As someone that doesn’t show and probably won’t anytime in the near future, I wanted to find something fun that I could achieve with my horse. Combine that with my slightly obsessive love for statistics and charts and I found a winner – Frequent Rider Programs!
Most people that board at stables in Ontario (as well as show, teach, etc.) are required to have a membership with the Ontario Equestrian Federation. I have had a membership for years and besides insurance, I don’t really get alot out of it. A couple of years ago, someone told me about their Frequent Rider program. I had to pay a one-time fee to register and after that I was able to log hours riding any horse. When you reach certain levels, you submit your hours and receive small gifts. So far, in the OEF program I have reached level 2 and have a baseball cap. It isn’t much and it will take me awhile to get anywhere, but at least I can keep track of my riding hours.
I was happy to see that when I bought Dolly, she is registered with the Canadian Part-Arab registry (I finally got her papers back this week!). This registration allowed me to participate in any AHA programs that I was interested in. The nerd in me was happy to spend the reasonable fees to sign up for an AHA membership and their Frequent Rider program. I just signed up a month ago, so I don’t have many hours, but I should hit the first level (25 hours) by early December.
These programs aren’t that exciting, but I find it is enough to sometimes motivate me to get out and ride!
Name That....
2 days ago
8 comments:
I think those programs are really cool! And it helps you to keep track of your time in the saddle too. :-)
Great program, sounds like a good motivator.
I belong to the AQHA ride program and our state's Trail Time program. I love love love to keep track of hours. I have a cool little excel spreadsheet that I track hours, distance, horses, where... etc. and can sort at any time. I am a lover of stats and like to do side by side compares of how much I ride each year. And I set goals and usually make them. Good luck!
Is OEF still a part of Equine Canada? (I think that's the name I'm looking for)
I think it was last year there was a big kerfuffle and a bunch of the seperate provincial orgs left the national one.
I've thought about joining that rider program many times but never got around to it. Now that I'm riding 5 or more days a week I might have to do it...but I'd have to hide my totals from Alex, lol. Kidding, he's painfully aware of my barn hours.
Regarding the other stuff you like - you'll have to let me know how you like those winter breeches. I'm tempted to buy a pair but have been holding off buying myself anything new so that I can dump any "excess" money into stuff for the horse.
I froze my toes off at the barn last night and was really wishing for my winter paddock boots and better socks! I guarantee you'll appreciate them.
Sounds interesting! I don't know if we have programs like that here in the US for horse riders, but I'm kind of grateful we aren't required to join an equestrian federation to pay yearly fees for membership/insurance, etc.
~Lisa
Yay! I'm thinking about signing up with the one the AQHA offers.
That does sound like a nice little motivator. I've never heard of such a thing in the states. If anyone else has, please LMK.
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