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The British Driving Society
Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire
& Hertfordshire Area
WELCOME TO OUR WEBSITE
bedsbh.britishdrivingsociety.co.uk
Remember to bookmark this
page.
Please use the index buttons on the left to find out what is happening in our Area and to get details of event organisers.
Leah Marshall with her novice pony , Levens Mackie
Sue & Munchie on Good Friday
Sue Vella and her son, Joe from Denham, Bucks during the New Forest driving week when they won the trophy for best turnout on traditional wheels
Area 10 Summer show
Champion - Lucy Smith with Royal Sunshine Reserve - Tanya Howard with Spider
Many thanks to our judge, Mr Paul Mills.
Congratulations to Liz Edmonds winner of the show championship 2011 at Smiths Lawn with Maylands Magpie, and also to Lucy Smith, reserve show champion with Royal Sunshine.
A fantastic result for our area !
Well done to all our other exhibitors and winners too.
Liz Edmonds from Hemel Hempstead with the homebred Maylands Magpie, Show Champion at the BBH summer show on 28th May , then reserve champion on 30th May at Chenies, Herts.
Ed Smith at the East Anglian BDS show in Suffolk.
John White from Hertfordshire enjoyed an early 2011 BDS drive in Horton Park, Surrey with his pair
Tanya Howard & leah Marshall at Towerlands 2010.
Tim Woods from Hertfordshire with a new young horse pair during the New Forest driving week.
Martin Yemm competed with Sunset and Sundance at Ashfields (photo above) and Elveden in April and May this year. Sunset also attended CDSG for disabled drivers events with Anne. Sadly we lost Sunset in June when she suffered a neurological problem causing her to loose control of her hind legs, but we will never forget her.
The Day family taking part in the Regional sponsored drive at Elveden, Norfolk which raised a total of £500 for the NSPCC.
Rosie Hempstead at the Easter Parade, Ardingley
Joyce Stevens ready to drive out from Hatfield House
October 2009
BB&H member Martin Yemm with Sunset and Sundance competing in the tandem class at the EACDG championships at Ashfields Carriage Driving Centre.
Photograph by Malcolm Parnell - Ashfields
The winning Trec team being awarded their rosettes by AAC Shirley Higgins - July 09
.
The Smith family triumphed again, this time at the Beds. County show on 12th July when Ed Smith drove the Welsh cob Ackroyd Patsy to become show champion. Some quality turnouts were on display throughout the day, See our 'past events' page for more details.
Tim Wood from Hertfordshire returning from the Regional Charity drive at Thetford Forest on 5th July 2009
First place in the Cambridgeshire County show exercise vehicle class at Wimpole Hall on 1st June went to Lynne Anderson driving Whitethorns Tradesman with Jackie Macdonald as groom.
The sun shone for the Area 10 Spring show on 23rd May and was matched only by the quality turnouts on display. Commentator David Titmuss and ring steward Janet Wischhusen both did brilliant jobs to keep the day well on track. Our judge Nicola Salter had some fantastic classes before her but eventually found a worthy Supreme Champion in Baldwins John Boy, driven by Ed Smith from Redbourn, Herts.
See `past events` for more photographs and full results.
Calling our Young Drivers aged 10-14 years and 15 -18 years ...... the Kelvin Junior Scholarship is being held at John Parkers Driving Centre in Norfolk on Tuesday 11th August 2009. Entries need to be in by 14th July, see the May newsletter for details.
Please contact Linda if you need help or training in any way for this day.
Trec Training at Shuttleworth
AC Linda Swain organised a training session for members who would like to learn more about the trec competitions. Above Linda explains to Pud what is expected of her. For more pictures follow the link to Frances Kay's photos.
Young Father Christmas at the December Young Driver`s funshow
Lucy Smith Ashwell show Champion 2008
Tanya Howard with Spider, Area 10 Summer show Champion
Area 10 Spring Show Champion Maurice Edmonds driving Baldwins First Impressions to a Lawton Roundback gig.
Luke Smith with Garstons Hot Property at a very wintery London Harness Horse parade 2008
Father Christmas 2007
Its Jill Steed with `George` acting as a reindeer with Father Christmas in Welwyn Garden City for John Lewis/Waitrose.
They donated £200 to the local RDA for his services!
BDS-Trec finals 2007
At the glorious venue of Elveden Hall in Suffolk, at the kind invitation of Lord & Lady Iveagh the BDS-Trec finals were held on 21st October, judged by Colin Hurd, West Sussex AC. For an unbelievable third year running , BBH member Jeanette Standen & her Welsh Sec D Glynceiriog Llywelyn (Lew!) together with groom Georgie Bilborough came out as Champions, showing full understanding of the idea and skills involved. Well done!
30th Anniversary Tandem Meet 2007
Martin Yemm with his Fell Ponies Rhummi and Alex attended the 30th Anniversary meet of the Tandem Club of Great Britain at Hermitage College, Berkshire. Martin was proud to be one of the new tandem drivers this year to gain his Tandem Bars.
Co-judge Malcolm Salter, presenting the reserve supreme show trophy to Stephen Brown from Radlett, Herts. He also won the light trade class with Drumbo Great Expectations.
Show Champion was Gary Docking driving Marion Woolleys lovely Dutch Warmblood, Striker. It was a really wet day with hugely reduced entries, but full marks to everyone who did come along either to compete, watch or help !
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The International League for the Protection of Horses (ILPH) has received more
calls about ragwort this summer than ever before.
The leading equine charity says horse owners need to be extra vigilant. Increased rainfall and uncut verges, due to the wet weather, have left the yellow weed at "epidemic levels". According to botanists, ragwort is spreading at a rate of 10% per year. Ragwort is the scourge of pony paddocks across the country. The yellow blossoms look pretty to the untrained eye, but horse owners know to treat the weed with caution. Professor Derek Knottenbelt from Liverpool University estimates that 500 to 1,000 horses in the UK die from eating ragwort each year. He said the actual figure is likely to be significantly higher, because ragwort poisoning is not easy to detect. "Victims can die of bleeding, chronic dementia or weight loss all of which are rarely attributed to ragwort," said Prof Knottenbelt. "It can take two years of regular ingesting for complete liver failure to occur — resulting in a slow and painful death." If you find ragwort in your fields, spraying or digging it up are the best ways of tackling it. Make sure you wear a dust mask to prevent inhalation and vinyl gloves to stop the toxins entering the bloodstream: the alkaloid toxins contained within the plant are extremely harmful to humans too. Even cutting the flower heads off can help because each plant head is capable of spawning 175,000 plants the following year. 10/09/07 |
Driving an overweight horsebox is illegal and dangerous, but there are things you can do to help stay within the legal limits.
More and more horseboxes are being pulled over by the police and escorted to a weighbridge for a spot check as the Vehicle and Operators Services Agency (VOSA) tries to tackle the number of overloaded vehicles on the road.
"VOSA is implementing a system of targeted enforcement," says technical officer Steve Whitehart. "Horseboxes, due to their high unladen weight and the tendency for them to have a relatively low Gross Vehicle Weight [GVW, the maximum permitted weight of the vehicle, including passengers, horses and equipment] do have a high incidence of overloading."
Drivers often mistakenly think that a 7.5-tonne lorry, for example, means the weight of the vehicle, rather than the limit you are allowed to carry. To complicate matters further, it is also illegal to carry too much weight on either the front or back axle, and you may be asked to redistribute the weight more evenly.
If your lorry is found to be overloaded a prohibition notice will be issued, banning it from being driven. To clear the prohibition, another vehicle may have to transport the excess load, and in some instances temporary accommodation for your horses may have to be arranged. You could then face prosecution with a maximum fine of £5,000, as well as licence penalty points. If your vehicle is overloaded, insurance cover also becomes void — an unappealing proposition if you are involved in an accident.
Jon Phillips, managing director of the Organisation of Horsebox and Trailer Owners (OHTO), says: "I believe there are many overweight horseboxes on the road, not because people are knowingly breaking the law, but they simply don't realise. People tend to get caught out when they do the one big summer show, as there are often more passengers and extra kit on board."
So how much weight can you legally transport? All vehicles over 3.5 tonnes are tested by VOSA when they are first registered and given a ministry plate, which should be displayed in the cab. This will show the GVW measured in metric tonnes, such as 3.5 tonne, 7.5 tonne, up to 44 tonne.
To find out the weight legally available to you, empty the lorry — except for a full fuel tank and the driver — and weigh it at a public weighbridge (found in most towns — contact your local council, Trading Standards office or MOT testing station). The difference between the GVW and the unladen weight is known as the payload — the amount you can legally carry.
A payload of two tonnes, for instance, may sound ample until you consider that a typical horse can weigh up to 650kg, a pony up to 450kg, 80 gallons of water could be the equivalent weight of another horse and just one bag of feed is approximately 20kg.
December 4, 2006
Pictured above are Jackie & Alan from Potton, Beds at the Burwell sponsored drive - with Maisie May.
