NORTH & MIDLANDS JUNIOR TRAINING DAY WITH EMILY BENNETT

 New Barn Farm, Chelford Road, Ollerton, Knutsford, Cheshire, WA16 8SZ

 We are fortunate to have secured a junior training day with Emily Bennett on Sunday 4^th March 2012 for juniors aged 10 years and over.

The venue is New Barn Livery yard in Cheshire www.newbarnlivery.co.uk which has a large covered arena with a superb driving surface so no matter what the weather we shall be dry! There is sufficient parking and tea / coffee will be available with covered viewing.

 Lessons will be on a one to one basis for 45 minutes and cost £45.00 which also includes the hire of the arena. Instruction will be tailored to individual needs and experience.

You will be required to provide full insurance details. Full payment will be required at least 14 days prior to training day to secure place. Payment is non-refundable unless someone can be found to take place.

 If interested please contact Mike Hodgson m1ke_3915@hotmail.com for entry form.

GROOMS’ TRAINING-LEARNING HOW TO LEAN!

Date: 5^th February 2012  Time:9.45-12noon

Venue: Bradbourne  Cost: £10 (including £5 for the badge)

This will be the first training course in a planned program working up to Level 3 following the new syllabus for grooms advertised in carriage driving.

Level 1 will cover general aspects of being a driving groom and how to be a confident groom on the back at Indoor Driving competitions. Badges will be awarded to those who show the required level of competency.

National Young Drivers Meet 19 November 2011

The evening of Friday 18th saw the first meeting of the new council.  The role of the area reps was discussed and the expectations are that they need to organize at least one regional training session, recruit any young drivers in their area that aren’t aware of the BYD, encourage write ups of regional activities and fundraise with the help of their area. New systems such as ‘buddies’ and trainer allocation at camps were discussed and will be brought up at the on-foot training session on 29^th January.

 Saturday the 19^th of November saw the highest level of the British Young Drivers, the National Drivers coming together for a sports psychology meeting as well as a discussion on plans for 2012. The day started with a talk from Nichola Kentzer BSc (Hons) PGCE on training for excellence. This engaged the Young Drivers and Para drivers in discussions and activities based on a number of different subjects including motivation, preparation and relaxation. The Young Drivers and Para drivers were then shown some ways of dealing with these subjects in a competition and training environment. The ideas presented by Nichola gave everybody a lot to think about.

The Young Drivers then stopped for a marvellous lunch cooked by the talented resident chef of the Unicorn Trust Fran.

In the afternoon Rosanna Walter-Symons presented the results from the recent feed back forms that were all very positive and with some useful ideas. Alice Pritchard and Alice Stables then presented the information on cross discipline training that they had gathered following the first ‘BEF Youth Action meeting’ they attended.  We can learn a lot from looking at other equestrian disciplines and this will help us to develop our own training system.

 After lunch there was then a meeting chaired by the committee members Alice Pritchard, Alice Stables and Mike Hodgson. The meeting discussed issues such as the annual display the Young Drivers perform at Brockham Harness Clubs Carriage Fair. Fundraising for the British Young Drivers in general as well as the rapidly approaching Junior World Trophy in Austria was discussed. Many other issues were discussed and will shortly be made available to all.

The British Young Drivers would like to extend their thanks to Nichola Kentzer for her talk, and to Sidney Smith for organising the event.

 James Gambs & Alice Stables