Young Riders Camp Report

Young Rider’s Camp 2008 Week 1

I attended Rosemary’s camp on the first week 13th - 18th July. There were 11 of us in total and we’d been put into two teams for the week and two riding groups.

The two teams were:

Yellow Team
Myself (captain), Sarah Rogerson, Louise Rich, Katie Bedwin, Brett Corcoran

And

Red Team
Rachael Rogerson (captain), Laura Brown, Jessica, Molly Corcoran, Hannah
Plus Dean Brown joined us for the week at late notice.
 
Each rider was marked on rider appearance in lesson, rider effort in lesson, tack for lesson, stable/corral, and horse appearance. These were marked individually and displayed on a board in the teams so that each person could see how they were doing and could see which team was winning.
 
Two riding groups were arranged based on riding ability and these groups. Each day there would be an hours schooling lesson plus some hacking with Rosemary.

Group 1
Rachael Rogerson, Sarah Rogerson, Louise Rich, Laura Brown, Brett Corcoran, Myself

Group 2
Katie Bedwin, Jessica, Molly, Dean, Hannah
 
Food was being cooked by the local pub called the Wheatsheaf.
 
Day 1 Sunday

As Team Captain for the Yellow Team I got up early to plait my teams horses before they had their lesson. I had 4 horses to plait including my own. I did two before breakfast and two after breakfast. I had yellow ribbon which I used to plait into the mane of each horse. My dad also supplied my Team with yellow t-shirts.
 
We had Nick Earnshaw teaching us in the lesson who is an ex-metroplotian police officer and taught the metropolitan police riders at the academy in Sussex. He worked on our positions within the saddle. He explained everything clear to us and demonstrated the way to do the exercises. The other group went on a hack with Rosemary while we had our lesson than we swapped and we went on a hack.
 
Had lunch of sandwiches and than left for the trip to Al Waha Arab Stud. This was a interesting visit. They showed us all the stallions they had as well as explaining their performances and their pedigree. We were also shown some of their new offspring. Many of us wished we could fit one of these foals in the boot of the car and take back with us. After showing us these Arabs we were allowed to wonder around the stud to see some of the mares and yearlings. They provided us with squash and biscuits while we chatted to them about the horses we had and were riding.
 
That evening we ate Lasagne for dinner and than had horses to feed and skip out before having free time and than bed.
 
Day 2 Monday

I woke early to plait my Teams horses before the lesson using the yellow plaiting bands I had and yellow ribbon.
 
That morning we had a lesson with Andrea who was chef for the Senior Team. She got to know us and our horses and we worked on exercises to improve ourselves and our horses. Group 1 and 2 than swapped and they had a lesson while we went on a hack. Rosemary had marked out three routes before camp so that Group 1 could hack by themselves. We split ourselves up so that Louise, Brett and Laura went in one group and Rachael, Sarah and myself went in another group for hacking and took the pink route to the right. 
 
We than had lunch and had a stable management lesson by Lucy Bedwin (Rosemary’s daughter) on bandaging while the other group went to the pool for swimming. We did these activities in our ride groups. Although it was a warm day the pool was cold but once we’d started doing some lengths under Rosemary’s supervision we soon warmed up. At the end of the pool time we were allowed some free time where we were able to go down the slide and have fun in the pool.
 
Before dinner we had a talk by Ellie Martin the saddler on how to fit a saddle. We also discussed our saddles which we rode in. She did demonstrations of how to fit a saddle using different sized saddle trees and used Jess’ pony for these demonstrations.
 
We than had dinner of chicken stew followed sticky ginger cake and custard. After dinner we skipped out and fed our horses before having free time and than bed.
 
Day 3 Tuesday

As before I got up early to plait my teams horses.
 
We had another lesson with Nick using poles. My horse however decided to jump over these poles at the start of the lesson but by the end had settled down to trotting over them like everyone else. Group 1 and 2 than swapped over so that we could go on a hack. We separated ourselves as before had took the pink route to the right.
 
Once back we all sat down and had lunch of jacket potatoes with toppings of cheese, beans, tuna or coronation chicken.
 
That afternoon we each took it in turns to learn the dressage test (BHS Prelim 7) on our horses while the other group went swimming.
 
We skipped out and fed our horses before having dinner if sausage and mash followed by apple crumble and cream.
 
That even we had a talk by David Nichols the remedial farrier from Liphook Equine Hospital on shoeing and the different types of shoes for the horses. He brought with him many different types of shoes so that we could see the difference and also talked to us about pads which could be used.
 
We than checked our horses and had free time before bed.
 
Day 4 Wednesday

Another early start for me so that I could plait. By now the horses were used to me plaiting them each morning and would stand patiently while I did this.
 
We had a lesson by Annabel Schofield who taught us ways to get our horses to be more supple and improve our horses. We had  exercises to do for this lesson which would apply to all horses. Annabel explained these exercises clearly and simple so that we could understand why were doing these exercises. The two groups than swapped we went out on a hack.
 
We had lunch altogether after riding and than had swimming with Claire Bruce the physiotherapist. She gave us exercises to do in the water which would improve our cardiovascular and core strength. She also explained to us that by swimming would improve us in the saddle as it works on all the muscles and if we are more one sided than the other this would show up when swimming on our backs as we would drift due to the fact one side was less muscled. We than swapped over and my riding group tacked up to do some canter work in the hay field. After doing the first circuit all horses were quite excited about it all especially as we were in a group and each time were anticipating each time we came to the corner where we had started from. But it was all good fun!
 
After finishing our swimming and riding we had horses to skip out and feed before dinner. We than had dinner of shepherds pie followed by desert of fruit salad.
 
After dinner there was a talk on electrolytes by Dodson and Horrell. This was by far the most interesting talk of the week and we were all there listening eagerly to hear what she had to say. The talk was done by a power point presentation and for those who didn’t know about electrolytes or didn’t know a lot this was a well worth talk. I think each of us learnt something about electrolytes that we didn’t know before.
 
After lecture we had free time before bed.
 
Day 5 Thursday

Another morning of getting up early to plait my teams horses. As the week progressed I got later getting up although I think that might have been due to the fact I was going to bed later each night.
 
We had breakfast before our lesson which was being taught by Annabel Schofield. That morning we warmed up in the sand school and than went to the hay field where we would be doing some canter work. We had a briefing of what she wanted us to do before we set of individually. That mornings exercise was to canter round and do a large circle round each of the cones maintaining propulsion and keeping the horse together whilst circling. Each horses were different and some found it more difficult than others while some motor biked round their circles. Annabel worked with us individually to improve our circles and by the end all horses were getting the hang of circling and looking more balanced on their turns. We than swapped and went for a hack.
 
As before my riding group split up so that there wouldn’t be so many of us. As they had worked hard Sarah and I only wanted to take our horses for a short hack just to cool off. Rosemary gave us directions on a route which she hadn’t marked, although we actually didn’t do that route she said. We went left as the pink route did crossed the road and went past the turning where the pink route turned off. On our way up this hill we happily chatted away and went past a deer park where the deer herd were eating hay put out for them. At the top of the hill we took a left turn (Rosemary had told us to keep going left) and came back to the main road. By this time we realised we hadn’t followed her directions but noticed across the road a bridleway so thought we would continue and keep going left at every opportunity hoping it would lead us back to Rosemary’s. The bridleway took us across the land belonging to the Rikkyo Japanese School going past the athletics track and into the car park of the school. Once through the gate into the school’s car park we couldn’t see a sign so took one of the left routes through the school and found ourselves near the residential buildings, luckily there was one of the tutors directed us back and told us where the bridle path went. We had just missed the sign after coming through the gate because it was facing straight in front of us and unless you went to one side of it you couldn’t see it. On through the school and we followed the bridle track. Although we both knew we weren’t actually going the route Rosemary had advised we quite happily carried on and chatted away. Both horses seemed to enjoy the route too. After going so far and taking a few more left bridle way turns we came to part of the wood and recognised it from last year’s camp hack so knew roughly where we were. Along this part of the track there was a low long down which we both had a jump across. Eventually we joined back onto the road and knew exactly where we were as it joined part of the pink and orange routes. As the going had been so good we decided that the next day we would go along the same route and be able to canter some of it as we had remained in walk the whole way round.
 
We than had lunch and loaded into two cars to travel into Horsham for a game of bowling. Emma Haines, one of the girls who rides some of the horses for Rosemary joined us for the trip, this made it than two equal teams of six. Once there we got our bowling shoes and split into the red and yellow team. Dean joining my Team of Yellow and Emma joining the Red Team. It was good fun in bowling and Rosemary kept the scores after to add them up so that we could see which Team had won. Individually Sarah Rogerson won within the Yellow Team and Emma Haines won within the Red Team. However overall Yellow Team won. Another victory for us!!
 
We arrived back to Rosemary’s where we had spaghetti bolognas followed by strawberry meringue.
 
After dinner John Robertson gave us a talk on travelling horses. He applied it to general travel plus the Team which would go to Spain in September. This was a good talk and we all took some information back with us. After the talk he showed us some photo’s which had from being abroad. One photo was of a horse travelling in the back of a pickup across the desert. We were all a bit shocked by this but he explained it was something they were used to and would jump up to be able to get into these pickups needless to say there were some looks of shock on our faces.
 
After the talk we had horses to feed and skip out, than free time before bed.
 
Day 6 Friday

This morning I got up and as it was dressage day plaited Katie’s horse with needle and thread. I intended to do the whole Team in the same way for dressage instead of us having arab plaits. However, it didn’t go that way and somehow that idea didn’t happen due to lack of time.
 
That morning we had a lesson by Andrea again but we used pulse monitors. Those of us who had brought our own used theirs but those of us who didn’t have one borrowed Andrea’s as she had brought a few spares. We warmed up in the sand school and than went to the hay field. Andrea gave us a brief on what she wanted us to do before we each individually set off to work at our set pulses. Each circuit Andrea gave us a pulse which she wanted us to stick around at. And than we would stop the horses would recover to a certain pulse and than we would set off again. This showed each of us how quickly our horses would recover from  canter work. As each horses were different some had to go faster than others to be able to work at the pulse Andrea had set us.
 
Whilst doing our canter work with Andrea we had each gone off to be vetted by Derek Grantham (Young Rider Team Vet) so that he could see our horses. Every horse there was vetted by him. Whilst there we each trotted up and Denise Passat was there to give us a few pointers on trotting up technique. After trot up and vet check Chris Pell (Young Rider Team Farrier) was there to check horses feet/ shoeing and advise.
 
Once checked and other ride group were back from their hack we swapped over and my riding group went for a hack. As the other half of the riding group wanted to see where Sarah and I had hacked the previous day we went out on that route as a group. We all happily enjoyed our hack and this time didn’t get lost in the Rikkyo School grounds. Once back we had lunch of sandwiches.
 
After lunch it was time to do the dressage test. This put a few of us into a bit of a panic as we hadn’t learnt it and were told we couldn’t have it called. So some of us went up to do it on foot. After walking/running it we had to tack up. Although by this stage some people had the test called for them but I didn’t know this and did my test from memory. I didn’t concentrate on outline of Shandy as I was too busy trying to remember the test so it was a poor performance on my part. But I completed the test and didn’t go wrong. Once all horses were untacked and washed down we had prize giving. Dressage test results were given first; Rachael Rogerson won the dressage with Lori. Than prizes were given individually for rider appearance, horse appearance, tack/turnout, rider effort, and stable/corral. Prizes given were equine books of different titles. The Team was announced last and that went to Yellow Team so we all won a pair of gloves!
 
Some of us than stayed the night and travelled home next morning while others went home that evening. It was a brilliant week and we got to see our old friends and make some new ones. A big thank you to Rosemary for organising it!
 
For those of you who haven’t been before it is a fantastic week and you learn a lot. Loads of fun too it’s a defiant must before you leave Young Riders and join the seniors!!