President's Report - January 2022

We all thought that 2020 was a year to be forgotten due to the Covid lockdown and restrictions and that 2021 would be back to normal. Well, things don’t always work out the way we plan or expect. No one could have guessed that the amazing amount of rainfall over a long period of time could cause so much damage to our riding trails. We were able to make a few changes to the original Calendar which allowed us to still run events each month.

To summarise 2021:

We ran:

  • 9 trail rides

  • 7 training days

  • 6 committee meetings, and

  • 1 Christmas lunch


Training days were:

  • Alpacas on the farm with Lisa

  • Gillian’s farm

  • Archery at Michelle’s place

  • Quaranup with Melanie (included optional swimming lessons)

  • Narrikup with Glenda

  • Albany Equestrian Centre with Julie

  • Perkins Beach to Cosy Corner Café, with Melanie


Trail rides were:

  • Gull Rock with Melanie

  • AEC ride with Julie

  • Muttonbird Loop with Brenda

  • Cheryl’s Kendenup ride with Julie

  • Kordabup Loop with Julie

  • Wentworth road to Michelle’s place, with a training group, with Melissa and Melanie

  • Narrikup ride from Glenda’s place, with two groups

  • Poachers Ridge Wine Tasting ride, with Bronwyn

  • Denmark Lakehouse – a new addition – with Melanie

Weekenders:

  • Shannon River weekender with Melanie

  • Crooked Creek weekender was a great success, with Melanie

Changes that happened:

  • West Cape Howe was cancelled by the property owner due to not being safe to ride from all the water damage

  • Quaranup Goode Beach Loop was replaced by a trail ride at the AEC, due to extreme high tide and lack of beach!

  • Perkins Beach was postponed to later in the year, due to storm damage to the beach

  • Pub Quiz with Melissa, was a great hit

  • Nanarup Beach ride was cancelled due to storm damage

  • Harewood road ride was cancelled due to unsafe conditions from weather damage

All events have been well attended, with Training Days remaining very popular.

ATHRA introduced a new membership payment platform, called Gameday, which will greatly cut down our administrative work. It is a one-stop shop for the membership payment and registration process. There were some behind-the-scene hiccups, but Eva and Melissa were able to sort these out.

The Gameday platform has more enhancements on it, which are still being developed, so we will keep you informed as they happen.

As you know this club is made of volunteers and we are fortunate to have awesome members. It is great testament to those who give up their personal time to make the club enjoyable for others…so I thank you for all your energy and effort.

Thanks also needs to be given to non-club members, who help out in the background. I don’t think we had any of the blokes helping us out this year with float moving action, but we must also acknowledge their standby readiness. There are many in the background, supporting their better halves, and we must thank them for that too.

Denmark Equestrian hosted a Trail Boss Accreditation weekend. Heidi attended and is now a fully fledged Trail Boss ! We look forward to supporting her in her role in the upcoming years.

Denmark are now fully functional as an ATHRA club. They run a variety of activities, including a small number of trailrides. There may be opportunities for our members to attend their events, and likewise they may attend some of ours, as we are all part of the ATHRA family. There may be additional costs so check the event details carefully.

Mt Manypeaks club also had two Trail Boss successes from the recent Accreditation weekend. Unfortunately their club won't be running this year, so we may be gaining their Trail Bosses as our members.

There were no major incidents or accidents this year. The Quaranup training ride was interesting with a minor incident – we had been doing some great horse control movements before we headed off up the beach and our horses were all very relaxed and attentive…or so we thought. A 4wd drive vehicle quietly appeared from the side track and all of the horses spooked. Four of the six riders ended up in the water, which is our biggest record of any falls ever! Fortunately we were able to continue the ride despite some had wet clothing.

Eva, our webmistress, has some great ideas for further development of our website, so we will keep you informed of any happenings. The website has lots of information about us and what we do, so you can direct any interested people to it.

This year was our 20th Anniversary, which is an amazing milestone. To celebrate, at the Christmas lunch we had three big TV screens scrolling through some of the amazing photos and videos that we have collected over the years. We also had our new club banner on display.

Next year goals in brief:

  • Continue to be involved with trail development, including the Stidwell / Sandpatch area and in Plantagenet region

  • Continue to develop our website and our digital presence

  • Have more First Aid accredited members

  • Encourage members to do Trail Boss training at the upcoming Serpentine Accreditation Weekend

  • Continue to explore new areas to ride

I’d like to thank everyone for entrusting me to the presidential role in 2021.
A big thankyou to Melanie, Melissa, Carol, Lise, Michelle and Eva, for all your support, enthusiasm and great ideas, and for being a great bunch of ladies.
I look forward to another great year of being on the trail with you all.


Julie Robins - 2021 President

Eva Bett