SADDLE CLUB 2026 TERM 2 WEEK 3 NEWS

Hi Saddle Club Members!

By now, you should all be wondering where the weekly recap is and poised and ready to open your email when it arrives! If not, why not? Ideally, it will be sent by the end of the weekend, but I am notoriously chaotic so I will not promise anything.

Week 3 was a very busy day, with saddle club, short led rides, and a pony play party to round out the day. 42 people rode and 5 did pony games, and quite a few of the senior riders helped Alex to celebrate his 22nd birthday. It was a lovely reminder of how beautiful our community is.

LESSONS TODAY consisted of three exercises and built on the skills from last week. The four exercises were:

• Halt in the box. The purpose of this exercise was to have everyone prepare for and execute a halt from either a walk or a trot in a timely manner. Horses had to have all four feet inside the square on the ground and remain as straight as possible…which is very difficult for most people given we have one dominant side! Ask your riders what they found hard about this task and how they felt it went.

• Circles and turns. The course required three 5m cirlces in alternating directions and a weave through the cones. The circles in particular are hard to do correctly with momentum being maintained, and accurate execution is only possible when both riders and horses are balanced, supple, and forward moving. Chances are, your rider either had their horse fall out of a gait, increase speed, or do a reeeeeallly big circle in order to maintain his balance. The weave added the complexity of straightness after a turn.

• Pole work. Two groups of three raised poles really challenged the horses and riders. For the horse, raised poles required them to lift their legs and round their back, which means they have to use their core muscles. Our lazy equine friends were most offended by this suggestion, and offered other alternatives such as rushing through (using horizontal momentum rather than vertical), stopping at the first pole and just walking over them, or avoiding the poles altogether. For the rider, successful pole work requires extreme control within the seat (and therefore core muscles), as riders must absorb all the upwards momentum from the horse. Unsuccessful attempts have a similar feel to being double bounced on the trampoline! Steady hands and contact are a must; you must prevent the rushing and the attempted course altering. Finally, riders must look directly ahead and control the speed of the horse so that he does not fumble how many strides are in between each pole.

NON-RIDDEN WORK

Silver: Napoleon and Aurora’s feeds, groom the two ferals, lead a horse in one lesson, help to teach one lesson.

Bronze: Set up bottom arena course, make main herd feeds, fill drums and clean feed landing, clean and fill shetland’s water trough, lead in one lesson.

Purple: Make Dixie’s paddock feeds, clean Dixie trough if needed, groom the Dixie paddock ferals, lead in one lesson.

Blue: Clean and fill Violet/Fuey’s water troughs, rake rocks in that paddock into piles out of the way, help to lead in one lesson.

Red: Make Tinsel’s paddock’s feeds, clean trough in Tinsel paddock, rake rocks into piles away from feed tyres, help to lead in one lesson.

Yellow: in charge of pony feeds

Green: in charge of Tall Boys’ feeds

Fortnightly: make the oldies feeds.

All students were reminded to ensure gear and brushes was clean and tidy before they left, as well as the stable area they used!

Remember: Everyone has a file and we are happy to answer any questions from parents or students. Don’t be shy!

Reminder that all students require their OWN HELMET. This MUST be within 5 years of the manufacture date and Australian Standard. Horseland will be able to advise with this.

SNIPPETS of WEEK 3 TERM 2 below….sorry we didn’t get green group pictures! Promise to overload you all in week 4!

You can find this week’s reel here!

MEDIA CONSENT: If you are not happy for pictures of your child to appear on our Facebook page or website, please let us know. The YouTube videos can only be accessed by those who have the link, but the other media content is public.

We look forward to seeing you all again on Saturday.

Thank you for your support.

Hobart Horseplay.