Day trip to Carrickfinn, Sunday 25 September

With our Carrickfinn camping expedition in May and our Millers Hill weekend in September both lost to the weather, we’re hoping to get lucky with our third attempt to get away for some exhilarating riding and food cooked in the open air.

This Sunday we’re heading to Carrickfinn for the day. It’s a very worthwhile journey for a day’s riding across stunning beaches, extensive sandunes and minuscule coastal roads and tracks. Bring your own food for the grill, some weatherproof gear and your horse (or just your shoes, if you’d prefer to walk while others ride).

The weather forecast is middling and the trip will definitely be going ahead unless a hurricane tears across the Atlantic between now and Sunday. If you plan on coming along, contact Damien on 087 763 1911 for directions and times.

Pictured below: Memories of our unforgettable camping trip in May 2010.

Cloncaw proves its worth yet again

Cloncaw Equestrian Centre’s highly popular 2-Phase league ended on Sunday with its final leg proving yet again what a valuable amenity its facilities provide. Despite torrential rain in the preceding week, the show jumping and cross country courses were beautifully prepared and ready for action on the day.

Martina, Marina and Libby competed at this non-AIRC event. Jayne Robinson was there too sporting her red Tirconaill silks on her lovely new horse. All of the Donegal riding club members opted for the Mini category, each looking for a nice confidence-boosting round over attractive jumps. Martina handled a headstrong Smuggler manfully in the show jumping ring before heading out for a faultless cross country round at her first ever attempt. An upgrade to Advanced Primary is imminent as the combination set their sights on riding club cross country competitions for 2012.

After jumping Fence 3, Libby had flashbacks to Nadine’s two most memorable Glaslough experiences  and rode a giant circle while she figured out that, no, she had not missed a jump! To compensate for the detour, she rode Mai on like the clappers over the second half of the course and ended up with no faults and the fastest time in the competition — too fast, of course, for a competition run over optimum time…

It was Marina on Jenny, jumping only her second cross country course, who hacked around like an old pro and took sixth place for her faultless and 12-second less speedy round.

It was a most enjoyable event and a wonderful schooling experience. Glaslough is so close that it’s almost in the county — a well worthwhile journey over excellent roads. Maybe one of these day the Border Counties and Castle Leslie members will realise that it’s just as easy travelling in the other direction!

Pictured below: Three Letterkenny members in action at Cloncaw. (Photos kindly provided by Cloncaw’s Geraldine Bellew.)

Book promptly for Friday evening lessons

Mary Finneran’s lessons on Friday night may have been on the wet side but that did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of the 14 members who enjoyed excellent instruction at Glenleary. Hopefully the weather will be kinder this Friday evening.

Book as early as you can with Erica. We’re limited to three lessons on the evening and you don’t want to miss out on your place in the arena.

On the hunt for the stapler thief…

Okay, hands up, who swiped the brand new stapler that was bought on the Saturday we were setting up at Lenamore? Detectives Hamilton and McClafferty are opening a file on the case and anyone with any information should contact them at Stapler Search HQ on 086 821 6335.  Meanwhile, Libby is desperately rooting around looking for John’s stapler that ended up in her jeep two years ago…

Reduced membership fees for the remainder of the year

In keeping with the AIRC’s annual September-onwards reduction in fees, our club’s fee for riding membership now drops to €35 for the remaining months of the year. This gives people who are considering joining us a great opportunity to test the waters at a very affordable rate.

Contact Orla on 087 643 2458, if you’re interested in joining, or download the membership form on our Join Us section.

Best of luck to Benbulben

This weekend our neighbours, Benbulben Riding Club, fly the AIRC and Irish flags at the Association at the British Riding Clubs (BRC) Championships at the Lincolnshire Showgrounds in England. We wish them the very best of luck. Hopefully they can pull off a victory but most of all, let’s hope they have a great experience.

Read more about the event on the AIRC website. You’ll see that one of the Benbulben team horses, Nisqually  de May, has the same name as Annie McCole’s mare – is that like “Molly” in English or should Gabriel be checking his fields?

Club squadron assembling for Operation Glenswilly

Every one of us has scratched our head and wondered time again what we can do to give Mick and Suzanne a hand while they soldier through the difficult time they and Gemma are experiencing this year. Not for the first time, it was Mary Finneran who came up with the brilliant idea of launching a maintenance attack on the grounds of Chez Carroll in Glenswilly.

There’s nothing more depressing than seeing all the tedious day-to-day tasks of property ownership get the better of you during hectic periods and nobody can deny that Suzanne and Mick have been under pressure for a while now. So, grab whatever useful tools and pieces of machinery that you possess, load up on energy, and join members for an afternoon session of weeding, hedge clipping, raking, mowing, and any other useful task that we can perform on Saturday 24 September.

If you’d like to join Operation Glenswilly, just turn up on the day at 2pm or contact Liz on 086 831 3799 for directions and other details.