Chris's Blog - The Blog of Talygarn Equestrian Centre: Horse Riding in South Wales

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http://blogs.talygarnec.co.uk/2010/02/nestle-get-set-go-free-promotion/ I think they are having a laugh. 2 days ago
Come to "Unaffiliated Show Jumping" 21 March from 10:00 to 17:00. Unaffiliated Show Jumping Starts with Lead rein... http://bit.ly/dkAclC 1 week ago
I posted 4 photos on Facebook in the album "Amelia and Jaffa" http://bit.ly/cGBWie 1 week ago
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February 17, 2010

Show Jumping Competitions

Filed under: Home, Shows — Chris Rogers @ 2:27 am

Amelia has been doing very well with the show jumping. She had a a 1st with Destiny at Hand beating the winning time by 5 secs in the jump off and Leo had a 2nd in the 1m15 and a 3rd in the 1m20 at Pencoed on Saturday and qualified for the 1m20 at the Bath and West show. Whilst at Pencoed on Saturday I noticed there was unaffiliated jumping on Sunday for juniors and I decided to take down any of the Level 4’s that were helping on the yard on Saturday which turned out to be only Zoe Morgan. Jasper was eliminated in the first class as he hasn’t been out for a while and was spooking at everything although he obviously felt better about it in the second class as he won that one. Lucky was 2nd in the first class but had a run out in the jump off in the second class. Well done Zoe.

New Horses

Filed under: Home, Riding School — Chris Rogers @ 2:18 am

We seem to have the same horses for ages then several new ones come at once. Last week a 13.2 Liver Chestnut Mare called Abi came on trial for two weeks. She has not been ridden very often only once a week in walk and trot by a six year old child. I don’t think she will be staying as she is too nappy and refuses to canter without bucking. Yesterday a 15.2 Palamino TB x ID called Jimbob arrived He is only a four year old, 5 in May. He is very sweet but very green I think I may buy him and ride him myself for a few months until he is better schooled and jumping. I rode him out on a hack today with Amelia on Destiny, as we approached the lake a swan took flight. Destiny was horrified and promptly whizzed round and shot back up the lane a few yards. Jimbob stood routed to the ground, grew a hand and just stared at it till it landed. He was quite wary an wobbly in the school but probably not been in an indoor school before. Next week I have a 15hh horse coming which will mean being 2 stables short but Coffee is nearing retirement now, Polo is not settling very well to riding school and we do need to sell Destiny so maybe a few changes ahead.

February 10, 2010

Nestle Get Set Go Free promotion

Filed under: Home, Riding School — Chris Rogers @ 10:47 pm

I received an interesting letter from The British Horse Society yesterday regarding the Nestle Get Set Go Free promotion The British Horse Society are encouraging all BHS approved riding centres to join up. This is how it works. Nestle a multi million pound company encourage you the public to purchase their product, you collect the points from the product and when you have enough points we give you a free riding lesson. Nestle pocket the money from their sales to add to their large and successful business and give themselves a large pat on the back because the public are getting fitter and we the small business get nothing. Benefits to us are inclusion in advertising on their packs and their website and increased membership to our riding school. I wonder if anyone has ever done any research into whether this actually works because I have and it doesn’t. Over the last 2 years we have been involved in the E3 scheme in schools. We have had up to three schools a week riding here with up to 15 kids in ech session. We are paid for this service as E3 is funded but the children or their families do not pay so in effect it is free. In 2 years we have gained 1 student and 3 clients and we also have had clients who would normally pay cancelling to have their free lesson instead. I conclude from this that if people want to ride and can afford to ride they will, they won’t suddenly find the money each week or the desire to ride from 1 free lesson but they will take free lessons if they can and Nestle expect us to provide this free along with the cost of an instructor and general wear and tear. The British Horse Society state that we can give the free lessons when we are quiet maybe in the week. We are not a large riding school but we teach all day on weekends, Tues Thurs and Friday evening and run shows on Wednesdays to make ends meet, our horses have a day off on Monday and the rest of the time the kids are in school. We can’t afford to have free time sitting around on our backsides and paying the staff whilst waiting to give lessons away. If Nestle would like to be involved in providing riding for the general public perhaps they would like to buy the vouchers off us because I’m sure they can afford it we can’t.

Furthermore these points are going to appear on cereals confectionarand beverages. So whilst we are expected to help the public get fitter Nestle is acually encouraging them to get fatter

February 9, 2010

Dressage

Filed under: Home, Pony Club, Shows — Chris Rogers @ 1:55 am

With 50 entries in the Dressage yesterday I knew it would be a long day. I had booked two Dressage Judges only to find out on sat evening at 7pm that one wasn’t coming. So I am very grateful to Lynn Groves who stood in at the last minute. Steve took Amelia to The Hand Equestrian Centre in Somerset to jump Destiny and Leo. Which left only me to run the Dressage. Olwen Wilkins judged the first two classes and as I did not have someone to write for Olwen Sarah did it. Sarah was supposed to be opening the shop so I did managed to run back and fore and run the shop, the scoring and any other problems. Class 2 was started a little better Helen wrote so Sarah was able to do the shop. Tracey was clipping Fred for Zoe in his stable when I got a message to say that Fred had reared up and struck Tracey in the side with his front leg and she had hit her head against the wall so I left the Dressage and helped Tracey to finish Fred, Tracey was ok, bit shook up and probably very stiff today. Getting back to the dressage at the end of the class Carys added the scores up for me. Lynn Groves took over Judging for the next three classes which included the Pony Club Dengie Dressage. There was a concern over the Dengie as to whether it was allowed to be called which I have spoken to Pony Club about and it is allowed to be called at Prelim level. Very well done to Mollyann Rees who won the Dengie. It was a shame for Kate Owen who was representing Talygarn as the first four qualified and Kate was 5th but we were pleased she did so well. There were no particular problems in the day although some people aired some strong opinions regarding their unhappiness at some of the results. I would like to say that over the years when watching or competing I have sometimes wondered why certain people have won or been placed in classes but I am not a dressage judge and therefore accept the decision. When ever I have written for Judges that have judged for me I have to say that all judges although may have opinions that differ from each other always do their best to mark what is in front of them and to be fair. A friend of mine who is also a judge told me that British Dressage discourages judges from giving low marks these days in order to be encouraging at this level. I think and this is my opinion that if people are only marked between 5 and 7 with the odd 8’s then it does become difficult to seperate people and its anyones guess who will win. Many years ago when I did some Dressage if you did a movment particularly badly you risked a 1 or a 2 and I think thats the way it should be . Marking between 0 and 10 as it says on the Dressage sheet would make things much fairer. Very few people at the level of unaffiliated Dressage would receive a 10 and I have yet to see a score sheet with 10 on it but I have seen a lot of very bad (1) and bad (2) movements and those marks don’t come up either. If someone rides a sufficient movement and gets a 5 and someone else rides a poor movement but only gets a 4 then winning becomes a lottery. Instead of moaning about the Judges maybe people should complain to British Dressage about their scoring system and of course its never the people that win that complain. I would also like to say I saw some lovely riding yesterday and everybody was very well turned out. Amelia had a pretty good day she had a 5th on leo in the 1.15m and won the metre class on Destiny.

January 30, 2010

Sahara Desert

Filed under: Home — Chris Rogers @ 8:30 pm

We left the riad at 7am and met up with the group travelling to the Sahara. There were 10 of us 2 swiss, 2 chinese 2 Portugese, 2 Lithunians, us and a French speaking Muslim driver. The road to the Sahara goes over the Atlas mountains and Jen and I are terrified of heights. When I was younger I couldn’t have done it but I figure the fear is related to death and as death is getting closer with age there’s not much point in worrying anymore. We made a stop at Quarzazate for a visit to the set where they filmed Gladiator and for lunch, Tagine (stew) is the local dish or couscous, We had tagine yesterday but not to worry its quite nice. I was very brave crossing the mountains as the manic muslim driver was overtaking lorries with thousands of feet drops, Jen slept all the way, the views were stunning and the pass is high enough to be up in the snow. We arrived at Dades Gorge at 6pm. Lovely hotel – no heating, cold shower and meal – Tagine. We met an American couple and sat in a room we found, with the lithunians Natalie and Andreus playing cards and drinking beer accompanied by three moroccan staff singing, playing drums and marraccas. We stayed there till midnight – there was a log fire. During the night it snowed. After breakfast we left for the desert stopping on the way for lunch, managed to get an omlette the only other choice was a sandwhich or Tagine. We arrived at the Sahara at 6pm. It was amazing riding the camels in the Desert at sunset although very cold. The night sky was starry with a full moon. We arrived at the Berber Camp after 8pm and had been told to take only the minimum with us plus drinking water. Somewhere during this trek I managed to lose my phone. We were all given a mattress in a large tent and loads of blankets. Plenty of sweet black tea and Tagine which was served in two large bowls between ten of us, nowhere to wash your hands and no cutlery or plates. The Berbers then entertained us with song (well a sort of shrieking grunting noise) and music from home made drums. We figured the only way to keep warm was to join in. Later the Berbers gave us a sand board and Jen, Andreus and Roi (portugeses) had a few goes sand boarding down the dunes. I used it like a sled and sat on it, climbing those dunes soon got us really hot. In the morning we were up at 6.30am to see the sunrise and ride the camels back. Our driver was in a major rush to leave we stopped for a loo stop at 11am and were told that the mountain pass was to close for the night at 5pm because of the snow, after that the driver wouldn’t stop again and drove like a madman to make the mountain pass before it closed. We got through at 4.35pm and it was gone 6 before we got through the mountains and stopped for food. Tagine or cold chips.