Busy weekend with a show jumping focus

Orla’s Armchair Show Jumping evening on Friday got the weekend off to a good start. Held in the Milford Inn, attendance was excellent and the subject matter was intriguing. Orla had made the most of one of the Inn’s dance floors to cleverly build a scale model of one of the Derby courses from last year’s championships at Mullingar. With this as an interactive demonstration tool, she delivered all sorts of excellent information on the inner workings of the course builder’s mind, on techniques for warming up and then riding a course, and some details of equine engineering and physics which explain what to expect when we ask our 4-legged companions to jump over man-made obstacles.

The evening of theory set everybody up nicely for the opening leg of the Northwest League on Sunday. Despite a truly miserable morning, the day faired up and conditions in the outdoor warm-up were perfectly pleasant for everybody. Attendance from all three Donegal clubs was excellent while Finola Murphy flew Sligo’s Benbulben flag and Paul Hughes travelled from Tonabrockey. Entries for both competition and training classes at every height were well into double figures.

As anticipated, there were plenty of fresh roly-poly horses and red-faced riders after the difficult winter weather but performances were pretty good, all things considered. It’s always dangerous to pick out highlights but Damien’s two rounds on his young mare really caught the eye and show the rewards that consistent work and a patient approach will bring. It was good to see Martina back in action on Smuggler. Sharon Lee was out on Ozzie with John and baby Pippa looking on. Enda, sporting a dapper pair of elegantly tailored black breeches, began his competitive riding career in the care of veteran Teldel.

All of our Advanced Intermediate riders jumped particularly well on the day with Nadine and Marina making the jump off and Marina winning the class. The league accommodates all sorts and it was good to see Rachel using the opportunity to introduce her young thoroughbred-in-training, Bruce, to an alternative future career as a show jumper. If there was ever an advertisement for the value of the hunting field for bringing novice riders along, it was surely the performances of Mick and Leo. Using their hallmark “warm up as a pair” method (oddly enough, this wasn’t mentioned by Orla on Friday evening!), the two of them jumped well at their 80cm competition height before blowing everybody away with impressively competent training rounds at 90cm. Maybe we should invite Valerie to the next leg of the league!

Thanks to everybody who helped in any way. From our club’s point of view, particular thanks to volunteer foreman, Francis. The League is a wonderful example of cross-club cooperation. Roll on 20 February!

First Aid and Child Protection courses open to riding club members

Suzanne Carroll, who works a double shift as riding club member and DC of the East Donegal branch of the Pony Club, kindly invites riding club members to participate in two courses which she is arranging with her pony club hat in place.

She has arranged with Donegal Active to run a Child Protection Workshop on Wednesday evening, 9 March, from 7pm until 10pm. All adults involved in children’s sport have a ‘duty of care’ to ensure the safety and well being of all children in their care. Thus all DCs, Club Children’s Officers and instructors are required to complete this course. Committee members and parents would also benefit from this course so it is open to all.

Suzanne has also arranged an Occupational Sports First Aid Course, duration 20 hours. It will start on Friday evening, 11 March, 6.30–10pm; Saturday 12 March, 9.30am – 4.30pm; and finishing on Sunday 13 March, 9.30am – 4.30pm. Places for this course are limited to 12 so anyone interested should book early. The cost of the first aid course is €75.

Anyone interested can book with Suzanne on 086 301 8535.

East Donegal Pony Club’s new website up and running

Congratulations to the East Donegal Pony Club on getting their brand new website up and running. Using the incomparable WordPress platform on which our own site runs, the club has created a great communications tool for children and parents alike. And it gives us the opportunity to keep an eye on all those potential riding club members as they grow from pipsqueaks into real people!

Take a look: East Donegal Pony Club

Pre-league activity intensifies as big day draws near

A lot of people are catching the Northwest League bug. The major pre-league event this week is a theory evening of armchair show jumping at Arena 7 on Friday. In the agreeable context of a pub, Orla will offer an insight into the technicalities of show jumping, riding courses, and competition rules. Let her know on 087 643 2458 if you plan to attend.

Following Rachel’s and Jackie’s successful lessons over the past three Fridays, several members are squeezing in some informal schooling sessions during the week. Rachel and Libby hope to school their very green mounts at Templemore on Thursday morning while Marina has arranged a schooling session with Kelda on Friday evening for several members in that area. Cyril’s arena sees schooling action on Wednesday evening when Nadine, Damien and Tanya put the big guns (physically big anyway!) through their paces.

It’s worth remembering that we have ALL been out of action for a long time. Everybody is in the same boat with fresh, relatively unfit horses and human nerves and muscles that are in need of fine tuning after a long spell out of the saddle. The first couple of legs of the league will be spent warming up — nobody’s going to expect perfection from the outset.

Regional rosettes en route as club finishes in 4th place in Club of the Year

Orla’s feet are hurting her today after she danced the night away at the Regional Dinner Dance in Ballinasloe on Saturday night. She’s sent a brief advance report to say that she has regional league rosettes in her bag for Leo, Martina, Nadine and Tanya. Full details of their achievements later.

At club level, we achieved a remarkable 4th place in the Club of the Year competition. This is an excellent result considering how difficult it is to find the resources to travel these days. Congratulations to the Donegal Gaeltachts who retained the trophy they first took home to west Donegal in 2009. Their record is testament to their excellent participation level over an extended period of time. Benbulben, blessed with their location bang in the centre of the region, finished second in the race for the trophy.