Welcome to Meon Riding Club
Welcome to Meon Riding Club
Listed below is some important information about Meon and BRC. If you have already been a BRC member this may not be new info, but we have tried to outline what being in Meon RC is all about, how you can help and what to expect from the club.
Committee
The club is run by a volunteer committee, that organise teams, training and events in their spare time. We meet once a month at either Warnford or Droxford village hall and meetings last a maximum of 1.5 hrs. There is always time for chatting, tea and cake! We are always need of new members, so please if you want to get involved do make contact! We are ABSOLUTELY RELIANT on our members joining and helping the committee to be able to run the club.
Diane Williams is the club chairperson and she can be contacted at dianeatmrc@gmail.com if you have questions about the committee or want to come along.
Club Benefits
Being a member of BRC gives you public liability insurance while taking part in club activities, you can find out more on The British Horse Society Website.
As a member of Meon Riding club you can get up to 10% off purchases at Fawley Farm Feeds (exclusions apply) and Hampshire Saddlery (purchases over £20) on production of your BRC profile page and photo ID. You can find your BRC profile by logging into Sport 80 Link on our Membership page,
https://meonridingclub.co.uk/membership/ You will also need this membership number for entering Meon training and events on MRL, so make a note of it.
Membership is yearly from the time you join via the Sport 80 platform, and is open to Juniors and Seniors.
Training
We put on a variety of training for our members including cross country, show jumping, one day clinics, pole work, flat work, 2 day camps and mechanical horse training. These are sometimes member only events, and sometimes open to non members at extra cost. These can be found on our website https://meonridingclub.co.uk/calendar/online-entries/
Please do support the training, a lot of volunteer time goes into arranging these dates and it helps to support the club too if the clinics are well attended.
BRC Area Qualifiers and National Championships
Meon RC is in Area 17 and there are Qualifiers run throughout the year. At these Qualifiers Meon RC compete against the other clubs in Area 17, which covers Dorset, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Most of these competitions are held at either Moreton near Dorchester, or Crofton near Fareham. The competition year runs from 1st April. The championships are national competitions where all the BRC areas compete against each other.
Summer Championships;
Horse Trials
Combined Championships ( Aston, Daventry)
National Championships ( SJ and Dressage, Lincolnshire Showground)
Winter Championships;
Winter Dressage Championships ( Arena UK, Grantham)
Winter Show jumping Championships ( Arena UK, Grantham)
Arena Eventing Championships (Aston, Daventry)
Meon has team managers for Dressage, Combined Training, Combined Challenge, Horse Trials, DTM, Show jumping and Arena Eventing. Dates of the qualifiers and the schedules will appear on the Area 17 website https://www.area17-brc.org.uk/calendar/ as released so make a note of these dates. However your team managers will put out a Call for Teams on Facebook at our ‘Members of Meon’ page, and also on the Meon website. This is when you are invited to fill in an application form to compete. Team managers and the Committee work out the teams/individuals and ask for volunteer/s to help at the event. Then the competitors are asked to pay their appropriate fee to Meon’s bank account and the manager puts in the pre entries to BRC. Lastly the club makes the detailed area entries to the hosting club, and supplies the contact details of the required helper/s. Typically we need to supply 1x full day helper or 2x half day helpers per event. We try to be as inclusive as possible when selecting teams, so do consider putting yourself forward even if you haven’t ridden at a qualifier before.
New for 2024 the clubs within Area 17 have opened up their Qualifiers to include Non Qualifier sections for teams and individuals. So far this is a bit of a trial run to see how popular these are with both the competitors and the clubs. The benefit of NQ sections is the reduced cost per member/club to enter as there is no pre entry fee payable. This may be of interest to riders who are unable, or not prepared to, travel to the championship should they qualify.
BRC Handbook
The handbook is updated yearly and includes all the BRC rules, plus details on eligibility, info on events and scoring . There are important rules on flu vaccinations, use of whips, tack, hat, back protectors amongst many other things, so do refer to the handbook when volunteering to ride for Meon. The link is here below.
Facebook
Currently we use our Members of Meon RC Facebook page to keep you up to date with all that’s happening in the club, our training and our members successes. This group is exclusively for Meon members, or parents of Junior members. This is also a group where we encourage questions, sharing photos, general horsey interaction between our members, and importantly feedback and requests. Members of Meon Riding Club | Facebook
We also have a Friends of Meon RC Facebook page which is used to promote Meon Riding Club, our Open events and other services/events that may interest our members. Neither group can be used for selling or advertising. Please do join BOTH groups if you are a Meon member, and check these pages regularly to stay up to date. Friends of Meon Riding Club | Facebook
AGM
The AGM is held in November, and is a great chance to find out what Meon RC gets up to and chat with other members. It is usually held in a local village hall, there will be a speaker or a quiz, awards, a raffle, and some time to eat, drink and meet other people. It’s a social evening not to be missed so do watch out for date when published in the Autumn.
Fund raising
The club is reliant on income from fund raising through training, shows and sponsorship. Over half the membership fee you pay goes straight to BRC to cover the insurance and affiliation fee. As you can see this doesn’t leave the club much to invest back to our members, so we do need your support here. This could mean offering your services to the club, for example if you have a skill that could help us for example accountancy qualification for end of year finances, or first aid qualification, or if your company can sponsor rosettes for an event. It could mean donating raffle prizes for the AGM, supporting us with help on the day running our events, or attending our training and Member only shows. We are open to offers and new ideas to fund raise so, if you can help, please speak up. Thank you!
News
On our website we have a News section. Members can write reports on events they have done with Meon be it training or a competition and they can feature here, along with a photo or 2. If you would like to contribute a report please do get in touch. Please do take the time to see what our members have to say!
Meon Riding Club strives to support everyone on their individual horsey journey what ever it is be it competitive or non competitive. Everyone is welcome and we encourage our members to support one another too.
Please do get in touch if you have any questions or suggestions.
The information here is accurate at the point of publishing. If you spot anything wrong then please do let us know. Thank you.
Join Us? Become a member of the Meon Riding Club
All the information on how to join, the benefits of being a full member and associated clubs & societies.