Stark Dismay
Well-Known Member
Happy New Year to everyone! While I'm sitting here contemplating yet more days hunting cancelled due to excessive rain, I'm reminded of our (admittedly only slight) disappointment at the river crossings at our Marlston Ride being bone dry! I saw some photos of the same section of the River Pang the other day on Facebook, the Berks and Bucks Draghounds were riding along it. Some of the ponies were practically floating along, and even riders with larger horses were getting their feet wet. Hopefully it won't be too deep for our ride this year in May, but we also hope that it won't be dry again.
We'll be holding rides again at Marlston and Yattendon this year. It would be lovely to build on the success of our first year's rides, so if you came along to the rides in 2012 and enjoyed them, we'd love to see you again this year and bring your friends along too! We've taken on board feedback and will be doing our best to act on it - so there will be more strimming at Marlston, more jumps at Yattendon, and hopefully more water in the river Pang (although we don't actually have the power to do anything about that!)
We've finally managed to get round to finalising the 2012 accounts and publishing them. I know lots of people were interested to hear where the money raised went - after deducting the costs involved in running the rides it was found that £8223 had been raised. £8000 has been donated to local and national charities and hunting organisations that include Heads Up (Head and Neck Cancer Research,) Breast Cancer Campaign, the Stroke Association, Parkinson's UK, Crohn's and Colitis UK, the Swallowfield Calico Trust, Reading Crossroads Care, the Mark Davies Injured Riders Fund, Thames Valley and Chiltern Air Ambulance, Ebony Horse Club, Kingston Mencap, PALS Charity, Vine and Craven Hunt, Berks and Bucks Draghounds, and the Hunt Staff Benefit Society. Many of the above organisations have a special meaning for members of the Garth and South Berks Charity Club, so we are very happy to be able to give something back to them while having so much fun!
We'll also be running our quiz at Heckfield on 22nd Feb, and a fun dog show and ferret racing in Beech Hill, near Reading, on the 24th March. We'll be putting up details on our website http://www.garthandsouthberks.org/#/charities/4567966718 and also on our Facebook page, so keep checking back. Our Facebook page has some lovely letter of thanks from the charities we've donated to as well, with many of them giving more details about what each charity does, for those who are interested. If that's not your thing, don't worry, just come along to our events this year and leave the rest to us.
Hope to see lots of you this year - remember to wave at us as you go round the ride, our volunteers love to see happy riders!
We'll be holding rides again at Marlston and Yattendon this year. It would be lovely to build on the success of our first year's rides, so if you came along to the rides in 2012 and enjoyed them, we'd love to see you again this year and bring your friends along too! We've taken on board feedback and will be doing our best to act on it - so there will be more strimming at Marlston, more jumps at Yattendon, and hopefully more water in the river Pang (although we don't actually have the power to do anything about that!)
We've finally managed to get round to finalising the 2012 accounts and publishing them. I know lots of people were interested to hear where the money raised went - after deducting the costs involved in running the rides it was found that £8223 had been raised. £8000 has been donated to local and national charities and hunting organisations that include Heads Up (Head and Neck Cancer Research,) Breast Cancer Campaign, the Stroke Association, Parkinson's UK, Crohn's and Colitis UK, the Swallowfield Calico Trust, Reading Crossroads Care, the Mark Davies Injured Riders Fund, Thames Valley and Chiltern Air Ambulance, Ebony Horse Club, Kingston Mencap, PALS Charity, Vine and Craven Hunt, Berks and Bucks Draghounds, and the Hunt Staff Benefit Society. Many of the above organisations have a special meaning for members of the Garth and South Berks Charity Club, so we are very happy to be able to give something back to them while having so much fun!
We'll also be running our quiz at Heckfield on 22nd Feb, and a fun dog show and ferret racing in Beech Hill, near Reading, on the 24th March. We'll be putting up details on our website http://www.garthandsouthberks.org/#/charities/4567966718 and also on our Facebook page, so keep checking back. Our Facebook page has some lovely letter of thanks from the charities we've donated to as well, with many of them giving more details about what each charity does, for those who are interested. If that's not your thing, don't worry, just come along to our events this year and leave the rest to us.
Hope to see lots of you this year - remember to wave at us as you go round the ride, our volunteers love to see happy riders!
