January 19th 

There's lots going on  - clinics are all in the diary - see the Whats On page. Don't forget we have arranged a chance for you to have your saddles microchipped at Street Farm on Jan 28th 2pm. Contact Wendy Neath for more info. Police who do recover stolen saddles report how difficult it is to identify them, and most of us have saddles where we have struggled to find the perfect one. Click here for info

Here is the link to find out more about our ever popular quiz night on Feb 18th. Sue Stewart is your contact for thisAlso here you can read about our SJ team at Ardingly in December.

We'd like to welcome some new committee members. Jan Barlow will be in charge of sponsorship /PR / advertising. As our highest fundraiser at the last Ride for Life we expect great things! Sarah Leggat has already made a good start on sending out our newsletter, and Neil Boorman has joined us to advise on SJ. Its great to have fresh ideas!

Your website editor is now updating you with some reports and news that slipped through the net last autumn, and although they are now out of date they are still worth a look. Click here to read about Wendy Thomas's wonderful day at the BRC BE80 Champs, and on this link a report from Sophie on her fantastic day at BRC National Open Horse Trials. And even more belatedly - a report on our CT show last August at Otterden here

January 7th

We wish all of you a fun and sucessful year in 2012. Already there are plenty of clinics and social events lined up - check them out on the Whats On page. In a couple of weeks time you have the chance to have your saddle microchipped - all details on Whats On . Back by popular request are a Curry Night and later in February our Quiz night.  And of course ongoing training at Duckhurst and Street Farm, including Dressage Test Training Day - details soon on diary page. See you all soon!

December 4th

Trophies and awards made at the AGM can be seen by following this link

Area 10 WInter Dressage & Sj qualifiers happened this weekend at Ardingly. Our SJ team acquitted themselves respectably but won't be going to the Nationals this year having been placed 6th. Our Prelim dressage team were not placed and we await Novice team results.

November 27th

Apologies for the long break in news - most members will be aware that your website editor had a bad fall in October, but normal service is now resuming. Since the last update our Intermediate team at FOTH challenge won their section very convincingly  at Lodge Farm , and will head to the Nationals next spring. This is an eventers challenge with SJ followed immediately by XC - great fun!.

Last week was the clubs AGM - a list of trophy winners will be posted here shortly

TEAM NEWS - hat tagging will be compulory next year, and will be optional at the winter qualifiers at Ardingly next weekend. Click on this link to check if your hat meets the standard

Sept 21st

We've recently added several items / services to the Classified section from livery at favourite MDRC venues to horses and tack being sold by members - take a look. Remember - this service is free to you as members!

Sept 13th

MAIDSTONE GOES NATIONAL!

As you see from the long gap in these reports it has been a busy summer all round. The highlight of Area Qualifiers was the Intermediate SJ team of Natalie Harrison, Lucy Field, Mel Jones & Jenny Hutchinson winning at Felgate. They will be representing us at Lincoln next weekend. Also on Sunday one of our oldest members [ and I mean this in all senses!] Dot Taylor is competing at BD National Dressage Championships at Stoneleigh in the Advanced Medium, having gone through on a wild card. Please keep all your fingers crossed for our SJ team on Saturday and for Dot at 8.05 on Sunday. For those who don't know Dot - she has been a longstanding member and supporter, and also lets us ride through her land for the Pink Ride - and she is now the wrong side of 70 - or perhaps the right side! She is my role model anyway.

We can also report that Wendy Thomas having won her BE80 section at Chilham has qualified for the BE80 championships in Leicestershire and will represent us there as an individual And there's more - Karen Newman has qualified ODIN in the Search for a Star competition and is now preparing for her Horse of the Year Show debut!  Meanwhile Clare Reynolds was one of the winning pair at Level 3 at the GB National TREC Championships  held 2 weeks ago on Dartmoor.                                                                                               All of these members got where they did by hard graft and training on horses they produced themselves so it can be done,

Good luck and well done to you all

We held a Combined Traing show at a new venue - Otterden Place - and by all accounts those of you who went loved it, so we hope to go back next year. On a less equstrian note - 3 members including your website editor took part in the hard bit of the Bike & Curry evening  - but strange to report 10 more rolled up for the curry and beer!                                   

On a sadder note we send sympathies to our chairman Jo who lost her horse Connie not long after she wrote her report on the test training day.

Don't forget to check out the Classified ads page - which will be updated regularly.

July 2nd

Our first evening dressage on June 7th was a relaxed and sociable chance to round off your day with your horse and friends from the club. We'd like more entries for the forthcoming evening on Thursday July 7th which is in danger of being cancelled - email Wendy if you want to do a late entry,

The schedule for this years Ride for Life on Sept 24th is now on a link from the Ride for Life page.

We'd also like to ask for help for stewarding on this day - it's always fun to see the amazing outfits the riders dream up, and any help whether for a couple of hours or all day is alays much appreciated. And you can always try to outpink them!  Contact Wendy Neath to offer!

Meanwhile various members are out there training hard for all the Area Teams competitions coming up this month: HT 10/7, Dressage 24/7, SJ 30/7.

May 20th

If you are thinking of taking part in further dressage test training days, perhaps Jo's report here will encourage you! We have arranged 2 more sessions including 1 for Riding Test training which will also help with your dressage tests. Dates are on the diary section, and schedules are on Schedule page. Also there is another date for evening Quadrille on Jul;y 14th as some of last nights first timers seemed to have a good time and want to do more - come and join us - almost anyone can take part

May 15th

Yesterday saw yet another fine day for our members Dressage show. We had a new judge Lynne Southwood who emailed later to say how she had enjoyed judging so many people who were trying hard and enjoying themselves at the same time.

We also held a Test training evening with Leanne Wall which though not as full as we'd like was very beneficial to those who took part.

And we don't just do dressage - last week 11 of us met for a curry and a natter. And today lots of members were out at Chilham ODE . If any of you were placed let us know so we can tell other members!

April 29th

A very happy birthday to our wonderful treasurer Diana who passed a significant milestone yesterday! Treasurers are the unsung heroes of a committee - you only notice when it goes wrong - but it never does with Diana so thanks from all of us

Last week on Easter Friday we had one of those days which is what a riding club is all about - our Fun SJ day was just that  - fun. Thank you all you members who came, jumped / helped / cheered. And the sun shone too! For results click here

An update on club clothing - please direct all enquiries to Wendy Neath.

We'd like to draw your attention to an Area 10 Training event next weekend for which guinea pig riders are wanted. The training is both Saturday & Sunday and is for BRC judges / assessors. For RC members it is a chance - at no cost - to practice riding tests and style jumping, and receive useful feed back. It's being held at Bilsington - more details on www.brcarea10.org.uk  or call Sharon Kelsall on 01303 813089.

It's well worth keepig an eye on this website as there are a number of training oppertunities open to you all as BRC members

April 18th

We hope you are all enjoying the wonderful weather but please let it rain soon or we will have another winter of hay shortages not to mention sore horses!

To read a competitors view of taking part in the Test Training day for the first time click here and to read more about our team at Hartpury click here.

Rather belatedly we have added a report on an outing for 6 of us who went for a lesson on a dressgae horse simulator - a wonderful experience. Read all about it here

We now have a confirmed date for this years Ride for Life. It's on Saturday Sept 24th with a new start venue at Tillman Gate Farm, just opposite the Pepperbox pub. The route is likely to be similar to last years which has proved to be so enjoyable. Schedules should be available soon on the Ride for Life page

April10th

Our first dressage show of the year was blessed with wonderful weather and a really good turnout  - all 5 classes were won by our own members so well done to you all! You can check out  the results here or on the Results page. A plea from Street Farm - please do pick up your horses droppings on our fields - you should do this automatically at any venue anyway out of courtesy to those who run events!

April 4th

A good time was had by all in the wild west of Gloucestershire at Hartpury this weekend.  A report follows shortly here. Although the team came home without rosettes they all did us proud over courses that were rather more demanding than anticipated!

Schedules for the Easter Friday Fun SJ show at Street Farm are now on the Schedules page - apologies for the lateness - they slipped through your editors memory!

March 22nd

Our Show jumping team members had a good practice outing at Hadlow on Sunday so it's all looking good for Hartpury next weekend April 2nd. This weekend sees our first dressage training day of the year which was full some time ago. If you want to do the May date then get your entries in soon!

A good time was had by many members, their dogs & horses down at Camber  a couple of weeks ago - photos will be on line soon

March 1st

Schedules are now available for our 2 evening dressage shows on the Schedule page. These are an experiment so please come along. For each date there is a mixed class from Walk & trot to Novice. Tell us on the entry form what times you can make and we will run the class in the order that fits as many of you in as possible. You may enter more than 1 test. We do not expect you to plait & wear show clother [ although you can if you want] but please be smartly turned out - for example in a plain waistcoat, plain polo shirt and either show breeches or at least dark ones. No spots & stars please!

February 24th 2011

We now have club fleeces to order from Jo Cottee. For more info click here

February 21st 2011

Team training for our indoor SJ team got off to a shaky start at Hadlow yesterday with one rider hitting the deck rather hard - get better soon Karen - but hopefully things will improve.

The Test Training Day on March 26th is now full but a waiting list will be kept, and we are hoping to fit in another half day shortly after if needed to fit you all in so please keep an eye on this space.

A plea from those of us running events  -  to make our life easier please send 1 cheque for each event for each horse. This makes our accounting so much easier, and if you have to miss one event we don't have to send you a cheque to re-imburse you. And unless the schedule states otherwise cheques are payable to MDRC

February 14th 2011

We hope you all enjoyed another fun evening at our Quiz last Saturday - thanks again to Bill & Carol Wallace for running this for us for the third time. Well done to the Chicken Run team who won hands down.

Also this weekend we ran a Valentines Quadrille from scratch, and just about stayed dry. If you have never done one of these contact Wendy Neath for more info.

Schedule for an evening Dressage Test Training with Leanne Wall on Friday May 6th are now available on the Schedules page. Another addition is a link to info on TREC training at Anchor Farm run by Anne Rillie.

Some of our Novice SJ team will be in action at Hadlow College this Sunday - we wish them luck in their build up training.

February 10th 2011

Schedules for the first 2 MDRC Dressage shows to be held at Street Farm, Burham are now available online via the Schedules page. These shows are open to non-members but only MDRC people can gain points towards our overall Dressage Championships. New for this year is an invitation to our colleagues at Tickham Hunt Pony Club, and there is a special rosette for the highest placed THPC member in each class

We are still exploring options for another venue for a 3rd show, ideally with the possibility of running Combined Training - if any of you out there have any thoughts pleaselet us know!

It's been good to have such a run of reasonable weather after the trials of December. There were a few 'jolly' horses at some traing sessions! [My thanks to Sue Stewart & Connie for that expression which is a great new way of describing a horse which keeps trying to buck you off!]

Our dressage teams did well at Area 10 qualifier at Ardingly, despite having so many of us drop out due mostly to post weather related syndrome ie lack of work / flu vacs missed due to snow bound yards. There were several placings and the Senior team came 5th - well done to you all. Read more about it here

Also on the team front - training has started in earnest for our Novice Indoor show jumpers who are heading to the Winter Champs at Hartpury in April. They are having practice runs at Hadlow on Feb 20th and March 20th - come along and cheer them if you are free.

And it's not to soon to think about your team ambitions - if you want to know more please contact the relevant committee member - check the Contact Us page. We'd really love to see more of you in teams - it's fun and there is room for all who are prepared to work & improve. At the worst we will ask you to come back next year, and give you some hints on what to do and where to compete to get that extra experience.

One of our aims for this year is to build on that winning feeling -make it yours too and  come & join us!

See you at the quiz next weekend.

January 11th 2011

No doubt you are all glad to see the back of the snow which decimated our December plans, and judging from the high spirits on some training sessions so are our horses! This weekend sees the first Area 10 competition of 2011 - Teams Dressage at Ardingly. We are sending 1 senior and 1 junior team, and wish them luck and good weather too!

There are plenty of training opportunities already in the diary so check out the Whats On page.

Don't miss the clubs Wine & Wisdom Quiz on February 12th - all details on Whats On page. This event is more fun every year with Bill Wallace's blend of humour and fun in setting the questions. And this year we WILL have the heating working....

Also that weekend is a Valentines Fun Quadrille, which hopefully will not be snowed off.

Roll on spring....

WIN FOR MAIDSTONE!

Congratulations to our so - called young hopefuls [ie under 50!] Novice SJ team who yesterday won the Area 10 qualifier at Duckhurst. On the team were Michelle Yeo, Jo Mooney, Karen Newman and Alex Taskin. We also fielded another team who all acquitted themselves well too. On this team were Sarah Leggatt, Brenda Hawkes, Hilary Moon and Wendy Neath. Indoor Teams is always a long day and this was no exception, starting for some of us with a half hour wait out on the road until the junior teams vacated the box park! The first team all had a good first round with Alex being unlucky to roll 1 pole. With best 3 scores to count this meant zero faults carried forward. Our second team clocked 2 clears and 2 with faults. Unfortunately there was a nasty fall for one of the Warlingham riders, and it was well over an hour later before she was stable enought to be taken to hospital. With time not on our side the second team decided not to go forward to the next round but some of us stayed to cheer on the others. Only 1 other team [Sevenoaks] had taken a zero score forward, and luckily for our nerves we had not taken note of the fact that they had already jumped before our girls, and had clocked a score of 4 faults. So as it turned out all we had to do [!] was jump 3 clears with 1 discard score to win without even a jump off....Michelle got the team off to a flying start with another clear. Jo's horse jumped his socks off but just dropped the penultimate jump, Karen flew round for her second clear leaving Alex with the pressure of going last. She rose to the occasion and posted a lovely clear, whereupon the stewards announced that with 6 teams still to jump our team had won!

The BRC Winter National Championships are held in April at Hartpury, so we will be looking forward to cheering them on there.

November 14th 2010

Some more intrepid members braved the weather and went down to Camber beach with assorted horses & dogs today - read about it here

The Clubs AGM was held on Friday November12th at Boughton Monchelsea school, and was well attended. You can read our Chairmans report which may remind you of the many events which ran this year  - both on and off our horses! We welcomed 3 new committee members: Natalie Harrison, Mel Jones and Lucy Field, and said a big thank you to Marion Bush who is coming off the committee to concentrate on her own young horse, and to have a break from running SJ teams and assisting Karen with dressage shows.

Trophies were awarded as follows:

Mr Gingham Trophy to the best team all rounder                                                                                                      Jennie Hutchinson 

Black Rearing Horse to a non member in recognition to services to the club                                                                   Bill and Carol Wallace

 Brishing Challenge Cup to the junior member in recognition to services to the junior teams                                           Laria Collister 

Leybourne Horse to the most improved SJ combination                                                                                                Alex Taskin 

Wooden Mare and Foal to a none committee member who has been the most helpful at our riding club functions        Justin Byrd 

“Silver Horse” Trophy to the committee member who has given exceptional services to the club                                 Karen Newman

We then enjoyed a fascinating talk from Dr. Julia Muehnich, equine chiropractor  who some us knew in her former capacity as a vet. There was certainly food for thought for all of us in our attemts to keep us and our horses sound and on the road.

November 12th 2010

We have added in some festive events for you - on Sat 11th December there is a Christmas Musical Ride  - details on Diary page. Hurry - it's nearly full....

Then on Saturday 18th December we have Jingles Jumping at Street Farm. This is a low key fun event with limited numbers but no limit to the fun. - for details click here.

And if you get up in time next year you can join us for  a New Years Day Ride again from Street Farm! Details are on the Diary page.

November 3rd 2010

Its been a busy season for the club so here's a summary of the last few months... we had another successful Dressage & Combined tRaining Show at Manor Farm on Sept 4th - if you want to see the results go to Results page & follow the link. This was the last show counting towards the Dressage Points Championship so the results are being fed into Mel's PC and will be announced at the Club AGM on Nov 12th [ details of time & venue on Diary page].

The next big day was Sunday Sept 19th, our 2nd Ride for Life - Pink Ride, with even more riders this year - over 100. We raised over £5000 for Cancer Research - not quite as much as last year but still a magnificent effort. Our thanks to all our fantastic helpers, sponsors and landowners who make it all possible.

On October 10th we sent a team to the Festival of the Horse Challenge at Lodge Farm Matfield. This is an RC eventers challenge type competition for individual, pairs and teams qualifying for a final next year. It was seriously good fun and it would be good to have more members involved next time. Well done to those of you who took part.

We sent a Horse Trials Teams to London & SE Novice Championships at Ardingly on October 16th, and they did well to finish 8th. Well done to Michelle Yeo, Lizzie Burden, Lucy Field and Melanie Jones.

Last weekend was Halloween, and after last years attempts being rained off we finally managed to run another Quadrille from scratch - Witches & Demons! Read a report from one of our new and intrepid members here.

Area 10 Novice Indoor Qualifier is to be held on November 20th at Duckhust - if you'd like to come and support us then please contact Wendy Neath for more info

July 22nd 2010

Its been another busy weekend for club members. Our team at Kent Count Show jumped well - but not quite well enough to win this time. Maybe they felt it was unfair for Maidstone to win 3 times running...They came 7th of 13 teams so well done to Jo Cottee, Mel Jones and Jenny Hutchinson.

The Area 10 dressage held at Speedgate saw us fielding several teams with some excellent results..but still not quite any winners! 3 teams came 2nd, and several people surpassed their own expectations. For more details go to Results page.

We have an update on our Dressage Points Championship if you want to know how you are doing.

And finally a plea for help with our Ride for Life on September 19th- please contact Wendy Neath if you are free for a few hours.

July 4th 2010

Summer is well under way now - we seem to have gone from winter to high summer in one go with hard ground already an issue for some.

A new venture for the club was a weekend camp at Coldblow Farm on the hottest weekend of the year so far! Grat fun was had by all, and Kate is already planning next year. Our thanks to her for all the work she put in to this. One of our happy campers has written her account - check it out on Camp report.

On another hot day a few of us ventured out into the woods for one of our Club Social rides - read about it here

We have run teams at the Area 10 qualifiers in SJ at Felbridge,and Horse Trials at Borde Hill. Congratulations to our Open Horse Trials team who had a clean sweep of individual placings and so have qualified to go to the Nationals at Aston in August - we wish them luck. Read all about by clicking here.

Today was the third of our Dressage / combined Training shows attended by a good number of members and guests - results will be posted as soon as possible.

Our second Pink Ride wil take place on September 19th - schedules are now to be found on the Ride For Life page. Come along and lets try to raise even more for Cancer Research than last years total of over £5000. Even if you can't ride for whatever reason we do need stewards so please offer your help. Non - horsy assistants are also welcome, and we  offer a prize for the pinkest helper!

June 2nd  2010

We are well into the spring / summer season now, and at last the weather does finally seem to be on our side.

Our third dressage show ran well, and you will find the results on the results page.

We have a plea from the committee members who manage the various teams - please come forward and make yourselves known if you are interested . Details of who runs which teams are on the Contact us page, or if you check the diary you will find more info

May 2nd 2010

Rain at last! At least a chance to stay in and dry and watch Badminton XC day if you had nothing else planned...and think about the ground softening up at last.

Its been a busy month for the club, with the first summer season members dressage show attended by some new members - we hope they enjoyed themselves. Well done to those who notched up their first Championship points. Results are available on the Results page.

We sent teams to the Festival of the Horse qualifier at Redlands - for most it was the first attempt at this which combines a XC & SJ course. Whilst they didnt come back laden with rosettes, it was a learning curve.

We have also run TREC training - thanks to the Rillie family for a great day, and a fun quadrille from scratch for St Georges Day. Regular SJ training continued at Street Farm and Duckhurst

We only have 2 affliated Horse Trials a year in Kent; last weekend 2 days of competition ran at Nurstead near Meopham. One of our Committee members, Jenny Hutchinson, was placed 2nd in her BE100 [ Pre-novice] . This was her best result to date so well done to Jenny and Bailey. Jenny is also famous for her wonderful food at MDRC events!

April 8th 2010

We hope you are all out enjoying the sunshine while it lasts!

Unfortunately we have to cancel the XC training at Bull Farm this Sat 10th as their ground is still too wet. However Wed 14th April at Bonfleur should be OK, and there will be an additional earlier group if enough interest is shown.

Against the odds and trusting in the weather forecast we went ahead with the Fun Jumping Show at Street Farm on Easter Friday with an amended schedule to finish about 3 minutes before the rain hit us hard just before lunchtime! Great to see over 30 members and friends jumping well, and congratulations to our winners, especially those who had  their first ever go at Top Score and jumped the Joker at 3'6'! [ see Results page] Check the Reports page soon for a riders views on the day

Don't miss our Curry night next Tuesday and the next Dressage Show on Sat April 24th.

And of course lots of training every weekend - check the diary page!

March 28th  2010

We'd like to draw your attention to the revised date for this years Ride for Life - our Pink Ride! The date previously advertised has now been moved back 1 day to Sunday 18th September. All other details remain the same, and we hope to have schedules available soon. Another event of interest is Court Farm BHS TREC competition in June - schedule can be downloaded from Schedules page. And if you need training - check out Sunday April 18th on the diary page!

Our Dressage Test Training day on March 20th was a great success with lots of people commenting on how much they learnt in a friendly environment. [You can check out Jo Cottee's report on the News report page]  It was good to see Sam Underdown back on board after a long recovery from a  nasty broken leg  last September.

Meanwhile other members were out honing their XC skills at Chilham with Alex Hudson training -  so a busy weekend for the club with something for everyone!

The club is getting off to a great start to 2010 now that the weather has finally improved and we hope all our members are enjoying a little much needed sunshine!

Check out the diary for future training and events - in the next few weeks there is XC for novices and the more advanced, and dont forget the regular Sj clinics with Neil Boorman and Wendy Neath. The new season of members dressage shows started in February at Stilebridge and it was good to have a new  venue for our club - thank you Vanessa for welcoming us and to all of you who turned out before it had started to warm up!

Although we welcome non - members to these shows, it's only members who can clock up points towards the Club championship.

Remember - you have to be in it to win it!

And if you'd like to catch up with other members - why not come to our curry night in Burham on April 13th. All the details are in your newsletter [or look on the newsletter page here on the website] or check the diary page .

If you've never celebrated St George's day or done a quadrille from scratch then tick both off by coming to our Quadrille from scratch on Friday evening April 23rd - all info in newsletter as before.

Another new and exciting venture is our summer weekend camp - thanks to Kate for all her work on this - it will be fun.