Eridge Hunt Branch
Senior Camp
Reports on Senior Camp - August 2008:
Ellie Horne
I went to Camp not really knowing what to expect but after a week away with my pony I couldn’t have thought of a better way to end my Summer holidays. I can strongly say Camp is an astounding and remarkable event with amazing people especially the orangizers.What made my camp experience so special was meeting lots of new and old faces and really being part of a team. There is so much more to Camp than just riding, including running, cyling, shooting, dancing, discos and not much sleep!
It is a memory I will treasure for the rest of my life. Thank you so much Nicki and Lynne for all the hard work you put in to Camp which made it so fantastic and even though it was tiring everyone had a wonderful time. I can’t wait until next year and now I am rather sad it is over.
Harriet Sutton
For some of you Pony Club Camp may seem like a nightmare, waking up at 7 o’clock each morning, cleaning tack each day and having tidy rooms. But I can tell you Camp is nothing like a nightmare! We are very lucky to be able to hold camp at the Ardingly showground and use the many facilities that it has to offer; the cross country course brought falls all throughout the week, not to mention the falls in the number of sand schools.
The whole week was greatly enjoyed by everyone despite being woken up by a horn at 7:15 in the morning by Eddie Spencer, mucking out this early was quite strenuous for some of us but after the big breakfast cooked by some willing helpers we were all on our way. The riding had its ups and downs with people falling off and the loose horses cantering round the cross-country however this year was free from people falling off in ditches and in water!
Some of the evening activities were based around the main event which was a tetrathlon, which includes running, riding, swimming and shooting. The shoot was held one afternoon in a barn at the showground with the help of Sally Bowman and Paul Hollis. The highest score was shot by one of the Sports Captains that takes part in tetrathlons, no surprise there! We all thought that this was the easiest task we had to complete as on Wednesday night we trekked off to Ardingly College to use the pool. Many thanks to the parents who gave us all lifts! The swim, organised by Eddie Spencer, was a great deal of fun even when the competitive sides of the captains came out! After we had all swam what we had to it was back in the pool for a game of water polo, this sorted the men from the boys! The running discipline of the tetrathlon didn’t quite take place (lots of sighs of relief at this announcement!) as there was only really one person that wanted to run.
Thanks to everyone that chipped in to make camp a great success, special thanks to Pat who put up with our early morning groans, and of course a huge thank you to the Duggans, the Wylams and the Rists as, without their time and organisation, there would not be pony club camp!
Katie-Ann Hickling
Monday: I am very excited as It is my first year at senior camp. It took forever to load up mine and Bees things for the 5 days ahead!. When we arrived all the ponies were trotted up and then shown to our stables. I was in a great yard with Alex Young, Ashlin Rolph, Katy Voos, Olivia Brown, Amelie David, Ellie Horne and Maddy Ward. We then looked at our bedrooms which were very tiny! We ate a nice lunch and then at last we rode!. In the evening we watched the pictures of the day on Simon Wylam’s Projector, that was great!
Tuesday: Up at 7am not a very nice start as Paul Duggan blew his air horn and made us all jump! With baggy eyes we rode our bikes down to the stables and fed the ponies and mucked out. We cycled back and ate a fantastic home cooked breakfast..yum. Back to the yard to ride. Today our group did show jumping, technical jumping, gridwork and dressage...in which we swapped ponies. I got to ride Cosi Tibbles pony Coco and really enjoyed her! Although I’m not sure what Olly Halcrow made of Bee!! In the evening Mark Rist organised some great events including wheelbarrow racing, welly boot throwing and a slow bike race! Although I was so tired, I still didn't get to bed till 11pm!
Wednesday: This morning Paul used Saucepans to get us out of bed...great. I really enjoyed today as we had double cross country. Little Bee did so well to keep up with the other ponies who towered above her, I felt very proud. The ponies had the afternoon off, we did the shooting and swimming part of our tetrathlon competetion. Anna Hollis was amazing and scored 4 tens and gained 1000 points!
Thursday: The air horn struck again, and by now we were cycling down to the stables still asleep! We had a Chase me Charlie competition this afternoon which was great fun. The D.C. arrived just as we were all flying over 3ft 6"! Im not sure she was impressed or not!. Bee finished jumping 3ft 9". I’m sure it would have been easier for her to have gone underneath it!. Tonight was party night... Daniel Filmer started the evening with his great singing (watch out x factor!) then it was all the teams turn to show off the dances that we had been practising in the week. Abba was the theme and the green team (my team) danced to Gimmie Gimme Gimmie. Although I have to say, watching Will Johnson dressed up in a bikini was the funniest thing all evening. Even the D.C. was singing along on the microphone. We danced until midnight to the disco.
Matthew Porter
This was my first year at Senior Camp so I wasn’t sure what to expect exactly, however everyone had told me how much fun it would be and they were right. It was hard work though taking care of my pony Red and doing all the jobs that Mum usually takes care of! (mucking out our stables, filling hay nets, sweeping yards and mixing feeds). We stayed in Rank Lodge and there were 8 of us in the boy’s dorm which was quite a laugh. Being woken up by at 7.15 by Paul with his klaxon was a shock to the system though.
I was in Gatcome ride with Richard, Ollie, Cosi, Katie-Ann, Robbie and Anna and our instructor was Brenda. We rode for two hours in the morning and two in the afternoon. The best bits included jumping round the 2’9” cross country course and a “Chase Me Charlie” contest, some of us made it over 4’3” and nobody fell off! The worst bit was having to clean our tack every afternoon. We had lots of non-horsey activities too which gained us team points. There was a decathalon which included events such as running and cycling relays, slow bike race, swimming and target shooting.
Thursday night was party night. Daniel Filmer entertained us with his singing and we even had to dress up and perform an Abba song in front of everyone including Mrs Tindall! The funniest thing was the instructors and helpers singing and dancing to Super Trooper. We then had a great disco with DJ Simon and didn’t get to bed very early.
Everybody was really tired on Friday morning so it was hard work packing up our things. The last ride was a showjumping competition and I got a clear round so I was really pleased. I had a brilliant week and want to thank everyone who organised it and helped to make it such fun. THANKS.
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