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Archive for April, 2008

Week Beg 21/4/08

Monday, April 28th, 2008

Ive been asked by a couple of people this week where Jen is, so for those that don’t know she is working in Menorca running the entertainment for two hotels and then she is going to Cyprus to work and is planning to be back in July for the BBQ and the Miss Wales finals. The BBQ/Open Evening date has now been decided and it will be July 12th so mark it down in your diary, more information nearer the date. I have spent two afternoons approx 8 hours this week, which I don’t have the time for, trying to buy a sim card for a phone and because my address fails to show up on their blinking computer screen they turn me down. I don’t see the point its only £15 a month for a year and if i didn’t pay surely they have the power to turn it off, anyone would think I was trying to buy a house. Sorted it in the end after endless frustrating phone calls. My horse Muppet I feel is improving slightly, I think or maybe I’m just getting used to his erratic behaviour, I must say he has a very balanced canter and when he cantered diagonally across the area last week and straight into Blue, who is terrified of him,  apart from me having no control I did think he did it quite elegantly.  I have this gut feeling that he will jump fairly well  but it will probably be a 12 months down the line before we get there. Amelia has started jumping him and although he was very erratic on Wed he was calmer on Sat. He finds it all to exciting at the minute and therefore has a tendency to take the fences down when he meets then wrong but when he does get it right he jumps nicely and he has never stopped so far. I did hack him out with Leigh on Cleo last week, she has a calming influence on him and he wasn’t too bad although I don’t think I’ll venture onto the road yet after last time. The two new ponies which have arrived are doing fairly well Polo needs lots of fuss and handling to get used to everything and Jasper needs a bath and several square meals both jumped around the tiny fences at the show saturday and both were fine. Another new horse arrived on sat for a two week trial, a 15hh Arab named Athena. Alex and Sarah have been riding her the last couple of days she was a bit lively to start but does seem to be settling down a bit. We had another new pony today called Cazzie a 14.2hh chestnut cobby sort which I think Hannah is going to take on. We have 33 here now and that is our Maximum unless we sell any and there are one or two that need to be sold, Storm a smart black Welsh Section D approx 14hh being one that is up for sale. I was also offered the possibility of another show jumper today which I might take on if it does come up as it’s a very good prospect but I will definitely have to sell one then or build more stables. The show jumping Saturday evening went very well and was fairly busy. Jess one of our students has bought herself a new horse and she brought it down to jump and did very well on it for its first outing. Jess also jumped Jynx and won a 2nd, he has improved tremendously over this past few months and all credit for that must go to Jess. Today we have been to the Ponderosa near Newport for the BSJA we only took Leo as Destiny has a slight swollen leg. Amelia had one fence down in the jump off in the 1m class and was 3rd in the 1.10 which is quite a large course for amelia as the jump off is 1.20m but they really seem to be coming together now as a partnership. We arrived there at 3pm her class didn’t start till after 5pm and we got home at 9.45pm. Eating tea at 10.30 is not good for my diet. On Saturday Ella who normally teaches was away I taught the first two group lessons, Freya taught the rest of the group lessons and I got sharon in to teach the privates. Two of the children who ride in the first group lesson have mothers who then have private lessons, both admitted to be terrified when they realised Ella wasn’t there and they thought I was teaching them. How rude, I’m sure they would have enjoyed a gruelling lesson, they laughed and said I frighten them because I am firm with their kids and expect them to get on with it and they want to be wimps and have a soft instructor. but Sheena said it means I have ‘the power’ as I reduced them to quivering wrecks without even doing anything. I think I’ll stick with that.

Posted on Monday, April 28th, 2008 at 1:04 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

BSJA at Wales and the West April 08

Sunday, April 20th, 2008

Well summer is nearly upon us and that means outdoor showjumping and paying several visits to the David Broome Event Centre, near Chepstow. There are two types of competition for us at Broomes one is the unaffiliated weekends known as Cricklands loosely referred to as show jumping with a hangover and the other is BSJA which is taken a little more seriously. As Amelia now has two horses jumping BSJA we decided to make the weekend of the Welsh Masters (April 16th – 20th) our first weekend away this year. Entries need to be paid in advance so for those of you who think our show jumping competitions are expensive take a look at these. Stabling for two horses at £70 each, entries per class £16.50 – three days – three classes per day – £148.50, First Aid £4.00 per horse and membership £50 making a total of £346.50. I worked out that if she won every class every day, the prize money being £50 a class, with our agreement of going 50/50 on prize money the best I could hope for was a return of £225 and that’s without food and diesel. Not likely I think. Stabling fees are strange, the stabling for Cricklands shows is £15 for the whole show BSJA is £70 for the whole show – exactly the same stables thou!! Anyway we packed up the lorry, Loaded the Horses and Dog. Loaded the trailor with feed tools haylage rugs etc. and arrived at approx 7pm on Wed evening, weather very pleasant. Started the generator and lit the gas before Steve left. Settled the horses in their stables. Amelia tacked up and rode Destiny. Ten minutes after Steve left the generator packed up, the gas ran out and the evening became very cold. After a cold tea of chicken and salad rolls and doing the night hay we retired to bed. Getting up in a lorry at 7am in the freezing cold is not much fun but as Amelia’s first class was at 9am we needed the horses fed early. The worst thing about the grass shows is back to the studs although this year I put road studs in on the first day and they stayed in all weekend just changing them to bigger ones for the classes. The British Novice Class had approx 39 entries and is run under two phase rules Amelia and Destiny was 8th to go and took the lead with a very fast jump off which no one managed to beat therefore winning her first class. Unfortunately Destiny had a fence down in the Discovery. Amelia has only had Watts Middle March (Leo) since November, He is a very experienced horse having won over a £1000, which means he has won too much to go in British Novice, Discovery or Newcomers. Leaving mostly the Amatuer Opens. Amelia broke her foot in Feb and has been out of riding for six weeks so the pair of them have not really got it together yet. She entered him in the Up and Coming under 18yr olds which has some big fences and stiff competition. Just before the competition I discovered my farrier had not tapped his stud holes correctly and one shoe had no thread at all which meant finding the on site farrier to thread the hole for me. Amelia had a fence down with him but wasn’t pleased with the round she felt he was too strong and met most of the fences wrong. Steve brought us a new gas bottle up in the day, so that night we had the gas fire and cooker and managed to eat our spag bol with a couple of cans of lager. The following day Destiny took a second in the Brit Nov and a fence down in the Disc. Amelia dropped the reins to the bottom of the gag which gave her more control on Leo and she took the whole thing slower, she was happy with having more control and felt she met all the fences right but gained time faults. By this time on Friday the weather had turned very windy and was freezing cold prompting me to wonder yet again why I hadn’t encouraged my kids to take up an indoor hobby where I could have watched in the warm. Being too cold to eat a salad we went to the club for pasty and chips. Not having the generator meant I could not charge my phone but I spotted a socket behind a plant pot in the clubhouse and plugged my phone in hiding it behind the plant. Saturday was a good day and a little disappointing, Destiny took a second place in the Brit Nov again and in the Discovery had one of the fastest times but the last fence down in the jump off. Leo and Amelia jumped a very good round and went clear which she was very pleased with but he also had a fence down in the jump off with the 2nd fastest time but finished in 5th place. By now it was raining quite a lot and we were also wet as well as cold we packed up the lorry, loaded the horses to find that the battery on the lorry was flat. Not having any jump leads we had to wait til we could get hold of some before we could leave. We went to the showground office as Amelia’s winnings were £110 in total which is better than I thought we would do so can’t complain, decided to leave it in credit for the next show, at least the entries won’t seem so bad then. Destiny has now won too much to enter Brtish Novice so she will now move on to Discovery and Newcomers and we will put her up for sale this year. Some of the things I notice at BSJA Shows compared to the Cricklands shows at Broomes is the BSJA people have mainly very big lorries often with many horses on board and no one has a tent!! The queue is never that long for the showers prob cause they all have showers in their lorries.

Posted on Sunday, April 20th, 2008 at 1:12 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Ponies

Tuesday, April 15th, 2008

Having sold a couple of ponies I’ve been on the look out for some more. A couple of weeks ago I went to see two Bridgend way one of my students told me about. We arrived on this busy little livery yard with a small outdoor school. A very friendly lady met us and showed us the first pony he is a little coloured pony which she called George, 4 year old and in need of some good food and about 12.2hh. The lady’s daughter rode him then Sarah who came with us rode him he was very sweet and well behaved but the price was a bit high so we looked at the other one. This she informed us was a Haflinger and she informed us that Haflingers are palimino and from Ireland which is strange because they are normally chestnut and from Austria. I did point out that it looked chestnut but she insisted that it was dark palimino. It had a blanket clip and I assumed it was difficult to clip because it looked like a patch work quilt but she said it was her clipping. Anyway apparently this pony has a slight problem, it naps when you first get on it and bucks a bit. Her daughter rode it first and when she asked it to go forward it bucked a little it didn’t really want to go forward and each time she asked it threatened to buck the kid didnt seem to want to do anything about it despite her mother yelling at her to hit it. Anyway my daughter Amelia got on it next she asked it to go forward with her leg and it threatened to buck so she kicked it harder and then it did buck so she tapped it with the whip it then leapt and bucked continously in an almost perfect pirouette. After which it went forward cantered on both reins jumped and didn’t put a foot wrong. Which then made me wonder whether it would do the same thing again with another rider, so Sarah got on it I have to say you had to see it to see how funny it was, exactly the same thing happened again Sarah kicked it, it threatened, Sarah kicked it harder it bucked, Sarah tapped it with the whip and off it went again rodeo bucking in a circle and then was good as gold. I was impressed with Sarah’s stickability. We decided this wouldn’t be suitable for the school as I think I would have no customers left if they had to go through that everytime they rode it. I made an offer for the small pony and then we left. Several days later my offer was accepted and a few days ago she delivered the pony who was passported with the name Polo I commented that I thought his name was George but apparently its Polo. Saturday the same lady arrived with another pony a 13hh chestnut, again Sarah rode it in the school and it was very well behaved but another pony that looks like he needs a good meal or two. She took him home but brought him back today so we now have two new ponies. I Haven’t received the passport for the chestnut yet so I don’k know its name and I didn’t ask cause it will probably be something else

Lately Storm has been getting worse in her behaviour but being only 5 I don’t think she is coping with living in as all our horses do in the winter. So last week I chucked her down the woods with the ponies and she seems to have calmed down considerably.

Posted on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 12:31 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Team Show Jumping

Monday, April 7th, 2008

On Arriving home from the Horse Care Competition (see previous blog) about 7pm, All the team entries needed to be printed up for the team show jumping the following day. After an hours relax Freya and I and a bottle of wine sorted out the entries and course plans which took us till 11pm. It was a bit of a disappointing turn out entries wise for the competition with only Glamorgan PC, Millbrook and Talygarn taking part but we decided to go ahead as the kids were looking forward to it and it turned out to be a really good day. We were up at 7am in order to get things up and running, as yards had to be done, horses fed, course built etc as the first teams were due to start at 9am. The first class is a mini teams class, lead rein optional, Talygarn entered two teams, one team had done it before, Angharad kate Zoe H and Bethan and were mostly off the lead rein they came fifth and the other team who had never done it before were Emily Callum Darcey and Caitlyn they were all led and came 3rd. Millbrook were the overall winners of that class. The 2ft teams were won by Talygarn Hannah Carys Emily G and Zoe M and Talygarn also won the 2′3 teams with Leigh Freya Jess and Jo the 2′6 teams were won by the Glamorgan PC with Talygarn 2nd. There were no mishaps through out the day and although there were a couple of falls everyone was ok and for once everybody seemed happy and we had no complaints. The one thing I love about team jumping is the atmosphere and the fact that everyone is willing to help, Freya did most of the judging with some help off Amelia Jen and Hannah, Jess and Rob did the door for most of the day, Leigh did the entries and helped with some of the younger teams whilst Sarah and Jodie did the entries, Steve did the Food and I did all the photos (see the Gallery for photos on our Website ( www.talygarnec.co.uk) and the general organising etc. We finished around 5pm and the yards were done by 6pm so that mean’t an early finish other than the night hay to do. We have been known to finish at midnight in the past.

Friday turned out to be a very busy day with several things not going quite to plan and minor problems which take up so much time. I had 3 students play a polocrosse match against 3 of the older pony club kids which was quite funny the students can throw and catch the pony club kids couldn’t so they got hammered, more practise I think. Freya managed to bruise her knee and couldnt walk on it for a while, I rode my psycho horse in the afternoon after spending some time teaching Amelia how to lunge it with two lunge lines and I was very pleased with him he was actually reasonably well behaved. Just got back in time to teach the level 1’s. Lucy also had a nasty fall in the evening although is alright now. Spent some time with a customer who allowed his daughter to ride in a lesson even though he hadn’t paid to then tell me after the lesson he didn’t have any money, (Don’t try it I can be quite sarcastic when annoyed) by the time I locked up it was 10pm. Saturday wasn’t any better with a shortage of helpers it took all morning to get everything mucked out and I didn’t get the time to ride Muppet. Although I did manage to take Cleo out for half an hour as Amelia needed company for Leo.

Sunday was up at 6am to go to the British Open Show Jumping in the NEC in Birmingham I drove the landrover as Jen Amelia Martha Jess Freya Leigh Tasha and Hayley came too. It was a really good day with some nail biting show jumping events, and several really good display, I particularly like the Devils Horsemen who perform in many films and do all the stunt riding (don’t think we’ll be doing that as an Open evening Display) although the Arena Polo was very good and certainly worth looking into. Driving home was awful as it snowed really heavy between Birmingham and Ross and we got home at 10pm. Could do with a day off tomorrow as this last week has been non stop but students are back tuesday and I also have college visit, so registers to finish, Risk assessment to do and assignments to mark tomorrow and I must ride the nutter Muppet. PS for those of you who are wondering why i’m not in bed, the time on this pc is wrong

Posted on Monday, April 7th, 2008 at 1:09 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Pony Club Horse Care Competition

Monday, April 7th, 2008

The last week of the Easter hols has certainly been a busy one. After winning the Quiz at Warwickshire last Sunday. We then had two days to get some serious practise in for the Pony Club Horse Care Competition at Abergavenny. I entered two Junior teams and one senior team. The Horse Care Competition doesn’t involve any riding but is based on knowledge and practical skills, there are six sections which include a written question paper, 15 objects to be identified, putting together a bridle (snaffle for the juniors and double bridle for the seniors), preparing a horse for travelling answering questions on Riding and Road Safety and plaiting and each section scores 30 points. Freya practised with the teams on monday afternoon, taking apart and putting bridles together as fast as they could and I even saw some practising blindfold, they also spent time plaiting and putting boots bandages tail bandages and rugs on for travelling. We had another practise on tuesday with Freya and Laura. On Wednesday morning we left at 7.30am I drove some of the teams and Kim Hughes drove the rest, Freya came to support the teams. We called in Mcdonalds at Pontypool for breakfast as in now customary with pony club events. Arriving in Llanthony near Abergavenny after being stuck behind – a sports car would you believe for miles the Kids were ready to make a start. It was drizzling with rain on the way but it stopped when we arrived and it turned out to be a nice day. All teams did very well at putting their bridles together scoring nearly maximum marks. The senior team, Chloe Reakes, Carys Morgan and Sarah Blake scored 27 for their plaiting and this was the highest score of the nine senior teams that took part, they also did well on the riding and road safety, their scoring on travelling and plaiting were fairly good. Talygarn A Hannah Cogbill, Emily Groves and Zoe Morgan and Talygarn B Kate Owen, Anharad Hopkins and Zoe Hughes were against 14 other teams, their scoring in most sections was pretty good but the section which all three teams lose most points in is the identifying objects. One of the Questions which made me laugh in the question section was what is ’stringholt’ – it is an involuntary upwards jerk of one or both hind legs that can vary in its severity and the horse would be considered unsound by a vet, one of our team members had written Stringholt is a continous peice of rope used as a Halter – imaginative I think!! The junior teams were quite nervous but really wanted to do their best. All three teams were immaculately turned out and its lovely to be out with children who are so well behaved and polite. After a long day which finished at 3.30 the scores and results were put up, the junior teams didn’t get placed but weren’t last either and overall they did very well as some of them had never done anything like this before. The senior team did very well to be placed 3rd as there were no other centres there and they were competing against children in branch who have their own horses.

Posted on Monday, April 7th, 2008 at 12:12 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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