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The Newmarket & Thurlow Branch was established in 1940 and is part of Pony Club Area 8.

Our summer rallies are based at Hall Farm, Thurlow. We have a large membership with lots going on, to suit all ages and ability.

If you live in our area and would like to join our branch, click on the contact us tab along the top of the page for contact infomation.

CLICK ON THE LINK TO GO

TO OUR NEW WEBSITE

www.ntpc.co.uk

BRANCH INDOOR SHOW JUMPING AT I.L.P.H., SNETTERTON ON 5TH JANUARY 2008

Unaffiliated classes and Dengie qualifier. Classes start at 9am with 2' clear round.

Schedule available now on bottom of branch activities page, or go to www.horsedates.co.uk

Milton Rally on January 2nd. Details on branch activities page

DC’S COMMENTS – SEPTEMBER 2007

I hope you all enjoyed your Pony Club summer – I thought we had a very happy and successful one. My thanks again to our extremely hard working committee, and all the mothers who put in many hours organising events.

Poey Vacher has taken over the role of Senior Rally from Louise Sampson, who has been so efficient and kindly stayed on to steer us through the summer. Thank you very much, Louise. Alice Olley is our new WEB SITE CO-ORDINATOR. Please do send her your E-mail addresses – it really is the way forward for us to run an efficient club, and soon will be the only way of communication. I also need your E-mails to be able to send you as many schedules and area events as possible.

We are grateful to the Vestey family for letting us use the Thurlow base for our summer activities. I hope you had an opportunity to jump the new ‘skinnies’ and the trakhener.

I know you all appreciated our three camps, attended by a total of 118 members. Our thanks to Jane Parry, Gilly Lawes, Katrina McGladdery, Juliet Bickerton and Gilly Beaton for giving so much of their time in planning them for you.

We entered a record five teams and two individuals for the Area Competition at Burnham Market. Gay Jarvis and Katrina McGladdery do a wonderful job through the year organising training sessions and putting together teams. Next year it will be a pre-requisite of being a team that you walk the course at the time allocated by Katrina. She and Gay work incredibly hard, and now with three sections competing, we want teams to work together as much as is possible. It was a marathon 12 hour day, which took some masterminding for Katrina and Sarah to complete! Well done all of you who took part.

Our Show Jumping goes from strength to strength thanks to the commitment of the two ‘Fionas’ Apthorp and Bravery. Congratulations to the Intermediate B Team, not only for qualifiying for the Championships but for outstanding tack and turnout results. Georgina Duthie excelled at Area by winning the individual intermediates in an extremely fast final, and then coming 8^th at the Championships.

We continue to work hard at dressage, which more and more is such an important aspect of competing. Ruth Hurst sessions are going well. Please do try and attend some of these if you want to be considered for a dressage team next year. It is important that she sees as many of you as possible. We are grateful to Jane Bailey for letting us use her arena and for organising the teaching. Well done to Georgia McGladdery for winning as an individual at Area.

Tessa and Tim Vestey put hours into organising our tetrathlon training, so it was exciting for the team for qualify for the Championships.

We had a brilliant Gosling Cup day, the A team so nearly winning, pipped into second place by one point. The best result for years, and no mean achievement. Gre Duthie gave it her all, as did Sarah Burton. Both teams really tried (even in the team ride!) as is shown by all the arena placings.

I am also pleased to report that our 1/2 polo team qualified, with the Cambridgeshire for Cowdray. On the strength of this we are going to try and get a whole team up and running for next season. Sarah Hopkins is taking over as polo manager, so please contact her is you are interested in getting involved.

Apart from the foot and mouth hiccup, the One Day Event run by Rachel Upton was again a huge success. It was brilliantly organised for which we are indebted to Rachel. Many competitors commented on how much they enjoyed themselves.

AN ITEM OF JEWELLERY WAS FOUND IN THE GRASS AFTER THE EVENT, PLEASE WOULD YOU RING ME TO CLAIM IT.

Sue Collier has been very busy with her organisation of Tests and Badges. It is so rewarding that we now have so many of you passing – well done and our gratitude to Sue for her hard work in planning it all.

Please remember that to be in a team, you have to attend three rallies before July 1^st of next year, so bear this is in mind when completing your rally slips. Yet again I have to remind you that if you are unable to attend a rally, please let the appropriate secretary know, even if it is the evening before. At Riding for the Cups 11 senior members just did not turn up. Sarah struggled to find enough instructors for the day, and if we had known we could have had 2 less rides. It is inconsiderate to instructors/organisers and spoils it for children in rides of only 3 or 4. You can text, E-mail or phone any of us.

2007 was a ‘vintage’ year with so many qualifications for Championships and successess in all disciplines (especially tack and turnout!). Not only should you give yourselves a pat on the back, but we must attribute it hugely to our wonderful Senior Instructor, Sarah Burton, who deserves the Gold Medal! We are so fortunate to have such a hard working and committed team of instructors.

By the time you are reading this, Karen Vanner will have spent hours putting together this mailing for you all. We are very lucky to have such a hard-working and efficient secretary. Many thanks for all your help.

Happy riding through the Autumn, and look forward to seeing you in half term.

Dee Wingfield Digby

I would like to follow Dee’s report by saying a huge thank you from myself and all the Committee for Dee’s continuous and unyielding hard work. We are incredibly lucky to have such a dedicated and enthusiastic DC at the helm of our Pony Club.

Dee is completely right, this summer has been tremendously successful. However, because she so often steps out of the limelight to celebrate others, it is not always apparent to all of us how much work Dee has, and continues to, put into our club.

Dee attends many long Area meetings as well as the Committee ones, but moreover we can find her present at almost every rally or camp; on top of that she will happily put in a 10 hour shift at any competition.

Thank you Dee!

Karen Vanner

Summer Review

Well summer seems to have flown by and we have been busy with test days, riding and road safety days, as well as our normal rallies - and well done to all the successful candidates.

We had some very successful teams in show jumping, polo, horse trials, tet and dressage. It was so nice to see so many riders working as a team, working so hard at their chosen discipline, and I was very proud to be part of the Newmarket & Thurlow Pony Club. Thank you to all parents for all their work getting ponies & riders to training and competitions.

Our hard working committee members have started sorting out the autumn and christmas holidays and I hope to see you all over the winter months.

Do please try to remember if you book in for a rally and then can’t make it, please do ring the rally secretary or me on 07855118471 so we are not waiting around for you.

Look after your ponies and keep them warm through the winter months and hope to see you all soon.

Take care and safe riding.

Sarah Burton

Dressage Report

This is a short report to update you on the Pony Club Area Dressage Team Competition held at Stratford Hills near Colchester on Thursday 2^nd August.

Ruth Hurst selected two teams and two individuals to represent the Pony Club. The Area Team included Peter Collier, Maddy Dane Smith and Eleanor Nicholson. The Novice Team included Georgia McGladdery, Jess Bickerton, Georgina Vanner and George Duthie. The two individuals were Beatrice Apthorp and Minty Hanbury.

In the morning everyone competed for their team; the Novice Team did well finishing 5^th! Georgina Vanner came 5^th in her arena, Jess Bickerton and Georgia McGladdery both came 6^th in their respective arenas – well done to you all as it is a very high standard.

Everyone rode a second test in the afternoon as individuals, not in their teams, so it was more relaxed. We again had some good results: the very best being Georgia McGladdery who won her Arena. Congratulations Georgia a brilliant result!

Well done for all your hard work throughout the year, it did pay off on the day! The day ran smoothly, every one looked very smart and thank you for being so punctual.

Jane Bailey

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