2007 August | Chris's Blog

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Archive for August, 2007

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Show Jumping at Talygarn

Friday, August 31st, 2007

Todays riding school show jumping competition was run by the older pony club centre members in order to raise funds for their Halloween Party (Sat Oct 27th) The day started with a lead rein class, one child fell off when the leader (Jess) was a little enthusiastic running around the corners but she got back on after a few tears and completed the course. Well done laura. the rest of the day went well without disaster. The funniest class had to be the parents class, most of which had never ridden before. Well done to Dai Hughes on Quattro who has never ridden before but managed to win the class. In 2nd place was Julian Edwards whose comments were to do with wedding tackle. Sheens Davies was extremely brave as she was visibly shaking when mounted on Murphy but still managed to get a fifth place. All were led except Judith Rosser who had ridden before but not jumped. Huw Cogbill who was 6th had the fastest time but unfortunately knocked a fence down. I think the kids really enjoyed (or were very embarassed) to see their parents have a go. Strangely none of the parents opted to have a go in the bareback class. Carys did well to stay on whispa who had a bit of a bucking fit, not an easy task without a saddle. The committee members also made cakes to sell and raised £39 and they made over £200 in total on the day after the cost of the rosettes.

Posted on Friday, August 31st, 2007 at 12:14 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Camp

Wednesday, August 29th, 2007

Monday August 27th ten kids aged 11 to 15 arrived for camp. Instructor for the camp was Laura Jones Griffiths who arrived on Monday morning dressed in a very fetching Canary Yellow. First task of the day was to fetch horses in from field, groom, wash tails and plait. The Traditional camp lunch going back about ten years now and consists of ham or cheese sandwhichs, jam doughnuts, mini rolls or apples, crisps and squash. After Lunch the kids had a flatwork lesson and a fun lesson til about 4pm. Then put out the horses, cleaned stables and cleaned tack. Salad and BBQ for tea, then I rode my horse while Leigh and Amelia ran a quiz and treasure hunt, Everything going well so far. I agreed that the kids could bring a chocolate fountain plus chocolate, bananas and marshmallows to camp, thinking this would be a simple thing, (I was mistaken) I did not realise this fountain would require electricity and a considerable amount of setting up and really needed to be done in the kitchen. Consequently I had 4 teenagers melting and stirring numerous large bars of chocolate in my kitchen, apparently the chocolate has to be thinned to work properly so they added copious amounts of cooking oil. As they needed to keep it plugged in and could hardly eat it outside I ended up with 14 kids in my kitchen and chocolate running down their arms over their faces and dripping off the work surfaces and down the table (Great Fun!!!!! Don’t ever buy one) Also Cooking oil and choc in my opinion does not taste nice. Leigh then took them down the indoor school to play football, while I cleaned up ( at approx 11pm). Now the indoor school in the summer is very dry and dusty, sticks well to chocolate as you can imagine, Feeling the need for a glass of wine my friend and I went to supervise. Only to see the ball hit one of the indoor ceiling lights and dislodge one of the chains hanging it up so that it was half falling off. These lights are very high up and not easy to get too. After a game of duck duck goose which I did participate and ran a few laps we managed to get them to bed. I did ask them to calm down and go to sleep at about 1am and then I shouted at 1.45am and it was a bit quieter after that, Although I think it was more like 3am before they all went to sleep.

Tuesday All up at 7.45am Horses in and then breakfast. (Some looked rather tired) and then show Jumping in the field. Everyone rode well and only Nancie bit the dust. Steve whilst out spotted one of those vans with a crane type lift on it, he managed to pull the driver over and offered him £20 to come and put light back up (brill!! job done) Lunch was followed by polocrosse, 3 teams played and team 1 were the winners managing to score 2 goals in 4 matches so well done Eleri, Carys, Jodie and Josh. After tea they went swimming, which means chocolate and dust is now in pool and kids are cleaner. I didn’t go swimming but I understand Leigh got a good drowning, game of football at 10pm although I managed to avoid that one. Sarah fell over leigh playing a strange sort of game which involved a lot of running and tackling and bent her wrist. Wrapped a wet tea towel round her arm (Glad I did that first aid course). Drinking choc and biscuits in the kitchen at midnight, bed by 1am and I didn’t hear a sound from them, so didnt have to shout at all.

Wednesday, Breakfast was a little late, glad this is only 3 days and not 5 kids are getting tired now, Cross country practice in arena (Alex and Eleri fell off) and in the field this morning, followed by lunch and gymkhana in the afternoon, which was most entertaining as it was done bareback and several fell off. Staff looking somewhat jaded by this time. We had a presentation at 4pm and the winners were, for showjumping (Jessica R) grooming (Hannah) plaiting (Sarah) tack cleaning (Hannah) gymkhana (Hannah) with Alex winning the paper cup award for the most entertaining kid on camp.

Posted on Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 at 9:31 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Double Meanings

Sunday, August 26th, 2007

What the advert really means:-

Event Prospect:- Big, fast horse
Dressage Prospect:- Big, slow horse
Pleasure Prospect:- Pretty color
Sporting Prospect:- Short, fast horse
Barrel Prospect:- Fast horse which can turn
Endurance Prospect:- Fast horse which will turn sometimes
Show Jumper Prospect:- Fashion icon
Hunted in Ireland:- kamikaze (suicide mission)
Fun for all the family:- All the family laugh their socks off while each member trys to stay on
Jumps small fences:- Doesn’t jump big fences
Jumps Coloured Poles:- Doesn’t Jump Fillers
Been Cross Country:- Went for miles before he could be stopped
Good at lateral work:- Spooks at everything
Ideal Lead rein pony:- Don’t ever take it off Good all rounder:- Not particularaly good at anything Flashy:- White sock
15′2″ hh:- 14′3″ hh
16′2″ hh:- 15′3″ hh
Big trot:- Can’t canter
Nicely Started:- Lunges, but we don’t have enough insurance to ride him yet
Bold:- Runaway
Good Mover:- Runaway
Atheletic:- Runaway
Quiet:- Lame in both front legs
Dead Quiet:- Lame in all four legs
Good in Traffic (Bombproof):- Lame all around, deaf, and blind
Pony type:- Small and hairy
Arab Type:- Looks startled
Thoroughbred Type:- Looks terrified
Cob Type:- Fat
Easy to catch:- Dead
Elegant:- Thin
Well-Mannered:- Hasn’t stepped on, run over, bit, or kicked anyone for a week
Professionally Trained:- Hasn’t stepped on, run over, bit, or kicked anyone for a month
For sale as no jockey – he’s killed everyone we’ve put on his back
Cribs occasionally - cribs in the stable, in the field, when tied up, and sometimes even when being ridden
No time to do justice – and no death wish, either!
Not novice ride – velcro bums only need apply
Loves children – but couldn’t eat a whole one
Should Mature 16 hands :- Currently 14 hands, dam is 14′2, sire is 14′3, every horse in his pedigree back 18 generations is under 15 hands, but this horse will defy his DNA and grow.
To Loving Home Only:- Expensive
To Show Home Only:- Very Expensive
To Good Home Only :- Not really for sale unless you can 1) Pay twice what he is worth 2) are willing to sign a 8 page legal document allowing current owner to tuck in bed every night
For Sale Due to lack of Time:- Rider cannot afford to spend any more time in the hospital
Any Vet Check Welcome:- Please pay for us to find out what the !@#$ is wrong with him!
Recently Vetted:- Someone else found something really wrong with this horse.
Must Sell:- Weekly running costs of horse has sent us into voluntary liquidation
All Offers Considered:- Desperate to get rid
Will consider loan:- Very Desperate to get rid

Posted on Sunday, August 26th, 2007 at 2:53 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Pony Club Championships

Thursday, August 23rd, 2007

This year the Pony Club Championships are being held at Shelford Park Nottingham. My Daughter and the rest of the team from Llangeinor Pony Club qualified at the Area Dressage, hence a visit to Nottingham, We travelled up on Monday and it is quite a long drive from South Wales to Nottingham and stayed overnight at a private yard in Wymeswold near Loughborough. I have to say the yard was fantastic, the owners were away but the yard staff couldnt have been more pleasant and helpful we were given full use of their facilities which included large outdoor school with 60 x20 dressage arena laid out to practise in, beautiful internal stabling, shower rooms for the horses (with warm water) and shower room for us to use too. We arrived at the Championships around 9am. Although it was a dry day it looked as though it had been raining a lot the previous days as it was very muddy with a lot of lorries and trailors being towed in and out by tractors.

We weren’t expecting to do tremendously well in the event, although Victoria Tamplin got an Individual 4th in her arena and everyone worked very hard and rode extremely well. Despite the fact that the team was not placed the kids enjoyed the day and it was a commendable achievement to get to the Championships. It is a shame that all competitors aren’t given something to commemorate their visit.

We were a little disappointed with the dressage area. My daughters arena was bordered by the main road and the entrance to the site , throughout her test she had a continual stream of lorries revving up through the mud as did another member of our team and although it probably didnt make any difference to my daughters test it did to the other person. Also the dressage warm up area was an absolute nightmare and dangerous it was impossible to ride a circle in trot without crashing into at least three others. I have never seen so many horses trying to warm up at one time. perhaps a rethink is needed there. It was a shame the weather wasn’t better as there were many events on and it would have been nice to see more public watching. We watched some of the show jumping and a marvellous dressage to music display by Pammy Hutton.

Posted on Thursday, August 23rd, 2007 at 2:14 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Friday

Saturday, August 18th, 2007

Todays been a strange sort of day. Three potential students to to assess for BHS stage 1 course and pony day on at the same time, then cctv guys turned up to adjust cameras but no one told me they were coming and as I couldn’t be in three places at once they had to go. 13 kids on pony day and several over excited ones did make the day difficult for the staff and I did sympathise but thought it best not to intervene. Took all three students on to start in september (I like a challenge). No really they will be ok, nice bunch. Have 6 full time now and 11 part time plus the two horse owners courses. Going to keep me busy I think. Spent two hours this afternoon trying to open the tescos site so I could order some food and then rode my horse. Finished the evening off with two large glasses of wine at a neighbours house (Don’t want to look like i’m in the pub all the time) PS leave a comment, click on title and a reply box will come up at the bottom of the page

Posted on Saturday, August 18th, 2007 at 12:55 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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