Hi everyone welcome to our 'rainy season' newsletter!
We hope you and your equines are all coping with the ridiculous amount of water we have been having. It’s been challenge for most of us as we try to keep mud fever at bay and find somewhere to hang wet rugs! My old boy Tom is very good at getting down for a roll on his way in, so comes in plastered in mud, lots of it to cover his 17.2hh frame.
What's new for the club
There are a few changes to your committee as Ros and Dave Luff are having some time out and have stepped down. Ros has done an awesome job, picking up BKRC when it was close to folding and been a driving force to keep it going and growing, something for which we must all be very grateful. Between them their support and help for the club has been unwavering. We hope they enjoy some down time and get to enjoy some BK activities without having to organise them.
The new committee roles/members are
Club Secretary Sarah Bale who many know already as Sarah organises the training.
Membership Secretary is Kelly Logan, who is our website wizard.
Safeguarding Officer & Junior Teams is Zoe Nettleton, who regularly does training for us.
National and Area Events
We have a Junior team and 3 seniors heading to the National Winter Championships in Grantham on 6th and 7th April to compete in Dressage.
Jayne Harman and Kaye Popham will be representing BKRC in the Intermediate Dressage Championships and Rachael Davies as a senior in the Novice Dressage Championships along with our Junior team - Arthur White, Evie Keedwell, Lucy Nettleton and Phoebe Robinson - wishing you all a safe journey and a successful competition! Good luck team BKRC
Sadly our Junior SJ team, Evie Keedwell, Phoebe Robinson and Lucy Nettleton were unable to have a crack at qualifying for the Show Jumping at the Championships as the Area 12 qualifier in February was not at its best.
The course was waterlogged and although the official steward said the competition could run, the team took a joint and sensible decision to withdraw due to ground conditions. Only one club's junior team ran in each class and neither completed. The results, Senior teams winning on 36 points when the scores normally would be zero or 4, speak volumes for the state of the course, which I believe did dry up a little later in the day, but of no good to those jumping early. We are in discussion with BRC over the days events, as they wouldn’t do a re-schedule we are hoping for reimbursement!
If you would like to represent BKRC at Area 12 events in your chosen discipline, please take a look at the dates and events then get in touch with Amanda who organises it.
2024 BKRC events
The next BK event is the Dressage at Stretcholt on 31st March, Easter Sunday so there will be Easter Bunny chocolate about plus Easter Eggs for the highest placed members, so get your entries in now.
As always we will be looking for help, (nagging I know but we the committee can’t do everything) so setting up, stewarding and clearing away, if you can help for a couple of hours, we don’t expect anyone to stay all day, please do, your help is much appreciated and needed. We add your hours up and then you get a voucher to use for an entry or lesson, so you get something in return for you help. Parents if you help if your child is competing, you could get a voucher, you could be saving money……………… just a thought! :-)
Spring Camp is coming!
May 3rd to 5th Pontispool camp which is being organised by us and Blackdown Mendip. Pontispool has great arenas to have lessons in and, weather permitting, the xc course will be open.
This is just 2 weeks before the Cotswold Cup is held there, so possibly a chance to have a practise ride round or arena xc for those aiming for it?
Blackdown Mendip will organise the camp at Stockland Lovell on September 27th to 29th. This is a fab few days for you and your best friend to enjoy a variety of lessons, flat, sj and xc get to go on lovely different hacking routes and have fun, check out the BMRC website for full details.
This is kindly open to our members at the discounted members price.
Lessons
We have lots of training coming up, Sarah does a great job with a variety of trainers, venues and also a variety of times for lessons to hopefully suit all our members. Take a look at our training timetable. We would always welcome help when we run pole clinics - setting up and clearing away. All help counts towards your vouchers!
Cancellations update - We know that training is a big part of why people join BKRC and we will always subsidise training sessions for our members and that includes absorbing the transaction fees when you pay for your lessons online. We have to date credited the full amount if you have to cancel which means we are still incurring the transaction fee. This mounts up over the year and so for future lessons if you have to cancel and it qualifies for a credit (e.g. it was before 72 hours, or we were able to fill your slot if within 72 hours) we will be refunding you the amount less the transaction fee we incurred (usually about 60-70p). We've done our best to keep subsidising and we know horses will be horses and last minute cancellations happen, but we want to be able to keep offering training at low rates for our members and so unfortunately we are now going to have to operate refunds the way every other venue and club does with "admin fees".
BD Quest and new BKRC Kit
The BD Quest Team and Individual is proving popular and successful for BKRC. We have 2 teams at the moment, BK Diamonds in the Rough and BK Diamonds are Forever. This is a great way to start dressage and lovely to be with friends.
We are very lucky that Julia Garrett has kindly sponsored us with Team Kit - Gilets in a lovely Royal Blue and white Saddle cloths with Blue BK/Garrets Logo. Contact Rhea or Sarah (team captains) if you are interested in competing.
We are getting BKRC clothing, this is being by Millie who will have pictures of items, along with cost to view on the website, available shortly so keep a look out!
Please get in touch if you have any ideas for future events, clinics, socials that you would like the club to try to arrange.
Hope to see some of you at the Dressage on 31st, don’t forget there will be chocolate, yum.
Hilary BKRC Chair
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