TAVY VALLEY IN THE RIBBONS AGAIN AT THE NATIONAL BRC CHAMPIONSHIPS!!

Report on the Festival of the Hunter 30-31 May 2009, Aston le Walls, Northants

by Michele Heale

More well known for my honorary pooper scooping and rider nerve calming properties at BRC championships for the past umpteen years (always the bridesmaid), it was both a surprise and a privilege to be part of the winning qualifying area 19 team last October.

Along the way we lost one of the original team members due to maternal duties (the rider's not the horse's!) and unfortunately our substitute was left stranded on the Friday morning of the event with mechanical problems.  This left the 3 "old campaigners" to carry on regardless, determined to have some fun and laughter along the way - and we did.

After a 6 hour 250 mile trek to Aston le Walls in Northants, we were met by a beautiful if not imposing professional layout.  The cross country fences were solid, inviting but up to height.  This was the first year that BRC had changed the format of the competition.  We were to jump 10 show jumps following immediately on to the shortened 11 jump cross country course.

First to go was Sandra and Rolo, performing an impeccable clear sj round and rounding off with a storming clear cross country within the optimum time range to finish on zero penalties, not only providing a fantastic score for the team but also to land herself a 10th placing individually.  Next Sally and Ellie provided a perfect clear both in the show jumping and cross country...... no pressure there then!! 

Above: Sandra and Rolo clearing the last show jump en route to the cross country

Shona and I had a great warm up for the show jumping and all was going to plan until the competitor in front of me demolished half the course and then took the wrong route eliminating herself.  We had to canter around for quite some time in the arena whilst the team rebuilt the course..... little did they know they would have to rebuild again so soon!!  Was it the occasion.... was it the flags flying..... the tradestands or the maze of show jumps that blew mine and Shona's heads ..... suffice it to say we had erm.... 5 down .... oops!!  Nevertheless such was my team's great spirit that as I went through the cross country start gates I could hear my team cheering us on, so I just kicked on and we flew around in a much needed clear for that element.

It was lovely to have just scraped in as a team into the placings - 10th plus Sandra's brilliant 10th individually.  If only my performance had been better we could have done even better, but not once was I made to feel this way by my fellow team mates - thanks all!!

Special thanks must also go to our back up crew, without whom none of us would be able to compete - Mike Pidsley for spending all day 'legging up' in the showing arenas thus ticking off our 'helper for the day', Amanda MacBean as Sandra's crew and for me personally my utmost thanks must go to my sister in law, Sharon de Barr, as without her horse fittening work both me and Shona would not have been able to experience such a wonderful weekend.

Above: The 'scary' show jumping arena!!

AREA 19 TEAM SHOWJUMPING at DUCHY COLLEGE - 15 February 2009

Report by Sandra Hill

Snow across the region on the 8th Febuary caused the postponement of this popular competition until Sunday 15 February.  Sixteen teams of 4 competed over 2 rounds to try and win the opportunity to compete at the national finals at Harpury in April.

The standard of jumping was high and after the first round 7 teams went into the second round on a zero score.  Tavy Valley carried forward 4 penalties.

The second round caused more problems, just as planned by the course builder Clive Phillips.  At the end of round 2 only 3 teams were still on a zero score and all these team members jumped off against the clock with Holsworthy finishing worthy winners.

1st  Holsworthy

2nd North Tawton

3rd East Cornwall

Tavy Valley's total for the second round was zero and the team finished on 4 penalties overall and this put them into 6th position.  Congratulations to:

Claire Knight - My Bean

Sandra Hill - The Last Rolo

Bob Hill - Danny

Cadi Roe - Zac

Claire finised 3rd as an individual, Cadi 5th and Sandra 7th.

This was Cadi's first team competition for Tavy Valley which was added pressure for her.  Sarah Luck was also due to be a new team member, but the change of dates meant she was not available.  I'm sure she will be in future teams.

If you would like to represent the club in any discipline, please let Bob Hill know.

COMBINED TRAINING

Sunday 1st February

Report by Sandra Hill

Our first event of the season was held at St Leonard's Equestrian Centre, Polson on Sunday 1st February.  We were very lucky with the weather with the snow not arriving until later in the week.

The Plymouth University students were out in force and this created good competition in all classes.  The dressage tets were held in the morning, with some people riding their first ever test - well done.  The show jumping course was built by Andy Reeve and required accurate riding between fences.

Thank you to Julie Green, the dressage judge, and to everyone who supported this thoroughly enjoyable day.  Congratulations to all price winners.  The results can be found under the Newsletter and Results section of the website.

Claire Knight would also like to thank everyone who put the fences down so she could jump her young horse at the end of the day.

If you are a novice rider, or have a novice horse please come along to these friendly competitions.  We are always willing to help you progress by lowering fences or reading tests or.......whatever!!

TAVY VALLEY DOES IT AGAIN!! 

AREA 19 HUNTER TRIAL QUALIFIER - 12 OCTOBER 2008, CHYVERTON, TRURO

For the first time in a number of years, Tavy Valley sported 2 teams for the Area 19 hunter trial qualifier - an open and novice.  The day before many of the riders trotted off down the other end of Cornwall to walk the course, many pale faces came back with 'big' and 'knee tremblers' being the more polite versions!  Unfortunately due to operational difficulties at home for Andy Reeve, the Open team were left with 3 riders - Bob Hill and Danny, Lizzie Plumb and Dusty and Claire Knight with Beanie.  Bob and Claire stormed around and must be duly proud of themselves to have clocked up 2 clears, Lizzie frustatingly for both her and Dusty had a 'not so sure' moment very close to the finish, but it was all great experience for next year.

The novice team comprising of Sandra Hill and Rolo, Sally Pidsley and Ellie, Michele Heale and Shona and Lizzie Plumb and Mac were eventually announced the overall winners and therefore qualify for the finals at Aston le Walls in May 09.  Both Rolo and Ellie stormed around like little troopers coming a fantastic 1st and 3rd individually too!!

TAVY VALLEY FLIES THE FLAG AT BRC NATIONAL HORSE TRIALS CHAMPIONSHIPS

Triumphant horse trials team L-R Sandra Hill, Rolo, Sally Pidsley, Ellie, Claire Knight, Bean and Bob Hill, Danny

The Horse Trial team despite extremely wet weather conditions were triumphant at the BRC Novice Horse Trial Championships, held at Offchurch, near Leamington Spa on 9-11 August 2008.

Sandra's report of the event is as follows:

"On Thursday 7 August Claire Knight, Sally Pidsley, Bob Hill and Sandra Hill made the journey to Offchurch to compete at the British Riding Clubs National Horse Trials Team Championship having qualified at the area competition at Winkleigh in May.

Over the 3 days there were 4 different riding club team championships being held.  Friday - Juniors One Day Event,  Friday, Saturday and Sunday - Open and Intermediate Three Day Event, Saturday and Sunday Novice Two day Event.  In keeping with Summer 2008 it rained on Friday and on Saturday and yes, you guessed it , it rained on Sunday as well!!

Friday was spent carrying out cross country jump judging duties, walking the cross country course and riding the lanes and tracks in preparation for the Sunday.

Saturday morning arrived and it ws soon time to start the 2 day event.  There were 31 teams competing at this year's competition.  Following the dressage test and show jumping the team had performed well but such was the standard they were in 24th position.

Conditions continued to deteriorate overnight.  Two of the cross country fences were taken out and the steeplechase fences and the first and last cross country fences re positioned to better ground.  Confident, excited and nervous the team were ready to face the challenges of phase A (lanes and tracks) Phase B (steeplechase), phase C (lanes and tracks) and phase D (a technical cross country course).

The team performed magnificently and a very few penalties were picked up on these 4 phases and at the end of the competition the team had charged into 6th position - an excellent result.  Congratulations to the team and especially to Claire and Bob who finished 3rd and 10th in their arenas.

The team would like to thank all the grooms, helpers, cooks and bottle washers! - Mike Pidsley, Ray Knight, Stephen Hill, Amanda MacBean, Hilary Hill and Andrea. Thank you, your help and support was very much appreciated.

Also the team would like to say thank you to Jane Fisher, Area 19 chairman, who undertook a number of official duties over the 3 days and added the personal touch when commenting on the Tavy Valley Team's show jumping rounds and was genuinely pleased to see Tavy Valley finish 6th". 

***ANY MEMBER INTERESTED IN TAKING PART IN SJ TRAINING CLINICS/FLATWORK TRAINING - EVENINGS OR WEEKENDS AT EITHER ST LEONARDS, CHOLWELL OR DUCHY COLLEGE, PLEASE CONTACT BOB HILL AS SOON AS POSSIBLE ON 01288 359011 OR 07886 909868***

STOP PRESS!!

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!

Above: Sandra and Rolo complete their dressage test - later to be seen rocketing around the cross country!!

Above: Bob and Danny performing a lovely dressage test and 2nd place overall in their arena

On Sunday 18 May 2008 our novice horse trials team rode to a convincing victory at the Area 19 Horse Trials Qualifier at Southcott Farm, Winkleigh.  Our team comprising of Bob Hill, Claire Knight, Sandra Hill and Sally Pidsley took 1st place by over a 20 point margin to qualify for the BRC finals at Offchurch in August.

Claire won her arena with Bob narrowly on her tail to take 2nd place.  Sally and Sandra were placed 4th and 5th in their arenas respectively.

Special mentions must go to Rollo who became an honorary racehorse for the day (there was no stopping him!) and Bob who came off the cross country still being able to speak and breathe!

Andy Reeve was very narrowly pipped to the post into 3rd place in his arena as an individual, missing his chances of qualifying for Offchurch by less than 2 penalty points.  Cheer up Andy at least you can come out on the beer at Offchurch without worrying about the consequences the next day !! 

Above: 'Team Pidsley' - Mike saved the day when he came to the aid of his wife Sallly when she had an initial hiccup to the start of the day with a trailer breakdown!

Above: L to R The Champion Beanie, Supporters Ray and Hilary and Beanie's jockey Claire

Above: Taking a well earned rest Danny and Bob (Bob is the 2 legged one - Danny is the handsome one)

Report on Joint ODE with East Cornwall

TVRC and ECRC pooled their resources together to make a very succesful one day event at St Leonard's, home of Andy and Kathryn Reeve over the weekend.  Over 65 riders tackled the dressage, show jumping and cross country.  We hope all competitors enjoyed their day and the clubs would sincerely like to thank Andy for all the hard work and dedication he has put into the event over the last few weeks.  A big thank you to all helpers and competitors who have made the day a success.

JUST A REMINDER TO ALL COMPETITORS - THERE IS STILL THE OPPORTUNITY TO VIEW AND PURCHASE SOME PHOTOGRAPHS FROM www.eclipse-photos.co.uk 

TO GIVE YOU A LASTING MEMENTO OF YOUR DAY. ALL PHOTOS ON THIS PAGE HAVE BEEN KINDLY GIVEN TO THE WEBSITE BY ECLIPSE PHOTOS

You can access the final results by clicking on the Newsletter and Results tab at the top of the page.

PHOTO CALL FOR ROSETTE WINNERS OF CLASS 3 + ANDY AND CRACKER THE DOG!

            A COMPETITOR TACKLING THE WELL BUILT AND CHALLENGING CROSS COUNTRY COURSE

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New Dressage Magazine to be released ........

I am writing to introduce a new magazine called Just Dressage which is to be launched throughout the UK in September. Just Dressage Magazine will focus on issues appropriate to all dressage enthusiasts, both affiliated and unaffiliated.

 The magazine will be available by subscription and will be mailed directly to your door. However, for the first issue, due to be mailed around September 18^th  we are sending the magazine out free of charge across the database and would like to offer your riding club members the chance of signing up to receive this first issue free.

 We would also be interested in receiving your riding club dressage news, for example details of any championship qualifications or placings so we can run these in the magazine.

 Keep an eye on our website, which will be launched fully at the same time as the magazine, on www.just-dressage.co.uk for further information.

 We look forward to hearing from your members with their contact details.

 

Yours sincerely

 Sarah-Jane Prew

Editor

Just Dressage

01409 271 411

le to email us with their contact details if they are interested in receiving their first copy free. Anyone interested should email us at enquiries@just-dressage.co.uk