Multi Activity Weekend Queens Birthday 12-13th June 2010

The Benalla Club ran another successful Queens Birthday event at the Oxley Recreational Reserve. Since the last event at the Reserve the Benalla Club have become associate members which has allowed us to construct 2 new Marathon Obstacles on the site. We would like to thank Graham Martin for his designs. Unfortunately we were too busy too take photos of the weekend . Some may say that was blessing. The weekend gave us fantastic weather. Crisp frosty mornings gave way to warm sunny afternoons making it very pleasant allround. We had 14 carriages paricipate in sessions, practice and training at their own pace. All size horses were represented from single shetlands, 14hh ponie pairs, 15hh single horse to near 17hh Clydesdale Cross pairs. Saturday kicked off with Dressage lessons conducted by Alison Graves. This was followed in the lunchtime break a training-presentation session run by retired Victorian Police Drum Major Mike Salmon with his new Clydesdale Hector. This session went down a treat with the crowd giving Hector and Mike rapturous applause. The afternoon was left open to practice cones and plod about the grounds in the glorious sunshine. The cones course included a false bridge made up of bollards and the now famous carpet which many paricipants handled very well. However, it is funny how the horses handled the bollard bridge better than the carpet. Early Saturday evening included a 3 meat roast dinner and plenty took the opportunity to go back for seconds and still managed to squeeze in dessert. Again we had a condensed presentation on hoof management, laminitis and foundering by Neville Wright. Neville had given presentations at a Farriers Conference in the USA earlier this year. Attendees were enthralled by the photos and types of cases Neville has dealt with over the years where he has had to help horses in rebuilding their feet. For some fun Sue Wind organised a short trivia quiz to finish off the evening. To put all the training of Saturday into practice a 1 hour CDE was run which 8 participants took up. The event was kept within the safety of the grounds and included Dressage, Cones and a mini marathon of Sections A, D and E. No prizes or ribbons were given as the weekend is about pratice and preparing everyone for the new season ahead. Everyone seem to enjoy themselves which made the hard work put in by club members worthwhile.