28/ DECEMBER 2022 THE RIDER


Board Members And Contact Information Treasurer/ Finance/ CRHRA correspondence: operationsmanagercrhra@gmail.com


President: Patrick Connor Email: president@crhra.ca - Phone: 613-484-1140


Vice-President: Bonnie Simpson Email: operationsmanagercrhra@gmail.com Phone: 705-878-2684


www.crhra.ca


CRHRA News De- cember 2022


9067 Old Hastings Road, Eldorado, ON K0K 1Y0 Working For The Future Of Recreational Canadians Community! All you need to do now is enter


Office Phone Number (705) 878-2684


Board Secretary: Heather Aitken Email: secretarycrhra@gmail.com Phone: 519-767-8074


Happy Holidays from CRHRA!!!


The CRHRA Board would like to


thank everyone for their continued sup- port and look forward to a great 2023. We have changed the membership


form to make it simpler for those of you that struggle with computers.


your name and fill in the rest of the form. You do not need your membership number. A notice like always will be sent to your email address that you are now a member. Keep this notice on your phone or print it to show your barn or clubs.


BFL will send out your insurance


certificates the First Week in February. You can now renew or become a


new member for 2023 on Dec 15 2022. Remember the 2023 membership does not come into effect till January 1, 2023. 2022 memberships will no longer be


available as of December 15. We are introducing in January


Under the Trail Community a Safety Program for Hacking, Trail Rides and Road Riding. Along with this is Barn/ Stable safety protocols. Our new Public Relations team Mark and Alex will be coming around to Barns/Stables to pro- vide printed material for your clients along with Posters for the all to see. If you would like to make an appointment for them to come out and chat with your clients please contact operationsman- agercrhra@gmail.com to make an ap- pointment. The Boys are Cowboys with


Communications/Customer Service: Bonnie Simpson Email: operationsmanagercrhra@gmail.com Phone: 705-878-2684


Data Researcher: Liz Franks Email: chraliz@gmail.com Phone: 905-473-1265


CRHRA Trail Community Coordinator: Laurie Panagiotou crhratrailcommunity@gmail.com


CRHRA Admin-Trail-Community Kathy Morton Email: 4trailcommunitycrhra@gmail.com


Memberships: Barb Millar (519) 941-6157 - Message Only


Ambassador: Jack deWit Email: cndhrsman@gmail.com Cell: 905-424-4666


years of experience in many fields of horsemanship. Don’t forget everyone who joins


CRHRA is automatically a Trail Com- munity Member at no extra charge. We haven’t forgotten about those


of you that do not use a computer. You can call the membership number 1 519 941 6157 leave a voicemail asking that Barb call you to do your membership. The turnaround time is 48 hours so please be patient. The office is open Monday to Friday Alberta Time. Our Directors will be going around in their areas handing out Barn Posters


Marketing Director Ross Millar - rmillar@millargroup.com (519) 942-3011 Work (416) 587-0003 Mobile


Directors/Regional Reps Thorold, St Catherines, Welland, Niagara


Mark Dobrindt Email: cowboy1949@live.ca Phone: 905-892-9769


Windsor, South Western Ontario John Aston Email: johnaston762@yahoo.ca Phone: 519-566-8377


and Hacking and Trail Riding Etiquette. They are there to answer any questions you may have. May everyone have a safe enjoy-


able Holiday Season. Remember your Furry Friends


with the weather turning colder. The Decorations can be tempting for Dogs and Cats, remember to keep them out of reach. Some plants can be toxic as well. Chocolate is a no no for Dogs. Remember to use protocols for


health safety!! Ride Safe! Ride Smart! Bonnie


Harley Quinn, the pony who went from auction bound to RWF Pony Jumpers


By Allison Park When Emily first said


she wanted to go to the Royal in pony jumper it seemed a bit absurd. She had just barely finished short stirrups divisions and was showing small pony hunter at the time. We were nowhere near doing jumper and had no ponies that could


dad can tell you- sometimes ponies just show up on your property. Bella was nothing spectacular to look at. She looked like a hackney that was made out of spare parts. We had no idea that this was the start of what has turned out to be an amazing adven- ture. The first year we had Bella, the pony was, for lack of a better word, absolutely


Emily had to canter the short side of the arena and use the walls to stop the pony! But they kept work- ing and working and work- ing. At the beginning it was just us with no coaches, but we still made lots of progress and had a lot of fun (with ample frustration along the way). After a long and cold


even think about doing it. As luck would have it,


My wife’s cousin Allison Buckley had a pony she thought might be able to jump, but had been sitting in the field for quite some time, and was on her way to the auction. So the next thing you know- we have another pony. As any horse


nuts. We were boarding at a “do it yourself” facility where we had to go there every day to muck stalls and feed. We had to board in the winter to be able to ride (not everyone has an indoor arena) Emily started riding Bella, and at the beginning, the pony seemed to have one gear- as fast as possible.


winter or riding almost every day. The first year Emily and her long time friend Faith showed 0.9m on trillium. It was the begin- ning of this year that Emily decided her show name would be Harley Quinn (from the comics- a suitable name). Emily and Faith would walk the course to- gether and then just yell out fences to each other when they invariably forgot the course. It was …interest- ing….and fun. They had some low placings, which was pretty good considering their lack of experience, training and coaching. After the season it was another winter of riding almost every day and trying to get the pony to be a bit more… what’s that word?.. ad- justable. One thing we did


learn of that winter was that Bella loved to jump, and the bigger the fence the more she seemed to like it. Emily and Bella went to lots of clinics, and improved dra- matically. The next year we got a


bit more serious and decided we needed consistent coach- ing and to be more a part of a training program. Kim Crawford had the arduous task of taking this kid and pony who basically cow- boyed around the courses and turn them into a real jumper team. Teach them about distances, course walking…stuff like that. Emily and Bella improved tremendously during their


“that’s how you ride a jump off”, or watching this little pony do a victory lap with giant horses are treasured (and in hindsight a bit humerous) memories. The pony had an amazing fol- lowing that last year. I re- member watching a round and two riders walking out to leave, but the one stopped “Wait, we have to watch this pony-she’s


amazing”.


Everyone knew Emily and Bella as they were the only pony in a field of pretty big horses doing the metres. After their success at


the 1.0m at Silvers they were ready to take the plunge and show pony jumper on the gold circuit.


tunity to show at the Royal Winter fair. There were many


two years with Kim. The first year she did the 0.9m (and some 0.8m) on the Sil- ver series. They did well, and made playoffs with good placings. This was fol- lowed (after yet another winter of hard work) by a year doing the 1.0m’s. At the metres,


they really


started to show promise and had consistent placings earning champion or reserve at most shows. Huge mo- ments from that year include the 4th/44 mini prix (here the fences could be as large as 1.1 m) and the 3rd in the 1.0m classic at Silver play- offs. Both rounds that brought tears to our eyes. Hearing the announcer say


We were very lucky to find Liz Rouse who took us on. Liz was singularly fantastic and Emily and Bella seemed to reach a next level. At the same time, Liz made show- ing more fun again- for the kid and for the parents. This year has been an absolutely amazing year. Even though the numbers were some- times small, the competition in the pony jumpers has been really something else, going double clear is not enough to keep you out of last place! Emily and Bella always had to bring their “A” game in order to have a chance to achieve the good placings necessary to earn an oppor-


highs this season, including being champion at the first Major league show at An- gelstone (where the courses were set so large that almost no other teams got around). The last month of showing was difficult as Emily had gone off the college enrolled in the paramedic program, and was only able to ride on weekends. Despite this, at the end of the season Emily and Bella found themselves second in the OHJA stand- ing and second in the na- tional standings. The race between first and second in both was decided in the last class of the last show of the year. This was pretty amaz- ing considering it was their first year showing on the gold circuit, and their first year of pony jumper. The success during


the year earned them the chance to show at the Royal Winter fair. After two year of the Royal being cancelled due to CoVID, this was an amazing opportunity. Since Emily had already turned 18 it was her last year she could show ponies. Showing at the Royal was an amazing ex- perience. Emily and Bella’s first round was a test to see if they could even get around. After all, being in such a huge indoor venue with hundred or even thou- sands of people in the stands


is pretty intimidating. They ended up doing ok in that first class. They got around and ended up finishing 7th out of 12 ponies. The next morning they had their sec- ond class bright and early. They ended up finishing 4th in the optimum time class- less than a second away from the optimum time. Had they not had a rail down they would have been sec- ond. As has been the case all through the season, Emily and Bella continued to im- prove and had their best showing in the final class. They ended up having one of only three clear rounds and with a 4 fault jump off were able to secure second place. This left them in sec- ond place by prize money and narrowly missing re- serve champion of the entire division. It was a picture perfect end to a picture per- fect season. We have so many fantastic memories from the Royal and from the whole season. Now as we see the


first snowfalls of the year, the thrill of the Royal is wearing off a bit, Bella is about to go on lease to help another girl realize her dreams, and Emily is back to school (maybe riding her OTTB when she can). Hard to believe that this little pony narrowly missed going to auction.


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