteous puts in to preparing the course and badgering everyone for their help. We really couldn't do it without him so we are going to have to bribe him I think to continue as it costs him in the region of £500 an event and he cannot afford to lose this amount each time. A huge thank you to him, all the people he roped in to help, our sponsors, fence judges, stewards and anyone else who helped to run the day. Also our thanks to Lord David Johnstone who is very accommodating and easy to work with.
The weekly summer rallies began at the beginning of May and continued till the end of August. Amazingly we only lost one rally to bad weather. Thanks to Sir John Buchanan Jardine for the use of the PC field once again and we managed to make it all the way to the last week before we blotted our copybook.
At the end of June we were meant to have the Combined Training organised by Hazel Nelson however this had to be rescheduled to the end of July and was well attended so thanks to Hazel.
We held the Show Jumping League back in the field this year but we really do need to rethink this as there are too many other things on in June to make it worthwhile.We may run it as a nightly event as opposed to rolling points.
We entered a couple of Junior teams and a Senior team in the Area Horse and Pony Care competition which was held up near Biggar. It was a really cold windy day and we were on top of a hill so froze to death but had a fun day. We were represented by Isla Cooper, Abbie Haley and Olivia McQueen in one team, Robyn Cloy, Kiera Graham and Cree McGarva in the other junior team and Amy Coupland, Cerys Haley and Kirsty Cooper in the seniors. No prizes this time as we fell down on Bandaging but all learnt something on the day!!!!
Again Camp was held at Hartwoodwith 46 attendees. The theme was "The Services" and wehad a fun filled week with the highlight being Polocrosse which everyone took part in. It's amazing how quickly everyone got to grips with throwing catching and riding one handed. The BBQ was once again the mid week highlight this year run by Kate McQueen so a big thank you to her andto Leeanne Kennedy who brought the burger van. A bit of an accident occurred on the last day to keep us all on our toes but luckily both horse and rider made speedy recoveries and are back out and about. A huge thank you to Malcolm Bell Macdonald for allowing us to use his farm and luckily we didn't miss the arena surface too much. Our Mini’s also had a fun day camp. Sadly our long term caterers Janet and Fiona have retired after many years of helping us at camp and Pie and pea and also did a big raffle for us one year raising over £3000. Their support will be greatly missed.
July as well as camp is the month for the Area Competitions.
The Eventing and Dressage was due to be held at Auchinleck in Ayrshire and with the weather this year being kinder, we were all looking forward to it. However crops had not been removed from the ground so the competitions were postponed and a new date was set. This time the ground was too wet so a third date was set at which point I spat the dummy out along with others and our dressage teams decided not to take partwhich left us with a greatly reduced number of XC participants who had to travel to Tyninghame for the Novice and Junior events the Juniors now being individuals. Iona Ross was our only Novice competitor who wasn't placed this year and our Individual Juniors were Shannon Jardine Lindsay Porteous, Drew Ross and Lizzie Wardhaugh. Lindsay held the DFH flag high being placed 1st. Great result. Sadly our Intermediates couldn't attend the new dates due to having changed work commitments twice already.
At least the Area Show Jumping could go ahead. As usual we had a big turnout with some great team work.Samantha Howatson took on the Open level on Trixie and finished 4th.Sadly Catherines Horse was off so she missed the SJ this year
We had 2 Novice Teams. Grant Nelson, Iona Ross and Mia Nichol all doing clear rounds in the first round but being only three of them, all scores count and they weren't placed after the second round. Emma Dodd, Kyla Dodd, Kirsty Cooper and Hollie Smith Houston were the other team who again were clear in round one but were againnot placed. However this team finished 1st in the T & T. There was no Junior SJ this year but it was run as a Regional Grassroots Qualifier. Isla Cooper, Drew Ross, Anna Loughran on her first outing in a team and Elizabeth Wardhaugh were in one team and Shannon Jardine, Rowan McMaster, Lindsay Porteous and Alasdair Dodd in the other. Both teams finished the first round on 12 faults but with a better second round Isla, Drew Anna and Lizzie finished in 12th place and qualified for the Regional champs at ISEC. Unfortunately I couldn't go to this but the team were brill and finished in 6th place and 1st in t & T with good old Zulu and Drew finishing 4th overall. I may be an old nag as far as T & T are concerned but it obviously has some effect on you so thank you for turning out so beautifully.
There was a racing school held at Carlisle racecourse which several members attended and had a great day with equicisers, weighing rooms, paddock, racecard and racetrack all being on the agenda. Let's hope we have some jockeys in the making.
The Open Show again this year was organised by Kerry Graham at Guardsmillso huge thanks to her and also to Gary and Sheena Beattie who always welcome us. Weather was kind and turnout wasgood even though we clashed with Appleby Show (they moved in on our date).
The Mini Tetrathlon at Breconside was cancelled this year I'm afraid. It was a combination of too much on, no shooting practise organised, new stockman at Breconside so rather an upheaval going on and the moving of the mini jumps as Craig had no vehicle to tow them with. I would like to try and fit it in earlier in the year if possible so perhaps we could combine the shooting practise with the winter postal shoots so that we don't need further practise.
Our second Raehills was in September which on the whole is a better month ground wise for running an event. If we had run on our usual w/e in August we would have been drowned. The Carriage Drivers took our date and I think regretted it! The September date doesn't seem to be as convenient for our volunteers so we were working with lots of new helpers, Alexander B-I in place of his dad, Josella as starter, new timekeepers and an area steward. However they all took to their respective positions beautifully and again good numbers. We tried clear round show jumping but this didn't work so next September we will probably omit this. Zoe retired from the committee in the summer and from finding fence judges but Lindsay Ann took on the fence judge roll and did a great job so thank you for stepping in Lindsay Ann. This just shows that you don't have to be on the committee to help out so I've got several jobs lined up for anyone who isn't here tonight!!!
Our team Show Jumping at Greenlands went well this year with a Bonfire night theme. There were some super outfits from kids and adults so thank you everyone for entering into the spirit of it especially to the adults who were great. We were lucky to get away with the date as it clashed with Blackdyke pony points but thanks to 21 teams from DFH we had a really good day. Great commentator, lovely rosettes and Andrea has done a wonderful job of putting teams together all Autumn.
Our Instructors have worked very hard yet again this year so a huge thank you to all of them.
We have had a couple of successful applications for funding. One was for £500 from the Annandale and Eskdale Sports Council for safety fixings for Raehills and from Lockerbie and District Community Fund for £250 which will go towards Vet and Human First Aid kits and other items. We have applied for several other Grants but have been unsuccessful. Thanks to Katie who does the main work on these.
I think that just leaves me to thank the very hard working Committee and to introduce you to our new committee members. We meet on average about 7 times a year and usually at Marjory’s house where she makes delicious scones. Committee members are expected to turn up to as many meetings as possible and to a minimum of 1 in three meetings if possible. The Branch is run by the Committee and all major decisions are made by the Committee and not by any one person. You are voted on to the Committee to do a 3 year stint. This year we have lost two committee members Zoe Graham and Fiona Haley so a big thank you to them for their help over the last few years. They have been replaced by Ashley Spence and John Edgar who will be a great asset to have on board.There may be more changes to the committee as we seem to be running late this year and we aren't having our autumn meeting until 6th December. The rest of the Committee are Marjory whose house gets invaded for quiz nights and Committee meetings and a stalwart of the branch, Ali Coates our rally organiser, Lynne Thomson the Treasurer Rosette maker and supplier, Nina Little our membership secretary, Kerry Graham, Katie Nairn who is the Web administrator, Andrea Cranston Team SJ Co-ordinator and Paediatric Nurse, Emma Nichol who has taken on as Health and Safety Officer, Andrew Porteous our Raehills builder and Chris our long standing secretary. So to one and all of you a big thank you for all your help and support.