NEWS
2010
JULY

Family Fun Day

Generally

The end of the summer term was celebrated with a barbeque followed by prize giving. All our riders have worked really hard this year and we are very sad to have to say goodbye to four of our riders from The Castle School in Newbury. We wish them well as they move on. We were also joined by Dennis White from the Plough at Eastbury who presented us with a very generous donation of £900 as a result of the Eastbury Duck Race. A very big thank you to Dennis and his team and of course to everyone who supported the duck race.

In the evening of the 6th July, we had a helper’s supper on the beautiful lawns of Maddle Farm. It was an extremely enjoyable event, giving everyone the chance to reminisce over the year’s events!

During the summer holidays the horses and ponies will be exercised regularly. Also do look out for us doing pony rides on the cricket field at the Lambourn Gala day and for a full report on our major fund raiser of the year on 18th July at Limes Farm. Click here for more information. 

JUNE

Tuesday 22nd June - The Wantage group of the RDA came to join us for a morning of games, both mounted and on foot. The riders were split into four teams and a range of activities were organised, from a farmyard hunt on foot to mounted musical cones! Everyone had a lot of fun and the morning ended with an amazing spread of food, which was kindly supplied by the Wantage volunteers. After lunch there was a football match for everyone and there were definitely some players who should have been selected to play for England. All in all it was a great day and a big thank you must go to Teresa for organising the schedule of activities for the day once again.

Sunday 13th June - Two of our riders competed at the RDA Regional Show which was held at Fulmer. This was the biggest event that any of our riders had entered, so it was with a good deal of anticipation that Alex and Dianne arrived on Sunday.  

Dianne competed in the Countryside Challenge, which involved carrying out a series of manouvers and activities whilst riding. Dianne rode really well, particularly as Hogan was enjoying all the attention and decided to show off to the audience! Well done Dianne for keeping it all under control and for winning the class. 

Alex competed in the dressage on Raine, who she has only been riding for a very short time. Alex rose to the challenge and dealt with the new environment and large audience like a professional. They rode a very good dressage test and won their class qualifying them for the Naional Fianl later in the year. 

We are very proud of both our riders for their fantastic achievements and a big thank you also needs to go to all the people who helped behind the scenes and on the day to make it possible.

On the 3rd of June Pilgrim Bond hired the indoor school at Maddle Farm for an auction of saddlery and equestrain equipment. The day was well attended and their was a considerable interest in the wide range of Lots. Some of the volunteers of the Lambourn RDA provided light refreshments throughout the day, with all proceeds going to the RDA. Thank you to all our helpers and supporters for raising £149 for our funds.

For photo's of the day Click Here.

MAY 

We had a very exciting day at The Royal Windsor Horse Show on the 13th May. where our entry of ‘Star Wars’ in the RDA Fancy Dress Competition won First Prize!

This year we entered in the driving section with a space ship pulled by Ranger, with Luke Skywalker (Christian Walters) and R2D2 (Marcus Barnes) inside.  The whole concept and design was directed by Jim and Rosie Cramsie, who also constructed some of the costumes and the space ship was built by Alan. A very big thank you to everyone who helped and supported us behind the scenes for all their hard work. 
 

Final preparations are being made for the RDA show at Wellington on 25th May, where we will be taking our Wednesday riders with five of our horses. This is a major highlight of our riding year. More details to follow next month.

Our local rider Alex McKinney is working hard on her dressage for the Regional Show at Fulmer on 13th June and we wish her lots of luck.

Please do come and support a sale of saddlery at Maddle Farm, which is being organised by equestrian property agents, Pilgrim Bond on 3rd June. For more information contact Pilgrim Bond direct. 

APRIL

The spring term flew by, but we did miss so much riding due to the snow and ice at the beginning. Sadly we ran out of time to do the grade tests with our riders so we will do them next term. The summer term starts on April 20th with an action packed schedule of activities, so we are all going to be very busy.

We are also planning a major fund raising event on 18th July when we will be having a family fun day and Sunday lunch at Limes Farm in a marquee which has very kindly been given to us for the day. Put the date in your diaries and do look out for further information to follow.

Thank you to everyone who helped and came to support us on Good Friday as we battled with the terrible weather to give pony rides.  

Congratulations to Nicky Strike who has been awarded her Group Instructors Badge and to Jumbo and Judy who have both passed the first stage of the assessment for their badges. Their continued dedication and commitment to RDA allows us to do so much more with all our riders. Well done!

MARCH

We had an extremely successful and enjoyable day on Thursday 4th March at our fundraising Bridge event. There were 18 tables of players and everyone was very impressed with Oaksey House. We raised an amazing £1,728 and a big thank you goes to everyone who cooked, helped and came to support the event.  

FEBRUARY 

Finally on January 26th our new term started and our riders returned very enthusiastically to begin the term after all the snow. We are all now back into the routine and busy working on both riding and stable management skills.

Fund raising is always very much on our mind and especially so at the start of a new year. We have a lot to look forward to and we are very lucky to have been given the use of a marquee on Sunday July 18th and we would like to thank Jackie McDonald for this very generous offer. Further information on a fun packed day to follow, so watch this space!

A reminder to all bridge players about our bridge lunch on Thursday 4th March at Oaksey House, Lambourn. Tickets are going fast, but space is still available, so if you would like to put a table together, please contact Rosie Cramsie on 01672 541589.

Other dates to keep in your diary are:

Good Friday 2nd April – Pony rides at the Lambourn Open Day from 1pm.

Thursday 13th May – RDA Fancy Dress competition at the Royal Windsor Horse Show. 

2009

We have reached the end of another very busy year and we have our fantastic team of volunteer helpers to thank for making it so successful. There are more helpers now than ever before and we have been able to increase the number of riders we are able to take at each session.

Our fund raising has exceeded all our expectations and we would like to thank the individuals and groups who have been so generous. We would also like to thank Kelly Marks for her support throughout the year and for helping to raise our profile both locally and further a field, particularly through the development of our website.

We have taken part in two of the RDA’s 40th Anniversary Celebration events; The World's Biggest Riding Lesson and the Tandem Skydive.  These are detailed below.
 

In addition to the sponsorship of over £1,900 already raised, Alasdhair has been given two tickets to a screening of Top Gear to auction in aid of our group. We propose to auction these tickets by sealed or emailed bids with a closing date of January 31st 2010.

If you would like to bid for these tickets, please send your bid (no money at this stage!) by post or email to: Frances Lochrane, Compton Marsh Farm, Compton Beauchamp, Swindon, SN68NN. flochrane@btinternet.com. For more details phone 01793 710443.

 
The new term starts on January 12th 2010 and we look forward to welcoming back our riders after the festive season.

NOVEMBER

40TH ANNIVERSARY TANDEM SKYDIVE

Alasdhair and Nicola managed to re-organise their skydive to take advantage of the good weather forecast for 7th November. To see a video clip of this amazing achievement Click Here.

It is anticipated that at the conclusion of this event the RDA will have received in the region of £32,000 raised by the skydivers.

SEPTEMBER
WORLD'S BIGGEST RIDING LESSON

The Golf Day at Donnington Valley Golf Club 
This event was held on Monday 21st September  in aid of the Lambourn RDA and was a huge success raising around £3,400 for our funds. A very big thank you to Bob Dore and his team for organising the event and to all of the other people and organisations who gave donations and supported the day. 

Ridgeway Sponsored Ride

Huge congratulations to Jax Narnor and Alex McKinney who completed their mammoth 43 mile sponsored ride along the Ridgeway on 10th September! The ride started on 3rd September at Avery Hill and finished at Ogbourne St. George. The following Saturday the riders left from Foxhill and rode as far as Wantage and the final day started at Wantage and finised 14 miles later just this side of Streatley. Jax has Early-Onset Parkinson's disease and plans to divide her sponsorship between the PEPS (Positively Enthusiastic Parkies) Charity and Lambourn RDA. Alex who is one of our regular riders is raising sponsorship for our RDA Group.

The planning of this ride took many months of research and organisation to make sure the horses and riders could be dropped off and picked up at the appropriate places along the Ridgeway. Coffee stops and lunch stops were also planned to give the horses and riders a break along the way. The three days went like clockwork and all this could not have been achieved without the massive amount of time put in by Pauline Spence. So a very big thank you to Pauline for making the ride possible and of course to all our other helpers who accompanied the riders and provided transport and support generally.

If you would like to sponsor either of our courageous riders, Click Here

For photo's of the ride Click Here

AUGUST

On Saturday 29th August we were out in force giving pony rides on the old cricket field at the Lambourn Gala day. As a result we raised £102 and we would like to thank everyone who came to help and support us. 

A bucket collection was held at Newbury Racecourse on Friday 14th August, with the kind permission of the Racecourse. A staggering £1,469.23 was raised for our Group. A very big thank you to all of the helpers who went along to rattle the buckets and to everyone who gave so generously to support our charity.

We are very lucky to have the continued support of Kelly Marks, Monty Roberts and their team of helpers at Intelligent Horsemanship, based in Lambourn. Following a talk given by Kelly and Monty to the ladies of the Uffington WI, we were presented with a cheque for £50 as part of their ongoing sponsorship. A big thank you for this continued backing.

JULY

We have now reached the end of the summer term with our two last sessions on Tuesday 7th July and Wednesday 8th July. In addition to the riding prizes presented to our riders, we were also joined by Dennis White from the Plough at Eastbury who came to present us with a very generous donation of £700.  This money was raised as a result of the now famous Eastbury Duck Race which was held on May 24th. A very big thank you to Dennis and his team and of course to everyone who supported the duck race. 

JUNE

On Sunday 28th June two of our helpers, Judy and Nicki ran a stall at the Lambourn Carnival Horse Show they raised just over £150, which was fantastic.  We would like to say a very big thank you to them.

At the Helpers supper on Thursday 25th June at Maddle Farm, we were very fortunate to be joined by Kelly Marks and Monty Roberts. For photographs of the helpers supper Click Here

We took four horses and 10 riders to the RDA summer show at Wellington on 17th June. It was a very busy but enjoyable day for all the helpers, carers, teachers and instructors without whom these outside events would just not be possible. Congratulations to all our riders and a big thank you to all our helpers.

For photographs of Wellington Click Here