News

Latest News!

 

The Maryland route has been approved and the map and talk round are available on the Maryland Ride page.  Click here to open the Maryland Ride page.

Don't forget to get your entry in for this great ride!

 

The January newsletter has just been printed and will be in the post on Monday.  It is also available for download on the newsletter page.

 

A number of themed leisure routes enabling horse-riders, walkers and cyclists to explore some of Monmouthshire's most inspiring locations have been launched recently as ‘Tread and Trot’.

Becky Hughes, adventa's Tourism Innovation Officer said:

"adventa and Monmouthshire County Council Countryside team have been working hard together over the past two years to put the routes together. We have also worked closely with land owners and rural businesses to ensure that the routes can be as beneficial as possible to the local economy. It is hoped that the routes in Dingestow, Wye Valley, and Tintern will extend the length of time visitors spend in the area as well as encouraging more visitors out of season."

Full details are available on their web site: www.treadandtrottrails.co.uk

 

Maryland Ride - Sunday 19th February 2012  

Gill and Lesley are the new organisers for this year (Mark Holland is taking a well earned rest!).  They have slightly changed the route, tried to take out a slippery down hill road section, added in a new up-hill pull for those wanting to use this as a training ride and added a slight detour to take in a bit more of the Wye Valley scenery for those riding just to enjoy a day out - just a few more twists and turns plus a nice new level canter track for everyone to enjoy!! 

Lots of options for distance which you can choose on the day (just let the time keeper know your plans and arrive early if you plan to ride the long routes!)

We also have Celia Saunders, (photographer - www.artantix.co.uk) coming along.  

If you plan to bring a lorry or a non 4x4 towing vehicle, I would suggest you give us a ring first to discuss best parking areas:

Lesley     Tel: 01600 860746         email:
or
Gill           Tel: 01291 689639         email:  

Note Entry fee for this ride Members & AMs £13.50 Non-members £21.50, which includes an additional £3.50 towards the forestry charges for this ride.  

IF YOU DO NOT PLAN TO RIDE - PLEASE OFFER TO HELP


This social evening will be at English Bicknor Village Hall (Starting at 7.30 pm) on Saturday 28th January.

Abbi Tennant (Delwyn Hall's grand daughter) will be giving a talk about her six months in South Africa, at the Perseverance Stud on the Eastern Cape, last year. She rode up to 160km, very successfully, on horses belonging to her hosts, all of whom are kept & ridden barefoot.

Belinda Josephi has organised an accompanying talk from her barefoot trimmer, Lindsay Cotterell DAEP.

This will be extraordinarily interesting to all - please join us promptly at 7.30 for 7.45 start of illustrated talks.

Click here for directions to English Bicknor Village Hall.

Also from Abbi is the following great news:

I have some excellent news to share with you all!!!

I have made it as a finalist into the 2012 Social Media Awards under the category Amateur Rider!!!

The Awards are based upon strict engagement criteria such as how quickly they respond to comments, post original content and demonstrate good etiquette online. The top ten for all categories with the most unique statements got through to the finals. During the 9 day run up to Christmas Eve, 2,629 individuals submitted a total of 8,137 nominations via the ESMA's facebook App. There were nearly 2,000 nominees to pick from by the ESMA team. The final results will now be based 70% on scores from the Expert Panel and 30% on votes from the public. The ESMA panel are from the best equestrian marketers, digital professionals, social media guru's and branding experts from across the globe!

My website and blog were nominated and I am now in the top ten. I'll need as many votes as possible and would love to show how much of an Equestrian sport Endurance is!

Voting will close at 12:00 on the 10th February.

Link to vote on http://www.equestriansocialmediaawards.com/voting

And should anyone feel like a look at my web and blog here's the link to that also http://atennant-endurancerider.weebly.com/

Thanks for all the support!!

Please vote for Abbi - this is fantastic PR for endurance.  Well done Abbi!

 

The Society for the Welfare of Horses & Ponies is holding a Tack Sale on Wednesday 8th February at Whitchurch Village Hall which is on the A40 between Monmouth and Ross-on-Wye.

See the attached flyer for more details:  Click here for the flyer

 

We would like to give a very big THANK YOU to Suzanne and all her helpers for putting on todays Christmas Cracker Ride.

More than 60 riders enjoyed bright warm (well warm for January!) weather on a route that rode extremely well despite all the rain earlier in the week.  We certainly enjoyed ourselves and the mince pie, mulled wine and special 'Christmas Cracker' rosette were the icing on the cake.

Your roving web master didn't get out of the venue this time so the only photo we have at the moment is of a very happy Carolyn and Prophet at the end of the ride.  We were both really pleased with Prophet, who travelled well, was calm at the venue and eagerly rode the course.

Carolyn and Prophet

Carolyn & Prophet looking forward to a mince pie!

So again, thank you to Suzanne and all her helpers, this has really got the 2012 season off to a great start.

Don't forget our next Offa's Dyke Group Social Ride at Maryland on the 19th February.

 

Please note that this ride is now full. Suzanne is not able to accept any more late entries and you will not be able to enter on the day.

 

We hope you all had a very enjoyable New Year's Eve and are not suffering too much from the aftershock!

We wish you all a very Happy New Year and hope that all your equestrian aspirations are achieved.

The new Committee will be meeting later in the week where the rolls will be discussed and agreed.  The web site will be updated as soon as possible with the new details and contacts.  In the meantime we would like to say a very big thank you to the old Committee and to its Chair of the last three year's, Gina,  who is stepping down not only as Chair but also from the Committee itself (the role of chair is no more than three consecutive years).

 

 

Please note that the route has changed following further discussion with the Forestry Commission.  The 2 short compulsory dismount and lead sections and the short-cut have been deleted.  The route is now about 18km and there is the option to go round twice if you do a good speed and start out before 10:00.

Suzanne is taking late entries and may be able to take entries on the day if you arrive by 09:30.

The ride map has been updated with the modified route.

Click here for a copy of the revised ride instructions

Check the Christmas Cracker ride page for more information.

 

The final few photos have now been added to the Awards Page. My thanks go to Chris Wray who identified the final few photos, although I take full responsibility if I have mixed up any of them!  I should have taken notes as most of the ones that I couldn't identify were from the National AGM.  These awards had very kindly been picked up by Chris from the National AGM.  These photos have also been added and are at the bottom of the Awards Page.

 

Last week's Annual Meeting Award results have now been loaded onto the Award Results page along with some of the photographs.  More photographs will be loaded as soon as I can work out which photo refers to which award (I was too busy taking the photos to make notes at the same time)!

 

Lesley Dunn has sent through details of the provisional route for the February Maryland Ride.  These are available for download from the Maryland Ride page.

Congratulations to all the award winners at last lights Annual Meeting.  We were there to capture the event and will have a full report of the results with photographs as soon as we are able.  Please bear with us as we have some urgent business to attend to first but we will endeavor to have the report ready by the end of the week. 

Don't forget our annual meeting and prize giving next Saturday evening in Monmouth.  Full details on the Rides & Events page.

 

Bwlch Raid is a new Group Social Ride for the 8th of April organised by Fiona Griffiths.  She has just sent in a stunning picture from the top of the route which has been added to the Bwlch Raid Ride page.

 

The new route for this ride has been approved by the Forestry Commission but there will be 2 short compulsory dismount and lead sections on the long route where it uses part of the all-weather footpath frequented by walkers.  Please note that these sections are avoided if you use the short 15.5km route.  The ride map has been updated with these sections clearly identified.

Check out the Xmas Cracker Ride web page for more details.

 

Roger Lunt and Pat Conn have asked for help with getting a good attendance at the AGM of “Welsh Endurance” on 4th December.

Welsh Endurance is the group that organises and selects the Welsh team for the Home International and Celtic Challenge. You may have heard that Pat and Roger will be moving to retire in France in the New Year, and having for many years been major contributors to “Welsh Endurance”, they wish to leave confident that “Welsh Endurance” is in rude health!

This will include having a good core of keen and able members going forward.

Membership of Welsh Endurance is open to anyone with an interest in the Welsh team, so please come along and support the start of a new era!

The meeting is on Sunday 4th December at 11am in Neuadd Henllan (the stockman’s accommodation) at the Royal Welsh showground at Llanelwedd (Builth Wells). Postcode LD2 3TA.

 

An evening lecture on the topic of rider fitness at 7.00pm 24th November 2011 at the Beaufort Hotel Raglan.

Emma Jones from Abbey Vets has persuaded physio Sarah Price to do a talk about rider fitness to help raise money for NSPCC.

Bookings should be made through Abbey Vets - as she is shamelessly exploiting her practice resources to support such a worthwhile cause!

The flier tells you what it's all about and it would be great if you could lend your support. Bring as many people as will fit in your car!  

 

Offa’s Dyke member Abbi Tennant has sent the following report from South Africa for last weekend 22nd October:

Yes, this last weekend I finally achieved one of my ultimate goals: to ride in 160km.

I have had the most fortunate chance to be able to do it in Africa on one of the Perseverance horses. PSV Liberty, who I also rode at Fauresmith 201km coming 10th.

Laura on Jedi, Franscois (aka Bob) on Mauser and myself on Liberty were all to ride the 160km at Schanskraal. Ashley was to ride Karoo in the 120 aiming for Eastern Cape Young Rider Championship and another horse, Ibis, was leased to Mary Ann Fanner also doing the 120km. So the team of 5 were all to do FEI and we were all starting at 2am Saturday morning. The 120km were to start first and the 160km class left 2.10am. Even at this time the temperatures were still pretty hot and I wish I had not started in a jumper.

Laura, Bob and I rode most of the first loop together with Laura departing us a few kms before vg1. All 5 horses were through. The first two loops of the ride we all did in the dark, relying on complete trust with horses to pick their way along the tracks.

By midday we were on 4th loop and the temperatures were hot and well into their 30s. By this loop I was starting to feel the heat and thoroughly needed to drink (we don't have crew points on route). We got to a trough and the water looked so inviting that both Bob and I dismounted to join our horses and drunk too. Yes there may have been some algae and bugs in the water but never has a drink felt so refreshing and it was spring water too. We had passed Laura and Mary Ann on this loop as Laura was going to retire Jedi at 120km because he was not feeling his best.

We got back and vetted Mauser and Liberty and only had 40kms to go. Yes this seemed short but I was feeling tired. By this time Ashley had finished his 120km on Karoo coming in 3rd place.

So onto loop 5 of 20km in the heat and me wondering why I was doing a 160km instead of an easy 120km. Back to base and vetted through.

So 20km to go and my high spirits were back and I was determined to finish! Off Bob and I went for the last 20km. Yes Liberty and I were both tired and it was hot, so we quietly jogged round this last loop, with Bob leaving us a few kms from the venue.

We came into the venue at a nice trot with Liberty's ears pricked up and looking happy (I have no idea what I must have looked like though thoroughly red I should think from the sun). The worst part to vet. Bob and I vetted Mauser and Liberty together. I don't think I have been that nervous since I was at the Euro's in Oviedo back in 2009. The SA team vet vetted Liberty gave her the thumbs up. My god we'd done it!!!! I gave Liberty quite a shock when I flung my arms round her neck and then got a hug from the vet and the FEI official who had also seen me previously at another FEI. Then there was also Team PSV. I was knackered, hot, sun burnt and yet the grin across my face was not going to be deterred.

Thoroughly proud of Pocket Rocket Liberty, as she is nicknamed. We trained hard for Fauresmith together and achieved the 201km race. We have been a happy partnership ever since and she is a star. I shall thoroughly miss her when I eventually leave but she is a horse in a million and one I shall never forget!!

Abbi has also sent in this report for this weekend 29th October:

Well got back today after a weekend away in the North Cape for another competition. This time just a short 80km on Perseverance Nile. This was Nile's first ever endurance ride and the first time away from the farm and in a trailer, EVER!!

The 80km class was a stepladder which is similar to one of our elevator rides, so should the course/distance be too much for Nile I could end the ride at a given distance.

Laura, Bob and I left PSV farm last Thursday with Mabruk, Matrix and Nile for the 7 hour journey to Kimberley in the North Cape.

Nile successfully completed his 80km yesterday with easy and did not appear tired at all. In order for the ride to count we had to go under 16kph. Due to it now being summer here all classes started early. The 80kms were to leave at 4.30 and the step ladder class at 5. As I would be riding with Bob I had permission to leave at 4.30 although we hid away to the pack had left due to Nile being very hyper. Once out on course Nile acted like a pro completing the first loop of 34km at 13kph, second loop of 32km at 14 kph and the last loop of 16km at 19kph and still coming in look very fresh. Laura and Bob came 4th and 5th within their weight divisions too. By 12 we had all finished our rides and could relax while the sun warmed up the North Cape.

This will be my last ride now in Africa and I shall be back in the UK end of November. As for now we're all on foal watch, with this year’s first foal being born yesterday! What a great weekend!!!

 

News Flash – Free entry nominations for Welsh Part-Bred Horse Group Annual Awards 2011. All entries/nominations to be received by Judith Powell Awards Coordinator, by 11th November 2011.

Welsh Pard-Bred Awards

Please note that there is still time for entries for the ‘Welsh Part-Bred Annual Awards for 2011’.

Full details are available on www.welshpartbredhorses.co.uk.  (In association with the Welsh Pony and Cob Society) - for  horses with 12 1/2% Welsh Blood.

P.S. There are awards specifically for Endurance discipline.

 

The Heart of England Group of Endurance GB are holding 'The Christmas Tipple' Group Social/Training Ride on Saturday 10th December 2011. This is being held, by kind permission of Mrs Ann Prince and Mr Richard-Bradley Hancock, at Mease Meadow Farm, Edingale B79 9JA.  This is the excellent venue where they held their recent training day and features practice tracks and facilities specifically designed for endurance.

Click on this link for more information.

 

Jenny Myerscough of our neighbouring De Cymru Group has privately arranged a couple of riding clinics in November, which she thought may be of interest to our members. See this link for the information from Jenny and contact her directly for more details.

 

Now we’ve all been to the last rides of the 2011 season, it’s time to fill in your trophy cards and send them to Trophy Secretary Chris Wray. This will give him plenty of time to work out all the results and order the lovely rosettes in time for the Annual Awards evening on 10 December at Bridges in Monmouth.

Please everyone send in your cards. There are prizes for all sorts of things, from pleasure rides up to the highpoint trophies.

Remember there is an award for Associate Members as well.

Every kilometre you’ve ridden counts and helping at events also gives points for some of the awards, so write everything you’ve done this year on your card & send it to:

Chris Wray, Pentrewheeler Farm, Cwmcarvan, Nr Monmouth, Gwent, NP25 4PL.   

If you’ve lost your card you can download one from the forms page of the website

 

EGB member Eileen Charlton has loaded an excellent video of the recent Royalties ride onto YouTube and has very kindly given us permission to link to it.  We think this is an excellent guide to a competitive Endurance Ride and shows how much fun they can be.

Link to YouTube Video

Thanks very much to Eileen for letting us share this.

 

Congratulations to Offa's Dyke member Angharad Morgan and Comet who represented Wales at the Red Dragon this year. Angharad rode as a junior in the Dragon's Egg Class (42 + 42). Comet completed both days (Grade 1, Grade 3 incurring no penalties) despite sporting the start of his winter coat in the unusually hot weather. Angharad was nursing a bruised coccyx after a fall at Three Rivers so was delighted to have done so well. The icing (and the cherry) on the cake was the award for Best Junior and Comet won the Napoleon Welsh Cob Award (Best Registered Welsh Cob) at the Dragon Ride (totally unexpected).

Well done to the both of you!

 

As featured in the October Newsletter, the Buddy Scheme is now live and waiting for eager volunteers!  Full details are on the Buddy Page.

 

The October newsletter has been printed  and will be in the post on Monday.  The pdf version has been emailed out so please let us know if you haven't received it as there may be a problem with the address.

It is available to download from the Newsletter page.

 

Riders at Sunday's Plump Hill ride may have noticed a photographer in the field near the start/finish.  Although we didn't have an official photographer, Dave Smedley, a friend of Timekeeper Louise England, was there.  He is a keen amateur photographer who has just recently started taking equestrian photos and has made his photos available for viewing and purchasing on the following web site:

http://photoboxgallery.com/Smeds

To order your photo please select the desired photo.
Then press 'order selected images'.
You get a pop up when you press order selected images. 
You need to ensure you tick the box that says only purchase selected print.
Then view basket and go to checkout (which should also accept paypal).

 

Photos are still needed for the Offa’s Dyke Group Fixtures Calendar for 2012.  This will feature photos taken by members throughout the 2011 season. 

They could be of anything from members riding at events (UK and abroad, Young Riders, FEI etc), action shots in the vetting area, crewing, dogs or panoramic views like Rob Edward's wonderful photo of the Forest's stained glass window that featured on a cover of EGB magazine last year. 

The idea is to produce the calendar as an A4 or A5 single card that will be sent to all our members and also made available at our rides to promote future events. 

Apart from being a fun memento of the competing season, this could be a really exciting promotional tool and an opportunity to show off the photographic skills of our members and their crews. 

Please don't send any professional photos taken at events as this may infringe copyright.

Please send you photos as soon as possible to  

 

We would like to thank Sharon Parr and her helpers for another excellent Plump Hill ride today.  The venue for this ride is super with plenty of space.  The route rode well despite the rain of recent days and the morning stayed fine.  We left just as the heavens opened and we believe that many of the 50 riders were back in time to avoid the worst of the rain.

So thanks again to Sharon for a giving us a great opportunity to either get fit for the Red Dragon or just to ride in a different area (or even both!).

 

Identify your goals for Endurance with coaching from Pam James

Two training days are planned:

13th November at Delwyn Hall’s house, Holme Lacy, Hereford.

20th November Venue TBA (possibly near Newent Gloucester)

Times 9.30-4.00
Cost £20 per person 6 places per day (payable when booking confirmed)


Apply now! 


Final application date 12th October  

To book a place please mail via Offa’s Dyke website CONTACT  

Pam is a level 3 qualified coach with many years experience in endurance (more info on EGB coaching page). We have arranged coaching as outlined in Distance seminar article in EGB National Magazine May/June issue.

More information available through this link.

 

Please note - this ride is definitely on!  Sharon had to delay sending out the ride details due to issues with the forestry, who have now given permission with a minor route change.  The ride instructions have been emailed out and are available here if you have not received yours yet.  Maps will be available on the day, plus hard copies of these instructions.

 

Thanks to our Treasurer, Liz Taylor, we now have a Facebook page.  A link/like button has been added to both the Home and the News page.

 

  

Note - old news has been archived.  Click here if you want to access the news archive.