November 2009 Report
Our official registration meeting was held on November 7th. We welcomed four new members and now have a total of seven members for the 2009-2010 year.
Following the registration meeting we watched a video of a Pony Club musical ride that Kristina took part in approximately 10 years ago. It was good to see that some of those girls are still riding.
We ordered club shirts and other tops with the Kingskettle logo and anticipate having them in early December.
Kingskettle riders continue to carry on with horse activities throughout the year. During the summer we hosted two 3 day clinics with Valerie and Allan Matheson, one in July and another in early September. Many parents and friends came to watch the action up close. We appreciated the jump crew of parents and friends as there were lots of jumps to be moved to accommodate small and large horses. Val and Allan have many years of coaching experience and we plan to have them back in 2010. Val was a longstanding Pony Club member in Saskatoon.
We also had some of our members take part in dressage clinics with Betty Wells and the camp at Heartland stables, along with some local shows.
Our testing is spread out over the summer. We do written exams in early May, then Stable management testing with the Saskatoon Pony Club at Ebon stables. We provide examiners for the stable management testing at Ebon in return for the testing of our members. The riding test was conducted on September 19th this year so that candidates could first take part in Allan's clinic. We had successful D2 and C candidates.
Our executive remains the same: Ilona Herbers is our DC, Virginia Scissons is Secretary Treasurer, and Patti Erikson-Reynolds is our Testing chair.
Our instructors, Moira Remmen and Kristina (Herbers) Gunningham, teach informally as we are riding with Pony Club members much of the time. We do have scheduled lessons but sometimes have to work around weather and footing. We are strictly outdoor riders and although we have limits for riding in cold weather. Most of us have learned to embrace the winter and BUNDLE UP (this is a valuable lesson for adolescents). November has so far been lovely riding weather. We have enjoyed seeing the deer and coyotes and some spectacular sunsets while we are out with our horses.
Besides riding, we will meet twice monthly from January to April 2010 for study sessions.
Some of our members are stabling and riding elsewhere with instruction from highly qualified coaches. We are fortunate to have Dr Lisa Wayman’s daughter Pam join our club this year. Lisa has agreed to help with the stable management teaching, especially the vet topics. Lisa was a long time Pony Club member who reached her A level. All in all, we are looking forward to a very exciting and educational year with the addition of all of our new and old members!
If you would like to know more about the Kingskettle Pony Club, please contact our District Commissioner, Ilona Herbers by email at IHerbers@shaw.ca
