EACDG AGM 2021

 

Dear Member/Supporter.

Our AGM for 2021 will be held at Ashfields Carriage and Polo Centre, Great Canfield, Essex CM61JU. On Friday 26th November, 6.30 for 7.00pm start.

We will start at 7.00pm sharp, There will be food supplied once finished (please let us know if you require a veggie option)

If you have any questions to put to the committee can you please email them to us to enable us ample time to prepare a response for you? this will also allow the meeting to run smoothly.

Two committee members are standing down this year, one of whom is Lorna, our wonderful secretary, while we have plans in place to distribute and manage the secretarial work for next year we are interested in speaking to anyone who may wish to join the committee for 2022 or people who are willing to help support the committee throughout the year, even if not at every event. Ideally we would also love one or two members who are interested in either training as a club TD or an assistant course designer, both would be most welcome. EACDG is privileged to be able to offer first class training in both of these areas of our sport. Whatever you can offer at whatever level, from occasional helper to committee member please reply to this email and one of our committee will contact you and discuss the possible options.

In order for us to gauge the amount of food to supply can you please reply to this email with your intentions to attend or not?

We look forward to catching up again soon.

September Event 2021 @ Ashfields

 

For the upcoming event planned for the weekend of 4th 5th September we will as usual be running a whatsapp page to keep you up to date with the times etc. To join please click on this link https://chat.whatsapp.com/GINYb1s6AADDVnWPfTHJhB

We will not start posting times etc on the whatsapp page until Thursday as this will allow you all to join, if we post before this and you haven't joined you will not get to see what we have posted.

Your drivers numbers will be sent soon, please print these off and bring them with you.

Your other paperwork (times, cones and obstacle drawings etc) we will issue to you on Friday or Saturday as we were before Covid.

We will also put any relevant information on the noticeboard.

Unfortunately this event will be run a little different, this has been brought about by several reasons, we cannot gain access to Ashfields until Friday afternoon to start setting up (normally done a week in advance) and we are struggling with help to set up, also we have had numerous requests from drivers to share grooms, carriages etc, we have also had requests from drivers for late start times and then we have had a little difficulty getting judges and stewards, this obviously puts extreme pressure on us to try and accommodate everything and as such we ask that you bear with us to allow this to happen.

We aim to run dressage and cones on Saturday as normal, we ask that once you have finished your dressage you proceed immediately to cones to allow us to keep to our schedule. Marathon will be on Sunday and will be section B only, three obstacles driven twice with a distance of approximately 5400m.

There is a Coaching Club event running on Thursday and Friday, this means that anyone turning up on Friday will not be alone in the horsebox field, Zoe has asked us to inform you that for those of you who have booked stables these will not be available until 4.00pm, again, please bear with us.

Please remember to bring a little gift to donate to our stewards, a little thought that goes a long way.

We look forward to welcoming you to our last event of the season.

September 4/5th Event

 

Hi Everybody,

Entries for our last event on the 4/5th September close on Wednesday 25th August so please get your entries in ASAP. We are low on entries at the moment but we intend to run, this may cause us to change to either a one day event or a two day shorter format with dressage and cones and just section B marathon, then we can hopefully accommodate everyone.

Get Your Entries In Now

July 25th One day event 2021

 

It is with great regret that we have to inform you that due to insufficient entries we have had to make the decision to cancel the one day event due to be held at Ashfields on 25th July 2021, unfortunately we only had 30% of the minimum amount of entries required to break even.

Our last event of this season will be our Club Championship to be held on September 4th - 5th at Ashfields, Entries will close on Wednesday 25th August. If you intend to enter, please do so early so we have an idea of numbers and can book our stewards, paramedics, officials, toilets etc.

Hopefully we will see you soon. 

 

Terry Chambers – Ashfields Carriage and Polo

 

It is with great sadness we share the news that Terry Chambers has passed away after a hard -fought battle against COVID-19. Terry passed away on the 12^th of January 2021 leaving a huge hole in the hearts of his family and the driving world.

Terry had the vision to create the best driving facilities in the country where many of you have enjoyed the ambiance and friendships that Ashfields created.

In 2003 he saw an opportunity and bought Ashfields with the vision to turn it into the state-of-the-art equestrian centre that you see today. With Wilf and Zoe, and their passion for the sport of Carriage driving trials, he took the opportunity to create a mecca for Carriage driving, and grew the centres facilities which so many drivers have been able enjoy over the years. It takes an extraordinary visionary to, not only be able to see potential in a property but to be able to have the patience and ability to build and maintain such a vision, and for it to be available to such a cross section of people to enjoy – as an example, one morning Terry opened his curtain to be faced with 300 plus caravans and over 1000 excited dogs all getting ready for a weekend of dog agility, (as quite a few of might know his passion for dogs was not as deep as his passion for his horses)! 

One of Terry’s main passions was coaching, which he has enjoyed for many years. Initially competing at country shows, in the latter years of his coaching career his main passion was taking his Road Coach out with his friends for a Sunday drive visiting a number of hostelries on the way. Before leaving the stables, Lou would programme the Team Horses ‘Sat Nav’ to bring them all safely home.

Terry was a Coaching club member and relished his Coaching club drives. The Magazine meet and Royal Windsor were big days and annually booked into his diary in addition to the glorious meets at Ashfields which he so generously hosted.

The Social side of driving was hugely important to him and he was always on the terrace catching up with old friends and holding court. He was proud of the centre and loved to see everyone enjoying the superb facilities. One of the things that would make him chuckle was when people would stop to ask ‘the gardener’ for directions or if he could ‘turn off the mower’ or ‘move that old tractor’ so they could get past. Little did they know that under that unmistakable straw hat sat the man himself, Terry, their event host!!

Terry was a great family man and is already a huge loss to his family, Dulcie, Ben, Ruby and Lisa, as well as his 13 grandchildren along with all of the Ashfields family.