Xmas dressage Sunday 20th December 2020 at Waylands

The British Equestrian Federation confirmed on 27 November that “ In all tiers, all equestrian facilities, yards and centres can open for lessons, hire and competitions. Horse owners and guardians can travel to care and exercise horses without restriction including travelling horses away from the yard for exercise, training/lessons, hire or competition”, we are going ahead with our Christmas Dressage on Sunday 20th December.

Please download schedule on dressage_waylands_20dec2020 … it is in MS-Word so you can fill it out and email it back to susie@hodgemoor.org.uk.

We are very grateful to Lana Craker for allowing us to use her indoor school. Please note the Covid-19 instructions on the schedule.

As usual, we would be grateful for help on the day. As it may be cold, having helpers in shifts avoids anyone getting too cold! Because of Covid-19, we will need more help than usual for stewarding: checking each entrant and their companion as they arrive, noting on a list that they have made their Covid-19 declaration, making sure not more than 3 riders in the warm-up arena at a time, collecting score sheets from the judge and taking to the office and making certain each dressed up entrant has had their photo taken for the competition.  i.e. are there any good photographers out there? We would love it if you volunteered. And, of course, someone to add up the score sheets! Please contact susie@hodgemoor.org.uk if you can. We know that you are not quite as busy as usual before this Covid-19-influenced Christmas and could maybe spare the time.

BHS historic bridleways project – act now!

Historic Bridleways rights ending 2026. At the AGM of the Hodgemoor Riding Association on 12th November 2020, committee member Claire James made an excellent short slide presentation explaining simply what is a complicated issue.If we want unofficial bridelway protected they need to be registered by 2026.

Her slides have been uploaded to this web site and can be viewed in pdf by clicking on

bhs_historic_bridleways_claire_james_nov_2020

Lucinda Starling said the cart track that had always been used down to the former Chalfont Equestrian was one route that could be formalised as a bridleway. Claire said the HS2 works made this even more complicated as the route might still be closed until after 2026. Francesca Jones said the Swerlings had never objected to horse-riders using that track but was certain they would if it was to become an official right of way. Shona agreed with Francesca that we had to be certain to gain rather than lose from the process. Susie it was tricky as to whether to maintain the status quo where horse-riding was allowed but not formalised, or go through the lengthy process for a right of way: with Stratton Chase, the owners immediately put up fierce opposition to it becoming a formal bridleway, but are quite happy to let horse-riders continue to use it as it is.

If any members know of routes that could be formalised, please let Claire James know by email at claireannejames at hotmail.com

The complete minutes for the 2020 AGM are at

https://hodgemoor.org.uk//wp-content/uploads/2020/11/agm2020.pdf