Charity begins at home with Ravensdale Lodge
As the autumn/ winter indoor season approaches and the finishing touches are being put to schedules, Ravensdale Lodge are pleased to announce that charity is to the forefront in the run up to the most important time of the year…Christmas. As part of their 12 week end of season schedule Ravensdale Lodge will be running an indoor dressage league once again which is kindly and generously sponsored by O’ Reillys Wholesalers Newry.
It will be a league with a twist as not only are competitors guaranteed the same level of quality service and value they have grown to expect from Ravensdale Lodge with a reworked indoor surface, top level judges for each weekly competition, weekly prize draw and prizes in the final all sponsored by O’ Reillys Wholesalers Newry, there will also be €600 on offer over the four classes to go towards the winner of each leagues nominated charity.
That’s €150 to each league winner to go a charity of their choice in the run up to Christmas and it gets better, Ravensdale Lodge will donate €1 from each and every entry towards the charity prize pot which will be divided evenly between the four classes. Now, if that is not an incentive to put the jodhpurs in the wash, polish the boots, drag the horse out of the field, give it a good clean and get down to Ravensdale Lodge for this league then there will never be one!
The league will be worth €1000 plus whatever goes towards the prize fund from entries so in reality it could reach €1500 or more very easily depending on entries so regardless if dressage is your discipline or not it is a good excuse to give it a try. There will be four weekly classes which will cater for every level of ability from walk / trot to novice test and organisers are asking everyone to spread the word and make the effort to make this league as successful as possible as literally every entry counts towards charity.
Ravensdale Lodge has lined up the usual array of top class sponsors for their autumn / winter indoor schedule which commences on Thursday 26th September with the Tonino Lamborghini sponsored SJI registered indoor horse league. This show will have two unregistered classes, a 70cm & 80cm which must be run off before 11am and these are followed by the 6 registered classes from 80cm to 1.30m and as always all classes are modified so everyone will get to jump both phases regardless of faults.
In addition to prize fund which is sponsored by Ravensdale Lodge, all classes in the final will have prizes sponsored by Tonino Lamborghini and there is an additional bonus for the leading rider over the course of the league of an overnight stay for two to include bed & breakfast in the four star Ballymascanlon House Hotel, this courtesy of the Quinn family Ballymascanlon House Hotel. Sean Cooney’s Botanica International will sponsor Friday evenings indoor horse & pony training league which commences Friday 27th September at 5.30pm and there will be the usual classes from X poles to 1.10m. After the great success of the cross-jump series for the past six weeks, indoor arena eventing takes centre stage once again for enthusiasts of this hybrid competition and Horse First come on board again as sponsors of the league which commences Saturday 28th September at 3pm with the 1m class which will be followed by the 85cm class (not before 4pm) and the 1m class (not before 5pm). As with all leagues in this indoor series all classes with five or more entries in this league will be eligible for a prize courtesy of Paddy Hughes and Horse First.
The O’ Reillys Wholesalers Newry indoor dressage league mentioned above commences Sunday 29th September and this league has an earlier start time of 2pm, weekly classes can be found on the Ravensdale Lodge website and entries for this competition which will be kept open until the Thursday before competition should be made through the office.
The autumn / winter season has always been a busy one at Ravensdale Lodge as competitors look for the comfort of an indoor arena couples with good surfaces, course of fences, top level judges / course designers and of course sponsored prizes and value for money. Riders can expect this and a lot more this season and can also give a little bit back by making an entry in the dressage league and ensuring that the nominated charities will be the main beneficiaries of a great twelve weeks of competition, the mantra for this season at Ravensdale Lodge is “every entry counts”!
