Week 13 April 2021

New Dates available to Book online

Visit the Bookings page to see what’s on and book in: https://www.fndponyclub.org.uk/bookings/

Change of Dates on Fixture List

Llandyrnog District

Sat 24th April: Working Rally at Ystrad, same as 10th April
Mon 3rd May: Show Jumping Competition for all abilities at Dyfnog Stud

Postal Shoot Competition (organised by Tetrathlon Committee)

The first round is to find an Area team and Individuals to go forward to a Final. It is hoped that every Area will have at least one Area/Branch team competing so that every Area will be represented in the Final. The Rules can be found via the link below.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1emT8uVX3NGm4d6l3pCWEwLqO_vNIyyVWtl5vHwG69Uo/edit?usp=sharing

Pony Club Activities on Saturday April 17th

I would like to outline the expectations for Pony Club activities this coming Saturday, in light of the funeral of his Royal Highness Prince Philip the Duke of Edinburgh.

We felt it appropriate to continue with our Pony Club activities on Saturday April 17th, as this in itself is a tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh and his love for our sport and support for us all.

However, we ask that you all observe the minute silence at 3.00pm on Saturday April 17th, to pay your respects. If you choose to carry out any further tribute then please do so. For those who would like to know more about the national period of mourning all the information can be found here on the Government website.

We will be leaving our homepage banner up on our website until after the funeral and we will post across our social media channels on Saturday at 2.45pm to acknowledge the funeral and pay our respects. I will also be writing an official entry on behalf of The Pony Club in the online book of condolences which you may also like to do, here is the link to The Royal Family website with all the information included.

Marcus

Cheshire Shield One Day Event incorporating Area 4 and Area 5 ODE Qualifiers – SOMERFORD PARK – SATURDAY 3^rd JULY 2021

As you will be aware, the Cheshire Shield is a long established eventing competition which now incorporates the Area Events for both Area 4 and Area 5 of the Pony Club as a qualifier for the Pony Club National Championships. We very much hope that the competition will be able to run this year despite the obvious difficulties and challenges of the last 12 months. Despite the continuing threat from the virus, we are reasonably optimistic – an optimism which we hope you share.

However, the threat from the pernicious virus COVID-19 is not alone in presenting us with a challenge.

Every year we have experienced increasing problems recruiting sufficient volunteers to run the event and, unless we see a change to this regrettable trend, the viability of the competition will inevitably be compromised.

One area of volunteering that gives us a particular problem and that is recruiting sufficient judging to populate the cross-country fences. In order to achieve this, we need to find in the region of 100 volunteers in total – about half of which will be needed as XC fence judges.

We have in the past relied upon a very dedicated group of Pony Club volunteers who give freely of their time year after year. But the numbers within that group have been gradually reducing and, given that we did not run last year and the added complication of Covid this year, we have no idea how many are going to be willing and able to help us this year.

We have in the past asked for help from branches, and some of you have been outstanding in your generosity, but unfortunately this has been a very small number.

This year, therefore, we can no longer simply ask – we must now make it a condition of entry that competing branches unequivocally take responsibility for at least one cross-country fence for the whole day.

The detail of how this will work in practice is still to be decided but, as a very minimum, we will REFUSE TO ACCEPT (OR CONFIRM) TEAM entries from any branch which has not both undertaken to take responsibility for a single fence for the duration of the cross-country phase of the competition, including attending briefings, and agreed not to leave that fence unless and until specifically released by the competition volunteer co-ordinator.

As things stand, we expect to run a full competition with circa 250 riders divided between five classes starting with a briefing at about 8.30am (with bacon butties and a hot drink for volunteers of course) and lasting until about 6.30pm, later if unforeseen circumstances occur, with refreshments served during the day.

I would ask that you discuss this requirement with your branch committees as soon as possible and be prepared to sign an undertaking and provide team details, i.e. the name of (i) the judge, (ii) the timekeeper and ideally (iii) assistant to allow for breaks etc. It will be possible for you to nominate more than one “judging team” so that each team from a single branch could cover part of the day or different classes.

Whilst writing, I would also inform you that, following a determination of the Pony Club to try to co-ordinate and streamline entries across all Areas as well as for the National Championships, entries will be made via the Horse Events system and that scoring will be carried out using the Eventing Scores system. Both these will carry a cost but we expect to achieve savings in other areas which will enable us keep any increase in overall entry costs to a minimum.

(For those who find my emails long and boring, the bottom line is – IF YOU WANT TO ENTER A TEAM THIS YEAR, YOU MUST PROVIDE AT LEAST ONE XC FENCE JUDGING TEAM OF AT LEAST TWO (IDEALLY THREE) PEOPLE.