Dear Members,

How good is it when it’s still light in the evenings and even the sun has popped up on the odd occasion and we can enjoy our horses all the more?

This week I attended the monthly committee meeting and despite it being only February, was yet again surprised by the huge amount of items up for discussion and the sheer volume of organisation underway in preparation for spring and summer training and events. It was also fantastic to see some fresh faces joining us on committee to help renew our enthusiasm and take over some of the vital roles we had vacant; Jamie Andrews joins us as National Trust Liaison and our Field Manager, Josephine Allen joins us as Health and Safety Officer, Cindy Nolan takes over our Event Services Co-Ordinator and Barbara Whale has now been voted in as our new Treasurer. A big thank you to these people for volunteering! We still have a Sponsorship Officer role vacant, so if you have any contacts and/ or are good at chatting people up, then please do get in touch.

On the note of sponsorship, if you or a company you know are interested in sponsorship opportunities, then I would urge you to contact us. We have sponsorship opportunities from just £10 upwards and can tailor a deal to suit you. This may include fancy rosettes / sashes with your name on and adverts in the schedule and could include sponsorship of a single class prize or a whole event.

You may well have heard that one of the items we have been discussing is refreshing our cross country course with new jumps supplied by the Willis brothers, who are also responsible for the fences round Badminton and Barbury Horse Trials (although ours shall be a little smaller in height!), and we very much hope to have these in place early spring. And speaking of cross country fences, these do come at a cost and so we are also currently offering more ‘permanent’ sponsorship opportunities for anyone who fancies sponsoring a permanent cross country fence.

Another new idea we are putting on is a showing clinic, which one of our members, Mel Lawless, has kindly agreed to organise for the end of March. If you’re interested in knowing more about showing or improving in preparation for the showing season, then please contact us.

This month saw training in the east and south the busiest I have known it with full sessions every week and a huge wait list. I have also heard lots of glowing feedback from training sessions, which is always nice to hear and is one of the few ‘perks’ of putting in so much time and effort – full credit to Janet for continuing her sterling efforts. Please do spare a thought for the pretty thankless task of organising training and give us a hand – I’m sure Janet and the instructors would appreciate the offer of help to assist with jumps at the start, end or during a session or a volunteer to once in a while lock up the venue.

However, training in the west really needs your support to continue so if you are based in our west regions ( Clutton, Hartleywood, Marksbury areas etc), please come along and spread the word and try a session or perhaps bring a friend next time you come to training.

I have also been impressed by the huge numbers of talented riders at our training sessions and the improvement I have seen in many of you over the winter. I would love to see lots of you giving the area teams a go this year and bringing home the ribbons for Bath! If you are jumping 2’6 – 2’9 or can ride a prelim dressage test then there are current team opportunities for you, whether you are a junior or a senior. Please contact Kate on bathridingclub@hotmail.com

Keep up the good work and I wish you a very good start to the spring season. With so many exciting things happening, you’ll be sure that you’ll never be bored.

Rachel Yeomans
Chair