Summer Pony Camps at Dunbyrne Equestrian

We are delighted to have our Summer Pony Camps up and running for Summer 2024. We will be running pony camps every week starting the 2nd July.

Camps will run Tuesdays to Fridays from 9am to 5pm making them ideal fort busy parents, working parents and avid pony fans aged 6-17!

Camps will include 2 riding sessions each day, arts and crafts, stable management and games. We will have a camp riding display on the Friday that parents are of course welcome to come and watch.

Camps cost 250 euros which works out at just under 8 euro per hour giving great value for anyone wanting to learn about horses and ponies.

For our existing customers, camp can be booked using the links and information that the office will have sent you.

For anyone who hasnt ridden with us before we would ask you to come for a try it session (for beginners ) or an assessment session (for those who can ride). These last 30 minutes and cost 20 but if you proceed to book a camp afterwards, we will take the 20 euro paid off your camp balance for you. This means that you will essentially get your try it or assessment session free of charge,

For beginners, try it sessions allow parents to ensure their child enjoys horse riding before committing to a pony camp. For those who have ridden before, an assessment session allows riders to become familiar in a new place and allows our instructors to gauge their riding ability to ensure we place them in the right group.

You can learn more at this link - https://dunbyrneequestrian.ie/pony-camp

We are based at the Hill of Allen just between Milltown and Kilmeague in Kildare.

Please pop us an email dunbyrnestud@gmail.com with any enquiries

COVID- 19 Riding School Update

COVID-19 Update.

Riding School:

• Please note that we do not allow any drop in visitors to our yard. Access is restricted to liveries and riding school clients who are attending a pre booked lesson.

• Our governing bodies have given the go ahead for under 18 group lessons from 26th April.

• We will be giving preference for group classes to our existing client base and will be in touch with all existing clients later on this week regarding lessons – please bear with us and thank you for your patience.

• We will initially be offering lessons for off-lead and above level as for safety reasons our team cannot provide hands on assistance to beginners. New aged 6-18 riders who are at off-lead to novice or advanced level who wish to be added to our waiting list should email dunbyrnestud@gmail.com .

• We have an existing waiting list for beginners. We will be in touch with riders on our waiting list when we have a suitable class available in the future. To be added to the beginner waiting list for aged 6-18 please email us.

• Please note that we do not offer private lessons for adult beginners.

Camps:

• We do not know yet if we will have Summer pony camps available. This will depend on government restrictions.

• If permitted we will aim to run half day camps for children aged six upwards Tuesday – Fri during the school holidays.

• Preference will be given to existing clients and to those already on our waiting list.

• To be added to the waiting list please email us. Please note that beginner riders will need to be accompanied by a parent or a guardian over the age of 16 years old for their riding sessions.

🦄Thank you very much to our clients who have supported us throughout the last four months and for your lovely messages. 🦄

Prices

Aged 6-18

• 1 hour group lesson : €27.00 per hour.

• Block of 6 group lessons €140.

• Block of 10 group lessons €225

Adults

• 1 hour group lesson €30

• 30 Minute private lesson (only available during off peak times) : €30.00

• 50 Minute private lesson (only available during off peak times) : €50.00

  Peak times - weekends and 3pm onwards Tuesday to Friday. off peak 12-3 Tuesday to Friday

Dunbyrne Summer Camp 2019

Summer Pony Camp 2019!

Welcome to Summer 2019. Many of you have been very proactive and have contacted us to enquire about Pony Camps. Thank you for your patience while we created our Summer time table. This blog post aims to tell you everything you need to know about summer pony camps at Dunbyrne Equestrian. 

Dates:

We aim to run camps on the dates listed below subject to a minimum number of bookings per camp. Camps run from Tuesdays through to Fridays from 10am to 4pm. 

• Tuesday 2nd July - All levels, beginners welcome

• Tuesday 9th July - All levels, beginners welcome

• Tuesday 16th July - All levels, beginners welcome

• Tuesday 23rd July - All levels, beginners welcome

• Tuesday 30th July - Advanced camp, approval required pre booking.

• Tuesday 6th August - All levels, beginners welcome

• Tuesday 13th August - All levels, beginners welcome

• Tuesday 20th August - All levels, beginners welcome

Times:

Pony camp runs from 10am to 4pm. On the first day campers should arrive by 9.45am for registration. Campers should aim to be on time each day. Campers must be collected before 4.15pm each day. 

What to wear:

We can and will provide a hat of approved standard and a back protector free of charge for use during riding lessons. We have a limited number available. We also have riding boots in a limited number of sizes that can be borrowed. We ask that you wear boots with a heel, a long sleeved top (without a hood) and jodphurs / breeches / thick tracksuit bottoms. Long hair must be tied up at all times and jewellery aside from small stud earrings may not be worn

What to Bring:

Campers should bring a change of clothes, waterproofs and a packed lunch. 

What happens at pony camp?

Tuesday to Thursday - campers will ride under instruction from BHS instructors, take stable management lessons where they will learn how to look after their pony and will enjoy games and activities. Riding lessons will comprise of flat work and jumping and where appropriate, cross country and hacking . 

On the Friday we will have a show where campers will get their ponies ready before show casing their skills over a course of fences / obstacles in the afternoon followed by a prize giving. We would encourage parents and guardians to come and watch the show if possible as the children really enjoy it. 

Costs:

Pony camp costs €130 per child per week for one child or €120 per child per week for two or more children from the same family or for agency bookings. We believe that our prices are fair and competitive given the quality of instruction provided. All of our instructors are 18 and over and BHS (British Horse Society) qualified with first aid training, Safeguarding and Garda Vetting. Please do not ask for discounts as refusal may offend.

Levels:

We welcome all levels for pony camp aside from our advanced camp which takes place the week of July 30th. Advanced camp is restricted to our more advanced riders. If you are a regular client and unsure if advanced camp will suit you please ask your instructor for advice.

Where we have a mixture of levels in pony camp we will cater to those levels and will split classes where we have quantities to do so. While we welcome advanced riders our ponies are riding school ponies and therefore any jumping will take place over an appropriate height. 

Booking:

To book a place on Pony Camp please email us - dunbyrnestud@gmail.com. the team are unable to take booking in the riding school - please email to book so that we can ensure that we have everything in order and your child can enjoy camp.

Children must be aged six years or over to attend camp.

When booking, please advise us of the following information

• Campers name

• campers age / height / weight,

• Name and number of emergency contact / next of kin

• campers level of riding experience,

• Which camp you would like to do.

• Any allergies or illnesses.

  A €30 non refundable booking deposit per child will be required in advance to secure your booking. Places are limited so please book soon as only bookings with a deposit paid will be confirmed. You can pay your deposit by bank transfer (putting your name as reference, by paypal or by cash / cheque. Cash / cheque payments will only be accepted by the riding school when in an envelope labelled with your name, childs name and the camp that you are paying a deposit for.

  Your balance will be due before camp commences. This can be paid on the first day of camp at 9.45am by cash or cheque or you can pay us in advance by bank transfer or paypal.

Making A Show Of Ourselves

It's mid April and it has been another busy week at Dunbyrne. On Friday the 13th our team took part in a local table quiz held in aid of My Lovely Horse Rescue. Our team, the DBS Bar Flies (Stine, Tori, Miia and Lorna) came second. We had sponsored some prizes for the raffle in aid of this good cause so two lucky raffle winners won a voucher for a private lesson with Ross and Lorna. 

On Saturday a group of our DBS Tail Blazers enjoyed pony club cross country training at The Field Equestrian in Ballyadams. Zara, Hannah, Mia, Sinead and Molly took part with Lorna instructing and had great fun tackling the water fences, steps and combinations. 

On Sunday Dunbyrne Riding Club held our leg of the West Leinster Region Linda Moore Showjumping League. Our own members did us proud on home turf. Michelle Davitt and Zono won the primary class - their second win in a row in the league. Tori Cummins Kennedy then won the advanced primary class. Lorna and Sammy competed in the advanced intermediate class with just four faults. Well done to all the winners on the day - Michelle Davitt (Primary), Tori Cummins Kennedy (advanced primary), Gay Parkinson (Sportsmans) , Audrey O'Dwyer (Intermediate), Grainne Alexander (Advanced Intermediate), Caoimhe Delaney (Open). We ran a coffee shop on the day to raise money for the Irish Horse Welfare Trust

Laura Kavanagh headed off hunter trialling with Bobby yesterday while Hannah Groves travelled to the Interschools at Mullingar with Brogan competing on a team who earned sixth place in the final. 

Orla and Aoife Harrington were at Killossery yesterday for the Dressage ireland league final in the Leinster region. Aoife and Cosmic placed second in both classes to take second overall in the league in both the Preliminary and Novice categories. Orla placed third in the league on the elementary class. 

Blazing a trail at Dressage Ireland

We have a number of talented young riders at Dunbyrne Equestrian and recently two of our coaches Ross O'Hare BHSI and Lorna Keogh (BHS/HSI) formed what we now call the Dunbyrne Tailblazers. The tailblazers team allows these riders access to quality competition coaching to encourage them to improve their riding and to compete with a positive mindset.

The first tailblazers sessions focused on dressage with riders learning the dressage arena and letters and how to ride the movements within a test. After three weeks of training the team travelled to JAG in November with the Dunbyrne lorry to compete at Dressage Ireland in the trailblazers competitions for young riders. This day out, the first ever dressage competition for the team was a great success with everyone scoring above 60% and lots of positive and developmental feedback from the judges to work on. Zara Logan, Sive Murphy and Hannah Groves competed in the mini trailblazers while Niamh Davitt, Laura Kavanagh, Blaithnaid Sharpe and Molly Dunne all competed in the junior trailblazers. 

Aoife Harrington, a young rider who has been competing for over a year at Dressage Ireland Trailblazers acted as a guide for the tailblazers team members, riding test demonstrations to help them to learn their tests while her sister Orla a successful competitor at Dressage Ireland and riding club was at JAG on the day to help the riders on their first day out. Aoife travelled to Marlton last weekend to compete at Trailblazers. She scored an impressive 73% in her prelim test to take second place. Aoife also rode her first ever novice test on the day earning third place and a good score with plenty to work on for 2018 to progress at this level. 

As the tailblazers team has evolved at Dunbyrne Equestrian we have started to include showjumping coaching into the schedule. Our team have been learning how to ride lines, jump combinations and count strides. We have a showjumping session planned for Saturday as well as a talk for the team on competing with a healthy, positive and balanced approach to competition.  Our riders will compete on Sunday at dressage and showjumping at our Christmas Show - we cant wait to see them in action 

BHS Stage 1 Stable Management Evening Course

We posted earlier today about our opportunity for a full time pupil to come on board as part of our team to train to be a BHS Instructor. While we take students on to study for their BHS exams on a full time basis, we recognise the need for part time courses for others who may be working full time in another industry or have other commitments. 

What we are proposing to run is an eight week course which would train students up to be at the appropriate level to apply for and take their BHS Stage 1 stable management exam. This course would take place at Dunbyrne Equestrian (provisionally on a Thursday evening from 6.30 – 7.45pm but we will take feedback from interested parties on what might work). The course would cover the BHS Stage One stable management syllabus. The cost of the course would be €120 per person payable at the start of the course. (please note that this does not include exam fees for the BHS Stage One – attendees would be responsible for booking and paying for their own exams). However this price would depend on us securing enough interest to run the course. Please let us know if you would be interested in signing up for this course. 

Given how everyone’s schedule tends to be busy during the summer we hoped to commence the course at the beginning of September when routines tend to settle in. If there is interest we can also provide opportunities once the course is up and running for attendees to take part in relevant tasks at the yard on the weekend to practice and gain experience.

The course above covers the stable management syllabus of the BHS Stage One but if you would also like to take riding exams with the BHS we have an onsite AIRE approved riding school where you can attend lessons if you would like to brush up on your riding. For both the stable management and riding exams we will be able to host mock exams (for an additional fee) if there is enough interest after the end of the course. If the stage one course is successful we can build from this and work towards courses for Stage 2, stage 3 and the PTT exams.

If anyone prefers to study for any BHS exams on a one to one basis rather than a group, we can of course provide this. One to one tuition with our BHSI costs €50 per hour onsite.

AIRE Test Success for Dunbyrne Riding School

Last Saturday 18 of our riding school pupils took their first AIRE (association of Irish Riding Establishment) tests at Dunbyrne Riding School. The pupils, trained by our yard manager Michelle Leonard were tested on the day by Ross O'Hare (BHSI) riding either their own ponies or our riding school ponies.

Michelle does an amazing job of helping all of our pupils to develop and learn and the AIRE tests show the progression they all have made. All of the proud pupils received AIRE certificates from Dunbyrne Riding School. We celebrated afterwards with a barbecue in the yard where everyone enjoyed Len's legendary cooking skills. 

Foundation D Test recipients. 

Alex Noonan, L:aura Kavanagh, Blanaid Sharpe and Hallie Cullen

Foundation C Test recipients.

Molly Dunne, Amy Carty, Beth Dempsey, Martha WIlliams, Hanna Groves, Sinead Davitt, Lauren Power and Sive Murphy

Foundation B Test recipients.

Jessica Dunne, Jessica McBride, Ciaran Carty, Sienna Laffan, Gemma Carter, Alimay Conroy, 

Raising funds for the Irish Horse Welfare Trust

Established in 1999, the Irish Horse Welfare Trust (www.ihwt.ie) is Ireland's largest dedicated equine charity. The charity work hard to help improve the lives of neglected, strayed and rescue horses at their base in Wicklow.  At every show that we run, Dunbyrne Riding Club collect funds for the IHWT. Our generous members and volunteers bake cakes and treats that are sold at the shows and all proceeds go towards the IHWT. 

Last year our club secretary Charlotte O'Hare received this letter from the IHWT thanking us for our donation of €335. Our next show will take place this Sunday, 21st May when we will host a leg of the West Leinster Kavanaghs of Newbridge dressage league at Dunbyrne Stud in Kilmeague. We will once again have a variety of baked goods on sale and the proceeds and any donations on the day will go to the IHWT. We are very proud to support an organisation who does so much for the welfare of horses. Please if you are here on Sunday, come and enjoy some baking and contribute to a good cause at the same time. 

Dunbyrne Riders enjoy Newbridge College Show

On Sunday the 7th May our lorry travelled to Newbridge College Show in Newbridge, Co. Kildare. The lorry was filled with excited junior riders from Dunbyrne's livery yard and riding school along with well turned out horses and ponies that these riders had spent hours getting ready to shine.

The riders competed in a variety of derby and showjumping classes at the show and were delighted to bring home lots of rosettes. Hannah Groves and her bay pony Brogan took third place in the 60cm performance class. Sive Murphy and her new pony, dun gelding "Whats it all about" aka Cooper claimed second place in the 50cm performance. Lucy and Lola Gabor competed with their ponies Bubbles and Rosie. Chestnut gelding Bubbles delighted Lucy by winning the 40cm performance class while big sister Lola competed in the 80cm derby with her bay mare Rosie. 

Laura Kavanagh and bay gelding Bobby also competed in the 80cm derby taking it all in their stride. Blaithnaid Sharpe competed on board chestnut mare Flame in the 60cm performance and the pair took 4th place. Tabitha Walsh took 6th place in the 70cm performance class competing with her chestnut gelding Revery. 

Instructor and Dunbyrne Riding School manager Michelle Leonard was at the show to guide and advise her pupils on the day while Dunbyrne Equestrian owner Len O'Hare kept everyone well fed. Both were very proud of both the riders and ponies and their excellent performances and achievements. With the show wrapping up, the lorry was filled with tired happy riders with lots of rosettes bringing their ponies home for a well earned rest the next day.  

Our AIRE (Association of Irish Riding Establishments) approved riding school, based in Kilmeague, Co. Kildare offers group and private lessons for adults and for children aged 7 years +. If you and / or your child would like to learn to ride, give Michelle a call at 085 8059529

Pony Rides at Punchestown

Ross was at Punchestown Racecourse this weekend with his team of helpers to give pony rides at the family fun day. This was a really busy day and several hundred children enjoyed a spin on board our riding school ponies Alistair, Cooper, Barney and Archie. These ponies are well trained and very quiet and didn't bat at eyelid at the busy funfair rides beside them or the bright face paint on many of the children! There were some very brave two and three year olds who were delighted to sit in the saddle for the first time.

We are very proud of our team of helpers who are great ambassadors for Dunbyrne Riding School and who made sure that every child had great fun. If you met us at Punchestown and would like to speak to us about starting riding lessons for you and / or your children at our AIRE approved riding school, give us a call on 0858059529 / 086 2222440.