Equestrian Life April 2017 Edition
The leading monthly magazine for the East Midlands and Northern Counties
The leading monthly magazine for the East Midlands and Northern Counties
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ipley riders<br />
RRC Winner - Libby Fletcher<br />
Bates and Floreat Kir Royale<br />
Happy<br />
Anniversary<br />
Ripley Riders!<br />
This year is the 70th<br />
Anniversary of the<br />
formation of Ripley<br />
Riders Club making the Club<br />
one of the oldest surviving<br />
riding clubs in the country.<br />
It was formed just two years<br />
following the Second World War<br />
by four friends, Ann Palfree, Enid Gaunt,<br />
Judith Strange and Margaret Elliott. The<br />
girls wanted the fun of a riding club for<br />
hacking out together, small gymkhanas and<br />
Pony Club tests. Riding Clubs were ran by<br />
the local hunt at the time but as hunting had<br />
struggled during the war then so too did the<br />
riding and pony clubs. As their nearest pony<br />
club was also quite a distance away the girls<br />
decided their only solution was to<br />
form their own club.<br />
The four girls held the inaugural<br />
meeting of the Club in the<br />
autumn of 1947 at Edith Gaunt’s<br />
house in Ripley. It was decided<br />
that as they couldn’t be a Pony<br />
Club then they would have<br />
to call themselves a Riding Club and so<br />
Ripley Riding Club was formed. The first<br />
subscription was set at five shillings per<br />
annum (25p). Further meetings were held<br />
in the Swanwick Hall school library over<br />
the winter of 1947 and willing helpers were<br />
pressed into assisting the club. Ted Hill,<br />
the Ripley farrier and his apprentice, Bob<br />
Allsopp, were enthusiastic to assist and<br />
14 <strong>April</strong> <strong>2017</strong> <strong>Equestrian</strong> <strong>Life</strong>
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