At last we have sunshine! although it was still a little breezy, a typical day on the Isle of Wight! We had a great turnout though for the rally with 12 children attending. Two of the children had previously came to our BDS Fun day to experience the thrill of taking the reins and having a go at carriage driving, they must have enjoyed it as they came back for more! We also had in attendance an ex-jockey with her two daughters who had a great time and mum had a little go at long reining too...

Thank you to Margaret for the use of her ponies and farm and thank you to all the children who attended. We hope to see you at our next Rally on Thursday 14th August, 10am till 3pm.

JUNIOR RALLY 21st FEBRUARY 2008

Well what another great day we had!

Six children came to our Half Day Junior Rally, Beki, Shannon, George, Paige, Keely and a newbie Marie, who had never touched a set of driving reins before!

We set up lots of football cones in the field so that the children had lots of obstacles to tackle, then got straight down to long reining around the field, the children used two ponies, both Shetlands,  Tolly who's superb at everything and very steady but still forward going and Malcolm who's super too but a little sharper but safe. I feel its good experience for the children to get to grips with different temperaments of pony from the start providing they are safe, of course!!

The children each completed a long reining test with tasks of a straight line through cones, left turn, right turn and reining as close to the cones as possible with a halt at the end, all done really well and the scores from this were combined with another general knowledge quiz and word search on parts of the harness. The children practised so well that their line of straight cones were only 14 inches apart and everyone managed to long rein Tolly through!

We took the children for a drive in two groups with Malcolm the Shetland, they all thoroughly enjoyed it, especially when the prizes were handed out at the end.

RESULTS ARE:-

1st Shannon

2nd Keely

3rd George

4th Beki, Paige (joint)

5th Marie

JUNIOR RALLY 27th DECEMBER 2007

The day after Boxing Day saw our first Junior Rally, a great day was had by everyone despite the weather being very cold and windy. Subjects discussed were: Grooming Kit and Care Of The Stable/Field Kept Horse, Parts Of The Single Harness, Harnessing Up and Points Of The Horse.

Everyone took a turn in having a go at long reining, with a trusty Shetland named Malcolm of Arlow, though the smaller children did have to jog behind him to keep up!

We had a lunch break with food provided by everyone donating something, then we thought this would be an ideal time to hand out our quiz sheets, with multiple choice answers and a task of measuring Malcolm with a measuring stick! Unfortunately we couldn't use the field to do things we had planned (cones + obstacles), so we took the children out for a drive with myself (Jo) driving a pair of Shetlands named Tolly and Hunter and Gail who was a great help, driving Malcolm. The children really enjoyed their outing. Once back we all had refreshments and revealed the results of the quiz!

I would just like to say thank you to all the children who took part, Robyn, Georgie, Beki, Shannon, Emily, Keely, Paige, Alfie, George and Alex. Many thanks to helpers Gail, Richard, Elaine and Danielle. Thank you to Margaret for letting us use her ponies, equipment and farm.

Results of the Quiz

1st  ROBYN & GEORGIE

2nd  PAIGE & ALFIE

3rd  BEKI & SHANNON

4th  EMILY & KEELY

5th  GEORGE & ALEX

WE WILL DO OUR BEST TO HAVE JUNIOR EVENTS THROUGHOUT EVERY SCHOOL HOLIDAY