What  an awful spring we are having let`s hope it warms up soon.

It has come to my notice that members say that there are no BDS drives on the events list and maybe not in your area. As area commissioner I need help from you to organise a rally or event in your area. I am only a volunteer and neither myself nor my assistants get any pay for what we do and I can assure you that we do spend lots of time on your behalf.  There is a small group of drivers who attend everything and are pleased with the way things are going we need your support and help lets get together not split further apart nowhere is far on the Island and in the past I have always had to travel across the Island to attend events.. The club Wight Equine Driving Society have a lot of drives monthly throughout the year and have very few attend now We have tried to put on a variety of events to keep up to date with modern trends and also to not clash with the club. Also the roads are very busy now.

If you can arrange a drive or an event at your yard or a good venue near you please let me know, it needs to be safe and appropriate. I could come and do a risk assessment in advance and fit it into the dates of rallies already arranged. Perhaps you could approach a  local land owner and ask if we could meet on their land give it some thought and let us know. How about arranging a barbeque and a quiz one evening in the summer or we could bring our cones along and have a fun cones event.

I now have a well looked after field at Longcommon Farm. The advantage of having events here is that we can drive around 26 acres of fields,weather permitting, as well as acess at the rear to a fairly quiet road. It is easy for me to marshall here and it is free. Unlike Brickfields or Lake Farm as these are costly.

Please read the events schedule in the BDS quarterly magazine and come if you can either with a horse or just to chat and have a cup of tea.. We have not forgotten you but the effort needs to be a two way thing.

Margaret Honeybourne

Area commisioner