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Archive for March, 2008

Pony Club Conference

Thursday, March 6th, 2008

On Tuesday Marion (District Commissioner for the Llangeinor Pony Club), Kath (Chief instructor for the Llangeinor Pony Club) and myself travelled up to Aintree in Liverpool for the Pony Club Conference. We stayed in a guest house in Aintree tuesday night and arrived at the conference at 9.30 the following morning. After the general welcome and Coffee we were seated in the Conference hall. Cherry Mitchel gave a welcome speech. Cherry is the newly appointed chairperson of Pony Club now that Mary Anderson has retired. Mary will be greatly missed as she was our Area representitive before she became Chairperson, we have enjoyed a good working relationship with much help and support for the centres from Mary over the years. Several speakers gave very interesting and informative talks on topics such as the pony club database, the importance of feeding fibre in diets and Grass Sickness. There was also a talk and short film by Major Erica Bridge RHA who is the first female Commanding Officer of the Kings Troop Royal Horse Artillery and is responsible for 168 soldiers and officers and 120 horses based in their St John’s Wood barracks, anyone considering a career with horses might find it very interesting, I was amazed how much they do. This isn’t the video I saw yesterday, I don’t think its been generally released yet but it is similar, www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sjeJ3hBypE . HRH Princess Anne joined us for lunch and gave a short speech after lunch as she is now stepping down as president of the Pony Club. The guest Speaker after Lunch was Ginger McCain the trainer of three times National Winner Red Rum. Ginger McCain is 77 years of age now but gave a highly entertaining speech about his love of racing, Liverpool and his career with Red Rum. Liverpool racecourse is a magnificent centre and with the Grand National only weeks away you could already feel the buzz of excitement. If you ever have the opportunity to go its well worth it. I went many years ago and stood at Beechers Brook, the atmosphere is Electric.

Posted on Thursday, March 6th, 2008 at 6:24 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Dressage Competition

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

On Monday we held a small Dressage Competition, I try to hold them the first monday in every month although they have not been running lately due to lack of entries and because I was away. I like to run them because it gives the students here the opportunity to take part and also some people like the fact that they are small classes giving people with young horses somewhere quiet to take them out. Tracey Bertorelli Judged for me. We had 9 in the first prelim but unfortunately, Ella had to withdraw as her young horse bucked her off in the practice ring. Marina brought her young horse Milly and she won the class, Jess had a 3rd on Michigan, Tasha was 5th with Phoebe and Jen on Cleo and Freya on Blue were joint 6th Jen had an unfortunate test it started off fairly well and then hailstones came down which is really loud on the roof of the indoor school Cleo became alarmed and although they managed to continue the test Cleo was very spooky. I rode my horse Muppet the one that’s turned a bit psycho lately he has never done a test before  and I knew it wouldn’t be good but we have to start somewhere. Officially we didn’t count because I had a martingale overreach boots and a gag on. The test was ok to start, with Muppet not really going anywhere then after the first canter it went down hill he cantered on the wrong leg on both reins broke several times and continued unbalanced and wandering but he didn’t buck or go demented and he did stay in the arena so that was good and if we had counted we would have been last but at least we can only go up and he has got nice paces. Leigh on Destiny was 2nd in the next class and Freya on Blue was 3rd. Hopefully he might do better next time on April the 7th

Posted on Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 at 4:52 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Sunnybank Show

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

On Sunday March the 2nd whilst other mothers are being spoilt and having sunday lunch. I took two of my students to Sunnybank show Jumping so I could spend the day in a large cold indoor school. Leigh took Fred and Freya took Phoebe. We got there in time for the 2′3 Freya walked the course and we got Phoebe off the trailer and tacked up. Freya mounted and shortly after her saddle slipped and she slid off by this time Phoebe was quite wound up and Freya could not get back on without her rearing this was overcome with a handful of grass. Freya jumped a in the 2′3 and the 2′6 and came third in both classes. Leigh took Fred in the 2′6 2′9 and 3′. Fred was overexcited at being somewhere different and was rather strong and not easy to hold. Fred was 4th in the 2′3 and 4th in the 2′9 but he was getting a bit tired by the 3′ and had a few fences down. I had a baked potatoe and beans for lunch and a cup of tea but I enjoyed the day its good to see the students getting out and acheiving something. I’ll be glad when Amelia’s foot is better (she broke it 4 weeks ago – plaster came off last week) and we can get her horses back out jumping.

P.S. Amelia broke her foot dancing in the kitchen and was not anything to do with horses!!

Posted on Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 at 4:22 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Hunt Ball

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

The Llangeinor Hunt held their annual hunt ball in Swansea this year on Friday the 29th Feb. In Previous years it has been held in the Coal Exchange in Cardiff but due to developement the Hunt has had to find a new venue. This year it was held at Brangwyn Hall in Swansea. I had a table for ten but transport there and back was difficult so my friend and I booked a room in Swansea on Oyster Road to stay overnight as this was a short walk away. Usually the ball is on a saturday so friday proved to be a bit of a rush to finish work, get hair put up, deliver my daughters dress to cowbridge as she was also going but with her friend and get to swansea, fortunately the traffic was not bad and we arrived by 6pm by the time we found the guest house booked in and changed we didn’t get to the hall until 7.30. We were supposed to be there at 7 to eat at 7.30 but I guess a lot of people had the same problem as it was a while before we were seated. Having rushed a couple of vodka and cokes at the guest house and having had nothing to eat. I decided to refrain from alcohol til after the meal. Brangwyn Hall is a long narrow shape with the stage and dance floor at one end which didn’t make it a very sociable venue. The meal was ok although the bread and butter pudding wouldn’t have been my choice of dessert and was rather cold. I think I would stick to something that should be cold for dessert when serving over 400 people, although the service was good if not a little hurried in the clearing away and you were likely to have your plate disappear before you had finished, maybe that was just our waiter being a little over enthusiastic. The band were good, I prefer the disco myself but a good night was had and we arrived back to the guest house about 2.30am. Saturday we had a bit of a drive around swansea harbour and the mumbles area.

Posted on Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 at 4:04 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Llanybydder Horse Sales

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

Thursday 28th Feb 3 of my NVQ Students, Jess Tasha and Rhian and myself took two ponies to Llanybydder Horse Sales, Cindy a 14year old 11.2 hh grey pony and Merrylegs approx 12yr old 12.2hh grey pony. Most people would call them White cause they don’t come any whiter but their correct colouring is grey. We left at 8am in order to allow ourselves plenty of time to arrive as I’m not the best towing and need plenty of room to park, actually I’m ok towing forwards its the reversing that gets me everytime. Its never a problem thou cause men love to prove they can do anything better than women so you can always find one to do it for you. Two hours later after several replays of Mikka we arrived at Llanybydder which is towards Lampeter off the Carmarthen roundabout. We actually made good time I thought it would take us more like three hours. In the car park I spotted a space i could drive straight into and as I was about too a 4×4 promptly reversed into it which then meant I would have to reverse and park up against the wall – the first man I spotted did that for me. Just before arriving I realised I had left the passports on the kitchen table which is a big problem as most sales will not accept horses without passports. After speaking very nicely to the auctioneer and convincing him this was a genuine mistake and I do actually have passports he agreed to sell them without passports as long as I promised faithfully to put them in the post straight away – Done. After booking them in we found a couple of pens for them put hay and water in and left them as their sales didn’t start till12 in the pony ring and they were one of the last ones in. Time for some ‘Brunch’ Several market stalls in the street sell a variety of food and their is also Tack stalls and a market there. The Horse Sales in the main ring started at 11.30 and the pony ring started at 12.15 on the whole most of the horses and ponies being sold were young and unbroken. I wish I had more land available to be able to buy some youngstock and turn them away for a couple of years as there were several youngsters I liked. My experiences of buying riding horses at sales has not always been so good. Many I have bought never seem to be what you think you are buying often being lame or generally not as quiet as you thought they were on the day, although I have bought some at Llanybydder which have been ok. Sid being one of them. Donkeys always seem to fetch good money at sales. All horses and ponies are sold in guineas at Llanybydder. Our two ponies were nearly last in the catalogue and it was about 3.30pm when they went under the hammer. Merrylegs was sold to someone in Llanelli and Cindy has gone to Abergavenny.

Posted on Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 at 9:30 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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