2007 December | Chris's Blog

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Archive for December, 2007

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Boxing Day Meet

Wednesday, December 26th, 2007

Glamorgan Hunt meet in Cowbridge on Boxing day and Jen and I decided to go. At 8am this morning the weather was grey and drizzly both horses were in the field and fairly muddy, it was tempting to stay in bed. Jen took Buffy and being a coloured pony it took some doing to get it looking half tidy(nice tail plait thou). Muppet being bay was much easier, a quick wash of the tail and legs and a good groom and we were presentable. Muppet is 7yrs old, not particularly fit and hasn’t hunted before so we decided to go for an hour. I changed both snaffle bits for 3 ring gags having hunted Buffy before I know the gag works otherwise it puts it head down leans on the bit and goes with no brakes and I just felt Muppet being shire x TB would need brakes. We loaded the horses on the lorry and parked up in the cattle market in Cowbridge. The Hunt met in the car park at Arthur Johns behind the main street. Arriving at the meet we were both offered a glass of port(Warms you up on a cold day). After a short speech by the Master the Hunt set off down the main street. Cowbridge is very supportive of Glamorgan Hunt and many people lined the streets clapping as we rode by. There were 102 mounted followers out. Buffy was a little strong to start but soon quietened down. Muppet was a getting excited and insisted on cantering down the main street. The Hunt continued along the main street and then left for Aberthin. On reaching Llanquain road (still cantering) we then turned right onto the downs which is a steep, long hill and quite muddy at the top we had a short canter, then proceeded down the hill which was quite treacherous in places arriving back on the Llanquain road further along(pointless excercise I felt) . My friends have land along this road and were at their gate watching so I made Muppet stop and chatted to them whilst the rest of the hunt rode by. We then carried on along the lanes and went into our first field. Both horses were tiring abit but we stood for a while in the field which gave them a chance to recover(and Jen’s legs), one horse behind us reared up and the rider came off but was unhurt. Several gulps of the hip flask and then we set off along a few fields, back onto a lane and into another field which had a partially open gate so the horses had to wait on the lane and go through one at a time, the problem with this is as soon as the people go through the gate they take off across the field leaving the horses that haven’t got through yet very agitated and anxious to go, therefore nearly taking your legs off on the gate. Muppet went through steadly then walked in the field till I told him he could go. I like horses to have manners when hunting and so many don’t, having been allowed to go when the rest go. I expect mine to stop when I want to stop. Having gone through a few more fields we arrived in Welsh St Donats and decided to say Goodnight (Traditional to say goodnight when leaving a hunt no matter what the time of day) We met Steve at the Forestry car park and loaded them up to drive home. I enjoyed the Hunt on Muppet and will take him again possibly New Years Day although he may be much worse next time as I often find the first time they are good because they are in shock and the second time they think they know what they are doing. Since the hunt now follow scent as opposed to catching foxes they are inclined to cover more ground and move faster so horses need to be very fit to stay out any length of time.

Posted on Wednesday, December 26th, 2007 at 8:02 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Christmas Gymkhana

Tuesday, December 25th, 2007

Every year we hold a christmas gymkhana on the day befor Christmas eve. It means an early start usually about 7am to get everything in mucked out groomed fed etc before we start decorating the ponies with tinsel and baubles. This year we all managed to sleep late so it was a bit of a mad rush to get everything ready. A big thank you to Kate, Malissa, Zoe, Kerry and Angharad who did turn up early and gave us a hand. 42 kids came and Freya (in her mother christmas outfit) and I sorted them out into 5 groups to play games. Some of the kids looked very festive in their tinsel or christmas outfits. The first couple of games were a little hair raising, some of the ponies were a bit fresh and a couple of ponies had tinsel removed from their tails rapidly when they obviously didnt like it but they all settled down and the day went well with only one fall (Alex off Sid) Lots of rosettes were won and Jodie and Thor won the final race. We finished at 3pm and were very grateful to Jemma Carys Jodie Hannah Sarah Emily and Kerry who stayed til 4 to us a hand to get everything out and the yards and stables finished which means we could finish a bit earlier too. Leigh was glad to finish due to a hangover from the night before and Freya was driving home to Essex and thanks to Jen and Tasha for all their help

A BIG thanks to everybodywho gave us christmas presents and cards this year. (Sloe Gin is very good sheena)

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

Posted on Tuesday, December 25th, 2007 at 2:20 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Riding School Staff Party

Monday, December 24th, 2007

Last Thursday was the end of term for our students and friday we had our staff party. This year we decided to have a fun day with the horses, after all the kids get to do fun days. The morning started with a polocrosse match Marina who has never played before, Freya and Sophie made up team A. After a quick talk about the rules which in our case are pretty simple they went off to discuss team tactic. Leigh Amelia and Jess, Team B waited to start. After the ball was thrown in Team B scored within 30 secs and went on to score every goal except the last, winning by approx 10 goals to 1. After Lunch an a couple of glasses of wine we continued with gymkhana games. Which was very entertaining. I was very impressed with Murphy’s speed and turns. Myself Marina Sophie and Freya won the first two games and Leigh Nadine Jess and Amelia won the next two with us winning the last one. Steve took on Sharon and Tasha and won. Everyone had a great time but sadly the day didn’t end on a good note. After we had all finished and Marina had told everyone too walk their horses off, we were standing talking and out of the corner of my eye I saw Jess and Sophie both riding Storm at the same time, Storm was alarmed and shot off at speed. Jess did manage to slow her down but Storm swerved and they both came off, It was not a bad fall but Sophie must have landed awkwardly. Jess was fine but Sophie was in pain with her shoulder. Sophie was quite distressed and seemed to be in a lot of pain so I called an ambulance. Unfortunately Sophie has fractured her shoulder. Sophie is out of hospital and home for Christmas. We hope she makes a full recovery and is back with us during the spring.

Posted on Monday, December 24th, 2007 at 3:00 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Weekend 15th Dec

Monday, December 17th, 2007

A couple of weeks ago Amelia took her BHS Stage 1 at Aberystwyth. The results came in the post on Friday and I’m pleased to say she passed, some of you will remember Claire Rosser who took the exam at the same time and also passed. Well done Claire. Saturday was a bitterly cold day which I started (after the usual cofee and organising the ride list) teaching a lesson in the outdoor school. The lesson got off to a bad start when 10 mins into the lesson I noticed Jane was lame, so I managed to get another pony brought up which arrived without a riser pad under the saddle and the girth was too big. Please staff, helpers on the yard etc check that you are tacking up the ponies with the correct tack and that you check the fit of the saddles and please remember you must be at least level 3 to be tacking up or putting rugs on and even then the senior staff on the yard should be checking. After taking Martha skiing in fairwater, which I spent a pleasant hour sitting in the car reading my book (Marley and me, very sad in the end) . I then fought my way around a car park and store amid desperate Xmas shoppers to buy 14 selection boxes for prizes for the evening show jumping. Getting home in time to grab a quick sandwhich before printing out the courses plans for the evening. The evening show jumping was fairly busy and the selection boxes seemed to go down well Although I am a bit confused as to why one parent wished to have a 99p selection box for first prize as opposed to £6 prize money!!! The show jumping and yards were finished by 8.50 pm on another bitterly cold night. Its strange how I spend the whole day in layers of clothes and thermals and then by 9.50 I am going out for the evening in one top and a pair of jeans. Unfortunately getting in at 3am mean’t I didnt wake up til 8.20 which was a bit of a problem as we were supposed to be leaving at 8.30 to go to the BSJA show jumping at Sunnybank with Leo and Destiny. So several layers and thermals back on and a mad rush we did manage to arrive just after her class had started but with time to enter. Amelia had forgot her jacket but managed to borrow one. She jumped clear on Destiny in the first class but unfortunately missed a fence out. Amelia took Leo in the 1.10m and had a fence down in the jump off but that is the first time they have jumped a track that big so they did well. Jennifer rode Cleo in the evening, she is starting to get a bit fitter and hopefully will be able to do some lessons soon.

Posted on Monday, December 17th, 2007 at 2:05 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Horses Teeth

Friday, December 14th, 2007

When purchasing new horses I like to get their teeth looked at by our Equine Dentist. Having purchased a few recently The dentist came out last week to look at Leo who needed a good deal of rasping as he had quite sharp points and had probably not had his teeth done for some time. Cleo a 17hh IDXTB Looks like she has had her teeth looked after as they were in quite good condition and Storm a 14hh welsh cob who has come on loan, his teeth were also in good condition. Magic (see previous blog) was concerning me, we have had him approx 3 weeks now and he is not eating to well. The dentist came out to see him last week. He had extremely sharp teeth which were cutting the insides of his cheek and he had lost one of his molars and two more were loose to the point of making it difficult for him to eat. Consequently the dentist came back yesterday with the vet in order to sedate him and remove the teeth along with two wolf teeth. Magic is seven years old and should definitely not be losing teeth at his age. This is most likely down to severe neglect in his life at some point but probably not by the previous owners who only had him a year but they were obviously unaware of his problems. Which explains why he is so thin and possibly anemic. Hopefully now he had these teeth removed he will put on weight and a supplement of blood liquid will help with the anemia and lack of energy.

It is so important to have horse’s teeth checked at least yearly. So many horses are written off as problem horses or people put stronger bits in them because they need more control when sometimes the horses is just running from pain due to sharp teeth cutting into his cheeks. Lush grass and grain does not naturally wear teeth down in the way nature intended and horses can develop very sharp edges. Loose and bad teeth do prevent horses eating. Wolf teeth are very small teeth that sit just in front of the molars (not all horses have them) and can cause horses incredible pain when they have a bit in, these are easily removed by an equine dentist. Pippa was virtually unrideable when we had her, in canter she would just take off after having her wolf teeth out she has become a different pony. She was 11yr old when we had her so she has probably been passed from dealer to dealer as and labelled a bad pony possibly for years when she just needed her wolf teeth out. I am not saying this is the answer to all problems but at least if you know the teeth are ok you can go from there.

Posted on Friday, December 14th, 2007 at 1:17 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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