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NEWS

12/09/07 - Year end awards posted on our web site.

01/17/08 - Meeting agenda emailed for 1/19/08 meeting

01/20/08 - Meeting minutes emailed - minutes are below.

1/29/08 - Results of mounted meeting and Games Rally Teams.

DCPC email – upcoming meetings and fund raisers. Emailed 1/29/08:

Sunday’s GAMES rally practice went really well for our first time out.  I was very pleased with how well everyone rode and worked together.  Our next mounted practice will be Sunday 2/10/08 – possibly at Winfield Riding Club.  Since we have a fund raiser this weekend and everything went so well last weekend, I’m comfortable waiting until 2/10 for the final practice before submitting our Games rally paperwork to the region.  We WILL have to practice again at least one more time before we leave on 3/1!

We had a big crowd of spectators at Sunday’s meeting – I didn’t get to talk to a lot of people, but it appeared that at least 5 or 6 from the Royal Winds riding center were there, lots of parents, grandparents, siblings and friends.    I had never seen so many horses in that indoor before but everyone handled it well and that’s what counts! 

I submitted 3 of the photos that I took on Sunday to the Herald-Dispatch this morning as youth sports photos.   One of the entire group and then a couple that only had 4-5 horses in it – the large one has everyone so far apart and is in the shade that the quality of the photo is lacking.  But the other 2 of a few members is much better and gives us a better chance of getting it printed in the paper with our pony rides next week ad blurb – which was my goal.

I’ve updated our DCPC Web site home page with the large photo and put a couple of the others on our photo pages.

Next Saturday is our fund raiser from 10am-2pm at Tri-State Animal clinic 10am-2pm– we’ll have a bake sale and pony rides.  Not everyone needs to bring a horse, Bethany is I believe bringing Oops and Beauty, if Claire or Jacqueline can bring Zach and Cookie or other new ponies, maybe Jackie can bring Ginger and/or Lucy and Linsey bring Brandie.  If we have  at least 6 horses, that should be enough.

If you aren’t bringing a horse, please bring some kind of bake goods to sell.  A whole cake doesn’t work well for individual sale, but brownies, Rice Krispie Treats, cookies (don’t have to be home made – bought/baked works but not just bought) (not that I haven’t personally cheated before and bought a dozen at the Cookie store in the mall before for a classroom thing!)   Homemade Dog treats?  Since it will be at a vet clinic? Popcorn balls? Whatever people sell at a bake sale. Anyone know where we can rent a popcorn machine? That sounds good!

Whatever you can do would be great.

DCPC meeting minutes - 1/19/08 meeting

Attendees: Cheryl, Kelly, Mellissa, Rebekah, Jacqueline, Bailee, Jenna, Linsey, Claire, Bethany, Morgan M, Jackie, Rachelle, Keely and Brandie the horse!

We met at Tri-State Animal Clinic in Barboursville, Jacqueline’s new vet facility.  What a wonderful place that is!  We were out of the cold and had plenty of room to work with one horse for demonstrations and Brandie the horse had a very nice straw bedded stall to wait in when we didn’t need her.

I handed out 4 more Kroger cards – Jacqueline - 1, Mellissa - 2, Morgan M – 1 and Bethany - 1.   Remember, put the money from cash, check, credit or debit cards onto your gift card at the Customer service counter then use the gift card to pay for your groceries or gas.  The gift cards already have a $5 base value.  Once you use all the money on the card, don’t throw it away! Just keep adding more to it over the years! Provided we spend at least $5000 in 3 months at any Kroger store, DCPC gets 5% of the amount spent.  It is the simplest fund raiser I’ve ever participated in!

Individually we settled up on some Membership issues:

·        Caleb joined pony club (Rebekah’s brother).  Money turned in, forms with Caleb’s signatures are waiting for me now up at Pam’s.

·        Bailee’s forms were turned in at the meeting, I still need dues of $125 to DCPC.

·        Morgan M. took a new set of forms home.

·        I received John Steven’s $125 check in the mail on Saturday. I already had the forms.

Either return the forms/money to me or mail them to me at:

Cheryl Parsons

RR1 Box 631

Milton, WV 25541

By the end of this week, our 2008 members of DCPC should be (last names removed when published on web site):

* - indicates forms/dues turned in or expected by the end of this week.

Games Rally – we talked about who is eligible to go and the expectations of each member interested in participating.  Although we have competed as teams in previous D eventing rallies, it was possible to practice and take lessons individually to prepare for the rally.  Games is a team sport however and will require team practices.  The horses/ponies that will participate need to be exposed to the games in addition to the members learning how to play the sport.

 At the meeting, we discussed GAMES rally team options, and divisions that we would be qualified to compete in.  Basically it comes down to only 2 divisions out of the 5 offered: Walk/Trot for 12 and under (as of Jan 1^st, 2008) or Novice (any age/rating eligible and intended for teams new to games and will likely ride at W/T and slow canter speeds).  The 12 & under W/T team requires an older PC member with rally experience to help them out.  None of the teams have an un-mounted stable manager in games and the team can consist of up to 5 riders – with only 4 riding in each game.

 In order to participate as a Games rally member, you HAVE to make it a priority to attend all of the team practices. We will practice at least once a week between now and rally.  The next practice will be Saturday afternoon from 3-5pm (1/26) – tacked up and ready to ride at 3pm not arrive at 3pm - at Pam Watt’s Farm in Barboursville.  All members should try to come and ride, whether or not you plan to or can commit to the time to try to attend the rally.  Doing games is great practice for you and your mount and the more equines we have going at once, the more realistic our practices will be.  At Games rally in the indoor at KHP, their will be 6 lanes of teams going at once.   Also, in the past, horses have gone lame before an event and you and/or your mount may become a replacement.  We can’t bring in a new horse that hasn’t been part of at least some of the practices.

 At the meeting, we discussed GAMES rally team members, and divisions that we would be qualified to compete in.  Basically it comes down to only 2 divisions: Walk/Trot for 12 and under (as of Jan 1^st, 2008) or Novice (any age eligible but division not eligible for championships).  The teams can be made up of mixed ratings.  The W/T team requires an older PC member to help them out.  None of the teams have an un-mounted stable manager in games and the teams can each consist of up to 5 riders – with only 4 riding in a given game.

 We discussed team colors and attire requirements and concluded that at least for this year, we would probably just stick with either the royal blue saddle pads or our white DCPC saddle pads and red/blue helmet covers.  I think we can economically make our own pinnies to match those colors instead of using rally pinnies.  At the end of January, USPC will vote on the approval of the 2007 pilot program to move away from white polos and color pinnies to color polos with 6 inch numbers on them and no pinnies at all (as an option).  Since it will likely be colder in March, we’ll need long sleeve polos anyway.

 Games rally is still a rally – which means Horse Management is part of your overall team score.  The requirements for tack stall setup and equipment is less for a one day rally than it was for multiple day eventing rallies.  Since all teams are of mixed ratings, even the D1’s will be expected to do jog outs with their mounts.  (At the meeting, we asked Linsey to demonstrate a jog out with Brandie and then the 3-D1’s at the meeting practiced with Brandie).

In the eventing rallies, D1’s didn’t do jogs because in the Dressage phase it would be evident whether or not a mount showed any signs of lameness and would be prevented from continuing – in games, pony soundness is determined before the competition begins.

 We set up and went thru on foot some of the games that will be played.  All of the games rules must be well understood prior to competing at rally.  Executing a game component or exchange incorrectly disqualifies your team from scoring in the game. Which game will be played next will be announced by name, and you as a team member need to already know whether or not you are riding in THIS game and where your starting position will be.  The order of rides needs to be practiced too, so we know how individual horses react to one another for baton or flag exchanges.

 Rebecca attended a games clinic at Festival and is providing some really good methods for playing the individual games and how to best do some of the movements.  Her input will be a tremendous help in making up for the fact that most of us have never competed in a games rally.  Bethany competed in a games rally years ago on Zach, so we have her expertise to draw from as well.   She’ll be in town until April.

 We ran thru on foot some of the games and rules. Some of the kids got on Brandie to get a feel for how far they might have to lean down to pop balloons with a stick or drop tennis balls into a bucket.  We reviewed techniques for dropping the tennis balls to keep them from bouncing back out.

 The first Saturday of each month there is a shot clinic at the Tri-State Animal clinic.  Jacqueline agreed to let us do pony rides and a bake sale during the shot clinic the first Saturday in February – 2/1/08.  The shot clinic runs 10am-2pm.  Bethany offered to bring Oops and Beauty.  Jackie said she could bring Lucy and Ginger and Claire or Jacqueline said they could bring Cookie and/or Zach.  We may also do pony pictures.  The money raised will be used toward rally entry fees.

 We discussed some requirements for equipment for mounted practices.  Next week we should have all of the equipment need to practice the games:

Bending, 3 Mug, Mug Shuffle, Sword Race, Two Flag, Five Flag, Balloon, 5 Mug.          That leaves only the Carton and Bottle races left, so maybe I can also get those items together.

Bethany will bring the bending poles.

Melissa said she’d see about getting 2 traffic cones and make flags for the flag races.

Jackie will gather some large cans for the MUG races.

I volunteered to find the 4” rings and make the swords for the sword race and the board/balloons for the balloon race.

 The last skill we worked on was working with our ponies to help them trust us when they see something they may think of as scary.  We tried to scare Brandie, but as far as she is concerned, apparently everything is edible.  Tarps, hula hoops, scary monster discs, nothing phased her. So, I pretended to be the scared horse and Morgan M. the leader and we discussed the use of patience instead of force to gain your horses confidence in your leadership when they encounter something new (and possibly scary).

 Homework was assigned before next week to work on:

1.      Introducing your horse to something new that might be scary to them and begin to build their trust in your judgment. 

2.      Work on getting them to move away from your leg, because you’ll need to be able to move them closer to an object for you to be able to reach it.  Turning them towards a pole or bucket via your rein aids only won’t do you much good because you still won’t be able to reach it. 

3.      And finally, remember that no whips or spurs are permitted, your pony has to move off only your leg aids.

 If you have any questions – please let me know either via email or call me.  304-634-5392.  See you next Saturday at Pam’s.

 Cheryl