This Friday sees the club make its annual pilgrimmage to Declan Devine’s lovely farm near Letterkenny for a ride-out through Lismonaghan woods. It’s not a long ride and the terrain is almost all forestry tracks with one short section on a reasonably minor road. Everybody welcome. Contact Suzanne for further information on 086 301 8535.
Directions to Declan’s, Lismonaghan | Download
Pictured below: Suzanne, Declan and Anne on the route in June 2009.
Our Team Treasure Hunt will definitely take place on Sunday 4 July. We may not be allowed to run it as a regional event on account of the Dressage & Masters Series Regional Qualifier taking place on the same date. If this is the case, we’ll run it as a regular club event and our neighbours will be more than welcome to join us.
The eight members who camped at Carrickfinn on Saturday night have established life-time rights to all further camping expeditions undertaken by Letterkenny Riding Club. A waiting list has been opened for future events – book now to avoid disappointment…
Pictured below: Horses and humans enjoy the idyllic environment. See the rest of the story in the Gallery.
The Falcarragh Gymkhana takes place this year on Sunday 18 July in a field opposite the Boyce Oil service station. Ponies jump in the morning, horses in the afternoon. There are perpetual cups for both pony and horse classes at 90cm, in which anyone can enter. These cup classes are the highlight of the show. There’s a bit of a history to the horse cup, as Roisin McGee explained:
In the horse section, two years ago, Stephen won the cup. Just before last year’s show, it disappeared from Stephen’s house. There were members of Donegal Gaeltacht Riding Club in the house at the supposed time of the disappearance but, they proved to be poor witnesses. It reappeared in Stephen’s van in time for the 2009 show. In that show, Packie won it (on his wife Carmel’s horse), but made the mistake of leaving it in full view, on a table, in his house. Fearing it could ‘mysteriously disappear’, he removed it from its heavily fortified cabinet (paranoia!) to take a photo of it, with the intention of putting the photo on display and securing the cup once more. He took the photo but forgot to hide the cup afterward (careless or what?!?!). You guessed it, it disappeared. The cup somehow found its way to Killult Stables and was mistakenly presented to Carmel for coming first in Donegal Gaeltacht Riding Club’s summer training league, on her own horse. So, Packie has it back, for the moment!!!!
So, it’s probably best if somebody from our club goes over there and wins that cup, purely in the interests of keeping it safe… See photos from last year’s gymkhana on the Donegal Gaeltacht’s website Gallery. There are also some lovely ones from our own Spring Friendly.
It’s not quite the unbelievable picture of a week ago but the weather still looks set to play ball for our camping trip to Carrickfinn on Saturday.
If you decide at the last minute that you’d like to join the expedition, there’s no problem coming along either on foot or on horseback. See you there.
Castle Leslie are running another of their Go As You Please days this Sunday.
Course open 10am – 4pm. €25 per own horse (pay on the day).
Entrance via Castle Leslie Equestrian Centre. Lorry & Trailer parking available.
For further details contact Castle Leslie Equestrian Centre on 047 88535.
Jenny Coe is always happy to pass on information between members about items anybody is looking for or trying to sell. Her number is 074 913 6179. We can also post notices on the website and run a miniature classifieds category.
If you have anything you’d like to sell (or simply get rid of!), send the description and a photo if necessary to libby@cartonlevert.ie. We’ll post a notice and archive it under the topic name “classifieds”.
The next couple of weekends are taken up with camping, ride-outs and the beach show in Falcarragh. Our next lesson will be in cross country riding on Friday 11 June. Rachel will instruct us in achieving the correct rhythm, tempo and speed across open ground. There’ll be no jumping but we’ll be timed over a specific course, riding between red and white flags, to see who can judge pace and get closest to the optimum time.
The lesson will take place on Marina’s land in St Johnston and she’s going to provide refreshments afterwards. Directions to follow. Further information from Rachel on 086 161 7087.
Pictured below: Leo, Keary and Selina enjoying cross country tuition with Valerie at Gabriel’s, June 2009.
The ISPCA is urging all horse owners to pay particular attention to the worming and farriery needs of their horses as the grazing season begins. As reported on the AIRC website, the ISPCA claims that many people are neither worming their horses nor looking after their teeth or their basic foot care.
In addition, given the numbers of horses sold cheaply last year, the ISPCA fears there will be a foal explosion this year and is asking owners not to run colts and fillies together.
Officials from the Department of Agriculture, welfare organisations, veterinary surgeons and other equine stakeholders are holding a think tank in the coming weeks in an effort to develop a strategy to tackle the issue.
Keep up to date with the ISPCA’s work on their website: ISPCA. They run a number of programmes including a horse re-homing scheme.
The friendly relaxed atmosphere at the club’s Spring Friendly was matched only by the brilliant sunshine and warm breeze at Lenamore. Members from the Donegal Gaeltacht and Tirconaill riding clubs supported the event and took away their fair share of rosettes. A big thank you to Nadine and Damien who coordinated the event and thanks to everybody who helped in any way.
LRC Spring Friendly Results · Download
Pictured below: Rachel Carton (LRC) on Dunmore Dante, winners of the overall prize for best combined dressage and show jumping score; Packie Ferry (DGRC) on Clonmany Girl, winners of the Intermediate Show Jumping in an entertaining competition; and John Kelly (LRC) on Sunny Bay (Brownie), winners of the prize for Best Turned Out in Show Jumping.
Letterkenny Riding Club