e-newsletter March 2014

I may be mistaken, but it most definitely feels like spring; and how great is it to be saying that?! Af-

ter a mild start to the winter, it really took hold and hit back with vengeance. With storm after

storm and consistently wet weather, the last couple of months really couldn’t have been much

worse weather wise…..it’s certainly taken its toll on our fields. But we won’t dwell on the bad

weather, lets just enjoy the sun whilst it’s shining.

So what’s coming up in this newsletter? Well, our new instructor Maria introduces herself and

gives you all an update on what’s to come with the Pony Club.

There’s our new certificate scheme that encourages and rewards your improvement in the saddle.

Then there’s our new reward cards for both helpers and riders. Finally, as always, we thank you all

for your custom. We continue to strive to improve and be the best riding school in the area.

I hope you enjoy the rest of the newsletter.

N E W S L E T T E R D A T E V O L U M E 1 ,

…….is Spring in the air??!!

Now an Pony Club Update from Maria…...

Hello to all members and parents,

I would firstly like to start by introducing myself as the

new Pony Club instructor. I have now met most of you

but for those that I haven’t my name is Maria, and I have

been a riding instructor for the past four years since

leaving Kingston Maurward College in 2010. I previously

worked at another riding school and I ran the pony club

there. So hopefully with my experience and with the help off the rest of the South

Coast Equestrian team, we can continue to build the club, keeping things exciting,

whilst broadening your knowledge of horse care and keep you all progressing.

I am currently in the process of sorting out where everybody is achieve-

ment badge wise, and then we can put together a plan of what we aim to

cover over the next few months, during the pony club rallies. We are all

also keen to put our members through their efficiency tests. This involves

bringing in an outside examiner who will test the Pony Club’ers ability

when riding and also their knowledge of stable management. We are cov-

ering everything involved in these tests during the rallies; however, for

more info, they are all on the pony club website.

We will soon be setting a date for these to take

place but I will keep you all posted and give you

plenty of notice.

Our Pony club membership numbers are in-

creasing quickly which is fantastic! However it

may mean we would need to spilt into two ses-

sions on a Sunday; this could mean a slight time

change depending on which group you are in.

But it will definitely be on a Sunday afternoon still.

With spring and summer fast approaching we would love to see you all up

lending a hand about the yard. However please remember that if you are

helping out then your Pony Club membership must be up to date to make

sure you’re covered by insurance.

I would also like to finish off by expressing how important it is and how

much I strongly recommend that members have riding lessons in between

rallies, especially if a rally is missed. The more riding you can squeeze in

the quicker you will progress! Missing one or two sessions sometimes

can’t be helped however the gap will mean you miss out on progressing

along with the other members in your group.

Many thanks to all of the customers for making me feel so welcome, I am

really enjoying my job here at South Coast Equestrian and if anybody has

any questions regarding any of the above then feel free to ask, I am more

than happy to help.

A pat on the back for progression. It doesn’t matter what your age, we still all cherish an accomplish-

ment, a personal victory, payback for hard work. We realised that

we didn’t offer any means of formal certification and congratula-

tions for improvement in the saddle. So we’ve now started our

certification. As you can see opposite, Its based on a Bronze, Sil-

ver and Gold scheme; each certificate being awarded when cer-

tain skills are proven to our instructors. Don’t worry though,

they don’t involve jumping round a course of Olympic show-

jumps just yet, but instead achievable milestones that our cus-

tomers can set their sites on.. As soon as they arrive at SCE towers

we’ll start rewarding people with them. Hopefully you’ll think they

are a great idea. So hopefully you’ll be getting your hands on them

soon.

Just reward…….

We wanted to reward our customers not only

with great tuition, but also try to do a bit more.

So we’re launching 2 reward cards. The rider

reward card and the helper reward card. On

the back of the cards there are 12 boxes. Each

time you help for a day you will get a sticker on

the helpers card. Likewise each time you book

a lesson, you will get a sticker on the rider re-

ward card. On both cards, each time you get to

12, you will receive a gift. They will vary month

to month from free t-shirts to great discounts.

So just by doing what you already doing, you’ll

now start to get extra rewards, gifts and dis-

counts.

I hope you enjoyed reading our newsletter. We again thank you all for your con-

tinued support.

To sum up, we now want to re-focus on the Pony Club, giving it great structure so

members and parents know what’s coming up and can see real progression

through the ranks.

Also, we now want to do more to reward our customers for their loyalty and

when they make real steps to improve their riding.

We hope you all enjoy the certificates and the reward cards.

Until next time, I wish you well.

Stephen