NCEC got off to a different start this year. Instead of going into hiding in January we launched the first of our mid summer training. Over January we ran four X-C training sessions. With the intense heat and humidity of this summer we thought we were crazy but it worked out fantastic. Training times were not for riders who “don’t do mornings”. Sessions on Saturday 9th, Sunday 10th and the first session on Saturday 30th started at 7am, with the second session that day at 9am. I really appreciated that everyone was on time. All sessions were fully booked. I apologize for those who missed out but it was decided to keep the groups small as advertised. It also allowed the training to run on time and to off course before the heat of the day took over. There were 12 riders training over the 4 sessions with some booking in for two sessions. Megan Atkins provided expert training showing a great eye for detail and ability to correct our minor (or major) problems. All riders accomplished jumps they had not done before and learnt heaps. We gained confidence as our riding skills improved and we worked better with our horses. We were able to work with a range of jumps, starting out with an individual jump and then jumping combinations. Megan remained enthusiastic and we look forward to working with her again. Several of the riders were grateful that Megan was prepared before or after a session to ride their horses to help with sorting out a tricky problem that had emerged. We had a range of riders. Younger ones included Ann Shipman, Gaby Tate, Rosie Toms, Erin Jackson, Kelly Hicks, Sophie Sheather, Sarah McEwan and Lilli Trewin. The mid range was represented by Venita Colquhoun, Sonya Shipman and Anne Webster, whilst yours truly waved the flag for the older age bracket. A few riders had enquired whether the water jump would be in use. This is not possible for such early starts. The water jump needs to be filled the day before for soaking. On the day it needs a couple of hours pumping before it can be used. That would require our kind volunteer staggering down the river bank in the dark at about 4-30am for a 7am start. Hope everyone appreciates why the water jump will not be available until later in the year. It will also require a working bee to clear the debris out of the water jump area. Many other areas also need to be cleaned up. A big thank you to Kevin Hartley and Andrew Wright for weed spraying around the jumps and again to my long suffering husband for helping me to whipper snip the jumps.
We anticipate offering a few more early start training sessions over the next couple of months so stay tuned. Carol Wright
I took part in the XC training on Saturday January 30th with Megan. My horse Beau and I had a great time and we enjoyed all of the jumps especially the one up the top of the hill amongst the trees and also jumping down into the water jump. Megan was great and I learnt a lot as well as having heaps of fun. I can't wait for the ODE now.
Erin Jackson
Megan was very helpful in every way. She helped me to overcome some challenges of jumping and also helped with my basic flatwork skills. I really appreciated the opportunity and look forward to more lessons from Megan.
Thanks, Kathy Hicks
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