WINDSOR HORSE RANGERS
Spring Newsletter Volume 12 Issue 1 Spring 2012
NEW BUILDINGS AND IMPROVEMENTS—Mike Cooper About twelve years ago when I was asked by Mrs Doreen Gordon (widow of the Horse Rangers As-sociation’s founder) to take over the running of the Royal Windsor Troop on a 6 month temporary appointment (later made permanent and approved by the Charities Commission) I had a “dream”. This included the purchase of the land and provision of an all weather ménage., and that dream has now come to fruition. Not only do we have a large new canteen and offices with heating and hot running water (both firsts) we also have eight new stables, flood lighting, CCTV cameras and now our new classroom building fully fitted out with heating, toilets (including disabled facilities), shower and utility rooms and a new cloakroom. Only the steps, ramp and safety rails remain to be built. Amazingly, all this has been achieved in the last two years, thanks to the work and generosity of a parent, Ian Peachey and his friends and financed from Mrs Gordon’s will and the winding up of the Horse Ranger Association. Through our first trustee Chairman Richard Smart obtaining the right to claim Gift Aid on our donations, and Jenny Webb (ex-parent) and Sue Denham-Gallagher who have worked relentlessly to claim back-dated payments further funds were acquired. Last but certainly not least Karen Meade our Saturday junior officer (Mike calls her a Scottish Rottweiler, but I prefer to think of her more as a Terrier), has applied for donations, grants and gifts from various firms, local au-thorities and of course the National Lottery. An incredible number of these have proved successful and the re-sults are there for all to see. PAT testing will soon be done on all our electrical appliances and this is the only outstanding requirement from our January annual Health and Safety and Risk Assessment inspection. Unfortunately, we are now at the stage when the funds for major projects are depleted and so further work will have to wait until our Gift Aid payments resume (you can now see why it is so important you fill in those forms!) Future projects include: new water supply mains with stop-cocks, a feed room, edging and tarmacing the car park, safety rail and fire escape steps for the canteen. We also need to replace the ménage fence posts as some of these are leaning over and are probably rotten. Just to sum up for those new parents, your monthly donations (subs) pay for the day to day running of our site, i.e. Three part time staff to look after the horses and farm from Monday to Friday, feed and hay for the horses, in-cluding supplements for the older ones, farrier visits for each horse, pony or donkey every eight weeks or so at £55 a set of four shoes with Torney and Billy’s “specials” at £60, £35 for fronts and £15 for a trim, an equine den-tist, veterinary visits and any drugs they need and of course the utilities including water, electrics and emptying our cess-pit every month which costs £80 a visit. On top of this there is the rates bill and five different insurance policies. The list goes on. So please help us by paying your subs on time (preferably by Standing Order) and fill-ing in the Gift Aid forms. It is such a big help and much appreciated!
Our stables are sponsored by:
WELCOME TO OUR NEW TRUSTEE
AND OUR NEW ACCOUNTS LADY!
Annette Cocksedge (Saturday Mum of Zoe and Gemma) has kindly agreed to be our new “parent trus-
tee”. She has joined the board with the purpose of being a “go between” for any parents who have
queries and would prefer to ask another parent rather than an officer or regular trustee. I’m sure
she will prove very useful in all sorts of other ways too as she is one of those parents who is always there if we
need a hand and never minds mucking in and getting her hands dirty on working weekends. If you have
any queries you would like her to address, her e-mail is: [email protected]
We also extend a huge thank you to Lynn Burley (Sunday morning officer) who has agreed to take on
our accounts. These were previously done by Amanda Minns and Vicky Wilson but although Amanda
will continue to do our payroll, due to her and Vicky’s other commitments Lynn will now be in overall
charge of finance.
Volume 12 Issue 1 Spring 2012 Page 2
HORSE NEWS by Sue Denham-Gallagher
TOPPA- He is still here, his owner still hasn’t found anywhere to live but we are happy
to keep him so he only has to move once.
PANNY- She is a 7 year old very fat Dartmoor pony that is on loan to us. She is on a two month trial. She
is a bit of a madam and is trying her luck. Hopefully she will learn some manners and work out. Watch
this space about her.
MOOMIN - He has been a bit up and down over the last few months, but the sun is out now and I think
he is feeling better. His legs have been quite sore but he has recently had a long acting Steroid injection
so hopefully that will help him, and then his legs should start to improve
SPOTTY- We recently had her teeth done, our vet is convinced her teeth have never had any attention.
Her mouth was very sore; she had to be sedated as there was so much to be done in her mouth. This is one
of the things that being a responsible owner is all about. Spotty was obviously struggling to eat and
started to lose condition. We have our older horses teeth looked at every six months. Spotty's owners have
had her for over twelve years and she had never had her teeth looked at as they claimed they didn’t know
who to ask! Had they spoken to their vet or farrier they would have been put right. You see you can love
your horse but you must know about their basic needs.
TORNEY- He has come in for a while as he wasn’t feeling too well. He has had blood tests, which have
come back fine. He is getting on and it has been a long winter and we think he is just feeling his age. We
have him on some good food and he is just starting to pick up again. He is enjoying his time being pam-
pered.
ANNIE- I have recently written an article about our dear old Annie for the Native Pony magazine, it is
out at the end of the month, so now Annie is famous!
All of the horses, ponies and Frank have their rugs off and are very pleased to see the sunshine, the new
grass is slowly coming through and they are all a lot happier. Gump is the only one that has a rug at night
now as he is a bit of a girl.
We are looking for another horse or horses, and would like something around 12 + years old, about 14 -
15 hh honest and reliable. A good all rounder. Able to live out. We ideally want another Peter or two.
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY (in a nutshell) To help you plan your busy lives here is some useful information for you! MAY SENIOR CAMP (3 days) 4th—6th June £45 (day camp only, food not provided) AWARDS DAY Sunday 8th July JUNIOR SUMMER CAMP (4 days) 23rd—26th July £60 (day camp only, food not provided) SENIOR RESIDENTIAL SUMMER CAMP (5 days and nights) 5th —10th August £100 (camping in tents full catering) REMEMBRANCE DAY PARADE Sunday 11th November
GOOD-BYE ANDREW, HELLO JEREMY! As well as Annette joining us there have been more changes amongst the trustees. Our Chair-man for the last two years, Andrew Owen (father of Lucie and Katrina) is finding he has pressing per-sonal commitments and so is relinquishing his role. We would like to thank Andrew for his work for us. Luckily, one of our other trustees, Jeremy Ridg-way, has agreed to step into Andrew’s shoes. Jer-emy is a retired vet but seems to be busier now
than when he was working—so we are very grateful that he is finding the time to take on this new responsibil-ity.
Volume 12 Issue 1 Spring 2012 Page 3
THE COMMUNITY BULB
PLANTING SCHEME
The daffodils given to us by the Royal
Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead
and planted by Nick and Ray have for the last few
weeks been a riot of colour in the entrance to
Rangers.
Unfortunately, there are not quite as many as
there should be as Sue found a woman Picking
some and claiming they were dandelions! What a
cheek!
LOST PROPERTY
An on-going and extremely tiresome problem is the mountain of lost property that we seem to accrue at Rangers. PLEASE make sure ALL items of clothing and footwear are clearly la-belled with your child’s name. Remember one sweatshirt looks pretty much like another and it is very difficult to tell several pairs of black boots apart either. There is now a marker pen at the farm and a bottle of tippex, so hopefully we will get on top of this problem. Some children have even ended up with odd sized boots!
‘ELF ‘N’ SAFETY
We have just had our annual Health and Safety inspection by Tim Stutt our advisor and all the recommendations made by him are now in place. We do still have to have our electrical appliances PAT tested but this will be done in the next few weeks. We also need to have a new ramp to the
classroom building and safety rails for each. This will be costly but it is our priority and will be done just as soon as finances al-low.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Maria Cooper (Mike’s daughter)
who with Sue Denham-Gallagher
looks after the horses at the farm
from Monday to Friday is expect-
ing her second child at the end of
August. We would like to send
our love and best wishes to Maria and of course,
Simon her partner, who I suspect may have had
something to do with it! We are hoping the new
one will be horsey as Jack their son would rather
ride his bike—despite all Maria’s and Sue’s best
efforts to get him interested!
We will therefore be looking for someone to
cover the early sessions while Maria is on mater-
nity leave. So if there are any senior rangers
shortly leaving college who would like paid work
experience please talk to Sue, her phone number
is in the office. THANK YOU!
A very big thank you to
Rebecca Brown’s par-
ents who kindly re-
sponded to our pleas
and gave us not only a
washing machine but a tumble drier as
well! They have already been used and
are proudly installed in our new utility
room—get us!
We also have to thank Stella and Holly
Moore’s dad, we think his
name is Chris—apologies if it
isn’t! Who cleaned all our
windows!
You are all absolute stars!
GRANT NEWS—KAREN’S AT IT AGAIN! As mentioned previously, Karen is always on the look out to make more money for Rangers so we can improve our facilities even further. She has managed to get an award of £4,000 from the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maid-enhead specifically to buy new horses and ponies which we are desperately in need of. Sue is on the case and actively searching for new additions. Meanwhile, if anyone hears of a suitable horse or pony for sale or loan could they please tell an officer so Sue can chase it up, details of what we
want are on page 2 after the horse news. The recreation club of Sygenta, the firm that Karen works for also made us their “Charity of the Year” and gave us a generous dona-tion of £1,625.81
Volume 12 Issue 1 Spring 2012 Page 4
AWARDS DAY
We are not running any fund-raising events at all this year apart from the Tombola at Sunninghill. Therefore we hope to make Awards Day extra special with lots of stalls and hopefully a good atmosphere and please dry weather! Thank you to all the parents who have volunteered to run or help to run stalls, we are busy working out which stall ideas we will run with and who can run what. We will also be asking for donations of items for the stalls nearer the time and will probably be issuing posters and flyers to this effect. There will also be the old favourites like the bar-be-que and we will of course, also be relying on you and all your family to bring lots of money to spend and make the occasion success-ful.
KAREN’S KEY RINGS & CARDS
As well as her officer commitments and grant work, Karen is still bea-vering away making her very popular cards and key rings of all our horses and ponies. New ones are included as soon as they arrive. All these are still at the bar-gain price of just £1 each with all profits going to Rangers, (no agent or middle man fees!) Thank you Karen!
WEIGHING CHILDREN
I’m sure you realise that
horses and ponies are indi-viduals (just like us!) Some of
them are small and can only take light
weights and some are like Moomin and wouldn’t flinch if Hagrid was to climb up on him! All the horses and ponies have a
maximum weight limit that is safe and comfortable for them to carry and for this
to be adhered to means from time to time the children will have to be weighed. We endeavour to do this in a caring and pri-
vate way and hope no-one is offended if we ask.
PLEASE DON’T FORGET—IT’S YOUR NEWSLETTER! If you have any news, have played a sport for your school or county, or if you have achieved anything that you are proud of, and would like to share it with your friends at WHR, I am the one to tell! You can also nominate someone else if you think they should have a mention. My e-mail address is: [email protected] and you can contact me at any time.
SELINA SWIFT—Budding journalist!
After a chance meeting at a horse show
Selina was asked if she would like to be junior
correspondent on the Native Breeds Maga-
zine. Not surprisingly she accepted as she is
hoping for a career in journalism and there
was a lovely article all about her in the maga-
zine. She hopes to write about Rangers in
the future so we may be (even more) famous!
Sue has also recently written a lovely article
all about Annie with lots of
photos of her in the same
magazine. We wish Selina
all the very best in her new
career.
ANOTHER BUSY AND TALENTED RANGER
Heather Armstrong is another ranger who leads a
busy life. She is a leader at Bray guides and has
passed her Baden Powell award. This is the high-
est achievement for a girl guide and involves a lot
of documentation and planning fin-
ishing with an activity weekend away.
She now progresses to young leader
training and awards. Goodness only
knows how our rangers find the time
for their activities, and I’m sure they
do all their school work perfectly too!
Volume 12 Issue 1 Spring 2012 Page 5
ENROLMENTS, PROMOTIONS, GRADE CHANGES & GOODBYES
ENROLMENTS We would like to extend a very warm welcome to the following Rangers
who have recently been enrolled, we hope they will have a long and happy association with
Rangers.
Rebecca Gaffney Hannah Rankin Karma Brack Dillon Flew Kai Phillips
Camilla Duff Beth Lovelock Isla Viner Maya Waller Erin Ward
Katie Temple Emily May Sawyer Emily Light Eleanor Pengelly
GOODBYES The following rangers have left, but they are always welcome to come back or visit and
we love to hear their news and what they are up to.
Jessica Barwick Isabel Perman Elliott Fletcher Sebastien Ward
Rose Lombardo Sophie Johnson Daisy & Lily Schotting-Robinson
We would like to wish Zoe Sollars success as she takes “Time out” to be a working lady.
MOVING ON The following rangers are moving up to seniors, we hope they enjoy their
new experiences and early mornings! Rebecca Minns, Emma Hill, Jasmine Howard, Jess
Brocklebank, Joanna Cook and Neave Cook
GRADE CHANGES
Grade 4 to 3 Grade 3 to 2 India Humphrey Rosie Creber Kelsey Bullock Joe Perry
Rebecca Minns Gemma Brown Sammy Clarke Zoe Cocksedge
Elliott Fletcher Niamh Eastabrook Gemma Cocksedge Sydnie Carter
Eleanor Wilson Magda Skrmyzmowska Ella Pilgrim
Holly Moore Georgia Bolt Suzie Liverseidge
Honey Holder Thea Viner Clara Graselli
Abigail Lightbourne Caitlin Corcoran Catie Mullen
Katerina Matheson Ellie Whiter Emma Falkentoff-Hansen
Imogen Christmas
PROMOTIONS (Seniors)
Leader (green band)
Megna Sharma (Saturday A) Charlotte Mitchell & Clare Hayes (Saturday B)
Holly Brown (Saturday C) Helena Graselli (Saturday D)
Acting NCO (red band) NCO (white band)
Rosanna Fletch (Saturday B) Abigail Foster (Saturday C) Beth Lewis (Saturday C)
PROMOTIONS (Junior)
NCO (White band) Duncan French (Sunday D)
RANGERS OF THE MONTH
Saturday Juniors Saturday Seniors Sunday Seniors Sunday Junior
December Flynn O’Leary Gemma Cocksedge
January Ginny Davis Rebekah Peachey Memoona Ali
February Molly Evans Charlotte Mitchell Madeleine Cottrell
Rangers who recently acquired their Helpers Badge during half–term are: Joe Perry, Charlotte Mitchell,
Alfie Dawson, Sophie Cook, Lily Moore, Holly Castleman and Hannah Turner
Congratulations also to Eleanor Wilson who has gained her Brownie riding badge.
And to Joe Perry who has passed his Scout equestrian badge.
Congratulations and very best wishes to all of you!
Volume 12 Issue 1 Spring 2012 Page 6
FORTHCOMING CAMPS & OTHER DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
MAY SENIOR CAMP
As you will have read in the last newsletter, the “May” senior camp was to have been run in
June for five days (two of which are bank holidays), by Sue and Karen, however, as Sue will
be committed to longer working days due to Maria’s maternity leave she will need to take
holidays of her own and so must take them when the camps are on. Unfortunately, due to
other commitments officers are only able to cover the camp for three days, the camp will therefore run on
a day only basis from Monday 4th—Wednesday 6th June at a cost of £45and is open to ALL seniors
including those juniors who have just moved up.. There are plenty of spaces at the moment so a deposit
will secure a place for you.
SENIOR RESIDENTIAL SUMMER CAMP
Following the previous two very popular years camps, the senior camp will again be under can-
vas (in tents provided by the rangers) It is almost full with only two or three vacancies, so get
your name down with a deposit to secure if you would like to come. It runs from 5th—10th Au-
gust and the total cost including all meals and snacks is £100. And (wait for it!) there will be
hot showers this year—Hurrah!
JUNIOR SUMMER DAY CAMP
This runs from 23rd—26th July but it is full with five or six on the waiting list—sorry!
BURNHAM DONKEY DERBY This year’s Burnham Donkey Derby organised as usual by the Rotary Club of Burnham
Beeches will be on Saturday 2nd June, in Burnham Park off Priory Road. We require 21 vol-
unteers who must be 10 years old or over (juniors or seniors) weigh under 8 stone, have Velcro
bottoms as there are no saddles or stirrups on the donkeys and they can race! If your pride is
not easily bruised, as there are always some who fall off, then give your name to Mike who will
give you the necessary medical and rider registration forms for your parents to complete. You will need
permission from your parents, especially as it is over the Jubilee Bank Holiday weekend this year. Any
Saturday morning seniors wishing to take part can be transported from the farm in the minibus or Sue’s
car but departures will be at 12 noon so bring a packed lunch or money to buy a burger.
AWARDS DAY This year our annual Awards Day will be on Sunday 8th July. All Rangers are expected to at-
tend (no excuses) in full parade uniform, including caps and wax jackets with the gold badges
on the lapels. This occasion should take priority over anything else you are planning and what-
ever the weather (it usually rains anyway!) All relatives and friends are most welcome and
there will be hot and cold food and drinks available, and a variety of stalls so bring plenty of
money!
Last years winners please start cleaning the trophies (you may keep the bronze horse’s heads) and return
them by the end of April ready to be engraved with this years winners—who knows it may be you again!
Windsor Horse Rangers,
“HEDGEROWS”’
Forest Green Road,
FIFIELD,
Berkshire, SL6 2NR
Telephone: 01628 636255
Volume 12 Issue 1 Spring 2012 Page 7
BIRTHDAYS
We would like to wish the following Rangers a very Happy Birthday
APRIL MAY
Rachel Shaw, Armani Traynor & Erin Ward 3rd Frances Jenkins 1st
Emma Hill 6th Helena Graseli 2nd
Emma Zayour 8th Kate Sambrook 5th
Rhyannon Lambert 10th MARY SHERIDAN 7th
Rosie Creber 12th Katrina Owen & Jess Brocklebank 10th
Amber Cotter 17th Samy Clarke & Niamh Eastabrook 11th
Paige Ralph 22nd Maddie Mills & Honey Holder 12th
Katerina Matheson 24th Ellie Ball 16th
Faith Rooke 27th Dean Inwood & Amy Baskeyfield 17th
Charlotte Mitchell 28th AMY GUEST 19th
Jodie Lenton 29th JESSICA DENHAM,
Duncan French & Grace Galvin 21st
Molly Hawkins, Angus Sambrook
& Madison Foxcroft 23rd
Heather Armstrong 24th
JUNE
MIKE COOPER, Sophie Wadsworth Rebecca Swift & Eleanor Wilson 18th
& Suzie Liverseidge 1st Rebecca Muncie 24th
Beth Lewis 4th Sophie Cooke 27th
Chantel Gale 5th Phoebe Oatley 28th
Francesca Mullen 9th Catie Mullen 29th
LOUISE GALE 12th
Isobel Soane 15th
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO WINDSOR HORSE RANGERS!
In May of this year Windsor Horse Rangers and it’s forerunner the Royal Windsor Troop of the Horse Ranger Association will be forty years old. It was formed in 1972 by Raymond Gordon and it’s first Commandant Edna Lacey with her partner Tony, who was a farrier and blacksmith (it was he who built the steel inner tack room door and dug the hole for the cess-pit). For the first two year’s of the organisation’s existence they rented a couple of stables in Holyport. They then moved to our present site by leasing a few fields from a Mr Gearing with access on the bend opposite Con-ingsby Lane. In later years the chicken house field was added, then the market garden (the strip), Jack’s paddock (field 7) and finally field 8. All the riding instruction was given in the front field 1 (left of the car park) and in dry periods the riding circle is stil l visible. We purchased the majority of the land on Mr Gearing’s death, and we loan the rest free of charge in return for main-taining them. Mrs Lacey was a trustee and attended Awards Days until about 2003 when her health deteriorated. Edna and Tony now live in Newbury and if there are any Rangers from the early days I am sure she would like to hear from you. Mike has her number.
WE RE-CYCLING!
We also re-cycle bottle tops that we give to the farrier and used postage
stamps for the Scouts so please get into the habit of keeping them and bringing
them up to Rangers.
Please don’t forget too that we have a re-cycling bin in the kitchen for plastic
and glass bottles, tins paper and cardboard. No profit involved just doing our
bit for the environment!
Volume 12 Issue 1 Spring 2012 Page 8
Musicmagpie.co.uk
Karen has also found a site to get cash for your old CDs. DVDs and
computer games. Please bring those to Rangers too.
They need to have their original packaging and any instructions and sleeve
notes and there must be a bar code.
Sorry, they can’t accept any giveaway DVDs from the papers or promo-
tional CDs or DVDs.
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