We would like to welcome Ruth to The Penniwells Team - She will be working part time over 3 days a week.  

The Annual Ball is to be held on Saturday 24th March 2012 at Aldenham Golf & Country Club in Aldenham. Tickets are to go on sale soon so please book them early as they go quick! All details to follow soon.  

Saturday 10th december 2011 - 7.30pm at Arkley Village Hall - open to all riders, parents, carers, volunteers etc etc.... £3 pre ticket or £10 for 4. Bring your own nibbles and enjoy the show! Riders, staff & volunteers are all performing! 

Volunteer training morning followed by CHristmas Linch - Please be sure to get your name on the list if you wish to go. All volunteers welcome to the training from 10.30 - 12.00. New volunteers also welcome. 

Zara has now left us to go onto Maternity Leave - we send her our best wishes and look forward to her returning next year. 

For a number of years now I have really wanted to raise the money for Penniwells RDA to have a Mechanical Horse / Riding Simulator as a part of the Centre. We are now in a position of being offered one, only a year old, at a hugely reduced cost but still need to raise the funds to purchase it - All riders will be able to benefit form having this peice of equipment _ It can be used for warm exercises, assessments, for those returning after major surgery, it helps riders get a feel for rising trot and canter beofre they get on the real horse along with many more advantages.

If you can help raise the £15,000 in any way or would like to donate towards this project please send cheques to Penniwells RDA Centre for the Attn Sarah Healing.

Thank you for your support.

 

Natwest Community Force - Voting closes this week!  

Please help Penniwells win a grant of £6000 to go towards buying a new pony. Follow the link & it will take you to our profile page - register your email and vote for us!

 

Party time to celebrate the achievements of those representing the centre at competitions thorughout the year. All riders, families, volunteers etc welcome. Bring your own picnic & drinks. All riders to be dressed for competition with their prizes please! 3pm at Penniwells RDA Centre. 

Penniwells is through to the next round of Natwest Community Force - The project has gone live and can be voted on form 26th September - Please share it with everyone you know to get us lots of votes and hopefully to win the fund!

Am trying to get it to link here but struggling! Please find the links on Facebook page or twitter!

Thank You for your support!

 

Saturday 1st October 2011 at Arkley Village Hall Please get your tables & tickets booked as soon as you can! A few still left.  

In July riders & horses, staff & volunteers headed off to Hartpury College in Gloucestershire to compete at the RDA National Championships - All our riders and ponies performed to their best ability with many taking home 1st place and the title of National Champion.Full results can be found on www.rda.org.uk Thank you to all staff & volunteers who came for the weekend and also to those left at home to look after the yard.

 

 

Penniwells would like to thank Nandos, Borehamwood for providing our volunteers & staff with delicious food ont eh day of our Regional Event. They have also given a generous donation to the Centre from the proceeds of the day.  

Penniwells hosted the 2011 Regional Event - We had a fantastic day. With 70 competitors & their horses arriving from across the region the day could not have gone better. Huge thanks must go to all our volunteers who came to help on the day aswell as those days leading up to it.

Penniwells had a record number of it's own riders taking part this year : Abbie Waller, Anthony O'Sullivan, Courtney Hammond, Naomi Wunsch, Tracey Clutton, Michael Murphy, Robyn Guinn, Chloe Butler, Ian Williams, Peter Franklin, Ben Kemp, Ross Pedrick, Sophie Gray, Rueben Lobley, Louise Wilmott, Bobby Sammon, Stuart Henson, Tania Lock, Finlay Pitchers, Joseph Fielding, Mia Gara-Navara, Ben Manuel, Rachel O'Dell & Kieran Mallone. We also had 2 more who were sadly unable to comepte on the day due to illness.

All our riders, volunteer & horses looked fantastic.

11 went on to qualify to take part in the National RDA Championships held at Hartpury College, Gloucester in July.

They are: Abbie Waller - Courtney Hammond - Anthony O'Sullivan - Naomi Wunsch - Peter Franklin - Sophie Gray - Bobby Sammon & Ross Pedrick

Tracey Clutton & Michael Murphy are both 2010 National Champions & so automatically qualify for 2011 Championships

Those who also qualfied but will not be travelling to Hartpury are: Chloe Butler, Tania Lock, Ian Williams.

Well done & congratulations to all of you! Full results & pictures will follow soon!

 

Good luck to all of the 23 riders representing Penniwells RDA at the Regional qualifiers this year. Anyone who would like to come along and support them is very welcome. Volunteers - we really need you on the day to help it run smoothly!Everyone has trained well and all riders are so ready for the big day! Hope everyone does well, riding their best and enjoying the day.

Results will follow shortly after - don't forget to follow our tweets & updates on facebook and twitter! @sarahpenniwells or Penniwells RDA on facebook.

 

Rider Rubin Lobley riding Flossie enjoyed representing Penniwells RDA in the Fancy Dress Class run by the Windsor Lions at The Royal Windsor Horse Show - The theme they chose was Fanatsia and they really did look fantastic. Flossie, as always excelled herself, being dressed up in an amazing outfit! Well done to all those who helped with the costumes and on the day.  

All riders are encouraged to take part in our sponsored event - forms are now available at the yard. Please speak to your Instructor for more information. This event is also open to volunteers registered with Penniwells. 

We will be organising a clear up weekend over the Bank holiday weekend in May half term - Saturday 28th, Sunday 29th & Monday 30th May 2011 - If you can come and help with gardening - strimming, mowing , weeding - sweeping, painting and much more please let us know or turn up from 9am onwards on any day!Normal riding will continue during this time.

 

<a href="http://twitpic.com/4h6pri" title="Local Hero @MichaelmurphyLH meets Olympic medallist Jonathan ... on Twitpic"><img src="http://twitpic.com/show/thumb/4h6pri.jpg" width="150" height="150" alt="Local Hero @MichaelmurphyLH meets Olympic medallist Jonathan ... on Twitpic"></a>

Click on the link to view the picture!

 

 

Go to "Penniwells RDA" Facebook Page or Search "sarahpenniwells" on Twitter for all the latest information & gossip! 

3 riders represented Penniwells this weekend at Vale View in Leicester. Anthony O'Sullivan and Robyn Guinn took part in the BD Para Talent Spotting Competition - with Anthony finishing in 9th place in the seniors section and Robyn finishing 7th in the young rider section both rode well for their first time at this competition. Both riders were on new horses that they had only been riding for a matter of weeks - Jago, Owned by our new staff member Sam Peck behaved impeccably for Anthony and Connie who has just returned to the Centre on loan from a family in Norfolk also excelled in her debut dressage adventure.

They both has to ride the test for their grade and then receive a 20mins training session with the judges being assessed on their knowledge and training ability.

Michael Murphy finished 2nd in the Hickstead qualifier and then went on to take part in the eveing freestyle competition - this was only the second time out with his new horse Pebbly Tarragon and he rode well to his new music going on to finish in 6th place.

A huge thank you goes to all staff, volunteers and parents for helping to make the weekend happen smoothly. I am sure this will be the first of many for Anthony and Robyn. It is fantastic for Penniwells to see so many riders coming through with the ability to reach this standard of competition.

Photos to follow..

 

A fantastic night was had by all who attended our Annual Fundraising event held at Aldenham Golf & Country Club. With over £5000 profit being raised this is our best year to date. Thank you to all who helped to support it.  

Thank you to all those attending our volunteer training day - Everyone had a great time aswell as being able to really think about what kind of volunteer they are. It is so valuable to take part in these days and come with questions to be answered. We look forward to the next one soon!  

Disco night at Penniwells RDA for all riders, volunteers and their families. A planned social evening for all to chat, dance and have a great time!Tickets available at yard - £5.00 per head to include finger food. Entry by ticket only.Please ask any staff member for more details. 

Penniwells has been awarded a grant of £500 which will be used to purchase new stirrup leathers and grooming kits.  

Huge thanks go to The Hedly Foundation for kindly donating £5000 for a new small pony.

Some great news is that we have now purchased a new pony with the help of this fund. She is called Twinkle Toes and is 11.2hh, Dun, Welsh X mare and is 9yrs old. She has settled in well. Today we have had fitted a new saddle and bridle for her and soon she will be starting to take part in some lessons.

Photos to follow...

 

After 20yrs associated with Penniwells RDA, Treasurer, Sue Durward-Akhurst has moved on from the Centre. Penniwells thanks her for all the good things she has done for the group in that time. We are pleased to welcome Eileen McGrath into this position and hope she really ejoys being an important part of our team.  

After much planning and preparation Michael and his pony Vinnie showed off their perfect partnership by winning the Grade 1a KBIS final at The BD National Championships and finishing 11th overall across the grades. This is a fantastic achievement for his first ever time competing at Stoneleigh adn the BD National Championships.

Penniwells RDA is very proud of all the riders being produced through the Centre and trained by Sarah Healing (BHSII(T)RDAI) with 2010 being the most successful year to date.

 

Penniwells took 10 riders to compete at the Greater London Region RDA Qualifiers 2010. They were held at The Arrow Centre, Dartford. Having had many hours of preparation and hard work from all, the riders rode their socks off and did the Centre proud. With many newcomers competing from Penniwells for the first time this year it was a busy time for staff, volunteers and ponies. All behaved impeccably on the day and the sun came out to give us the hottest Regional day in years! Riders representing Penniwells RDA were Ross Rose, Robyn Guinn, Courtney Hammond, Anthony O'Sullivan, Ben Kemp, Rachel O'Dell, Abbie Waller, Tracey Clutton, Sarah Flannigan. All rode so well and you would never have known for some it was their first competition away from Penniwells. The ponies were Pod, Prince, Louis, Woody and Flossie.

8 out of the 10 have qualified to go to the National Championships held at Hartpury College in Gloucester in July. A fantastic achievement for The Centre. Well done to all who rode, helped and groomed on the day. It is the whole team that makes it happen.

Good luck to all those heading for The National Championships!

Full results can be seen on our competition page.

 

Well done to all at Penniwells on winning the RDA Fancy Dress class at The royal Windsor Horse Show 2010. An annual event sponsored by The Windsor Lyons Penniwells have attended regularly now for a few years. This is their 4th win.  The Flintstones was the chosen film for this year. Riders Anthony O'Sullivan and Chloe Butler rode ponies Louis and Flossie and dressed up along with staff Zara, Hannah, Lucy & Claire. Volunteers also dressed up were Steve, Matthew and Mandy. Huge thanks go to Pam Hooper for the ideas and making of costumes along with help from Viv who made the car! Sarah had the task of changing Louis from a piebald into a purple dinosaur and it all pulled together to look fantastic on the day. The sun shone and the ponies behaved impeccably.

Well done and a huge thank you to all involved in the day.

 

Congratualtions go to Michael, Sarah and Sue (Mike's Mum!) for all their hard work. They have had a fantastic trip to Belgium with Michael coming home as the top Junior rider. There was alot of preparation involved in the trip -  financial, logistical and for both Michael and vinnie to be fit. Many hours of hard work and fundraising have gone into making this happen and we hope it will be something Penniwells can build upon in the future giving many more riders a similar opportunity.

The GBR Team were really supportive of us going and we have all learnt so much from the whole experience.

Well done Michael and Vinnie!!

 

Penniwells competed at the BD Winter Para Championships at Vale View Equestrian Centre last weekend and won the Grade 3 Restricted Championship with 64.44%. She rode her loan horse Waldminor owned by Jean Sharff. Mari, now 16yr old, has ridden at Penniwells all her life and is now on the Eastern Region Foundation Squad aswell as the BEF World Class Development Programme. Well done Mari for this fantastic achievement.

 

Please look for the April edition 2010 of Hertfordshire Life magazine - There is an article covering Penniwells - including the profiles of Michael Murphy and Mari Durward-Akhurst and their road to competing through Penniwells.

Michael Murphy also appeared in February Edition of Pony Magazine - go to Pony Mag website and you can get you back dated copy! Or view the article online.

There is also an article in Trailblazers Magazine - April Edition!

 

Penniwells now have a new haygain steamer to give the ponies a healthier and better life. It reduces the dust particles in the hay therefore minimising allergies and coughs created. Haygain have also supplied rider Micahel Murphy with a travel steamer and a further full size steamer to enable us to have one on each yard - Thank you Haygain.

 

Sarah Healing and Tina Kelly attended the Supra Regional Conference held at Sandown Park Racecourse. This was the first of these to be held for our region and it was a huge success. A complete sell out with fantastic speakers. Have a look at the RDA main site for more information. Thank you to all those involved in the organisation. It will be down to Greater London Region to organise this in 2013.  

Sadly today we have had to say goodbye to another of our long standing ponies Ginger. He had been at Pennwiells since he was 3yrs old and owned by one of our Trustees Ernie Pearse. He has been poorly for a few weeks and we had to make the hard decision to let him go. He will be remembered in our hearts forever.

Thank you Ginger for all you have done and the joy you have given to many of our riders. xx

 

On Thursday of this week we sadly had to say good-bye to Migs. She had been at Penniwells for more than 15years and was full of character, having taught so many of our riders to ride. Migs attended the regional and National RDA dressage on many occasions with some great success along the way.