Awards Presentation Evening
Our annual Awards Evening gives all our members the change to get together for a great informal night, share stories and eat fantastic food. We have a provisional date of 17th January 2009 for this event and more details will follow shortly.

Trophy Cards
Just to remind you, our group year end is 31st October, so mileage cards showing all rides
completed up to that date, should be returned to Brenda Hallworth by 5th November (preferably with the mileage/points totalled up) even if you’ve only ridden a few km’s (over 80km in
total) you may be eligible for a mileage award at our annual presentation evening in January.

Click here to download all the Awards that you could be eligible for and your 2009 Mileage Card Application form.

Longdendale Ride on Saturday 6th September 2008
How lucky were we!

We (Mike, the children and I) marked the route on Friday in torrential rain and gale force winds. The forecast was for more of the same on Saturday and we seriously thought about cancelling but decided to go ahead – thank goodness we did.

Saturday dawned dry, bright and clear. I popped out at 6am to redo some of the markings which had been washed away in the night and couldn’t believe how warm it was. The only problem we had was the midges!!

Out of the 56 entries only 35 turned out on the day but everyone seemed to enjoy the ride with a choice of 15 miles, 13 miles or 5 miles. Some of the route was rather wet (to be expected) but there were no incidents or lost shoes.

Endurance GB have very kindly offered to donate £500 to the Kingfisher Riding for the Disabled Group which will be matched by Barclays £ for £ scheme. We also raised £20 from a table top tack sale so the total to go the charity will be £1020.

Each rider got a lovely rosette provided by very generous sponsorship from Gallop Magazine, Grange Farm Feeds (Mottram) and Pennine Bridleway Trails. Thank you very much to these businesses for their support.

Thank you also to the helpers on the day – Ann (did a huge amount of organising before the ride too), Janie, Ruth (plus partners) and Sharon, Mr Marshall and Ian who did a fantastic job of car parking along with Mike who said he would do anything except car parking and ended up doing – car parking!

Thanks to All at Wood House Ride
Kate (organiser of Wood House ride) has sent a note thanking everyone who took part in this ride. The total to raised to date is almost £2500 for Macmillan Cancer Support.
Next year will be the 10th anniversary of this charity ride - put the date in your diary - Sunday 30th August 2009.

SUCCESS AT LUDLOW!
The North West team romped to success at Ludlow in early August, beating off stiff competition from Offas Dyke and Iceni. Click here to download the full article with presentation photo!

PETITION FOR MORE BRIDLEWAYS
Click here to view and sign the latest government petition to get more bridleways for horse riders.

RIDE DATE CHANGES
Please note that the Ashover ride has been postponed until later on this year. Details will follow as soon as we have things finalised.

The Shipley Park ride is now on 26th October 2008.

OTHER RIDES OF INTEREST FOR 2008
There are two rides programmed to take place soon. These are as follows:

Salisbury Plain Pleasure Ride at Tilshead, Salibury
17th August 2008
Contact Carole Reid on 01980 620051 or email: wiltshirebridleways@yahoo.co.uk

Savernake Pleasure Ride at Savernake Forest, Marlborough
28th September 2008
Contact Karen Hemmings by email at:
karen_hemmings@ntworld.com

OCKBROOK CHARITY RIDE 2008
The Church Wilne Rotary Charity Horse Ride 2008 will take place on Sunday 14th September 2008 from Far Lane, Ockbrook. Please click on the entry form below to enter or visit their website for further details at www.churchwilnerotary.org.uk

Ocbrook Ride Entry Form 2008

PEAK DISTRICT RIDE PRIZE WINNERS

Here are the lucky prizewinners from the Peak District Ride on Saturday 17 May. Prizes were courtesy of the British Equestrian Trade Association, and we would like to thank them very much for their generosity.

The results were calculated by French Formula, apart from a couple of cases where there were open horses competing in novice classes. In these cases we felt it was fairer to give the award to the true novice.

Prizes will be handed out at rides if possible, so it would help if people could contact me by phone or e-mail, to say when they could pick them up. I will be at Dukeries on Saturday, Tugby on 8th June and probably Bakewell on 15 June.

Well done to everyone who completed, not just the prizewinners, and I hope you all enjoyed the ride.

Flick
felicity@ballidon.orangehome.co.uk

INTERNATIONAL RIDE SUCCESS AT SANGATTE (See picture)
Annette Masterson and I both completed our first international ride successfully at Sangatte on Saturday 19 April. Netti, riding her beautiful 16.2 Anglo Arab, El Sabio (Magic) came romping home in fifth place and I, riding Floriferouz (Fonzie0, came a very satisfactory 11th, out of a field of 28 international riders, most of whom had competed over the distance before. It was Magic’s and Fonzie’s first attempt at completing 120k and they both came through the ordeal fit and well.
The trip lasted several days. Tuesday was a trip down to Dover with an overnight stay in lairage, followed by the dreaded ferry crossing on Wednesday lunchtime when the rest of the squad had assembled. Luckily both the trip out and back were very calm, so the horses took it in their stride. Arrival at Sangatte stables on Wednesday was followed by an idyllic 30 minute exercise ride along the beach, playing in the surf and watching all the ferries coming into Calais. Thursday was more hectic. All the squad horses expected to be competing the day following travelling and all were very excited and wound up during exercise. Friday followed with more assessments by the very supportive management squad, vet, physio and team farrier. We even had a team doctor although I am glad to report that the most he was asked to do was bandage up the hand of one of the crew who had fallen while trotting up her horse.
Saturday eventually came and we set off in the dawn at 7am. The route was quite tough with very little in the way of grass to go on. Most of the tracks were quite hard with chalky stones or flints, and if we hadn’t had pads on all round, I don’t think any of us would have got very far. The first loop finished with a 14k canter back along the beach which was wonderful as there was really nobody else in sight except our two horses. The second loop took us out into the countryside with a vet gate at a college at Guisnes. The third loop was always going to be the toughest – it was 37k and was the longest as well as the hilliest section of the ride. I was pleased to have enough energy left to get off after 60 miles and lead Fonzie up a couple of hills to give him a break, just trying to save him for the last, 18k loop. By this time I had fallen quite a way behind the leaders but Fonzie was still going well and so we pushed on.
Nettie was still well in contention at the last vet gate which had a hold time of 1 hour, but luckily Jo Woodman, the team vet, spotted that the horse was not quite right when he was trotted up at the compulsory 50 minute re-present. The farrier was called and whipped a front shoe off to find a flint had punctured the pad and would have certainly resulted in lameness if not corrected.
Fonzie went out willingly for the fourth time, but we rode the whole last loop on our own, and he was feeling a little despondent by this time. Some very positive riding was called for and he responded beautifully, coming in over the finish line (between two land rovers parked on the beach) to the cheers and clapping of french and english supporters which perked him up no end – that horse loves an audience.
The whole experience was fantastic and well worth all the months of getting fit, and effort that it took. The french have a very different attitude to Endurance Riding – I can’t see any seaside town in England allowing its biggest car park to be cordoned off for a week, or an English mayor starting off the briefing at the town hall, not to mention all the hordes of marshalls all along the route who quite simply stopped all traffic for us with red flags, so you could trot or canter up to a main road and straight across without worrying about being scooped up on somebody’s bonnet.
I learnt a lot and so did Fonz, but I didn’t manage to bring back much in the way of souvenirs apart from a couple of prizes and a commemorative plaque which will hang proudly on his stable door.
I would like to thank the Derbyshire Group for supporting both Nettie and myself, and also all the people who sent cards, texts and good wishes. If I’d had time to buy any duty-free I would have brought you something back – honest...

IN MEMORY OF DAVID LLEWELLYN
Just a short note to advise all of the death of David Llewellyn on the 1.4.08. David was a long standing member of the Cheshire/Derbyshire group of the E.H.P.S. Members will remember him and his wife arriving at venues in their camper van and trailer with his black Polish mare.

HAVE HORSE WILL TRAVEL!
This company have two very exciting rides on offer which might appeal to you. One is in Patagonia where people go on a ride in amazing landscape and then have the chance to take part in one of South America’s biggest endurance competitions (riding the horse they have been on during the trip). There is the option to do 45 or 20kms ride. It takes place end of April/beginning of May 2008.
The other ride is in Mongolia and although it is not an endurance competition it is certainly a long distance ride. Please visit www.hhwtravel.co.uk for more information.

BUY YOUR DERBYSHIRE EGB CLOTHING!
We are now able to offer various clothing items embroidered with our group's name and logo. If you are interested or would like further information, please contact Sheila Oliver on 01663 751652. All sizes and most colours are available.

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