What a brilliant start to the RAC Saddle Club Pony Club Centre Plus | Royal Armoured Corps Saddle Club, Bovington

What a brilliant start to the RAC Saddle Club Pony Club Centre plus.

After 9 months since we introduced the Pony Club Centre Plus membership we have achieved so much. Below is an update for our Pony Club DC and Yard Manager, Steph Buchanan, BEM,

“We started with a small number of liveries who transferred from other PC Branches to the RAC Saddle Club Pony Club Centre Plus (RACSCPC+) and now we have 44 members, plus all our riding school riders have become Centre members!

I didn’t expect to find myself as DC as well as being on the Area 14 training committee but hey we are like most Pony Clubs with an active group of volunteers behind the scenes. It is a tough gig doing rallies and entering competitions and sorting transport, so before I start a big thank you to Lisa, aka Moggie, and Melody who devote a lot of their time and also Kristal and Sue in the office. We couldn’t have done it without you!

Being new to the DC role I was unsure about the club subsidising the champs but we decided we would pay entries and raise money through a sponsored cake sale, tack cleaning and raffle. Lisa also did a fab sponsored walk with the PC and Club members and it was great to see them having fun doing something as simple as just walking with their mates.

We also kickstarted the all-important PC tests – an essential learning pathway – and had some 100 per cent passes! A big thank you to Sam for all her zoom training – she will run it again if enough are interested. We are already busy prepping Shannon and Millie for their C plus and plan to run C Test training in prep for our assessors to come in during the Christmas holidays. It’s essential we raise members knowledge and understanding of being correct.

One of the rules with PC is that if you haven’t done 3 rallies you can’t be considered for the teams so we started with these early on so that we could get everyone competing.

The juniors qualified on home ground back in Feb and March securing their place for Bicton Champs 40cm, 50cm and 60cm. Dressage was next with Sam and Lisa our centre coaches doing a great job teaching them how to ride in the boards correctly. Parents bought the merchandise to get them flying the RAC name and they did us proud with Sam and Lisa warming them up and many of them qualifying for the grass roots champs.

Next was Show Jump Areas, this is where the true camaraderie shone through. I managed to make it to the show jump competition as team trainer even though my flight from Spain was delayed and diverted! With no sleep we arrived while Mike stepped in at the last moment to drive the ponies up in my lorry. Our worst nightmare however occurred when dear Todd had his trailer accident but it was amazing to see Paul and everyone rally around when things go wrong. Thank you!

I am very pleased to say dear Todd is on the mend and he is lucky enough to have Harriet as his mum and vet nurse. She’s thrown every penny she has at getting him right although of course he is a soldier and his strength of character shone through. Full due to the kids who carried on jumping and picked up a qualification to take them to Bicton champs.

Then came the eventing at Larkhill – thank heavens for Ness’ electric bike as Chris and I were flat out!

We had one individual in the 70cm, 2 teams in the 80cm and Molly in the 90cm. Unfortunately, Tilly’s horse was off games and she couldn’t go after all her hard work but that unfortunately is horses – the sport really is the biggest leveller.

Our 80cm team qualified for Bicton grass roots and Molly went all the way north with William Paddy’s Socks to Off Church Bury in Warwickshire. Day one for Molly saw Socks winning his section and then going into a ride off with 16 other winners where he finished 4th nationally – this is all due to Molly’s hard work as Socks was never a dressage a pony! For him to finish 4th is testament to her hard work.

Then on to the eventing and another fab dressage test score for the dynamic duo. For those who knows Socks you know he likes to look around and spook, plus the track was up to height and technical, but despite a few unlucky poles he was sitting 24^th… and in true eventing fashion it is not over till they come home and they stormed round inside the time to come in 11th just outside the top10!

To top it all Louly the Area 14 Rep called to say that out of 120 riders Molly had been awarded 2nd place Master of Horse, which means on the most technical part of the course Molly was judged on her skill of harmony, rhythm and balance! A very proud moment for coach and rider!

On to Bicton and Lisa headed down first with Maddison for the individual 40cm coming 19th out of 100. The 50cm team (Evie and Squiggle) coming individual 15^th. Isla, who had been away on holiday, on dear Freddie who had just done camp (and also a little on the senior years) jumped a double clear for 26th and Dilly on Millie came 60th out of huge class of 158. As team they were 3^rd!!!

Next day was the 60cm and sadly with one of their team mates, Ava, having had a horrid fall at home meant she was out of action. Too late to substitute, they went as a team of 3: Mylo aged 24 and his partner in crime Felix Jenkins jumped an awesome double clear in a very good time and was in 1^st place for most of the day! All of us at the yard were on the edge of our seats waiting for the final result- a veteran riding school pony who has done 3 camps finished 2nd out of 135 riders, Dilly with Millie 6th and Zara with Ziggy 61st and a team 4th out of 31 teams – wow, wow, wow!

Next up was pure dressage and pure show jumping although not without the drama of subbing horses and borrowing lorries and the amazing Paul giving up his day off along with Sue to drive Sam’s lorry, and Lisa and Chelsea’s dad Dan driving my lorry and me driving the deluxe lorry! Thanks Beanie!

In the 70 dressage it was fabulous to see Zara and Ziggy coming 5^th, Lara and Teenie 8^th, and Isobel and dear Hammy (who is 22 years old and had not long finished his day job at the club) just outside on 12^th with Isobel nursing Hammy and riding with feel and consideration.

Pure in pure SJ 80cm Ellie and Coco, Millie and her young horse Jinx, Chelsea and naughty Jasper, and Poppy and Reggie all rode their socks off in a big atmosphere.

Quick sprint from SJ back to 80 dressage warm up where Millie and Jinx placed 15^th, Shannon and Gadget came 7^th, Eliza Springs 15^th, and Ellie and Coco 2^nd with them then going forward to a ride off where she came 3^rd. Pops and Reggie placed a fabulous 2^nd, with Mia and Gem 7^th posting a really good score.

It was then time to march around Bicton XC course, which is always challenging because of the terrain and technical questions pretty much from fence 4 onwards. First up was Shannon with a 26-dressage score, Millie on Charlie with a dressage score of 29, Ellie with a dressage score of 30 but our hero was Nicki Craig’s boy coming on a fab 29 dressage score with Abby Rodgers with very little training! Millie also did a great job with her youngster Jinx who well let’s just say was finding the atmosphere very exciting but ended with a respectable 34 score and settled the next day.

The SJ was like clockwork – the kids rode it exactly how I told them to ride it and they got all the distances bang on! One by one they went and all 4 clear and although XC was causing problems our guys stormed it which meant we WON out of 35 teams – not too shabby huh?!

I do hope that you have all had fun from being part of the RAC Saddle Club Pony Club and as your DC I am very proud of what we have all achieved only 8 months in.

A big thank you to our coaches and the level of tuition and to the parents for supporting the club and to the staff for their duty of care.

We have lots to look forward to including an Awards Evening in the Black Bear in Wareham in November.

In the meantime, we are working hard to raise money for our very own pony club jumps but as we are a very new club we have started from scratch it will take time to build up the funds and offer a full programme to our members.”