2008 March | Chris's Blog

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http://blogs.talygarnec.co.uk/2010/02/nestle-get-set-go-free-promotion/ I think they are having a laugh. 3 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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Archive for March, 2008

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The National Pony Club Quiz 2008

Monday, March 31st, 2008

During February two teams from Talygarn took part in the Area 10 Pony Club Quiz neither team did tremdously well against the branches but as the highest placed Centre team, Chloe Carys Emily and Kate qualified for the National Pony Club Quiz Finals in Warwickshire. Last night the clocks went forward so getting up at 6.45am was really 5.45am. Chloe and Amelia (Amelia was in the Llangeinor Branch Team) travelled up with Chloe’s parents, Sharon and Mike and Carys Emily and Kate travelled with Freya and myself. Freya returned from Essex last night as she wanted to take the team to the quiz. It has become a bit of a ritual now to stop at McDonalds when going to Area or National Events, it used to be on the way home but now it seems to be breakfast as well. Mike left from Pontypridd and we left from Talygarn and without any communication at all managed to arrive at Mcdonalds in Evesham at the same time. We continued on through Stratford upon Avon and arrived in Warwickshire College, Moreton Morell at 11am Fortunately none of the kids were travel sick. The team took their place in the large hall and after the team managers briefing the quiz commenced. There were seventeen branches and nine centres competing for the best branch and best centre. Each Centre and Branch will have won at Area level to qualify. The Quiz consisted of 8 rounds. The first round was 15 questions on the Pony Club, which is always a tough round as their are so many rules and so much to know. Do you know the name of the executive body responsible for the day to day organising of the Pony Club apparently its called The Management Board. This was followed by Horses in Literature and Geography another stiff round in which I only knew 4 answers. Talygarn didn’t score well at all in these first two rounds but neither did anyone else. These were followed by the foot & shoeing/first aid and Odd one Out. These rounds went much better and by half time Talygarn were lying in Joint 4th place with a score of 89. Due to I think a fire the Cafeteria was not open and lunch was a long queue outside to a burger van, fortunately the weather was good. After Lunch there was a practical session which involved identifying objects and was answered individually. Round 6 was horse and pony care/feeding which was answered in pairs. A picture round next identifying famous riders and lastly round 8 was entitled Call the vet. After the scoring had taken place three Centre teams had a joint score and had to have tie break questions. Places were then called out from 9 th place. I felt our team hadn’t done too badly, and thought maybe 4th or 5th (I had assumed that the three teams that tied would have been in the first three places) when the result was called for fourth place and that was one of the three tie break teams I could see it dawn on them that they must have won. When Talygarn Centre was called out in first place they were thrilled Sharon and Freya screamed and jumped up and down. They received sashes, silver Salvas each, A Large Team Silver Salva to be engraved, Rosettes, Lunch bags and Tack boxes and had their photos taken for the Pony Club Website. They also had their photo taken with the winning Branch which was Deeside Pony Club. Talygarn had a final score of 189 the 2nd 3rd and 4th place centres scored 188, so it was a very close contest. Leaving Warwickshire College at 5pm we stopped again at McDonalds on the way home and arrived back around 8pm so it was a long day but well worth it. You have yet again put Talygarn on the map at Pony Club and we are very proud of you.

Posted on Monday, March 31st, 2008 at 12:19 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Riding the Dead Horse

Friday, March 21st, 2008

Dakota tribal wisdom says that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.

However, in Corporate business we often try other strategies with dead horses, including the following:

1. Buying a stronger whip.
2. Changing riders.
3. Say things like, “This is the way we have always ridden this horse.”
4. Appointing a committee to study the horse.
5. Arranging to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses.
6. Increasing the standards to ride dead horses.
7. Appointing a tiger team to revive the dead horse.
8. Creating a training session to increase our riding ability.
9. Comparing the state of dead horses in todays environment.
10. Change the requirements declaring that “This horse is not dead.”
11. Hire contractors to ride the dead horse.
12. Harnessing several dead horses together for increased speed.
13. Declaring that “No horse is too dead to beat.”
14. Providing additional funding to increase the horse’s performance.
15. Do a Cost Analysis study to see if contractors can ride it cheaper.
16. Purchase a product to make dead horses run faster.
17. Declare the horse is “better, faster and cheaper” dead.
18. Form a quality circle to find uses for dead horses.
19. Revisit the performance requirements for horses.
20. Say this horse was procured with cost as an independent variable.
21. Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position.

Posted on Friday, March 21st, 2008 at 10:16 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Dengie Dressage Area Final

Tuesday, March 18th, 2008

Saturday saw the Area Final of the Pony Club Dengie Winter Dressage. 13 competitors had qualified and 12 entered. Several months ago I agreed to hold the area final as a venue had not been found. Before I went away in Feb I had two entries and up until the week before the event only a handful of entries and this does make arranging a judge difficult. I actually sat down with the book (and bottle of wine) and rang every List judge in Wales and couldn’t get one but I did find a Judge on the training list willing to do it in the end, Barry Kelvin-Hall. I am thinking they probably all had tickets for the Grand Slam. Which was another problem the M4 into Cardiff would be at a standstill for the match at 5pm and the Dressage started at 4.30pm. Anyway on the day I had to take Jen into Cardiff in the morning for photographs in evening wear, part of the Miss Wales launch of Dress.com I managed to get back to Talbot at 1.30 and then dashed to Instore to buy a couple of plastic Plant pots to stuff my plastic and silk flowers in, which I’d bought half price in Tescos. Buy this time it was raining quite hard. Grabbed some lunch and sorted out some judging sheets etc for the Dressage. At 3pm I taught the level 1 lesson who I must say have definitly improved since last week. Which left me 30mins to set up the arena for the dressage. Megan or Brooke helped me (can never remember which is which) Steve got the boards in and M or B helped me lay it all out and mearsure it and it looked very nice once the silk flowers were in place at the entrance. By this time it was now hammering down with rain. Barry was in place to start the warm up class, the first competitor was in the arena and I couldnt find the list of competitors. Amelia was writing for the judge and she knew who the first two were so they made a start whilst I rang through the torrential rain to the house to find them and photocopy them. As I was going back to the School the first competitor who had finished her test informed me that she thought I had put some of the letters in the wrong place. Nightmare, I raced back to the school only to find that the letters were in the right place and she had actually gone wrong. By this time our Area Rep Sandra Fisher had arrived, Its always nice to have people of a higher standing at these events it means from that point on I can use the term ‘Ask Sandra’ I did feel sorry for the kids having to warm up in such awful weather most were soaked right through. There was a lake to contend with around the indoor school and on the yard but the event itself seemed to go without problems, only one didn’t turn up and Victoria Tamplin from Llangeinor won the event with Sarah Williams fromDavid Davis 2nd. These two will now go to the final in Warwickshire. Throughout the competition I received updates on the rugby score from friends who were watching it in our local pub, everyone cheered when we announced Wales had one the Grand Slam. The problem with going to the pub later was everyone else had been in there since before 5pm and was blotto but the atmosphere was good.

Open evening and BBQ which I commented on a previous blog would be July 5th may actually be the 12th will let you know when I know for definite!!!!

Posted on Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 at 12:42 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Magic (Muppet)

Thursday, March 13th, 2008

Poor Muppet he has had such a bad start in life through neglect, Having been so quiet when we bought him (but poor) and then finding that he could hardly eat due to such neglect that he had to have three permenant teeth removed, I thought a rest might do him good whilst I was away but I think he is feeling too well now and anyone who has read the blog riding on the road will realise he has become somewhat dangerous too ride. Which is making me wonder if he was ever broken in at all or just ridden because he seemed quiet through being ill. So now I am trying to reschool him by working him on the lunge and riding him on his own in the school. He has been improving the last few days and we can canter a circle on both reins now although he still feels unpredictable and is still sensitive in his mouth which is understandable after the problems he has had with his teeth. I feel he is of a panicky nature and easily loses control of himself when he becomes unsure or over excited, probably the thoroughbred in him. It will probably take a long time for him to be confident and build up trust at the moment his reaction is very much wanting to run for it when he is scared.

Last week he had a peculiar lump which erupted through the skin around the sheath, on examining the lump it came clean away in the hand leaving a hole which bled for a while. No one has seen anything like it before and we have no idea what it is, anyway it lived in my fridge for a while and now its gone to the vets for investigation. I am hoping it may be just a cyst and not anything more sinister

Posted on Thursday, March 13th, 2008 at 9:55 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Miss Wales

Sunday, March 9th, 2008

I bet your wondering what this is about…. well not me thats for sure. My Daughter Jen who many of you will know entered the Miss Wales competition a while ago and got selected for the Semi Finals, which she attended. The event was held in Caerphilly a few weeks ago and 150 girls had got through from the first round. Apart from a short interview and Photo session the girls had to attend a motivational class which lasted throughout the day this included bending metal rods with there necks, breaking through wooden planks with their bare hands and walking on hot coal from fire in bare feet, the point of these exercises were to make the girls believe in themselves and believe that you can do anything if you put your mind to it, Jennifer enjoyed the day made lots of friends and was very proud of her broken wood. The girls were told that they would be narrowed down to under half the amount and the fnalists would be announced in the newspaper on Sunday the 9th March. Bought a Wales on Sunday this morning and there is a big spread on all the finalists and a phone number to vote for your favourite. Jen has made it through to the final which will be held in the CIA in cardiff on the 19th July. So if you want to show your support for Jen Dial 0901 229 1770 then key in the two digit code 57 or text 84080 type in WOSVOTE3 57. (Calls and Texts cost 25p make sure you have permission if need be) Jennifer will be raising money for Joshua Foundation which is a charity involved with terminally ill children and we will support the charity this year through our annual BBQ and Open Evening which is likely to be July 5th.

Posted on Sunday, March 9th, 2008 at 11:59 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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