WEC History
THE SERIES OF EVENTS THAT OCCURED WHICH LED UP TO THE FORMING OF THE WAIKATO COMBINED EQUESTRIAN GROUP (Inc)
Introduction:
A series of events occurred approximately 40 years ago now, which led up to the forming of the group to manage approximately 40 hectares of land situated in Pukete Road, Hamilton and leased from the Hamilton City Council, (HCC).
In the Beginning:
In 1981, Noeline Jeffries, who was Head Instructor of the St Andrews Branch of the Hamilton Pony Club at that time, wrote to the HCC requesting them to put aside about ten acres of land to establish a Riding School so that children who did not own their own pony, could have the opportunity to learn to ride and care for a pony. Council replied and said that it was a great idea but that they never had any suitable land available at that time and suggested that a “benevolent farmer” be approached. Nothing became available so the idea was shelved.
The Power of One:
About a year or so later, a young Pony Club Rider wrote to Margaret Evans (who was a City Councillor at that time) saying that she desperately needed grazing for her horse and set up a petition signed by lots of other children requesting grazing that was not too far out of town, so that they could purchase a pony of their own.
This event coincided with HCC planning to relocate all horse events away from Claudelands. As the Hamilton Pony Club held their Gold Cup at Claudelands Showgrounds each year, they wrote to the HCC requesting alternative venues. As a result of that letter, Margaret Evans responded, requesting a meeting at her residence in River Road, Hamilton.
Horse Lovers Unite:
Fran Johnson, Martin Letley, Noeline Jeffries, Hazel Barnes and Bev MacIntosh were nominated from the Hamilton Pony Club to attend that very first meeting with Margaret Evans, whose daughter Kylie attended the Hamilton East Pony Club.
Margaret advised everyone in attendance at that meeting about the land that had just come into the City Boundary at Pukete which was zoned “Recreational” and gave advice on how to put in a submission to HCC to lease the land in conjunction with other horse groups. Margaret suggested that all horse groups combine to become one united group in order to make an impact. It was decided that the only way to contact all the other equestrian sports was to put an advertisement in the Waikato Times that ran for several weeks and worded as follows:
“Attention All Equestrian Disciplines”
“Please attend an urgent meeting at the Hamilton City Council Office in Caro Street for the future of the Equestrian Sport. If you care about your sport, please be there!”
As a result, the response was amazing. Approximately 65 people attended that meeting who represented various Equestrian Sports including Pony Club, Dressage, Show Jumping, Eventing, Hunting, Western Riding, Horse Drawn Vehicles, Heavy Horse, Polo, Polocrosse, Hamilton Light Horse Club, H.O.R.S.E. Club, ILPH.
The First Committee:
At that meeting, it was agreed to elect a committee. The first committee members were:
Fran Johnson – President
Noeline Jeffries – Secretary
Martin Letley – Treasurer
Committee: Hazel Barnes;
Peter Neil (Hamilton Light Horse Club); the late Viv Clarke (Waikato Dressage Group); Bev MacInstosh (Hamilton Pony Club); Sally Antranm (HORSE Club); Marnie Gower, Terry Wen, the late Elizabeth MacFarlane
(ILPH); Janet MacFarlane, Debbie Knowles; the late Eric Knowles; Judy Williams; the late Warwick Bryant; the late Heather Taylor; plus others representing their equestrian interests.
It was resolved that the group be officially named as “The Waikato Combined Equestrian Group” and In March 1986 the group officially became Incorporated and later became a Charitable Trust.
Approximately 900 grazing in City Boundary:
A survey was drafted and sent out to all Horse Groups to find out how many horses were privately grazed within the city limits. It was discovered that approximately 900 horses were grazing
within the city boundary and in some cases very poor quality grazing, no running water, no adequate shelter or fencing, inadequate safety or supervision.
After many meetings, a submission was eventually prepared and forwarded to the HCC in October 1983. This submission had two sections.
1.. Requesting Suitable, affordable, supervised grazing within the City Boundary for horses and ponies.
2 Facilities for all the Equestrian Disciplines including Dressage, Cross Country, Showjumping, Polocrosse, Polo.
The HCC finally accepted the Submission and the Waikato Combined Equestrian Group (Inc), given the ‘green light’ to proceed with the development of Pukete Farm Park as outlined in the
Hamilton City Council’s 1985 Draft Management Plan.
The Hall Arrives:
The committee put in a successful tender for the purchase of the St Joseph’s School hall for the sum of $1,000. It cost the group $3,000.00 to have it uplifted from its present site in Clarkin
Road, Hamilton and transported to the land located at that time off State Highway One.
The Riding School operated from the Hall and Anna Monds was the first Instructor/Manager , who moved from Rotorua into the old house situated near the site of the Hall.
The grazing of privately owned horses was established in those early days and it proved to be one of our main sources of funding. Judy Williams was one of the original graziers and has remained there ever since. At that time the monthly grazing fee was $20 per month as we relied on grazing people to volunteer their time to assist with working bees and competition when needed.
Gorse, blackberry, water pipes and fencing:
One of the conditions of our Lease, with the HCC was to remove the gorse and blackberry that the previous owner of the lease had not kept up to date and the land required a huge amount of maintenance, which included water reticulation and fences to repair.
This proved to be very costly and time consuming as it was essential that it was done as soon as possible. We grazed goats to eat down the gorse and blackberry and that worked really well but it was a huge task to eradicate it completely.
‘Teething Problems’
After struggling with funding and escalating costs, it became very obvious that the committee were running short of funding and needed new ideas to cope with the rising costs of running the riding school plus trying to purchase equipment for the competitions.
It was not plain sailing. However with determination and good will, the committee managed to overcome these hurdles.
Donation from Hallmark (the late Bill Hall ):
The committee was very fortunate in receiving a generous donation of $10,000 from Bill and Judy Hall to kick start our funding to clear the land and Jim Wright (our Patron at the time) organised Contractors to finish off clearing the land of the blackberry and gorse and fence the area of land that was off State Highway One.
“Bill Hall (who sponsored Waikato’s Mark Todd and Charisma into world recognition) was enthusiastic to develop an international-standard covered event arena at the Pukete site, but finally Wintec’s plans for an equine centre at their Te Rapa campus was given precedence (and sadly, that arena did not meet the standards required (and that’s another story)…"
A hard lesson to learn:
Not long after all this work was completed, the committee were devastated to learn that the HCC informed the WECG that this 30 hectares of land, situated off State Highway One, was to be used for Industrial Development and that it always was a temporary lease of unknown duration. The committee were aware that the land was on a month to month lease but were under the impression that the Council would offer
it to the WCEG as part of the overall lease.
New committee set up:
In those early days, many problems arose for the Group that was never envisaged. Debts were mounting and costs rising well above budget. As a result, a Special General Meeting was organised and a new committee voted in to manage the Waikato Equestrian Centre.
The Hall moves Again:
At that Special Meeting, John Guy was nominated President, Noeline Jeffries remained as Secretary, and Annette Wade voted on as Treasurer. With careful financial management on the part of Annette, the WCEG eventually traded out of the accumulated debt and all creditors fully paid.
The First project for the new committee to organise, was to relocate the hall. We had received notice from the HCC that they would terminate the part of the lease on the 30 acres of the land off SH1 as it was to be used for Industrial Development. Eventually, the remaining 40 hectares, plus the two-bedroom house in Pukete Road was negotiated into the overall Lease Agreement.
John Guy negotiated a deal with the House Removal Owner Warwick Johnson to move the hall to its present location in Pukete Road. The volunteers included John Guy’s son, the late Warwick Bryant, the Late Norm Taylor, John Guy and John Wentworth who all dug the foundations for the hall to be lifted onto. A major task that took many hours to undertake.
The Boomerang Riding School Building:
During that period, the Riding School operated from the Old White House in Pukete Road with Frances Swan from Raglan as the Riding School Instructor/Manager.
In the late 1980’s the new “Boomerang shaped” riding school building was erected by Modern Construction, situated off Pukete Road. Eventually with vigorous fundraising and grants, a sand arena was built plus yards and tack room.
New Instructor appointed:
Our Instructor Frances, decided to move to Auckland. It was realised by the committee that it was essential that a replacement be advertised immediately. After receiving many applicants, Gillian Wilson from Ireland was appointed the new Instructor/Manager and from then on the Riding School started to make money and business was booming. Gillian proved to be an Excellent Instructor and the riding lessons and activities increased rapidly.
Gillian taught at the Riding School for many years and when she moved to Christchurch, the next Instructor was Robyn Aitken followed by Kay Hogan who then moved on to Wintec.
Kauriland Winter Dressage Series Finds a New Home:
The competitions were going ahead with the Kauriland Winter Dressage Series being held at the Waikato Equestrian Centre’s grounds after moving from Claudelands where it was originally held.
The people involved in setting up Kaurilands were namely Debbie Knowles, her dad the late Eric Knowles, Anne and Bernie MacDonald, the late Heather Taylor, John Wentworth and Noeline Jeffries.
Bob and Sue Berkhan were approached to sponsor the covers and sashes for the Topscore Prizes and Modern Construction for the Topscore Prize Money.
Some novel new ideas that originated from organising the series was that riders were offered free entry if they came and assisted with the working bees and also writers were paid.
It was a very friendly series with the idea of encouraging new riders to gain confidence over winter and go on to register, with the National Body, to compete during the more competitive summer months.
Many other people helped with the Winter Series and apologies that there is not enough room to list them all. The Kauriland Winter Dressage Series proved to be a very popular event with huge entries.
It was one of the main fundraising events and all funding raised was put back into developing and maintaining the facilities at the Waikato Equestrian Centre.
The Waikato Times Caravan was used for the Secretarial Work done at our Shows and Competitions. It was later on that we were donated the Matangi Light Horse Club’s Rooms which was transported to site where the rooms now stand as the ‘Riverside Office”.
At last a Sand Arena:
A sand arena was in the Management Plan and the committee were very fortunately to have Perry Aggregates provide the equipment to install this for us. Luckily the sand was already there and all we had to do was scrape off the topsoil to reveal the sand. Resource Consent was finally granted and the heavy machinery soon had the sand levelled and suitably laid out for the sand competition area .
The sand arenas had to be watered in the hot summer months. Resource consent was granted for a limited amount of water to be drawn from the River to water this area so a pump and irrigation system was eventually set up with a flood tank installed.
Unsung Heroes:
The people who volunteered their time became Foundation Members and received a “Foundation Membership” Certificate.
The names on the Honours Board as Foundation Members are:
Heather Taylor
Dawson Family
Eric and Glenis Betty
Doug and Wiki Hawkens
Di Smith
Pat and Doug Pickin
Wade Family
Martin Letley
Waikato Dressage Group – (Now Dressage Waikato)
Bradding Family
Wardlaw Family
Pat and Stan Smith
Lorraine Geer
Viv Clarke
Sandy Larsen
Libby McLuskie
Eric, Doreen and Debbie Knowles
Shirley Downey
Tom and D Atchison
Gordon Grigg
Noeline Jeffries
Linda Holmes
Richard and Val Askew
John Fitzgerald
Kevin and Merrilee Reynolds
Ron Patterson
Bill and Judy Hall
D and M Gower
Susan Jensen
S P Carey
It was these members who voluntarily paved the way in the early days to set up the facilities, grazing and riding school at the Waikato Equestrian Centre. Some of these people have moved on or passed away.
A tremendous effort by horse enthusiasts who could see the benefits of an Equestrian Centre situated in the city of Hamilton so that riders of all ages and abilities could enjoy the facilities and ride in a safe environment.
In conclusion I would like to emphasise that this was a team effort over the years involving many people. Without their dedication and time, this would not have eventuated.
Many people have come and gone but all their input has not been forgotten.
I would like to invite other people who were involved, to carry on this story with their memories.
Noeline Jeffries
Patron – Waikato Combined Equestrian Group (Inc)