Meon RC Camp August 2025 Bucklebury
By Charlotte Reid

After very recently joining Meon Riding Club I decided to throw myself in at the deep end and book onto the weekend camp at Bucklebury Equestrian as my first club outing, and what a great weekend it was!

Arrival was on Friday, unfortunately due to childcare constraints I missed the BHS weigh in (although I’m sure my horse was happy to miss out on being told she’s a little chubby) but we did arrive in time to have fish and chips from the local chippy – kindly collected by Corinne.

The horses all settled in really well with the choice of either a stable already bedded with straw or turn out pens, which we could use freely.
The club house area was a really nice touch with two showers, cooker, fridge and seating.

Saturday morning started off with breakfast (provided by the club) and sorting the horses ready for a 10am start.
We were split into two groups which I think helped everyone get the best out of their horses. My group started the morning by having a lovely hack around the fields and checking out what the cross country had to offer, followed by a flatwork session with David Thomas.
I hadn’t ever had a lesson with David before but he spent the time to chat to me about Daisy and find out what we wanted to work on, his teaching style is fab and the way he adapted the lesson to the ground conditions etc meant we came away feeling that we had learned loads.

Saturday afternoon was time for cross country (which I was secretly looking forward to the most). David had us popping a few different fences to see what level we were at and even managed to get Daisy and I to jump a ditch which is quite the achievement.

We rounded off Saturday with a BBQ and drinks – well done to our camp chefs for the great food. Plus we all learned a new card game, although I can’t remember the rules, oops.

Sunday my group had Michelle Pack as our instructor who was equally as brilliant as David and she took us for a flat session in the morning followed by some show jumping. Michelle has a great positive attitude and had us all laughing and feeling like we’d come away with new skills, the whole group was full of smiles.

Sunday afternoon was our second cross country session which Michelle took, David had done a fab handover so we were able to build on what we had done the day before and finish on riding a bit of a course. What a treat we had also having a professional photographer to capture our cross country session.

Unfortunately I had to leave Sunday afternoon so missed out on the pizza and final hack on Monday.

I can honestly say it was a great weekend and one I would definitely do again, I met such a lovely group of supportive, friendly people and I can’t wait to get out to more club activities.
I think we were all happy campers!