Week Beg 21/4/08

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. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.