Another year under our belts and a bright future before us: AGM 2011

Last night’s annual general meeting maintained the positive and optimistic tone of past AGMs despite the gloomy times we live in. The gathering at Tír na nOg was sociable and constructive as we looked back over a year full of highlights. From the North West League to our Derby show, from Anne’s wonderful victory at Flowerhill to Marina’s rosettes at Stradbally, and from treasure hunts to formation riding — it was a year of diverse activity and immensely enjoyable experiences.

Looking forward to the coming year, we’ve decided to reduce our number of shows to three, giving the cross country event at Lenamore a rest in 2012. The Summer Derby will be our flagship event with the Spring and Autumn league shows in the supporting roles. There’ll be plenty of emphasis on non-competitive activity as well and everybody’s plans and suggestions are welcomed.

Our calendar will be set in smaller chunks and we’ll return to the club’s original rhythm of regular quarterly meetings.

As in the past, members have been ready and willing to step up to the plate and take on official duties for the club. After six years in the position, Francis stands down as Chairman and Damien has been elected to fill his enormous shoes. A very heartfelt thanks to Francis for steering the ship so successfully over his period in office and the very best of luck to Damien in his new role. He has Paddy as Vice Chairman at his elbow to keep him on the straight and narrow.

Sharon, now with two young daughters to look after, has handed over the key of the Treasury to Francis who, with Maura’s assistance, will carry out Treasurer duties in 2012. Rachel stays on as Assistant Treasurer.

Orla has signed up for another year’s hard labour in the Secretary’s position and Anne joins her as assistant Secretary. In their absence, Nadine and Tanya were elected joint Show Secretaries, subject to their agreement.

See the full list of roles on the Club page of the website.

After a discussion about the difficulty of finding venues that suit all members for our Friday evening activities, the ordinary business of the meeting was wrapped up and it was time for the Awards. With Damien absent on the night, Libby, as the winner from last year, read out the nominations. They reflected the talents and qualities of the club’s humans and equids, and illustrated just how highly we regard and appreciate our fellow members.

Armstrong was rewarded for many years of enthusiastic club involvement when named Club Horse of the Year and it was the one and only Paddy Gallagher who took top honours and the Club Member of the Year Award. Well deserved and many, many congratulations to both Armstrong and Paddy.

2011 Club Member & Horse of the Year

Pictured below: Paddy Gallagher, 2011 Club Member of the Year, receives the Laggan Trophy from Francis McNicholl, performing the final duty of his distinguished 6-year career as the club’s chairman.

Formation falls apart but fun remains

With a bumper group of ten riders and a temperamental boom box, Friday evening’s musical ride didn’t turn out quite as Valerie might have expected. But that did nothing to diminish the fun that everybody had as their coordination of physical aids and mental concentration was tested to the full.

Rachel and Libby got gold stars on their copybooks at the head of the ride with Damien and Nadine attracting almost as much praise in the next two positions. It soon became clear that the performance diminished as Valerie moved her eye down the line and raised her hands in horror at the untidy chaos around numbers 9 and 10. She changed things up so that Libby moved to the back of the ride, taking up lead file when the formation changed rein. Things disintegrated in spectacular fashion and the gold star disappeared rapidly off Fenway’s rump. Paddy, Michelle, Hillary, Hazel, Sally and Francis had their honour restored and the whole evening concluded in high spirits.

It was a great series of lessons blessed with remarkably good weather. Thanks to Valerie for her unique tuition and to Rachel for coordinating the three Fridays and providing the tea for the postmortems. Everybody’s already looking forward to the 2012 edition.

Formation riding finale this Friday

With one lesson left in the series, Valerie’s formation riding class is shaping up to deliver a cracking musical formation ride this Friday evening at Harley’s. If you want to participate, contact Rachel on 086 161 7087 by Wednesday.

If you’re not riding but feel like an entertaining evening, come along and watch the performance. The great disadvantage of riding in the lesson is that you never get to see the display. If it looks half as good to spectators as it feels to the riders, it’s worth coming along to watch.

Club Member and Club Horse of the Year: Nominations by Friday!

Just one week to go until our AGM. Make sure that you phone, text or email Damien by Friday with your nominations (two per category) for the Club Member and Club Horse of the Year awards. Last year they went to the two Elizabeths (Lizzie and Libby) so who is it to be in in 2011? It’s important that we all acknowledge the efforts and achievements of our fellow club members, 2-legged and 4-legged, so get your nominations in now!

Contact Damien on 087 763 1911 or damien-gallagher@hotmail.com.

Celebrations with Erica & Dave, Saturday 12 November

As most of you know, Erica and Dave are moving to Wales where Dave started a new job last week. It’s an exciting move but we’re going to miss them both (and Britney) in the club.

Everyone is invited to a party at the Lennon Lodge in Ramelton from 9pm on Saturday next, 12 November, to celebrate the move as well as Dave’s 30th birthday. Contact Erica on 083 370 9333 for directions.

Hunting season kicks off at Raphoe, Saturday 5 November

It looks like the Donegal Harriers are going to be blessed with absolutely perfect weather for their first hunt of the season. There’s bound to be an enormous turn-out and the parade of the field as they set off around the town’s diamond is quite a spectacle.

Several of our members will be out for the day. Cormac is riding one of his real favourites, Charlotte, while Rachel is taking Lotto out for her very first sight of the hunting field. She’ll be kept in check by her daughter Emma on her equally novice hunter, Prophet. Leo is bound to be out with Grace and Keary will surely pop up on his chestnut, Arthur.

If you feel like going along to watch the action, the usual meet time is 12 noon to move off at 12.30.

Membership map 2011

Some tasks get put on the long finger and it’s about two years since our membership map was last updated. As we near the end of 2011 our membership stands at 48. This shows remarkable consistency with the last few years when we had 51 and 49 members respectively in 2009 and 2010. (If you want to look at a larger version of the map, check out the pdf version on our Club page.)

Remember to keep digging out your old photos

These are the winter months when days are short and there’s no light for capturing the club’s activities on camera. Our Features section is designed to brighten up the dark season so root out some photos of when you were younger or put together a profile of your horse for the website. You can email material to Libby on libby@cartonlevert.ie or hand her the goods on a Friday evening.