This summer's Mini-camp is open to 7 to 11 year-olds, and is taking place Wednesday 22nd and Thursday 23rd August. Cost to be confirmed

Please book with Sue King on 01342 716316, or email susie.king@fly.virgin.com

SENIOR THREE DAY RALLY

The senior 3-day rally will take place this year from Tuesday 24th to Thursday 26th July, and is open to children aged 14 years and over. Cost : £125. Tuesday at Felbridge Showground, Wednesday at Chelwood Gate Equestrian Centre, Thursday at Carewell. Names now being taken. A deposit of £25 is required in January.

Please register with Caroline Matthews email caroline.matthews@tiscali.co.uk or by phone on 01342 835144 or 07817 422923

JUNIOR CAMP

Senior 2-day Rally August 18/19                                                      .......report by Jamie Sterritt

On Wednesday 18^th and Thursday 19^th of August, the OS&B senior two-day rally was hosted by Topsy Rudd and Caroline Matthews. On the first day the rally was at Felbridge, where everyone was split into three groups and partook in various activities, namely show jumping (in the glamorous new sand school!), a show jumping derby course (complete with a bank and a devil’s dyke) and dressage. The morning was spent with the three groups alternating between the three different activities.

Everyone then stopped for lunch. Afterwards, Sean, the owner of Felbridge, gave a talk on course-building. They then walked the derby course for the afternoon combined training competition and Sean gave out helpful pointers as the course was being walked.
The competition started with everyone doing their dressage tests (which had been practised in the morning). After that, they went to jump the derby course (which caused more than a few problems for most).

When the competition came to a close, the results were revealed. First place went to Hannah Marshall who won the “Sterritt cup”. Second place went to Ashleigh Dollemore, third went to Rebekka Barrow (riding Malik), fourth went to Eleanor Smale (who got the best dressage score), fifth went to Rebekka Barrow again (riding Delta) and sixth went to Elizabeth Matthews, who was the only person to go clear in the derby course!
Everyone was also sorted into random teams, resulting in Team D coming first (Ashleigh Dollemore, Rebekka Barrow [riding Delta] and Elizabeth Matthews), Team B came second (Hannah Marshall, Eleanor Smale and Georgia Davis), Team A came third (George Matthews, Chloe Wood and Rebekka Barrow [riding Malik]) and Team C came fourth (Claudia Thornett, James Miller and Josh Lane).  

Everyone did very well and we were very lucky to be graced with fine weather!

On the second day, the rally took place at East Bysshe cross country course. There, everyone did the same as the first morning, except that the derby course had been replaced by cross country.

There was an eventer’s challenge competition in the afternoon which consisted of a show jumping course and a cross country course melded into one. The whole course was timed using a bogey time. The competitors began by jumping two show jumping fences then going on to jump their cross country course of choice (red or yellow). The competitors finished by then jumping five show jumping fences.

First place went to Eleanor Smale who won the “Matthews cup”. Second place went to Ashleigh Dollemore, third place went to Elizabeth Matthews, fourth place went to Chloe Wood, fifth place went to Hannah Marshall and sixth place went to Claudia Thornett.

In the team competition, first place went to Team D (Ashleigh Dollemore, Rebekka Barrow [riding Delta] and Elizabeth Matthews), second place went to Team A (George Matthews and Chloe Wood), third place went to Team B (Eleanor Smale, Georgia Davis and Hannah Marshall) and fourth place went to Team C (Molly Walsh [who only attended the second day], Claudia Thornett and James Miller).

The three instructors (Anna Kempner, Hugo Payne and Sam Hollands) each awarded a prize for effort to one person in each of their groups. Eleanor Smale was given the award from Anna’s group, Georgia Davis from Hugo’s group and Josh Lane from Sam’s group.

The two days ran very successfully and fun was had by all!