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Winter League
Show jumping @ Dryden 29th October 2006
There was a good turnout for the first of EFRA's
indoor winter league showjumping competitions at Dryden with many new combinations competing. The course provided
a challenge for competitors with some difficult turns and the classes were judged by Jim Jeffrey. The nursery class
which includes a style component instead of the usual round against the clock, had a particularly large entry and
was won by Lynsey Smith riding Clive Storey's Whizz. Sandra Grieve riding Vision, back competing after several
months off due to rider injury, won the novice class. Intermediate winners were Karen Gillie with Glenside Red
Admiral owned by Brenda Grieve, whilst a small Open class was won by Veronica Quinn riding Tikaboo Peak who jumped
a good clear round.
Winter League
Dressage @ Dryden 14 Oct 06
Ettrick Forest's winter league dressage series
got off to a good start with an excellent turn out for the first of the indoor competitions held at Dryden Riding
Centre. The club classes were won by new horse and rider partnerships. Jane Aitken achieved a high scoring percentage
with locally bred The Rookie to win the Prelim 18 class from a large number of entries. Wendy Bell riding her new
horse Taktiform had a very successful day winning both the Novice 24 and Elementary 44. Affiliated dressage classes
and judges' training were run alongside the club competition ensuring a busy day for all.
The next EFRA competition will be the winter league showjumping on Sunday 29th October.
Hunter Trials
17th Sept 2006 @ Greenhill
The Hunter Trials on Sunday 17th September 2006
at Greenhill were run in memory of Jean McAulay who had died on Saturday.
She would have been very pleased with the standard of the competition and the fact that many members did so well.
Kirsten Horsburgh with Rowan showed the Novices how to go winning the Club cup and the Elspeth Scott Trophy for
the best ERFA member. She was followed closely by Duncan Tait riding Charlie with Rachel Shiell and Crink Law a
very close 3rd.
The Nursery with 40 entries was won by Fiona Black and Sky from E. Mackie on Mac with the best EFRA being Louise
Steel on Missie Mouse alias Iris 3rd. Christine Riddell Webster's home bred youngster Joey was 4th, ridden by her
grandson James.
Alison Bogue with Good Day is making EFRA Open classes her thing winning the New Aden Cup and the Harker Trophy
after having won the Open Horse Trials in August.
Janette Irving from the John Peel was 2nd and had been 2nd last year! Jennifer Craig won the Julian Scott Trophy
for the best EFRA member
Only 2 pairs contested this class and was won in happy fashion by Laura Sanderson/Paris and Helen Bett/ GreatleyDiva.
Well done and thanks to everyone who came and made this such a memorable day .
Report from Anne
Millar, Secretary Ettrick Forest Riders Association for their Annual Show on Sunday 9th July.
Springwood Park was the setting for the Ettrick Forest Riders Association’s Annual Show on the 8th July when a
record entry of over 100 horses took part in Affiliated dressage qualifiers, Working Hunter qualifiers for Blair
Castle Championships and the only Scottish Spillers dressage and Jumping qualifiers. Club members were out in force
and Paris ridden by club stalwart Laura Sanderson won both the Novice Workers and the Championship for the Fun
Too Salver.
Competitors came from as far as Blairgowrie in the north and Durham in the south to contest the many classes.
Will Goldie from Ayrshire and Amanda Stirling from Blainslie judged the Working Hunter classes and were complimentary
about the standard. Sandra Smith Maxwell planned and built the course which was a good test for a qualifier and
found out the unprepared!
BRC Area Team Qualifiers
2006
EFRA has enjoyed success in all three of the Area 1 qualifiers which have run so far, as Fiona Busby reports below.
Area 1 Novice Dressage and Riding
Test Qualifier
The riding club novice dressage qualifying competition was held at Greenfields, Drumclog near Strathavon and run
by the Lanark Riding Club on 4th June.
Ettrick Forest Riders Association sent a team of four - Janet McRitchie on Craggy, Karen Gillie on Chester, Jane
Aitken on TheRookie and Emma Soeder on Spicy Lady - finishing in 5th place after putting up workmanlike performances.
This same team were third in the riding test which is judged entirely on the rider.
Jane Aitken won her warm up test on 71% and was 4th individual in her qualifying arena. Karen Gillie was 2nd individual
in her qualifying arena for the riding test. Emma Soeder was 1st in her qualifying dressage arena thereby qualifying
as an individual for the championships held at Lincoln on 9th September.
A good time was had by all.
Area 1 Horse Trials Qualifier
The Area 1 horse trials were held at Tyningham near Haddington, East Lothian on 11th June on a hot sunny day. The
horse trials were run by the Peebles and District RC, Ettrick Forest RA and Lammermuir RC. It was a long day -
our first dressage being on at 9am and finishing after 6pm - but a highly successful day with the Intermediate
team winning and taking the first four places individually as follows: 1st Lynsay Smith on Atlantic Connexion,
2nd Cindy Onslow on Cro Inis, 3rd Helen Bett on Greatly Diva and 4th Kimberly Jackson on Twighlight.
Cheryl Bunton on Just Jeremy were 3rd in the Novice horse trials and Cindy Fisher was 8th on Jane Douglas's Solo
Prince.
Red Mills Horse Feeds sponsored the prizes which were lovely light rugs and bags of feed. After the prize giving
Anne Millar, the Area 1 representative thanked all those who had worked hard to prepare and run the day. The horse
trials always takes a lot of careful organising and requires a lot of people on the steward, fence judge etc.
The championships run at Offchurch, near Leamington, Warwickshire on 4th-6th August and take the form of a two
day event with roads and tracks and steeplechase.
Area 1 Show Jumping and Equitation Jumping Qualifiers
The area 1 show jumping and equitation
jumping qualifiers were held at Eglinton Park, Irvine, Ayrshire on 18th June and were run by the North Ayrshire,
Renfrew and Kilmacolm clubs.
Eric Gillie's big horse box left St Boswells Auction Mart at 6.30am with seven horses, with another two horses going by trailer from Heriot. Two cars carried the rest of the people and equipment.
The courses were of good BSJA standard flowing tracks but the ground was very slippery after a wet night and showers
all day, so wearing studs was vital.
The intermediate competition was very strong over two rounds and double clears were very scarce. The EFRA team
- Helen Bett on Greatly Diva, Lynsay Smith on Atlantic Connexion, Laura Sanderson on Paris, Rhona Young on Chester
- did well to finish 3rd; the competition was won by John Peel RC from Carlisle. Fiona Hutcheson on Kiera and Emma
Soeder on Spicy Lady competed as individuals in the Intermediate class and Fiona Hutcheson was placed 4th individual.
The open team - Lindsay Dun on Borthwick Emerald, Katie Dun on Dundrum Sam and Rachel Shiel on Tiger Bay had no
competition as they were the only team but the three of them all jumped clear rounds in the first round and had
only one fence down in the second round. We were very proud of them.
To finish the day our equitation team, being the same as for the intermediate SJ, won this competition judged on
the rider's position, effectiveness and empathy with the horse. Laura Sanderson was 2nd individual on her good
little mare Paris.
The championships are held at Lincoln on 9th September.
The remaining qualifying competition is the Open and Pairs Dressage which EFRA are running on 8th July at Springwood
Park, Kelso.
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Grasshoppers
Training Competition @ Dryden 11 Mar 06
Les Smith ran a very successful Grasshoppers Training
Competition at Dryden on 11th March. Wintry weather meant there were some withdrawals from the large entry but
the majority of riders were able to attend and benefit from three British Eventing accredited trainers trainers
- Les Smith, Muriel Colquhoun and Ian Stark.
A Grasshoppers competition combines training with competition, with competitors receiving a guided course walk,
tuition whilst warming up, and feedback after jumping a round of show jumps. The aim is then to put all the advice
received into practice in the competition element when the course is jumped a second time with a mark being awarded
for style.
Riders were very fortunate to receive tuition from three very high calibre trainers. Les Smith, Performance Director
for Scottish Equestrian Association (SEA) gave the guided course walk, Muriel Colquhoun, Chief Executive of SEA,
provided the warm up and Olympic eventer Ian Stark provided constructive feedback on how to improve technique and
style over the course before judging the competitive round. First place went to Laura Sanderson riding Paris who
received the highest marks after jumping a very stylish round. However, all the competitors will have benefited
from the advice and tuition, whether they were in the prizes or not.
The money raised from the competition will fund the Catriona Arres Memorial Training Grant, which will be awarded
to a member of EFRA on an annual basis.
Click here for Results.
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EFRA Dressage and SJ
competition 26 Feb 06.
EFRA held a dressage and showjumping competition
at Dryden on 26th Feburary. Jane Aitken, in her first competition with her new horse Ru, set a high standard in
the Preliminary test, scoring 75% to take first place. Janet McRitchie won the Novice test with Craggy, also on
a good score. Anne Millar successfully combined competing with organising to win the Elementary test with Master
Roddy.
The afternoon showjumping classes saw Di Williams win the Nursery class with Monty and Karen Gillie win the Novice
class with Chester. Kimberley Jackson and Twighlight, winners of both the Intermediate and Open winter leagues,
continued to jump consistently good rounds to win both the Intermediate and Open classes.
See Results page
for full results
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ANNUAL GETOGETHER
Members and guests enjoyed an entertaining evening
at the annual getogether held at Ashkirk village hall on 17 Feb. Eventer Ruth Friend gave an interesting talk describing
her competitive career to date from her early childhood experiences of hunting in the Borders to the horses she
will be competing this year with much hard work and success in between.
The winners of the winter dressage and showjumping
leagues were presented with their prizes. Cindy Onslow and Irish Dawn won both the nursery and novice dressage
leagues, whilst Leonie Hunter with Whitaw Bronte won the elementary dressage league. Rodger Cowan won the nursery
showjumping league with Trooper, Fyonnah Thomas and Advanta Gold won the novice SJ league and Kimberly Jackson
with Twighlight won both the intermediate and open SJ leagues.
Click
here for photos
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CHARITY SHOW
JUMPING TRAINING AND COURSE RAISES £700
Ettrick Forest Riders Association held an extremely
successful charity show jumping training day at Dryden Riding Centre and Haughhead on Sunday 29th January, raising
an excellent £700 for Border Cancer Care.
The training day was held in memory of Catriona Arres, who gave so much of her time to training others, regularly
holding training days/competitions at Dryden to help local riders in the winter months. Dryden Riding Centre continues
to provide excellent tuition for all ages and standards of rider.
The training day catered for all levels of horse and rider from the very inexperienced pre-nursery horses to experienced
open horses and was well supported with 32 entries. Riders received help from expert trainers both whilst warming
up, and in jumping two different courses of show jumps. The feedback from participants was extremely positive,
and riders felt they had benefited enormously from the help they had received.
Thanks must go to all those who supported the day through their entries, donations and help. Use of the excellent
facilities at Dryden and Haughhead were donated by proprietors Mark Arres and the Starks, whilst trainers - Jean
McAulay, Jenny Stark, Fiona Busby and Anne Millar - generously gave their time.
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THE CATRIONA ARRES MEMORIAL TRAINING GRANT
Les Smith has suggested that in Tutti’s memory
we should present a monetary training grant to a worthwhile member on an annual basis. We were sure Tutti would
approve of this as she was so involved in training.
The new Grasshoppers competition to be run by Les on the 11th March at Dryden will raise money for this grant.
A panel will decide who should win this prestigious award at the end of each year and it will be presented at the
Annual Getogether.
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APPRECIATION
TO CATRIONA ARRES
Tutti as she was always known grew up with parents
who rode, competed and farmed Dryden. She rode from the age of five and hunted and competed on her ponies Coco
and Chita. She only agreed to go to boarding school providing she got home to hunt at the weekends! As a child
she lived to ride.
After finishing school Jean arranged for her to spend a short time at a dressage yard in Austria to widen her equestrian
knowledge.
In 1979 she took over the small riding school based on the farm and run by sister Jenny. Over the next 26 years
Tutti built it up to be one of the best schools in Scotland as we all know it today, teaching countless Borderers
to ride and preparing many riders and horses for competition. Since marrying in 1997 Tutti had the support of Mark
who was great strength to her and help with the school and on the farm. Their daughter Jo has now started riding
and Tutti was extremely proud of her.
Her mother Jean and Tutti had a marvellous relationship bringing on young horses, many homebred from family lines
to compete in all disciplines and to all levels. Tutti rode 4 horses to International 3 Day Event level, quite
a feat when building up and running the school and having input into the farm. Her work ethic was impressive, never
in a hurry but getting through an enormous workload day in and day out.
As a competitor her greatest asset was her thoroughness in preparing and presenting her horses for competition.
As an eventer she was understated -- quiet with no fuss or flash just simply getting on with the job and being
very successful.
She was a staunch believer in the Riding club movement and was a member of EFRA for nearly 30 years serving on
the committee for several terms. Her input has been enormous, always supportive and interested in all that was
going on. Her generosity was limitless, giving the use of the schools and the TV site for XC training. Jean and
Tutti split the Tuesday lessons and many hours were spent helping members. She trained team members and kindly
allowed school horses to be ridden in teams often very successfully. Her "Special Needs" classes were
well appreciated, when members wanted help for a competiton Tutti would give the "Special " help they
"Needed".
Tutti represented the club in all the team competitons always producing the "goods". Many members will
have travelled with Tutti to competitions and personally I always looked forward to them as she was such good company,
lots of fun and great stories to while away the miles.
Last summer I made a terrible blunder having forgotten to book Gillies lorry to take team horses to Ayrshire!!
Who was the first I phoned?-- Tutti.-- Have my lorry was the reply, I can take Jo in Aileens ! That was Tutti --
generous, kind, loyal, supportive, determined, astute, fun loving, always others first and UNIQUE.
Anne Millar with additions from Ian Stark and Kenneth Dalgliesh
Tutti at Blenheim 1995 with Carnaby
Mac
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