Chris’s Blog

Twitters from Talygarn

Navigation:

• Home
• Talygarn HomePage

Categories:

• College
• Home
• Horses
• Humour
• Pony Club
• Riding School
• Shows

Archives:

Search:

Meta:

• Log in
• RSS
• Comments RSS

Archive for June, 2008

Postcard from Mayorca

Posted on Monday, June 30th, 2008 at 3:57 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Cricklands June 08

Cricklands Show Jumping is held at the David Broome Event Centre in Chepstow. The June show is a Three day show so this means stabling the horses and staying at the show ground. We decided to take 5 horses Muppet for Amelia, Phoebe for Freya, Jynx for Leigh, Fred for Sarah and Carys. Jess brought Cleo up for me with her horse Billy. We left early Friday morning after packing the lorry the night before with 3 on the Lorry and Phoebe on the trailer. We found our stables when we arrived and then entered. Freya Jumped Phoebe and Leigh jumped Jynx in the 2′3. Jynx was a bit naughty and nappy and Leigh and Jynx parted company. Freya won the Class. Amelia and Muppet had 2 down in the 2′6 but he was fairly well behaved and only napped once. Leigh did better with Jynx in the 2′6 and although he had a few fences down he did get him round the course. Freya had some problems with the fillers in the 2′6 and Phoebe was eliminated. Sarah was riding Fred on the Friday in the Junior 2′3. Sarah held the lead in the Jump off until the last person went in and just beat her leaving her in 2nd place. In the 2′6 Sarah did a very quick Jump off and won the class there was lots of cheering and we celebrated with a can of lager. Friday afternoon Jess arrived with Cleo and Billy, Sharon and Jenni arrived later, so now we have two lorries 6 horses and 3 tents. After dinner of precooked spag bol with a couple of glasses of wine followed by several vodkas and a visit to the club we staggered back to the stable block to do the night hay and water. Somehow I managed to shut my foot in the lorry door cause severe pain and blood loss to my toe, Freya (proficient in First aid) gave me a wet wipe. The following morning I really thought I had broken my toe and I had a dressage test at 11.44 I couldn’t walk in trainers although my riding boots were a bit better, rising trot was a bit painful. I didn’t spend long warming her up due to the pain and although the test went OK she really needed a longer warm up but still at least I did it. Getting off was the next problem I couldn’t put any weight on that foot and 17hh is a long way down. Everyone did well in the jumping on Saturday although no one got placed except Carys who was 4th on Fred in the 2′3. Carys did very well as there were a lot more entries on Saturday. I was really pleased with Jynx and Muppet because although both are green and likely to take fences down (which they did although Muppet went clear in the 2′6) both can also be a handful to ride and nappy but neither of them were on Saturday and neither of them stopped at any of the fillers. The weather had been kind to us and it didn’t rain at all when anyone was riding but Saturday night was horrendous, thunder, Lightning, gale force winds and heavy rain. 10 of us in my lorry was a bit of a squash, Several more vodkas needed (medicinal purposes for me obviously). I was so glad I wasn’t sleeping in a tent, I’m surprised they were still up in the morning. The lorry was bad enough, Sunday everyone went for a hack but no one jumped as it was on grass and slippery. We watched the Renault Jump series with some of the top riders jumping 1m50. Then packed up and loaded the horses. Phoebe traveled on the trailer. We traveled all the way on the motorway to where the road works are near Cardiff when Phoebe seemed to become restless in the back, at this point I am in a single lane on the motorway (no hard shoulder) and the trailer is lunging back and fore. I was about to stop when she seemed still although to close to the window so I crawled on a bit more then we saw her legs rearing up at the window, and quite a bit of panicking so I stopped which immediately caused a tail back on the M4. We undid the side door, she had managed to get the breast bar down which was a bit of a problem as there was a secured wheelbarrow at the front of the trailer and had her leg over the Lead rope which I could not untie as she had pulled it so tight she panicked again lunged forward and caught her leg in the wheelbarrow but then stayed still fortunately, until someone burst the tyre on the wheelbarrow and freed her. She traveled the rest of the way home fine and apart from a few scratches seems none the worse.

Going to Majorca for a week tomorrow, toe is OK in flip flops

BBQ & OPEN EVENING TICKETS ON SALE NOW JULY 12TH 4PM

Posted on Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 at 11:06 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Mini Hunter Trials

The Mini Hunter Trials took place on Saturday June 14th and the weather turned out to be very good after having to postpone the event at Whitsun due to the rain. We had a good turn out and the day proved to be very successful. The course is small, approx 18 fences with no water or ditches and is most suited to novice or nervous riders or those with young horses. A big thanks must go to the parents who helped out on the day, Richard Groves, Jackie and ? Morgan, Sue Reville, Gaynor Blake and Helen Morgan Fence Judges, Graham Hunt Scorer (A few Hiccups there to start but he got it in the end!!!!) Rob and Mates course altering and Gate, Freya, Jess and Mel Brodie entries, Amelia score collecting, as it would be impossible to run without their help and thanks to Sharon and Martha for making all the rolls which Suzanne Jones spent the day selling along with other refreshments. Suzanne is a little nervous of horses and was happy to stay in the shop. We had a couple of falls although no injuries and one scary moment when a horse managed to put his foot through a fence and get stuck but thankfully we got him out and he was ok. Martha spent the day on the course taking photos (anyone who ordered photos, they are here for you to pick up). The funniest pair had to be Amelia and Jessica Rowe. Jess didn’t have a partner for the pairs so Amelia said she would go with her, trouble is Amelia is used to the course and does it all in a fast canter up and down hill which meant Jess on Murphy didn’t have a lot of option but to go too, Jess standing up in her stirrups and pulling whilst screaming ‘I AM trotting’ over and over again as Murphy was doing a very fast trot down hill to the ski jump was funny, Jess was quite red in the face when she finished but she said she enjoyed it even though she didn’t know Murphy could go so fast. Chloe Reakes won the Open on Eric at the last mini hunter trials when she was a lot shorter than she is now (Eric is 12.2) having now grown taller Chloe rode Fred (14.2) and still managed to come first. All the results are listed under results on the Competition page of the website.

Posted on Thursday, June 19th, 2008 at 2:04 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Stage 2 results

Freya and Amelia were expecting their results from their stage two exam next week so when Steve went to fetch the mail this afternoon from the post box he was surprised to find two A5 envelopes addressed to each of them. Amelia was in the house so we gave her the envelope, she felt this was a bad omen as today is Friday the thirteenth. She took her envelope upstairs to open and………………nothing so I went up and asked her and she said she had passed both sections (Flat riding/jumping and Horse knowledge/Care) I took the other envelope down the yard and sent Freya around to her caravan to open it alone so that she could have some time to herself to digest the outcome. Two minutes later Jess and I who were standing by the barn were deafened by the screaming Freya had passed both sections, the screaming was followed by tears which I have to admit was filling up my eyes too and Sharon who had turned up 5 minutes earlier was also shedding a few tears. I am so pleased for them both, there is so much pressure in BHS exams and they have both done so well. Leigh is taking his PTT in Devon next Monday and Jess is Taking her Stage 1 riding next Thursday.

Posted on Saturday, June 14th, 2008 at 1:46 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Stage 2/BBQ Prac/SJ

Yesterday Amelia and Freya took their BHS Stage 2 exam at Usk College which involves theory practical riding flat and show jumping and Lunging. Both felt the exam went reasonably well although Amelia wasn’t impressed with the horses she rode as one was very lazy to jump and the other difficult to canter. One of her horses tried to put a stop in and then jumped the fence with only its front feet. Doesn’t do a lot for you when your trying to maintain your professionalism and you have to have the jump taken apart and removed from underneath you! Anyway Amelia jumped the rest ok and the other horse was a bit better. Freya felt the jumping went well with the two horses she had. It will be about 10 days before they get their results. The exam is in two parts and you can pass or fail either part. In my day they called the results out in front of everybody……..Candidate No * Care Pass, Riding Pass or fail as the case may be, Fortunately I never failed one  but  I saw many a candidate leaving the centre with their fail slip in floods of tears, maybe thats why they don’t do it anymore,  Although I have to say I preferred  to know I don’t think I could cope with waiting 10 days to find out. I took my Riding and Road safety exam in Summerhouse in Gloucester 10 of us went from a local college in a mini bus, 2 failed, It was an awful drive home.

Saturday we started the practices for the Open evening and BBQ. Our first practice was for the gymkhana  we tried out about 10 ponies and I was quite impressed with them. Today we had the first of four practices for the musical ride. Fred and Cazzie decided they did not like the music at all and there were some hair raising moments especially  in the canter, Lucy has been off with some lameness for the last few weeks but I am hoping she will be able to take over from Fred who was a bit of a nightmare for Chloe. Not that Chloe seemed to mind the speed he was going.

Sunday Amelia Jumped Leo at Smugglers Run which is somewhere on top of a mountain near Blackwood, Nice place, lovely flat fields, although I imagine it attracts the snow in the winter but it was a sunny day in fact quite hot. As Amelia was about to go in the ring for the 1.05m I switched on my video camera to find that the battery was completely flat. Amelia and Leo won the class and had one fence down in the jump off of the 1m10 and was 4th.

Posted on Thursday, June 12th, 2008 at 12:39 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Main Site Links

Visit Our Blog

Visit Our Forum

BHS/NVQ Training

Pony Club

Competitions

Gallery

Horses/Ponies for sale