Archive for December, 2008

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Review of 2008 at Talygarn Equestrian Centre

Wednesday, December 31st, 2008

Looking back over 2008 theres been a few changes. New horses arriving this year have been Michigan, Jasper, Polo, Lucky Cazzie, Murphy, Gem and Athena. Tessa went home back in January, Murphy left and Whispa also went to a new home to retire. After spending most of Feb in Thailand with lovely weather the summer here was somewhat disappointing with nothing but rain, several events were cancelled including our Mini Hunter Trial, although we did manage to run one and we did have good weather for it. The Pony Club Centre have had a very sucessful year. Our team won the National Quiz in Warwickshire. We sent a team to Derby for the Centre Equitation Competition and they came 3rd and our Senior Horse Care Team also came 3rd in Abergavenny. The Pony Club Centre has grown stronger this year with more children taking part in competitions and the Mini Pony club Centre which started in September for 4 to 6yr olds have already passed a couple of badges. We were very lucky with the weather for the Summer BBQ it wasn’t great but in view of how bad it had been we were lucky to get it dry, The displays were fantastic and the Costumes brilliant and the Halloween Party definitely gets better every year. Several students passed exams this year and we had a new intake of students in September. Amelia and I visited a French riding school with the view to organising an exchange visit which we are hoping to arrange in April next year.

So, much to organise for 2009 and I hope its going to be another eventful and successful year for the riding school.

Happy New Year

Posted on Wednesday, December 31st, 2008 at 8:38 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Talygarn Team Jumping December 2008

Tuesday, December 30th, 2008

Yesterday was another bitterly cold day for the Team Jumping but at least it was dry and stayed dry this time, We had 31 teams entered from Pentyrch PC, Llangeinot Hunt PC, Glamorgan PC, Millbrook Riding Club and Talygarn. The first class was the 1ft6 teams which started about 9.15 There were 9 teams and the overall winner was the Glamorgan PC with Talygarn being placed 5th and 6th. There was a bit of drama in the 2ft teams for one of the Talygarn Team, Murphy went lame whilst Alex was warming up and we had to have a quick swap and Alex rode Coffee who he is a bit small for and has never ridden before, but he jumped really well and the team went on to win the class. So well done to Kate & Hannah Alex & Coffee Zoe & Jasper and Carys & Buffy with our other Talygarn Team placed 4th. The 2ft 3′ had 8 teams taking part and was won by Glamorgan with Talygarn coming in second. There were 6 teams entered in the 2′6 but 2 teams withdrew aso we we were left with two teams from Glamorgan one from Llangeinor and the Talygarn team, after all of the teams had jumped in the first round they all went through to the 2nd round on a clear. The jumps were raised for the second round Llangeinor picked up a couple of faults so three teams went through to a jump off. 2 members from each team jump a shortened course against the clock, Leigh & Fred and Chloe & Lucy jumped for Talygarn, Leigh was first to go and made some tight turns, he jumped a clear in 27.56 secs, The next rider for Glamorgan Duns had an Elimination so that put that team into 3rd place. The first rider from Glamorgan Greys jumped the course clear in 27.50secs, Chloe was next to jump for Talygarn on Lucy, Lucy has always been good jumping but is 20yrs old now, Chloe made some very tight turns and Lucy rose to the challenge going clear in 23.90secs which left it all hanging on the last rider for the Glamorgan Greys, who also jumped a very fast round in 24.44. The overall result was a time of 51.46 for Talygarn and 51.94 for Glamorgan Greys, There was some loud cheering from the Talygarn supporters in the Gallery when they realised Talygarn had won. It was definitely a nail biting finish to the day and some very skillful riding. Well done to Leigh Humprey, Chloe Reakes, Amelia Rogers and Jessica Brodie. Pictures can be found in the Gallery of the Talygarn Website.

Posted on Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 at 1:29 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Boxing Day meet 08 – Glamorgan Hunt

Friday, December 26th, 2008

It doesn’t seem like that long since I wrote the last blog on Boxing day hunting but I guess it must be a 12month. This year Amelia decided to Hunt Destiny as we wanted to know what she would be like. Jennifer took Buffy, I took Fred and Amy rode Phoebe. None of the horses have done a lot of road work recently and although they are fit in the school they are not used to the demands of hunting, Jen and Amy have only ridden half a dozen times this year so they were anticipating a lot of leg pain but they were prepared to numb the pain with a hip flask of scotch. Destiny has a tendency to be bouncing off the walls so Amelia was anticipating hospital food for the New Year. Therefore we planned to go for the meet and not actually stay out hunting. Phoebe and Buffy being coloured cobs took a bit of hard work to get clean I’m glad Fred is bay, much easier, Quick brush over and washed his tail and he looked fine. We arrived at the meet in Arthur Johns car park behind the Hight street in Cowbridge in time for a glass of port. So many people turn out on Boxing day mounted and on foot. The hunt left the car park via the back lane and then came down the High Street The pavements were packed with people watching and clapping. We turned at the lights and continued on the main road to Aberthin. The hunt were unable to take the usual route down Llanquain Road as Tim Vaughan has his racing yard there now and I understand he has a runner in the Welsh National at chepstow tomorrow so I’m sure he wouldn’t want The Hunt riding through his yard. So they turned off Llanquain road up onto Stalling Down where we had a good canter. Steve brought the lorry to the car park at the downs and Sharon brought the Trailor. I have a feeling they would’ve headed over to Welsh St Donats and we were disappointed to leave so early as amazingly all the horses were very well behaved. Destiny was marvellous, Loads of people were fussing her at the meet and she seemed to enjoy the attention and did not seem fazed at all by so many horses being out, in fact I’ve never seen her so well behaved. But the choice was to leave then or be out another hour or more. Phoebe and Fred were already blowing heavily and covered in sweat so we decided to leave. Fred obviously had other ideas and we had some trouble loading him.

Posted on Friday, December 26th, 2008 at 10:35 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Christmas Gymkhana

Friday, December 26th, 2008

We didn’t have so many this year at the Christmas Gymkhana, probably due to the credit crunch etc. but what a lovely day it was, the weather was kind to us so not too cold. Ashton Carys and Bethan won the best Christmas costumes. The ponies look very festive with baubles in their manes and tinsel in the tails and on their bridles Because it wasn’t absolute mayhem we actually had time to enjoy the day and not feel so rushed and with less kids there was more chances of them winning more rosettes. The only one that fell off was Bridie who was OK, just a bit of a hurt finger. The instructor on foot one up polo race was quite entertaining and Amelia looking very smart in her Mrs Christmas outfit won it. The department of health and safety in their wisdom decided this would be a good day to come out and do their annual check on the burger van, you would think they would have better things to do like indecent office parties 2 days before Christmas. Taz told them off for making a mess on her floor but they seemed happy with everything anyway. All the horses were out and every thing was finished by 3.30pm, or not quite everything as Amelia and I found out later when we went out to do the night hay. Christmas eve Steve put hay in the fields and Amelia and Steve mucked out the four that were in. I rode out Destiny and Mealz rode Leo and Steve came with us on Michigan. After spending the rest of the day cleaning the house, wrapping presents and cooking the turkey we all went to the local pub with friends (Jen Amelia and Martha dressed in full Christmas costume and the only ones there that did) and then went back to a house party needless to say *Santa* had a little difficulty hanging the stockings at 2.30am. Martha woke us at 8am cause she is a sadistic child although she claims she is excited. The weather has been great all the horses bar 4 have stayed out so not too much to do, we got 4 more in this evening ready for hunting tomorrow. Pictures from the gymkhana are in the Gallery. Hope you’ve all had a good Christmas and a big thank you to everyone who bought us and the staff Christmas gifts

Posted on Friday, December 26th, 2008 at 2:14 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Olympia 2008

Monday, December 22nd, 2008

Yesterday Amelia and I travelled to London to watch the afternoon performance of Olympia. We went on the coach from Brynna with the Millbrook Riding Club. Arriving there at 12noon we headed for the shopping area Where I managed to spend a vast amount of money mainly on Amelia’s Christmas presents in less than an hour. I was thinking that maybe the coach should have left earlier to allow more shopping time but then again maybe not as I probably went through £500 in that time If your child should say they want a GPA Hat for xmas say no, I didn’t realise they sold at £275 although we did manage to get one at £220 (and its not even gold plated) and I won’t mention the cost of the BSJA jacket. We found our seats for 1pm to settle down and watch the displays. The speed stakes was a brilliant round of superb jump off skills and was won by William Whittaker. Next came the Dog Agility. Those sheep dogs are so clever such skill and speed over all those obstacles. The next display was Lorenzo the Flying Frenchman I have seen him a few times before and he never ceases to amaze me how he manages to stand on two horses and control another four as well as jumping jumps, bearing in mind how difficult Amelia and I found it just standing on one in walk in France http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk-6Z2dMBxc The Shetland Grand National was fun to watch but nowhere near as fun as ours is they are too professional and no one fell off but I did pick the winner which is typical the only time I ever pick a winner is if I haven’t got any money on it otherwise if I bet it it might as well not bother running. The next display was a musical drive by the Kings Troop, very inspirational, makes you feel like joining up, well actually no its never made me feel like joining up, I did consider it once years ago but when I found out they expected you to run 10 miles with a heavy ruck sack I thought better of it I mean if they had any common sense they would send the ruck sack in a jeep or hitch a lift. The next show jumping class I missed most of whilst spending more money, buying food in these places is no joke either. A pasty which they claimed was traditional Cornish and a can cost me £6.45. The finale at Olympia this year had a Scottish theme, bringing traditional aspects of scottish life and horses into the arena and Santa being driven around the arena with the snow falling whilst the audience sang the Olympia Christmas Carol The First Noel. Finding our coach proved to be a bit of a challenge with my arms now a foot longer from the bags and my feet aching from the inch and a half heels I’m not used to wearing. I think I slept most of the way back arriving home around 10pm.

Posted on Monday, December 22nd, 2008 at 1:09 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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