Another new member

We’re happy to welcome Erica Glynn to the club. Erica lives in Ramelton and keeps her horse in Rathmullan. She rides at Intermediate level and already has a couple of stages of BHS exams under her belt. She’s a professional dog groomer so Harvey, Belle, Beanie and the rest of the canine crew can look forward to intelligent conversations with her.

Mixed forecast for bank holiday weekend activity

With our ride-out at Declan’s, the Beach Show in Falcarragh and Bonagee Show in Letterkenny, eyes will be cast nervously skywards as the bank holiday weekend approaches.

Accuweather | Letterkenny
Accuweather | Burtonport

At present it looks as if Friday evening should be pleasant enough in Letterkenny:

Things are deteriorating just a little for Falcarragh on Sunday but the horses might be glad of slightly cooler conditions that in 2009. It’s still forecast to be pleasantly mild:

Ride-out at Lismonaghan this Friday, 4 June

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.

Treasure Hunt confirmed for 4 July

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.

Date for your diary: Falcarragh Gymkhana, 18 July

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.

Falcarragh Gymkhana Schedule 2010 · Download

The classified website

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”.

Looking ahead to our cross country lesson on 11 June

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.