Apologies Photos Oxley Weekend September 2012

Hi All,

I know some of you have seen the ACDS article and want to look at the extra photos mentioned. I have to apologise I have had a few hiccups transfering stuff from my old computer to the new one. Funnily enough I have reverted back to my old computer to post this on the blog because blogger doesn't give me the option on my new computer for some reason. The photos are now posted. Thanks for your patience. Jack

Multi-Activity Weekend 5th 6th 7th October 2012 at Oxley

The Benalla and District Horse Driving Club is again scheduling its Multi-Activity Weekend around the Victorian School Holidays. This year it will be held on the weekend after the AFL Grand Final at the Oxley Recreational Reserve on Friday 5th to Sunday 7th October. Oxley provides a relaxing and picturesque environment.


The annual event is very popular as a warm up to the competition season. Drivers get to train and practice in a non-competitive environment. We get participants with horses ranging from Shetlands to Clydesdale Crosses from singles to pairs etc. The ever popular Mike Thill has been booked for the weekend for training sessions, so get in early if you want lessons. Lessons will be taken from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning. Remember lessons don’t have to be restricted to dressage or general horse movement and control. Mike will be happy to teach you how to attack a cones course or marathon obstacles as well. Just ask him. Cones and the 2 marathon obstacles will be available for use.

You can expect to have dressage tests judged for personal feedback, a cones course set up for practice and a navigation drive. Last year we trialled Musical Drive/Instruction with Mike Salmon, a former member of the Royal Horse Guards Regiment, which had great feedback from the participants, so we plan to do it again.

If they want to, there is a possibility for some to participate in a king or queen of the cones competition.

On Friday night there will be a Barbecue. Saturday night will have dinner in the Oxley Reserve Club Rooms. We can expect some light entertainment and perhaps an interesting speaker as well as the obligatory raffle.

Near the bottom of the blog you can see photos of previous weekends



Contact Bev Bresanello on 03 57662257 for further details.

Victorian Dressage Championships 24-25 March 2012

The Benalla Club hosted the Victorian Dressage Championships were held on Sunday 25 March 2012 at the Oxley Recreational Reserve. The Benalla Club also held a qualifer on Saturday 24th. A cones course was also set up for a bit of fun. The weather for the weekend was mild which added to a successful event. Friday night barbecue and Saturday night dinner was well received with a fund raising raffle and auction rounding off the event. Near the bottom of the blog you will find a set of photos provided by Ken Graves.

Carriages marching to music

Apologies to everyone. We have had difficulties with copying our video footage of the carriages to music onto any other format be it disk , linking it to this blog etc. We are still working on it. In the mean time scroll down to near the bottom of the blog to find links to all the photos of the Oxley weekend.

Cheers

Jack

Benalla Show 14-15 October 2011

The Benalla and District Horse Driving Club will again be sponsoring the harness classes at the Benalla Show. The harness classes are scheduled for Friday.

Oxley Weekend 23-25 September 2011

The photo is of Mike Salmon instructing drivers on the patterns he wants them to drive to music. This before they walk the patterns on the dressage arena. They then harnessed up and practised with their horses before bring it altogether with music blazing.

The Benalla and District Horse Driving Club have been running the multi activity weekend for around 8 years and believe 2011 has been the best event yet. We have been fortunate with everything running so smoothly (touch wood). It couldn't have gone any better. The Oxley Reserve provides a rustic and relaxing setting which everyone enjoys. The weather was fanastic in the high teens with little cloud cover and just enough breeze to keep the flies away.



Mike Thill's lessons were all booked out with a waiting list. All drivers were given a chance to enhance their skills. It was good to see Angela and Joanne from the North Eastern Pleasure Harness Club from lessons with Mike. Ros Knight a newcomer to the Benalla Club took her Clydie Henry for his first lesson. Again we had Shetlands to Clydesdales, singles pairs and teams all coming under the tutelage of Mike, with everyone coming away benefiting from his knowledge and expertise.



Friday night Don Cunningham sizzled the sausages to perfection while Ros Knight added the surprise of stuffed potatoes which went down a treat.



The cones course was open all weekend with timed runs between 1.30-3.50pm. This included the King or Queen of the Cones competition which attracted about 12 timed runs with the ultimate winner being Alison Graves.



Saturday night saw a hearty 2 course meal in the club house catering for 35 people. This followed by an entertaining half hour talk given by former Household Cavalryman and Policemen Mike Salmon describing his life in leather boots. You had to be there to know what we are talking about.



Sunday proved that more people should go on more navigation drives. We had a healthy 11 carriages go out on the navigation drive which included some of the side streets of Oxley. Oxley is a small village of around 2-300 people. However, not everyone went through the same streets as they picked their way through the clues crossing the main road which wasn't meant to be passed. Nearly half the drivers got lost but all seem to have fun. The eventual winner was Karen Rogers and her team.



The highlight of the weekend came at the end. We had seven participans in the carriage driving to music training session conducted by Mike Salmon. The session took an hour and a power of concentration by humans and horses alike. It was based on the principles developed over 450 years in preparing horses for battle. We had Karen Rogers Pony Team, Bruce Hammond's Pony Pair mixing it with single ponies creating patterns in rhythm with the music. To provide such skill and ultimately entertainment in such a short space of time was a fantastic achievement by all. The end result was like watching formations in a military tattoo.

Take a look at the list of carriage driving websites. It has been updated to include scurry driving, shetland pony driving and the Dutch National Coach Museum website. Apparently the National Coach Museum is under threat with funding cuts. They have a petition on their website if you want to sign. The website is translatable from Dutch to English at the press of a button.