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You
can read copies of all the Gossip Pages in the Stables Office. This
page contains copies of the 'Gossip Columns' from our Special Annual
Events in 2009. Please remember that all the Gossip is written
by Clyde the Horse!
Our
Annual Charity Ball 2010
Our Annual Summer Horse Show
2009
Our Annual Members
Show 2009
Our Annual
Awards Party 2009
Our
Annual Sponsored Ride 2009
Here I am with Jo, all spruced up for the
Condition &Turnout class - don't you think I
should get extra points for bowing to the judge? |
September 2009
There has been so much
going on here over the summer it is really
difficult to know where to start. Well, they
say a picture is worth a thousand words and
I am sure you will agree when you check out
the pictures taken at the Members Show, and
at the barbeque afterwards.
See all the photos on
Peter Cox's website.
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This is Rosie
with rider Alex receiving the 1st place rosette.
Rosie had such fun with both her owners Alex and
Charles. |
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Check out this action
photo
of Snoopy & Olivia winning
the Intermediate jumping class,
who also won Small Working Hunter class.
Hazy thoroughly enjoying
all the attention from staff
members Jennifer and Lisa.
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Benji paying due
attention
to the excellent display of
riding from Teddy and owner
AmandaFearsome judges -
Pat and Linda in deep discussion.
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Casper being rewarded
with a
polo by Carol after coming 2nd
in the Novice jumping, Large Riding
Horse with owner Jess and they also
won rosettes in Condition and Turnout
and Best Rider.
Rolo and Deborah who
did so well they were Joint
Champions of the Day,
having won rosettes in many
classes and won Best Rider section 2.
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Wow, just
look at Patrick jumping with Donna on board,
what a star!
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Spectators
& supporters enjoying a really super day. |
Cookie and Briony receiving a last minute tip
from Jenny, or is that a polo treat? |
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Jazz's
first show -
she and Jennifer
are looking good!
New horse Molly looking
keen to take part -
looking forward to doing
so with owner Liz.
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Mario is
really enjoying the jumping course with
Maria riding
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Hazy & Tash, Clyde & Sheena and Dora & Lucy
watching the action while they also wait to take
part. |
Inky is as keen as ever to strut his stuff over
the jumps with Daniel riding |
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What a photo! The winners
of the
Novice jumping, Louis & Lucy
powering home. As they also won
the Small Riding Horse class they
were Joint Champions of the Day.
Emerald and owner Katie
looking
proud after winning the Condition
& Turnout Livery class and coming
second in best rider class - not bad
for their first show together! A huge thank you
to Mark White of
ESM
Driving School for very generously sponsoring the Championship
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As you can see everyone who was
there had an excellent day. Many
riders were taking part in their
first show, Charchi did brilliantly
winning rosettes in working hunter,
riding horse and best rider. Kerry
was thrilled that she and Sophie won
both Best Rider and Riding Horse
classes. Alice just knows that the
all the time her rider Fiona spent
washing, polishing and cleaning were
so well spent because she and her
tack just shone and they were the
worthy winners of the Condition and
Turnout class. Dollar did
brilliantly, with Rosie in the
saddle, to win the Large Working
Hunter class. I tell you, by the end
of the day we were all happy but
exhausted and when the barbeque
started it was as much as we could
do to keep an eye open so that we
could tell you what happened. |
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First notable thing, of course, was how
much we missed our lovely Claire - who is
off on holiday around South East Asia (what
kind of horses do they have there and why
does she want to see them rather than stay
here with us?). Well we certainly miss her
and never is it more noticeable than when it
is barbeque time. Normally Claire just
wanders out and sorts the whole thing and
nobody needs to worry... Well, last Tuesday,
Carol was looking for the barbeque tools
while Rod sorted out the coals and got the
fire started, Ross did the cooking
(brilliantly I am reliably told) and Marian
and Lisa were standby cooks. Is that really
5 people to replace Claire at a barbeque??
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Although Saturday 20th June was the "Big Day" for
the Wimbledon Village Show, believe me the show
preparations start well before that. For at least a
week beforehand the famous WVS Beauty Clinic is open
all hours for coat clipping, mane and tail pulling,
bath and shampoo treatments and all the ancillary
bits and pieces that make every one of us look such
a credit to our owners, riders and carers. Of
course, none of the titivating would make a jot of
difference if we did not have an excellent diet to
make our coats shine and the right type and amount
of exercise of keep us as well muscled and fit
looking as we all do. So a big thank you to all the
staff for getting us off to a flying start in the
competition stakes
DORA and Rose did really well in Handy
Horse/Pony and Pony Club Pony classes and then came
3rd with Emilia in the Leading Rein Best Rider class
and 4th in the Pairs class with Lucy riding her.
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Now I have nothing against a hot summer day with the
sun blazing out of a bright blue sky - provided of
course you are not planning to work hard - so the
weather on Saturday was just perfect, not too hot,
with a bit of cloud cover and the occasional
sprinkle to keep the dust settled. Crossed fetlocks
the night before had paid off!
ROLO was Reserve Champion with owner Olivia on
board, having come joint first in the Novice jumping
with Deborah, first in the Riding Club Pony with
Olivia and 4th in the Pairs when she and Deborah
were paired with Dora and Lucy. |
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On the morning of the show the yard is always
buzzing with owners, riders and staff doing all the
last minute stuff, like mane and tail plaiting. Some
of us had entire teams working on us - made one feel
like a Formula 1 car, only better, of course,
because cars don't feel pride in themselves or
gratitude for all the attention they get the way we
horses do. WE just love it and the opportunity to
ride around on a part of Wimbledon Common that is
normally off limits is such a treat and very
exciting too.
DOLLAR also achieved an excellent joint first in the
novice with Maria, whilst with Rosie he was placed
4th in both Best Senior Rider and Riding Club Horse
and thoroughly enjoyed himself too. |
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Champion of the Day, CHLOE owned by Angela and ridden
by Katie. Well done!
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LOUIS, meantime, bagged 1st place in the Handy Horse/Pony
class with Lucy and together they did well in the
Pairs with SNOOPY and Olivia. |
SNOOPY and Olivia also did Handy Horse/Pony
and jumped a wonderful novice class into joint lst
place.
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COOKIE won 1st place in Junior Condition & Turnout with
Esmee who also rode her in Best Rider under 11, then she
took Sophie, who was entering her first show, into
the Best Lead Rein Rider class. Excellent day for
Cookie and her two riders. |
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ROSIE too had a good day with Alexandra in Junior
Condition & Turnout , coming 2nd with Charles in
Leading Rein Best Rider and with both Alexandra and
Charles in Family Horse/Pony, great fun for all of
them.
For INKERMAN, known as The Captain, going to the show
has been an annual treat show since he arrived at
WVS 14 years ago. This year was no exception and he
was thrilled to come 2nd in the Family Horse/Pony
class with Jasmine, Natasha, Fiona and Emilia. |
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ROCKY is once again staying at WVS on a city break from
his home in Wales and just loves it when his stay coincides
with the Show - as do his owners Sarah and Sheena. He was
one of the joint first placed in the Novice jumping and
enthusiastic entrant to Top Score. Great to see him here
again.
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OPHELIA and her owner Susan entered the show
together for the very first time and WOW came 2nd in
Condition & Turnout, so well deserved as Susan makes
every effort to get into the stables as often as she
can to groom the lovely Ophelia herself. Ophelia was
clearly on excellent form as she and Joanna turned
in a brilliant turn of hoof to come 1st in Best
Senior Rider and also won the Coloured Horse Class.
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KERRY had great fun with owner Kate proudly
supporting her. She came 3rd with Natasha in
both Best Jnr. Rider and Snr. Condition &
Turnout
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TJ and
his owner Liz looked superb and thoroughly justified their 2nd place in
Coloured Horse and performed well to come 6th In Top Score
with Donna.
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ALICE was delighted to neigh that she had a lovely day
with Jasmine in the Best Junior Rider over 11 class, Fiona
in the Condition & Turnout and Katie in the Coloured Horse
classes. Having had such a good time last year with Marion,
Alice was upset that jumping was off her agenda, but PATRICK
was delighted to step up to the plate - at least until he
realised that he had to undergo the tail plaiting regime!
Once he got onto the Common he turned into Tigger, he was so
excited he kept pawing the ground, wanting to eat but too
excited to do so. For his first show and a new partnership
they did really well, shame about demolishing the timing
equipment but at least they didn't part company - well done
both of you! |
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Now, I am not neighing that I have left the best 'til
last but I do think it is very important to record that when
it came to the Show Champion of Champions event, all four of
the entries were from Wimbledon and staff member Jo had won
the right to be there twice over! OK guys this is it - ROLO
was Reserve Champion with owner Olivia on board, CHLOE
really justified her stable nickname - Princess Chloe - when
she was crowned the Champion of Champions for the entire
day. She and Katie had had a magical day
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The Staff MUSICAL RIDE was, as always, a major highlight
of the show. The horses were perfectly matched pairs with
the bays, Rolo and Pod ridden by Sarah and Sasha leading;
the greys, Casper and Chloe ridden by Jenny and Joanne; the
blacks, Louis and Rocky with Maria and Donna on board and
finally the coloureds Alice and Kerry ridden by Kirsty and
Claire. Inspirational choreography by Carol made it into one
of the best displays ever. The crowd loved it and no one
could possibly have known that Sasha only arrived back from
uni on Saturday morning and had had no practice. Fortunately
she and Pod are such a brilliant team together and both well
tuned into their partners Rolo and Sarah! |
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Well, you might think that that was all, but no way! Of
course we horses all had to be untacked, brushed down, fed
and watered properly before the staff, owners and riders
could do that magical rotating door trick they have when the
leave looking like horse riders and come back scrubbed up
and looking stellar. The evening stables bar-b-que was a
wonderful success with The Mariachi band entertaining
everybody. Wine and beer flowed and the food was delicious.
Thanks to Dawn for the scrummy sausages and Susan for the
classy burgers, all perfectly cooked by Claire and Adrian.
I am exhausted just thinking about it all, but hope every
one of you had a great day and enjoyed yourselves as much as
we horses did. Rosettes are being proudly displayed both at
the stables and - I hope - in riders' homes too.
WVS Charity Ball 6th March 2010
Wow - what a fantastic evening...superbly
organised and such great fun. I am suffering for it today but I loved
every minute. The food was great, I drank lots, everyone was so
friendly, I loved having my hair done, the DJ/music was great. and I had
my photo taken and went into the booth....... it was all totally,
totally brilliant...best night out in ages!! I bought a strip of
tickets but didn't win and didn't really care....I wouldn't have known
what to grab anyway...but I hope you raised lots and lots....
Anna, Memory Box Productions
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Over 180
partygoers danced until the early hours on Saturday 6th
March at the WVS Annual Charity Ball and once again Jeff Ward
and his team at the Cannizaro Hotel impressed us with
their cheerful, friendly service, amazing food and faultless
delivery. Special thanks also to Emma Dallaway for taking care
of us so well.
Was it our
imagination or did everyone look even more glamorous this year?
Certainly the photographs taken by our Photographer,
Graham Holland
seem to support this view. |
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A lot of fun was had by all in the amazing
Photobooth and you can see from the photos here what some people got up
to but you can also take a look at the
Boothnation
website to see all the
proofs. We are very grateful to Sara Ter Haar for sponsoring both the
Photobooth and the Powderpuff girls who were on hand during most of the
evening to adjust hair and make-up for the girls… and a few of the men
too!
We are indebted to all our generous sponsors:
Quinton Scott, Susan Poole, Yara Lasytsya, Flying Change TV, Hilary
Boden, Simple Systems.
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The Dressage
presentation took place after dinner and a delighted Amanda
Imregi learnt that she and Teddy had won the Walk Trot test
while the winner of the Vivien Colyer Dressage Trophy was Angela
Stewart with Chloe. |
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Then the famous WVS Raffle took place and
we would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who donated such
marvellous raffle prizes this year which included a Donna Karan
Collection Scarf (Donna Karan), Stay at the Cannizaro House (Cannizaro
House), a Pet Portrait (Susan Poole), designer Hat (Jackie King of Hat
Chic), £100 Voucher (Robert Holmes), Waterford Crystal (Lynda Dawson) as
well as many others too numerous to list.
Then our MC,
Bill Bottriel, went into action, pushing up the bids for the
three fabulous auction prizes.
Our top prize – a days Charter for 6
people on the 60 ft luxury sailing cruiser, 'Osprey of Hamble'
(courtesy of Nick and Amanda Imregi) – went for £5,600!,
Wimbledon Tickets (courtesy of Bill Bottriel) went for £1,100
and a signed Rugby Shirt (John and Jackie King) went for £280. |
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This took the total amount raised in the
evening to over £12,000. A really terrific amount to donate to
the very worthwhile work of the Royal Marsden Hospital.
The ball was such a
resounding success that we have already booked the date for next year –
5th March 2011 – so put it in your diary now!
RESULTS OF DRESSAGE CHALLENGE
MARCH 2010
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1ST |
Angela and Chloe |
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2ND |
Deborah and Rolo |
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3RD |
Sara and Guinness |
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4TH |
Nicola and Guinness |
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5TH |
Lucy and Dora |
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6TH |
Marian and Alice |
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September 22nd, the Autumn Equinox, a
phrase to conjure with and a phase of the year that most
of us horses love, with its cool mornings, perhaps with
a little early morning mist disappearing as the sun
gains strength and filters through the leaves turning
colour on trees of the Common and making it a really
magical place to be strutting our stuff each day.
Sasha and Vickie |
Martin, Susan and Charles |
Rosie, Tash, Nadia and Olivia |
It is also the time of the year when schools and
universities restart and the Stables welcomes all the
riders back from their summer breaks with a fun Awards
party at the super San Lorenzo restaurant where Ghigo
and his team provide a wonderful welcome and delicious
food. This year we had a visit from the charismatic
President of the BHS, Desi Dillingham MBE. A lady who
knows her priorities so came to the stables to meet us
horses first.
Sophie, Angela and Julie |
Caroline on the mike |
Claire with Desi |
Yara's moment! |
What a lovely lady she is too, made quite a fuss of
us all, saw how well looked after we were and apparently
declared us all to be living on "Equine Easy Street"!
Not sure I entirely agree with that! I mean, we like to
think of ourselves as putting in a fair day's work,
enjoyable as our hacking and schooling sessions are, and
we make a huge contribution to the happiness and well
being of our lovely owners and riders in return for all
the cleaning of the yard and our stables, delicious food
provided three times a day and daily grooming and
pampering we receive!
Pippa and Jo |
Jess and Desi |
Prizewinner, Lucy |
Briony, Dave and Amanda |
Just as well we have friends like Natasha, who won
the Helper of the Year Award, and Gillian who always
brings a bag full of apples - enough for every single
horse here, voted the person we horses would most like
to take home with us!
Briony and Desi |
Nicolas and Sophie |
Amanda and Finn |
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Livery
of the Year winner was Susan, who owns a very
proud and delighted Ophelia. Ophelia tells us
that her mum makes every effort to come in and
groom her personally whenever she can and has
attended lots of the courses available at the
stables to learn more about horse care and
welfare. Casper's owner Jess was voted cake
maker of the year which, judging by the "oohs
and aahs" whenever she arrives in the early
morning with a basket of something sweet
smelling was a really big "thank-you" from the
grateful staff.
Susan
receives her rosette from Donna |
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Equine hearts all a-flutter as we
approach both big days for our
Annual Sponsored Rides, when we make
our major contribution to the Royal
Marsden Hospital. It really is a big
deal for us, and we appreciate the
effort our riders go to, to raise
money for the charity, to make us
look smart for these special
occasions and to those who dress
especially for the Condition &
Turnout and the Fancy Dress. |
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This year the weather was just
fantastic - something called an
Indian Summer - meant we had bright
blue skies and sunshine to show off
both Wimbledon Common and Richmond
Park in splendid autumn colour, just
could not have been more perfect for
our wonderful photographer Peter Cox
to take some stunning photographs
which you can see on his website.
Peter Cox Photography.
Before we set out on Sunday there
were one or two memorable events,
Lisa adjusting the WVS clock to
daylight saving time with a shovel,
usually used for mucking out...
Harriet and Millie arriving feeling
somewhat fussed after a spectacular
33 point parking manoeuvre by
Chrissy, all because the door to the
van was on the wrong side for the
parking wall in the passage... So
good to see these friends of ours
who had made the trip up from Manor
Farm to join us for the day.
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Special mention must be made of
Sandra who turned up early and
groomed me to perfection, both
before and after my special clip.
I've not done condition and turnout
before for the Sponsored Ride so I
had my fetlock tightly crossed and
thought our chances were excellent
because Sandra looked so smart in
her outfit too. However, at the last
minute I was taken over by Sharard,
Highwayman for the day. Hazy looked
really smart too so Sandra won the
C&T, closely followed by Rosie who
had also been working hard all
morning and had plaited Winnie
beautifully. On Tuesday the Condition &Turnout
winner was Katie on Emerald - almost
perfect- lovely shiny hooves, even
the underside of her boots and
stirrup treads were clean but the
judges found a green spot on her
nose!! |
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In the Fancy Dress we had a
brilliant line up on both days.
Cookie and Fiona with their "L"
plates, Fiona and Maddy in PJs on
Alice and Inky, and Yara looking
superb in scarlet jacket on Patrick
who felt he had been born to be a
Mountie's mount, whilst Rolo was
less inclined to believe that she
and her mum were destined to be
pumpkins! 4th place was really hard
fought with, on Sunday, Horse and
Hound (Teddy & Donna) and Scarlet
Pimpernel (Claire & Bamboo) earning
points for the sheer nerve of going
around the course, on Tuesday Linda
and Hazy were Teacher's pet, covered
with pictures of Caroline and
bringing in cakes and homework!
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3rd place on Sunday was my wonderful
bewigged and scary highwayman,
Sharard. Can't help thinking that my
reputation for mugging any client
with polos really helped here!
Whilst on Tuesday Lucy and Olivia as
Tigger and Pooh were brilliant on
Kerry and Snoopy. 2nd on Tuesday was
Sophie on Mario with a really
imaginative breast cancer symbol
outfit, including bright pink tights
and the symbol on her back and hat.
On Sunday Mario was second too -
with his mum on board dressed as a
rock chick wearing punk make-up and
jewellery and Mario himself dressed
up with a skull and crossbones
saddle cloth and fabulous medallion.
Well now - who came first? |
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On Sunday a splendid effort had been
made in plaiting Dora with lovely
pink ribbons and decorating her
bridle to match her rider's
wonderful fairy outfit and pink
jodhpurs - who would have thought
that? So first prize to Jennifer on
Sunday. On Tuesday in yet another
fantastic outfit that she has
designed and sewn herself, Maria
appeared as a fairy in a
delightfully pretty dress that fell
perfectly over Cookie's quarters.
Both such well deserved 1st place
winners! |
The most important part, of course, is
the magnificent amount of money that we have
managed to raise for the Royal Marsden
Hospital. This year particularly our
thoughts will be with Fiona and her mother
who is currently receiving treatment in the
Royal Marsden. Her mum will be proud to know
that Fiona was the highest fund raiser on
Tuesday. The total raised will be in excess
of £10,000 and every single one of us
make this donation with hope in our hearts
that it will make a significant difference
for everyone affected by cancer.
Thank you for your help and contribution
to our annual Sponsored Ride and look
forward to seeing you down at WVS soon
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