Last rides at Chard RDA Ilton's ride.

The last riding sessions of the Chard RDA at Ilton have been very busy for all the riders. They have all been working very hard on riding independently in both walk and trot.

     

  We were very lucky to have had several girls from the local pony club coming to volunteer at RDA as they are working towards gaining their bronze Duke of Edinburgh award. They have been really good working with the riders and helping them to improve their riding skills. I have been getting them to plan how the equipment could be laid out in the arena as it was good to get their input and ideas.

  They did a good design with poles one session, they used 8 poles and placed the poles in the shape of a cross using 2 poles together so the riders had to walk between them, 2 sets were placed on the centre line and 2 sets placed along the middle, there was lots of different options with this that I could do.

The riders have been doing quite a bit off the lead rein, walking through poles and around the blocks, they have been trotting off the lead rein as well, I only let them trot down the long side, although they had to trot at a letter and walk at another letter, I wanted them to practice being accurate. They are all trotting much better and not holding on to the handle that's attached to the saddle, which means their balance is getting better.

We had chard's other ride from Crewkerne join us for one ride, we had a competition for the riders in which we did an obstacle course, three of my riders rode with three of the other ride, then we swapped riders and the rest rode. While the riders rode the others waiting did a quiz that I had made up for them, there was also some nibbles to be eaten, all the riders did well, they all got rosettes at the end of it and had a lovely time. 

   The riders from the other ride were presented with their grade 1 and 2  riding and horse care proficiency test certificates, as I had gone to their riding sessions during the summer and tested them for the grades.

The riders showing off their awards after the competition held between the riders from the Ilton and Crewkerne riders.
 Below are the riders from the Crewkerne section showing off their certificates.

 

We had a good last ride of the year, all the riders rode well and did some good steering around the arena and through the poles and blocks, they also rode off the lead rein for a lot of the session, I was pleased as they were starting to really be aware of the other riders in the arena by slowing down or stopping so they didn't crash into each other.
 

    I couldn't believe that this was the last riding session of the year as it seemed to have gone very quickly. After the ride we all went across to the local pub and had a meal, I had scampi and chips which was really nice, I wasn't allowed to pay for my meal by the parents of the riders, they wanted to treat me to say thank you for coming and teaching the riders, it's the little things like this which shows that it's all well worth while and that it is appreciated.