Horse Boarder 2011.

Happy New Year to one and all.

I would take this opportunity to let people know about what’s been happening this year and what we are looking to achieve in the coming twelve months.

Let’s start with a review of 2010. This was a year of two half’s, the first half of the year stuttering to a stall. This was due to some personal circumstances on my side and some on the side of the already established teams. Team 666 reporting that Emily had injured her back and was unsure when she would be able to ride, plus they had to horse box issues. Hilton Horses were unsure about other commitments through the season and Team Wild Feast retired their horse Sam at the age of 26 making him 25 when he won the Middlesex leg of the 2009 season. This closely fought competition gave the team their first win by a difference of 0.13 seconds over four races. Giving them trophies for first place, fastest time and best Spank for that weekend. Which just goes to show horses of any age can race and be competitive. They are now planning to compete this year with their new horse Chico who promises to also be very competitive if Martin can hold on to him. With all this uncertainty I didn’t have the guaranteed number of teams to hold a competition. There has been a steady increase of interest but not enough commitment from teams for me to really organize competitions.

Early in the year I was contacted by Plumpton College, near Brighton, who asked me if I would be a guest lecturer for a day and teach both their students and tutors about Horse Boarding. This was a very exciting and wired experience but really demonstrates how Horse Boarding is developing. The College found this to be a great success with a fun day being had by all. I spent a couple of hours getting the horses ready to tow and then the students took turns in riding and being towed, with the quickest time of the day getting competitive at 10.5 seconds.

In September the Independent Horse extreme Demo team went to the welsh Festival of the Horse to perform their Trick riding and Horse Boarding display. This went down very well and generated further interest in both the sport and the performance team.

The Biggest news of the year and probably the most important thing ever to happen to horse boarding came from a chance conversation with Emma Jones who mentioned to me that she had a 500 meter trotting track on her yard near Wolverhampton and offered it as a potential site for Horse boarding. I went down to view the yard and as soon as I saw the now slightly run down track ,which had not been used for many years, I found it was still perfectly serviceable; despite the fact a number of horses had considered it to be their turn out for quite some time. Serious talks started as to the future of this field of dreams and the yard has now become the National Horse Boarding Centre with Jamie Mcphie, from Plumpton College, being the first person to complete a day’s training at the Centre and pass the Stage 1 Horse Boarding Instructor course allowing him to introduce basic Horse Boarding theory and practical to new students. Monumentally on November 6^{th 2010 the first Horse Boarding clinic went ahead.}

The Horse Boarding Clinics and the formation of the National Horse Boarding Centre has injected new life into the sport; this is most noticeable on the Face book group which had a membership of around 120 befor November and is now very close to 200, with new teams coming forward all the time.

This now means that the grass roots interest is enough to start booking dates for competitions this year. If you know of an event or venue near you who may be interested in hosting one of the National Horse Boarding championship Competitions or of a company who would be interested in the sponsorship opportunities please contact us via the web site or Face book page. As an added bonus any boady that introduces a company to horse boarding that takes out sponcership will recieve 10% of that money. Sponcorship details will be posted shortly. We are looking to hold at least five competitions this year plus at least two displays with the Independent Horse Extreme demo team. One of these displays has places available for Horse Boarding teams and board riders with good jump experience to perform professionally. If you would like to be considered for this please contact me via the web site or Face book group.

Plumpton Collage is also showing a growing interest in the sport and is considering, in future, running Horse Boarding as a module within its equine, adventure sports and sports physiology courses; as well as holding competitions at the college and fielding teams to enter other competitions as a way of promoting their prospectus. Something we hope other colleges will follow.

Clinics are now running every Saturday at The National Horse Boarding Centre. All training is given, for all levels of horses and board riders alike, for only £10 per person for the afternoon you can use the track and get instruction from me and other experienced teams. We soon expect to have to expand to Sunday clinics, as well as the Saturday ones, in order to cope with the growing demand for training at this facility. Tracey Ross is now in charge of the Face book group and can answer all general inquiries to the sport and how to get involved.

If there is anyone who would like to get involved with the organiseational side of the sport please contact me directly. Heres to a great year of Horse Boarding.......... Cheers.

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