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ARCHIVES

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Fun
day 2014.
Wednesday 3rd September arrived as another hot and sunny day. Our volunteers
all turned up to set up a tricky cone course, an arena for people to do
a show and some fun obstacles. About ten people in two shifts assembled
to do their show and impress the judge, Jill Hawkes. They were competing
for the Wight Crystal Trophy. Jill had a very difficult job on her hands
as she said all our drivers performed so well. The trophy was awarded jointly
to Irene and Sheila and rosettes given out down to sixth place.
The cone course was very competitively addressed against the clock. It was
won by
Irene driving Murray, Sheila was second again with Murray and James third
driving - yes, Murray. Well, Murray has the longest legs!
A break was welcome at lunchtime where we all enjoyed our picnics and again
there was a huge selection of sumptuous cakes. After lunch most people tried
the fun course which involved fishing a yellow plastic duck from a pond
and dropping it in a bucket at the end of a slalom course and then doing
the same with tennis balls.
The Island group would like to thank English Heritage for the use of Osborne
and most of all, our own very dedicated group of volunteers.
Photos by Margaret Honeyborne. |
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Lee
Phillips leaving our group |

Rick, Lee, Carol and Philip with the Lee Phillips trophy which they donated
for the able bodied whips.
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It
is with a touch of sadness that we said goodbye to Lee on Wednesday 27th
August. He is moving to the mainland. Lee has been part of our group for
just over four years and has always been such an inspiration to us all.
Despite
having no vocal communication, Lee has always shown so much enthusiasm
for his driving, demonstrating this with a broad smile and enthusiastic
gesturing. Our able bodied whips soon learned that a wagged finger meant
he was not happy . . . . . because he was going too slow! The smile became
wider and wider the faster he went finally patting his chest to show his
appreciation with the speed.
Lee's
folks Philip and Carol were supported by his carer Rick. All of them have
been an asset to the group. Philip and Rick will be missed nearly as much
as Lee as they were keen to get involved with the group, helping with
every aspect of it's running.
Lee
and his family are moving back to Wakefield , 'up north' to be with other
family members. Philip told me on Wednesday that they have found another
RDA driving group about six miles away from their new home, where they
drive three days a week.
Everyone associated with the Island group offer their thanks for what
Lee brought to the group and wish him and his family much happiness for
the future.
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New
Forest Visitors 2014.
Late summer is always a busy time for the Isle of Wight branch of RDA
Carriage Driving Group. August and September 2014 were no different. Alternate
years we entertain The New Forest Driving Group. They make us welcome
every other year to enjoy the miles of tracks in the Forest. On the 26th
August a group of New Forest volunteers, able bodied whips and disabled
drivers arrived at Osborne House on a beautiful summer morning. Sadly
their numbers were fewer than usual owing to illness, We have acres and
acres of wide open space at Osborne, the envy of the New Forest group.
We have room to set out a full size dressage arena and a huge cone course.
We are also able to use some of the paths and drives that run through
the estate. We are so lucky to have six ponies brought along each week
by their dedicated owners. Thanks to the huge efforts made by our volunteers
and of course Pocus, Fred, Murray, Troy, Baby and Henry we were able to
give all our visitors a drive as well as our own people. The day was punctuated
with a picnic and too many cakes!! 

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British
Driving Society
On
16th June 2013 the British Driving Society held the Isle of Wight area driving
show.
In the afternoon a special class was held for the Driving for the Disabled.
The judge was Roger Page.
With the help of able bodied whips Pat Simpson and Robert Young with their
ponies the class was held in two relays to give four drivers the chance.
Everyone enjoyed the experience and the result was, 1st Diddy driving Murray
with Robert Young, 2nd Louise driving Murray with Robert Young, 3rd Eileen
driving Pocus with Pat Simpson and 4th Jeannette driving Pocus with Pat
Simpson. Thanks go to all who made the event possible. It was a team event
and all were winners for helping. Also thanks to Roger for being a very
patient judge. |

Diddy driving
Murray with Robert

Eileen driving
Pocus with Pat. Jeannette standing at the side

Louise and her father
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Fun
day June 2013
21st
June 2013 RDA
Fun Day and Show.
It was lovely weather for the Isle of Wight RDA Driving and Fun
day. There were about eleven disabled drivers able to participate
in the show class and then the obstacles and cones on the fun day.
Jeannette was 1st driving Pocus with Pat and the winner of the Wight
Crystal trophy, 2nd driving Murray with Robert was Diddy. Eileen
was 3rd Vanessa 4th Caroline and Monica were joint 5th and Louise
6th .
Then
it was time for the fun. After dinner all enjoyed the fun obstacles
and then the cones course .
The result of the cones was 1st Diddy, 2nd Louise, 3rd Caroline,
4th Jo and joint 6th Jason and James. Thanks again go to all the
helpers and organisers of this day. A lot goes on behind the scenes.
Jeannette receiving The Wight Crystal Trophy from
Margaret Hunnybourne
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New Forest Visit 2013 |
20th
August Visit to the New Forest RDA Driving Group.
Once again we were lucky with the weather. A group of us sharing five cars
visited the New Forest Driving Group. This time we were hosted at Mary Ford
and her husband's beautiful residence at Burley. The members of the group
were able to drive the track in the Forest which was located directly from
the main gate. We were treated to lots of coffee, wine, soft drinks and
wonderful cake by the New Forest members and all of us had a great day to
remember. Thank you so much to all the helpers and especially our hosts
in the beautiful New Forest setting.
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Carriage
Driving in Queensland Australia |
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Hello
again. Well Jeannette and I have returned safely from the antipodean
continent of Australia. For those who may be interested I thought I
would relate our experience of carriage driving in south east Queensland.
There really is a place called Jimboomba, it's just along the road from
Mundoolun. There are many places in and around the outback with equally
unusual names, but it was at Jimboomba where we met Bob and Sheila.
In
the local newspaper 'The Jimboomba Times', we had seen an advertisement
stating that the Jimboomba Pleasure Drivers meet every week on a Sunday
morning about 1 mile out of the village. Jeannette and I went along
at 9.00 o'clock one Sunday morning. The group was described as people
interested in anything to do with horses in harness so we did not quite
know what to expect. It said some people attend with heavy horses used,
not for work anymore, but for pleasure. When we turned up there were
three or four horseboxes and the same amount of ponies with various
traps. It was explained to us that the group do not meet in the summer
months because of the extreme heat and all but three of them left as
we arrived.
Robert
and Sheila were about to sit down under a shelter from the sun to enjoy
a cup of coffee. They greeted us warmly and offered us coffee and we
soon became involved in conversation about ponies, carriages and the
RDA. They, and a friend of theirs called Nancy, were amongst a hardy
bunch who attended all year round and started early to avoid the heat
of the day. Bob told me how he built his own trap from parts of various
vehicles, cobbled together, the oldest part being the shafts that were
nearly 100 years old.
Their
pony, Akki, was untacked and grazing in whatever shade he could find.
Robert told us how Akki was a rescued pony and how he had trained him
to respond to voice commands. He said that he had a high verandah at
home where he stood and threw carrots for Akki to find. He directed
him by shouting 'left two, back three, right one' and so on. Sheila
told me how she thought Akki had saved Robert's sanity after he suffered
a 'sort of breakdown' after a serious illness. When Bob went to collect
Akki, he brought him home in the back of his ute. (Utility vehicle or
pick up truck). Akki was told to jump in the back, and that is what
he did!
They
offered to tack Akki up and put him to so that he could take Jeannette
for a ride. Putting to was as follows: 'left two, stand - back three,
stand, OK good boy' and it was all done! Robert then proceeded to drive
Jeannette around a very large park with some gum trees and pretty coloured
trees in the background. Later he gave the reins to Jeannette for her
to take control and she drove for twenty minutes or so through the same
parkland setting. Nancy was taking her pony, Kasper for a drive at the
same time.
Upon
her return, Robert and Sheila offered to get lunch for us. They had
unloaded a large gas barbecue from the back of their ute and were busy
frying free range eggs from their own chooks and toasting bread. We
declined their kind offer despite their insistence that Sheila would
drive into Jimboomba and get some sausages and bacon for us. Nancy,
who had never travelled outside Queensland could not believe that the
IOW was so small and had so many people living on it. Some cattle stations
in Queensland are nearly as big as the Island!
"I guess you had to leave to make room for all those folks to move
about a bit", she said.
We
enjoyed their company and good conversation, leaving just before their
lunchtime. I had spread the gospel a little about the RDA but they were
already aware of the benefits of carriage driving for people with disabilities.
One of their members had just one leg and one arm. He had taught his
pony to help tacking up by lowering its head! We were unable to find
a RDA group in southeast Queensland that had facilities for carriage
driving and so were delighted to meet the Jimboomba Pleasure Drivers.
Their kindness and generosity were so much appreciated by us both.
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FOR
FUN DAY 2011 - See the gallery page
At
our 2011 annual funday, Radio solent, who had made a donation to our group
through their Community Chest Scheme, interviewed some of the group. The
interviews were broadcast on the 'The Julian Clegg Breakfast Show'.

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FUN
DAY 2010
We
held our 2010 annual funday on Wednesday September the first. Thanks to
the stalwart efforts of fund raisers,particularly Fiona, we all enjoyed
a marvelous picnic prepared by the golf club. There were not quite so
many things to do this year as Sacha and Troy had to go home early.
We were very lucky to have Julie Hoskyns to judge for us and she joined
in with the spirit of the day and seemed to thoroughly enjoy herself.
The Wight Crystal Trophy was up for grabs. Julie was unable to separate
Diddy and Mo, so awarded the cup between them equally. They will each
hold the trophy for six months.
In the driving class the winner was Mo. Close behind were Neil and Caroline
who were second and third respectively.
The day also gave our AB Whips a chance to 'av a go. Keeley showed Pat
how it should be done.
A cracking cone course set by Mo and Jo was hotly contested. It was really
close this year with Jeannette beating Mo by just ONE second. Eileen who
is slightly handicapped as she can't see where to go, came home third.
I think Pat did even more pointing than usual for Eileen but you can see
from the pictures how much fun it was for everybody.
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The
pictures show just what a good day we had. There were some truly strange
'Funny Hats' the competition being won by Jo. Just click the picture alongside
to view the photo's of the day.
Many thanks are due to the hard working committee who arranged the day and
to Christine for the photographs.
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LOOK
AT WHAT WE ACHIEVED AT OUR CHARITY AUCTION
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New
Forest Visit July 2011.
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On
Tuesday 12th July 2011 a group of us set off to the The New Forest. We
traveled in a small convoy of cars and our thanks go to Wightlink for
their generosity in reducing the fares for us all. After a short and very
pleasant drive through the New Forest we arrived at the home of the New
Forest group, chairperson, Mary at Holmans, Bisterne Close, Burley.
Despite the threat of rain,
we all sat in the beautiful garden and enjoyed the company of our hosts.
The plan was to have a drive, then a picnic lunch followed by more driving.
Because of the weather forecast, we did all the driving first before our
picnic. The drive was a circular route along narrow lanes through the
forest of about 3 miles. While each drive was out our hosts lavished upon
us, masses of cake and tea or coffee. The variety of homemade cakes was
a wonder and each one a mouth watering delight!
All of our people had a drive
before setting off back to Lymington for the return ferry. It was a most
enjoyable day as always when we get together with the New Forest Group.
Our grateful thanks to Mary for her hospitality and to the whole group
for making us so welcome and making it possible for us.
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PRESENTATION
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Jill
was presented with a hand painted glass vase and a collage of pictures
covering the time she was Chairman of the group
Picture shows
Jean, Jill, Peter and Jo with Leo.
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NEW
GALLERY NEW GALLERY NEW GALLERY NEW GALLERY NEW GALLERY
We
now have a new button on the left - 'GALLERY'
This
was included because the photographs on the site were all found on odd
pages. One click on the Gallery button will now take you to a page where
you will be able to find all the pictures of the IOW Group and some of
their activities.
If anyone has any pictures relating to our group, please email them to
me if you would like to see them displayed in our Gallery.
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Sacha, all scrubbed up.

Sacha, Jo and Colin
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Colin
and Jo are pictured 'all dressed up' for the Bank Holiday May Day
celebrations at Havenstreet.
Now we have seen how smart all three of you can look, we'll expect
to see it every Wednesday! Congratulations to all three of you on
such a magnificent turnout and especially to Jo for sharing the photograph
with us. |
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Elaine
and Clive driving 'Charlie'

Elaine
is a relative 'newcomer to the IW Group. She and her husband, Eddie
have been coming along on Wednesdays for just over a year now. Elaine
had lost all her confidence after a riding accident left her seriously
injured. Elaine is very modest about her progress but the group
can all see how much her involvement has restored much of that lost
confidence.
Charlie, Elaine's own pony, was thought to be a likely candidate
to pull a trap and with the help of Clive, he was soon dragging
old tyres around his paddock. Eddie thought it would take many weeks
before Charlie was suitable to go into harness, but he was surprised
when Charlie was between the shafts within a few sessions with Clive.
He didn't expect to see Elaine driving herself so soon! Eddie tells
me that none of this could have happened without the help and support
of the RDA group and Clive.
I'm sorry Eddie, it seems we have let you in for a load of expense
- carriage, harness, shoes as well as losing Elaine to Charlie for
hours on end. |
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