The Aspire Charity and Lara Curtis

Many of you will know that our member, Lara Curtis, sustained a serious non riding injury whilst at Associates camp this summer and has been undergoing treatment in Chicago.

"Team Lara" was formed to raise funds for the Aspire Charity and spinal research.   It's aim, over a period of 12 weeks, was to swim 127,280 lengths in 25mt pools, which is the equivalent to swimming the Atlantic from Shannon in Ireland to Gander in Newfoundland. Lara's air ambulance stopped in both of these places to refuel before arriving in Chicago.

SDHE members pulled together to do "their bit".  Some of the members spent an evening at Uckfield Leisure Centre and swum a fantastic 1070 lengths between them and raised a whopping £340.    A clear round jumping day and cake sale was held at South Brockwells Farm during the October half term, and members jumped to it and raised an incredible £500!

A huge well done must go to all that took part in these two events and for raising so much money for the Aspire Charity.

In addition, several members donated their rally fee from the all day rally due to have taken place at Wivelsden that was cancelled due to bad weather.

The Southdown Hunt East branch itself, has also made a large donation to the charity, bringing the total raised to just over an amazing £1400!!!

Well done and many thanks to everyone who took part and made this possible.

 

Southdown Hunt East Committee

Mounted Games 22nd December

Hi all,

 

The next mounted games rally will be on Monday, 22nd December at 10:00 to 11:30. It will take place at Town Place Equestrian Center. The rally will cost £7.50 per person. Names to be emailed to me please by Sunday 14th December please.

 

Sorry I haven't had time to organize one sooner but have been dealing with a lot recently. Hope to hear from you soon.

 

Dan

*Important* - Changes to the Branch Committee and Officers

The year is drawing towards its close and it is perhaps appropriate to reflect on events which have occurred during the year which have had significant consequences for the organisation and management of the Branch and to advise you all where we now stand and some changes that have been made.  In January Dr Lionel Ripley passed away unexpectedly after 31 years of service leaving us suddenly without a Treasurer and Membership Secretary.   We were naturally delighted when Mrs Liza Curtis stepped forward to take over from Lionel.  As most of you will already know, tragically Liza's daughter Lara, a senior member of the branch, sustained a serious spinal injury in a non-riding accident while attending Associates Camp in the summer.  Lara has been cared for in Chicago at a hospital offering her the best possible chance of recovery and her treatment there is set to continue into 2015.   Naturally Liza has been focused entirely on the needs of her family and has had to step down as Treasurer.  While I have been happy to take on the Treasurer's role pro tem this is not a sustainable solution for a number of reasons.  Following a long period of consideration we have decided that the best solution is a 'cabinet reshuffle' aimed at making best use of the skills and experience available to us.

 

I am delighted to announce that Anne Cook has agreed to take over from me as District Commissioner.  Anne has a great pedigree; her mother, the late Margaret Sheffield, was DC for 24 years from the mid 1970's onwards.  Many of you will know her from the Winter Dressage at Plumpton which she runs with Jane Walsh.  Anne also helps tirelessly at our summer events and has recently taken on the job of course flagging as well as sorting out dressage judges, stewarding and taking her turn the secretaries caravan.  Anne's daughter Emma came up through the ranks and regularly competes at our events and Anne still rides regularly.  For my part I am happy to carry on as Treasurer and Membership Secretary, a job that fits in well with my affinity with computers, numbers and codes.  I will also continue to help out with computer systems, websites, emails, event scoring and so forth.

 

Earlier in the year Sarah Muggeridge indicated that she wanted to step down as our Chief Instructor.  Sarah has many demands on her time and has found it increasingly difficult to fit the demands of Pony Club in with everything else.  She will continue to instruct for the branch and will doubtless continue to share her vast knowledge and experience.  However, I am absolutely delighted to tell you that Mrs Polly Thom (nee Hingston) has agreed to take over as CI.  Not only is Polly herself a SDE product and A test holder (amongst many other qualifications) she has very exciting news in that she is expecting a baby in May.  As a runner of marathons she doesn't expect the new arrival to slow her down very much.

 

Another long serving Branch Committee member whose life has become progressively busier is Heidi Greenwood.  Heidi has decided she wants to step down from the Committee although she is happy to continue to help us with the main events for which we are very grateful.  Heidi uses her teaching skills to great effect within the Events Committee and has everyone focused and on take within a few moments; long may it continue!  Heidi was also Child Protection officer, a position ideally suited to a school teacher.

 

Georgie Curtis joined the Committee earlier in the year to take on the mantle of Health and Safety.  Unfortunately she has found herself unable to free up the necessary time so has reluctantly had to step down.

 

So this leaves us short of two officers (although they can be combined): Child Protection and Health and Safety.  If anyone has relevant knowledge with their 'day job' or other voluntary organisation and would like to be considered for these roles can you please let us know.  Sadly in the modern world neither job is actually a token commitment or sinecure and both need to be taken very seriously.

 

I know this represents a lot of change.  Running the branch is, in reality, a team effort by unpaid volunteers and I'm sure we will continue, despite the adversities that have afflicted us this year, to provide a worthwhile organisation that encourages our young people to develop and challenge themselves with a fantastic sport and pastime.

 

Full details of Branch Committee members and Officers can be found on our website: http://branches.pcuk.org/southdowneast/contacts/

 

Mike

South Brockwells - 22nd November - names and times

Find below names and times for South Brockwells rallies Saturday 22nd November, please contact me if your name is not on the list or if you no longer wish to take the place.  If you have not paid please complete a bank transfer confirming this with mike.nichols@btinternet.com and myself.

See you there Sally

07877 979859

 

REMINDER

NO PARKING IN THE FARM PLEASE USE THE VERGE OUTSIDE THE GATES 

THANK YOU

 

Members Attending	Money received
9am Class 1 - 40/50cm	cash	cheque	Bank transfer
Daisy Burgess
Holly Hawkins Smith		Paid
Frankie Walker
Martha Lilycrap
Arabella Goodwin			Paid
Keira Beasley			7.50
Tilly Appleyard
Rumer Crawford		Paid
Zara Gibson			7.50
10am Class 2 - 60cm
Jaz Newman
Jessica Taylor
Madalyn Savage
Rebecca Greaves			Paid
Ella Curry
11am Class 3 - 70cm
Ben Burgess			7.50
Megan Austin			7.50
Stephanie Gibson
Charlotte Subadar
Francesca
Anna Curry
12noon Class 4 - 80cm
Ellie Mileham
Ella Austin			7.50
Rumer Crawford
Poppy Westwell

 

SDHE team jumping at Ardingly

Our branch are hosting their 2 day show jumping event on Saturday 17^th and Sunday 18^th January 2015 at Ardingly showground.

The full schedule is available on our website under "schedules"

The mini mini and mini classes + top score are on the Saturday and small novice, novice, intermediate, dengie and puissance on the Sunday.

If you would like to be considered for a place in a team please send names  for the Saturday classes to Hazel Perry and names for the Sunday classes to Candy Robbins so they can co-ordinate the branch entries and payments and avoid having lots of individual requests.

 

Candy Robbins

*NEW ACTIVITY* Introduction to Pony Club Tetrahlon

Introduction to Tetrathlon

at 4pm on Sunday 14^th December 2014 at Chailey Parish Hall

(Chailey Parish Hall is situated on the A275 adjacent to The Five Bells public house near Chailey Green)

All Southdown Hunt East Pony Club members, and interested parties, are invited along to learn all about Pony Club Tetrathlon. Sally Bowman, the Area 11 Rep., will explain how this discipline is run and all that is involved. Children can compete from any age but are only allowed to shoot with air pistols at age 8 years and above (younger children do target throwing with balls or beanbags).

 

Pony Club Tetrathlon provides Members with a challenging competition requiring sound practical horsemanship and general athletic ability. Tetrathlon originated as a competition for boys; however there are now separate competitions for girls under identical rules unless otherwise stated.

The four phases are:

• Running
• Riding
• Swimming
• Shooting

 

A summary of "What is Tetrathlon" is attached along with a sample schedule for a fun local competition from last year.

More information can be found at http://www.pcuk.org/index.php/disciplines/tetrathlon/

Fun local competitions are also run using a combination of the above four disciplines. Such as a triathlon without the swimming or a biathlon of riding & running.

 

If you would like any information before this event please contact Nicky Collins on 07710 086126 or nicky.collins@waitrose.com

C+/B rally 23/11

The names I have so far for the c+/b riding rally on Sun 23rd Nov at Crockstead are...

 

Livvy Logan, Alice Reffin, Eleanor Reffin,  Chloe Fry and Sophie Duffield.

 

If anyone else wants to attend please contact me ASAP. 

 

Thanks

 

Jo Duffield

Machu Picchu Trek for Worldwide Cancer Research

Please note that circulation of this advertisement by the Pony Club does not imply any endorsement or warranty of any kind.

Beatrice is a longstanding member of the branch.

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Dear all,

I hope you don't mind me emailing you. Next August I will be taking on the challenge of trekking to Machu Picchu, in Peru. Alongside other university students from Exeter, I will be trekking for 7 days, starting in Cusco and finishing at the ancient ruins of Machu Picchu.  I am doing this in aid of Worldwide Cancer Research, which funds and supports scientific research into cancer prevention. As this is something that touches all of us at some point in our lives, I would be grateful for any support you wish to give.

For more information and donations, please have a look at the link: https://www.justgiving.com/Beatrice-Lewers/

I have also created an easyfundraising account which is an easy way to raise money for free through online shopping. Whenever you buy anything online you can raise a free donation for my trek for Worldwide Cancer . There are over 2,700 retailers registered with the site, including Amazon, John Lewis, eBay and Tesco who will donate a percentage of what you spend to my fundraising account. 

It is really simple to raise money and is completely free. All you have to do is visit the website 
http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/machupicchutrekforworldwidecancer, click on the green support button, enter 'Machu Pichu Trek for Worldwide Cancer Research' and it should come up with my name. You can then register which only takes a few seconds. After registering there are two ways you can donate for free whilst shopping online.

Firstly, after you register, there will be a green button that says activate donations. If you click on this, is will create an add on to your google, which means that whenever you are shopping at a website that is linked to easyfundraising, e.g John Lewis, a notification will appear asking if you want the website to donate to my fundraising. 

Secondly, you can shop from the easyfundraising website by searching for the retailer you'd like to shop with and click through to the retailer to make your purchase. This tells the retailer you came from easyfundraising. The price is exactly the same as if you'd visited the retailer directly.  After you've made your purchase, the retailer will give a cash reward that easyfundraising turn into a donation for Machu Picchu Trek for Worldwide Cancer 2015 - Beatrice Lewers.  For some retails (e.g Amazon) you can only get them to donate via the easyfundraising website. 

Sorry for the long email, but it would mean so much to me if you could support me either on JustGiving or easyfundraising. I promise that they will take you less time than it did to read this email! 

Lots of Love

Beatrice xx

Pony for loan

Please note that circulation of this advertisement by the Pony Club does not imply any endorsement or warranty of any kind.

The advert below is submitted by branch parent Rebekah Walker.

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Pony for loan 

 

12.2 Dartmoor mare

Brilliant to hack alone or in company. Will lead off another. Fine in front or behind

Is not phased by any traffic, helicopters, dogs etc

Has done rallies, junior camp and unaff sj

Very easy to handle, my daughter does it all

Will happily stand on yard all day to bathed and groomed

Can live in or out

Good for vet/farrier. All jabs and teeth up to date

Ideal starter pony or will step up a gear for a teenager, has big paces and moves nicely

Rebekah Walker 07725337783