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9th to 12th August Junior Clinic and Senior Camp at Great
Witchinham
Senior Camp
2007 - by Sue Westmore
After much
excitement and many months of planning, venue visits, costings
and minor panics, the big day finally rolled round when the
Deben Riding Club held its first camp for senior members. For
some, this was Pony Club camp revisited after many years, and
for others, it was their first opportunity to stay away from
home and family with a much loved horse. The venue of Great
Witchingham was chosen for a number of reasons, but primarily
because of the great facilities available including a fabulous
cross country course with fences to suit all abilities.
As the
juniors were having a rally the preceding afternoon with Moray,
the seniors did not start arriving until late Thursday. After
tucking the horses up in their new beds, everyone gathered round
for a glass of wine and introductions for those who didn’t
already know each other. Arrangements were made for feeding
horses the following morning so all received their breakfast at
the same time, and then after making sure that tents were
securely erected, everyone headed for bed, and some for sleep,
although one horsebox was kept awake in fits of giggles about
how Calgon can change your life until the early hours of the
morning. Just like Pony Club camp then!
Friday morning
involved flatwork sessions in pairs where Moray put us through
our paces. Many of the horses were very keen following their
first night away from home, but soon settled down to their
exercises and quickly started to improve under the watchful eye
of our instructor. In the afternoon, we went to the far side of
the hayfield for our show jumping sessions. All groups did grid
work as even the experienced horse benefits from revisiting
principles such as rhythm and technique. Having worked on the
riders’ positions, we then moved onto jumping a number of
fences, again working on basics such as speed and direction.
As Moray told us, jumping a course is the same as riding
dressage only with bumps! A thoroughly enjoyable first day
ended with a BBQ which certainly left its mark on the field.
Saturday morning
saw more flatwork sessions, and it was quickly obvious that most
horses had improved from the previous day. After a much welcome
break for lunch, as it was by now getting very hot (what a
change from earlier this summer!), it was time to go out onto
the cross country. What a feast of different jumps to try! All
are beautifully built in the old fashioned way of being horse
friendly, but rider frightening. There are also plenty of
technical accuracy fences at varying heights to introduce
inexperienced horse and rider to the modern style of cross
country courses. With only one person hitting the deck, I think
that Moray’s nerves survived pretty much in tact! But we gave
him a stiff drink and a supper of fish and chips just to make
sure he came back the next day!
As the ground
had started to get quite hard by the Sunday, the programme was
revised to save horses’ legs. Consequently, Moray designed a
course of show jumps to build on the previous two days’ work.
Each horse was allocated an individual slot to jump round under
his watchful eye, and any areas which needed further work could
be addressed immediately without impacting anyone else. We took
a similar approach to the cross country, with Moray whizzing up
and down the course following individuals in his 4x4 with
binoculars at the ready to give instruction and praise as
appropriate.
Unbelievably, it
was then the end of the weekend, and all that remained was to
pack up our tents and horseboxes, and bid everyone fond
farewells with promises of doing it all over again next year
before heading back down the A140 with heads full of memories of
laughter and achievements. Somehow, I think there’ll be a
waiting list in 2008!
Many thanks to
Moray for a weekend of inspirational teaching and also for his
unique brand of humor throughout. Also, to David and Maggie
Sayer for providing their wonderful facilities to the club, and
for making us so welcome.
See if you
recognise the individual in the picture below having the "ride
of their life" round the show jumps. They know who they are
but our lips are sealed! Don't worry all safe and well! More
pictures below:-

Junior Moray
Clinic at Great Witchinham – by Jess Mace
On the 9th
of August Jess, Grace, Joe and Rosie traveled to Great
Witchingham for a clinic with Moray Nicholson. The day started
well with 45 minutes of dressage, in pairs. By the end of the
session, everyone had improved their position and their horses
way of going. Also the horses were then more supple and
therefore ready to begin jumping. We had a short break to make
changers of tack and put boots on etc, then we headed across to
the show jumping arena and soon Moray told us that “less was
more” by the way of our position. Shortly afterwards we started
to jump difficult turns and focused on maintaining our position
through the small course of jumps. We soon all improved and by
this time I think Moray was not so scared of letting us loose on
the cross country course as he was at the beginning of the
session!
After another
change of tack we began the cross country. We started off with
a small brush fence and soon progress to jumping ditches steps,
water and combinations,. All of the ponies by this time were
jumping tremendously well with very few problems. By the time
we had reached the water jump Joe’s pony was getting quite
strong and came charging through the water only to turn around
and find a very wet Moray standing in the way!!
We finished the
day on a good note and all thoroughly having enjoyed the day,
have all booked our places in the next clinic. Thanks to Sue
Westmore form all the juniors that took part for organising such
a fantastic day!
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