National Championships - 2004
2004 Central
SLOV would like to thank all competitors from WOR and COR who made the effort to travel to the Central Zone Championships from the far reaches of the province. We promise to return the support in the future. Seriously, we are grateful for the effort you made to come.
The weather gods looked after us. The weekend was preceded by enough rain to soften the grass ring and water the sand rings. After that it was not too hot and not too cold, just too humid. One out of three isn't all that bad.
First, we have to extend our appreciation to Elaine and Michael Davies of Hawkridge Farm for allowing us access to their beautiful Hawkridge Farm training facility. Gerry Mainse and Kevin (whose last name we don't know) were responsible for the beautiful surroundings and condition of the rings. Gerry, as always, was invaluable in helping us out.
The judges showed up on time (Jo Cairn, Valerie Kirkwood, Eileen Gilbert); the course designer came with her own assistant (Sue and Roy Fish - nothing like two for the price of one); the stewards did not appear to be tearing her hair out in frustration (Christine Hickman – Dressage; Kasia Miedzinska – Show Jumping) and the volunteers showed up in droves. Many of them from the stands which means that once again we owe thanks to all of you. There were many who helped, but put in two full days of work so we were able to put names to faces. Darlene Haines, Cathy Miller and Penny McLaren of WOR. All three of them gave up watching their own children ride in order to act as whips, timers, safety check stewards and general dogs-bodies. Darlene actually found several helmets that did not meet the code. We know there were more of you, but...
Susan Lorden and Bev Hewitt did all the scoring on dressage day and Susan Lorden laboured on the computer working out the scores on show jumping day. SLOV committee delegated jobs in the final push to the championships and wonderful group of people pulled the show jumping together. Bev doubled as the official SLOV couturier as she designed and made the team shirts (without benefit of a pattern) in a record two days and even custom fitted them to the team members. She, Danielle and Meghan (Land O'Lakes PC) performed stable night security and Bev was the stabling supervisor. Susan also rounded up a lot of prizes which Suzanne Bogan and Tara Heinbuch distributed evenly amongst all the participants. Apple Saddlery generously donated the bags given out to all the champions and reserve champions on both days. Kingston Feed & Farm donated several items as prizes for the class winners.
Christine Hickman and Cat Hunter were the turnout judges on dressage and show jumping day respectively. Heather Sherratt was Paddock Master. Eleanor Lorden and Paul Tonkin were Safety Officers. Angela King and Alex Walker were scribes. Serge Bisaillon, Ron Walker, Peter Hewitt, Susanne Bogan, Debra Upham and more people that we didn't recognize acted as ring crew and traffic/parking supervisors. Liz Tennent and Gail Cornett put on the Gail Gourmet Show and kept everyone fed and hydrated. Dianna Bayer organized the Regional Finals that allowed SLOV members to proceed to these Championships. Apologies to those that we didn't mention…..we probably don't know your names!
A big part of these Championships is always the financing. This year SLOV put together a wonderful raffle package. First prize was a trip for two to Calgary to the Spruce Meadows Masters. Spruce Meadows graciously donated tickets for three days. McPhail Travel donated the airfare. Multiple sponsors donated the accomodations at the Calgary Wingate Inn, including Sandy Sellers, Cathy McLeod and Deerpark Management. The trip was won by Kathy Harding who has been the foundation of the Kingston & Region PC quiz education program and is the primary reason SLOV has had a steady stream of National C and A/B Quiz Champions. No one deserves it more, and she is taking her sister (another Pony Club mom) with her. Just to keep it in the family, she bought the ticket from her niece who is a retired PC member.
Second prize was a set of Procema 1000 speakers from Digital Technologies which was won by a Pony Club mom from Westwind branch in Quebec (donation arranged by Sheila Wark of Appleton PC). That ticket was sold to her by Gail McGowan, the DC of Westwind. Third prize was a Toshiba 30” flat screen colour TV (donation by Waste Management Inc, arranged by Ann Marie Fowler of West Carleton PC) and won by Nakita Krucker of WOR who was one of three Krucker sisters riding this weekend. Rumour has it that Dad is about to receive a surprise gift. Our thanks go not only to all those who sold tickets (and the list is long, long, long……) but especially those who sold them. That list is much shorter and reflects the enormous effort some individuals went to in order to sell them. Some cheques came in with rather impressive amounts on them.
Hands down winner for sales was Liz Tennent of Kingston Region who has a way of talking just about anyone into just about anything. She also rounded up most of the sponsors for the accomodation. Westwind and Ottawa Valley Hunt figured prominently in ticket sales with United Counties right behind them for volume. Thank you to all of you for contributing.
And last but not least...the competitors who worked hard (with the help of parents and coaches) to earn their way here to the Championships. Congratulations to all of you. Results and photos will shortly be on the National web site.
There is always the inevitable list of “things we'll fix for next time” to work on. We would like to thank you for feeling comfortable enough to send your chef d'equipes (Darlene Haines, Cathy Miller, Hetty Thompson and Mary Debra Pardy) with questions. We hope we answered them to your satisfaction. We especially want to thank you for those instances where you spotted something that was not quite right and gave us an opportunity to fix it. Where we did not take care of matters to your satisfaction, we can only say that you handled it with grace and courtesy.
We hope that we can do as well for you in the future.
Thank you,
Kasia Miedzinska (National Dressage Chair, National Director, SLOV)
Susan Lorden (Regional Chair, SLOV)
Bev Hewitt (Regional Treasurer, Regional Couturier, SLOV)