2007 September | Chris's Blog

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Mini Show Jumping Tonight 5.45pm 2012/02/08
Mini Show Jumping Wed 8th feb 5.45pm Schedule A To be held indoors. Classes LR 1'6 1'9 2' 2'3 2'6 Entries £7 per... http://t.co/tY4nnghO 2012/02/01
Dressage Feb 5th cancelled Next Dressage Sunday March 4th 2012/01/28
25th Jan Wednesday evening show jumping 5.45pm starts with 2' clear round then 2'3 2'6 2'9 &3' qualifiers for... http://t.co/lKilSp6L 2012/01/25

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Archive for September, 2007

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Lincoln

Thursday, September 13th, 2007

My Horse Lincoln is a 16.2hh 9yr old Gelding sire, a TB dam Fresianxcob. I was going to ride him today but as is sometimes the case just ran out of time so at 8.15 I decided to put him out in the field. I went into the stable, put a headcollar on, was just putting the rug on when he gave the door an almighty kick, the bolt bounced back and as I was behind him there was nothing I could do to stop him leaving. On sensing his freedom he cantered up the yard towards the lesson going on in the outdoor school with me running behind him shouting to Nadine who was teaching to warn her. He then swerved around the office appearing again at the school and and being very dark bay he’s not exactly easy to see in the dark, he then made a dash up the lane along side the school with Nadine running as fast as she could to get to the gate before he did, glad it was her not me she was faster. She made it just in time, but could not catch him, he turned and proceeded to canter back down the lane past the lesson. Kelly who was riding Jynx and had been worried about riding him as last time she rode him she fell off twice was now doing an acrobatic display in the school and so was Amelia on Destiny. Fortunately no one fell off and Lincoln was eventually caught and returned to the field.

Posted on Thursday, September 13th, 2007 at 11:59 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Kelly

Thursday, September 13th, 2007

This blog is for Kelly. Kelly has been riding at Talygarn for some years, Rachel Carly and Kelly used to come for a weekly private lesson with Emma Davies. On the odd occasions I taught them I have never met a more negative bunch in all my life. All were in Uni at the time studying for degrees which Rachel and Kelly have never used and Rachel is now doing a different one. Not sure about Carly she moved to London and I haven’t seen her since. Kelly is a little vertically challenged (and Rachel) which has its advantages as she can rider smaller horses and bigger ones even if she does look like a pimple on a haystack. Kelly has become a Yale student and has passed several exams and now teaches here on a sunday and runs Pony Club D & D+ practical and theory lessons on a saturday (Kelly’s Club). Kelly and Rachel still ride in the adult lesson on a Thurs evening. 3 weeks ago Kelly managed to fall off Jynx twice in one lesson although she was outdone by Rachel who managed to fall off him 3 times when riding him. Jynx has a few issues with canter but Kelly rises to the challenge and managed a brill 15m half circle on him tonight on both reins. Although I did think she was gonna be on the floor at one point when I lost Lincoln whilst putting him out and he galloped past the school, I think it brought back memories of Jynx’s racing days to him. Kelly and Rachel have a ritual every Thurs where they ride 8 til 9 then stand in the car park and talk for two hours in all weather.

Posted on Thursday, September 13th, 2007 at 11:59 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Buying horses

Thursday, September 13th, 2007

Being a bit short of Horses I need to look out for a couple to buy. Buying horses is just not as straight forward as you would think. Started work at 8am rode in a lesson for an hour at 10am then Leigh and I left before midday to see two horses in West Wales. We arrived at the first around 1pm, the horse a bay gelding of about 16hh and was loose in their outdoor school, he seemed a quiet friendly type, and was happy to to be made a fuss of. The gentleman owner (ever such nice people) walked into the school to catch him and the horse immediately ran away, All the horses run away from me he exclaimed, his wife went in and the horse came straight away, Leigh and I rode and jumped the horses it seemed a nice sort, maybe a bit nappy and not very schooled but we couldnt decide if it was lame cause there was something wrong with it or whether it was cause it had three shoes and very overgrown feet. So we moved on to the next one, pulling in a layby I tried to ring but couldnt get a reply so we stopped at the services and I succumbed to a cake (diet out of window). Eventually I got a reply and wrote down directions to her house, follow road to carmarthen turn right at primary school, pass houses, over brow of hill, house next to oak trees on horizon, trouble was there was lots of hills, houses over every brow and oak trees everywhere, eventually found house but lady that owned horse couldn’t leave to show us horse and horse was somewhere else. So left with more directions to find yard, which wasn’t easy as directions included one too many roundabouts. On finding yard the girl who was supposed to meet us wasn’t there so another lady showed us the horse, a fleabitten grey TB 16.2hh. It was at the bottom of a steep hill in a field, she went to catch it. We both rode it, horse was slightly unsound, very stiff and very lazy, was quite funny watching Leigh try to canter it he managed a few strides after an attempt in every corner, so not suitable. By now we have to drive home in rush hour traffic and arrived home to start show jumping competition in evening at 5.30pm, finished work at 9 and went to pub to try to work out when I have time to go an see some more

Posted on Thursday, September 13th, 2007 at 12:15 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

New Students

Monday, September 10th, 2007

Well the start of the new academic year brings new students to Talygarn. Tonight was somewhat hectic with horse owners level 1 and 2 starting plus enrolments for all students. Pam Jones our liason officer travelled down from the college in Wrexham to do inductions. So I thought it best get the place lookin a bit tidy, since I’ve had the kittens the place has become a bit of a tip, actually it was before the kittens. Those of you who have never been in the office before probably thought it was a bit of a tip anyway but those of you familiar with the state of it this summer can’t fail to have been impressed (It took me most of the day) Laura Jones Griffiths arrived to take the horse owners courses, Laura has an unusual dress sense still wearing the yellow jods (see camp blog) and sporting a pair of boots that must have come from the robin hood set. It has to be said Laura’s sense of humour brightens the course considerably, Between 4pm and 9pm Pam managed 42 enrolments over horse owners, stages and NVQ. Its always amusing to see the adults faces when faced with the numeracy and literacy papers they have to complete to enrol and the relief on the faces of those re-enrolling that they don’t have to do them again. We have 5 full time students this year Leigh and Freya are returning and we are welcoming Sophie Jess and Natasha. After seeing too a few horses and nearly getting run over in a stampede in the field in the dark, the kids got a plate of fish fingers for tea at 10pm

Posted on Monday, September 10th, 2007 at 11:43 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Cricklands

Monday, September 10th, 2007

About once a month throughout the summer, we go to a show jumping competition at the David Broome Event Centre in Chepstow. This weekend was the Derby Show, Leigh took Fred, Amelia took Thor and I took Blue, a 7yr old 16hh tbx mare. I’ve had a few issues with Blue, mainly in the stable where she is positively dangerous, and flips completely if you tie her up. So I’ve been a bit reluctant to try travelling her, I have been giving her the feed supplement Magic which is magnesium based and it has had a bit of a calming affect on her, so I decided to try her on the lorry and she travelled really well and has been calm all weekend. There was no jumping on friday so we settled the horses in the stables had a couple of drinks and an early night with Harry Potter. I jumped her in the 2′3 show jumping on sat and sun and she had one fence down. Amelia jumped Thor who was much improved on last time where he freaked out and wouldnt go near anything. Saturday was party night at the club and the theme was gangsters Fancy Dress. Leigh and Amelia got into the spirit of things. After a late night and several drinks we were up at 7am to get the horses ready to jump. The weekend belonged to Leigh (student at Talygarn) who Jumped Fred in the Derby Classes. The Derby consists of 13 fences in the popular arena which include banks, steps, ditches and dykes. You are timed in this arena and if you go clear you go into the castle arena where you take on another 11 fences which include a water fence, several steps, a water filled sunken road, a big stoned filled ditch and the Derby bank and then one final fence back in the popular arena. On sat Leigh did two classes and didnt make it into the castle arena but hardly anyone did all day, so leigh picked up a 2nd and a third and an overall Bronze medal and on sunday leigh had a fence down in the first class and came 3rd with a bronze medal and in his last class he jumped a nail biting clear and went on to the castle arena where he completed all 25 fences with 8 faults and received an 8th place