2009 July | Chris's Blog

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Archive for July, 2009

Summer Open day 2009

Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

Well this is the first year that the Open day was held on a Sunday and not a Saturday. Standing outside on Saturday evening in the pouring down rain I’m so glad I changed it, not that Sunday was looking hopeful, in the morning whilst building the course for the first display the rain was coming down again. We nearly made the decision to go inside and again I’m so glad we didn’t. The weather turned out to be lovely even the sun was shining. Everyone taking part was here early in the morning washing horses and cleaning tack etc. The most stressful part was getting the course up for the first display but after that everything seemed to run ok. The first display was the show jumping. All six riders looked very smart and four of them managed to have a go at the 4ft upright. The bareback jumping is always quite entertaining and every year Alex manages to fall off, I thought he was going to stay on this year until he rode Candy through the grid with no saddle or bridle and they parted company just before the last fence. Chloe and Carys also took a tumble when both riding Buffy. The Mini Pony Club did a lovely little display and they looked so smart on the ponies and Carys Sarah Molly and Zoe did a great job of the singing. The Musical ride came next and the Welsh costume were amazing. Carys Morgan made the girls Costumes and I made the hats, out of flower pots. The ‘boys’ wore Rugby shirts shorts and socks. I always feel quite stressed until this display is over as I always think I will get the music wrong and mess it up for them but it all went well and they rode it brilliantly. This was followed by the barrel racing. The riders all wore cowboy outfits and rode in to the music Cotton Eye Joe. The competition was very fast and the winner was Brooke riding Jane follwed by Sophie on Phoebe and Kate on Sid. Lastly we had the Gymkhana. The Bending and One up Polo went well but the Stepping Stones always cause a bit of a problem because the riders have to vault back on, If anyone caught Carys on Video or Photo vaulting a little too enthusiastically onto Hannah and cartwheeling straight over the top please let us know, it was so funny, but we missed it with the video. Carys Morgan just beat Sarah Blake to win the last race but the Sarah’s team The A team were the overall winners with Meg and and Zoe H, I also have a confession to make when I looked back on the video it was the Bumble bees who won the One up Polo as it was Jess who crossed the line first and it should’ve been Chloe but it didn’t make any difference to the overall scores. I have to say I feel really proud of all the riders they made such a big effort and all did so well and thank you all for the lovely card and flowers. It is a lot of work organising it all but so worth it to see everyone put so much effort in. I did try to thank everyone that helped on the day and the help that you give is so important to the running of the event so if I missed anyone out we definitely appreciated your help. The photos are on the website Gallery and we hope to have a DVD of the event available soon.

Posted on Tuesday, July 14th, 2009 at 1:44 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Riding School Progress

Friday, July 10th, 2009

We had a situation tonight that has occured on many occasions when one child is moved up a level and another child is then disappointed. I also remember a time years back when a client only ever managed to get to level 3 but her younger sister got to level 5. Its a difficult situation to be in and we don’t want to see kids hurt and we don’t want to hold them back either but we have to consider utmostly their safety. We grade our lessons from Beginner to level 5. There are certain land marks we expect people to achieve in each level and then we have to decide if the client would be safe and not detrimental to the horse in the next level. I think most people can learn the basics of riding but what determines how fast they move levels depends on how often they ride and their level of confidence . For example a beginner who is confident and therefore relaxed can get on with learning to trot but a beginner who is nervous and tense won’t find it so easy and the pony may sense the riders nervousness and then become more difficult for them. I often have parents of beginners and level 1’s who say that their child doesn’t like a particular horse because they cant get it to go but I know the horse will go for someone more confident. After all if it didn’t go for anyone I would sell it. Nervousness on a slow pony will possibly result in the pony not going anywhere but that is preferable to nervousness on a forward pony as that will result in the pony reacting to the tension by running away or misbehaving due to stress. A child who may ride well in the arena may fall apart in the field or jumping so putting them in a level where they are more likely to be doing these things will have a negative effect on their riding and the horse because they will become more nervous. Another aspect to consider is that the parent or client judges the horse on the lesson they ride or see it in maybe once a week but we see all the horses and ponies in many lessons ridden by a variety of levels and we see how each rider can cause the horse to react in a different ways. People have different reasons for wanting to ride but the most important thing is to ride for enjoyment. If you ride once a fortnight or less often then progress will be extremely slow but does it matter if you enjoy riding. Most people want to progress but each person is different so ride for yourself and don’t compare yourself to others. I have three daughters, all of them have had the opportunity to ride and they have all competed successfully. Amelia has made the most progress she competes regularly jumps 1m20 and would ride and jump almost anything. Martha rides occasionally only on horses she trusts although does have a nice seat but is not as confident as Amelia. Jen has been out of riding for a few years and is also not as confident although working back on the yard around the horses has improved jen’s confidence and she has been riding a lot more. What I’m saying is that all of them have had the same opportunities, all of them can ride but the difference between them is there because of their level of confidence. Horses by nature are fairly nervous animals, over the years some become used to allsorts in riding schools and are fairly laid back but some horses never cope with the less experienced rider. Horses live in a herd with a pecking order and therefore are generally used to having horses more dominant over them. As a rider you have to be more dominant than the horse you are riding or looking after to achieve anything from it. This does not mean bullying the horse but by being firm and confident. If the horses senses that you are not the more dominant of the partnership it will take control and become difficult or frightened. There was an incident years ago with a girl that owned Fred, she was a little nervous of him and he picked up on this, first she couldn’t catch him in the stable then it got to the point where he would put his bum towards the door as soon as she opened it and if she tried to go in he would lash out at her. He did this to me once I was furious I threw a brush at him he shot across the stable I marched in caught hold of him and shouted at him, he never did it again. Although Leo I would say was the dominant one in his herd and he is not happy to lay that title down without a fight therefore he is less predictable but we have had many years of experience and we know this. Often the most difficult decision is when to put a child on a horse that is less predictable because we know if it goes wrong it will probably result in a faster fall and from our point of view we want to see people progress, we want people to enjoy their lessons but we also want people to be safe as possible. Ways that you can improve your confidence – learn more about horses and how they live and react and what their natural instincts are, spend more time around them generally (if you are old enough) learning to look after them by mucking out, grooming etc. Join the Pony Club and attend stable management lessons and keep riding as much as you can.

Posted on Friday, July 10th, 2009 at 1:48 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Pony Club Area 10 Show Jumping

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

A few weeks ago Amelia was asked to jump at the Pony Club Area Show Jumping for the Llangeinor Hunt Pony Club. As there was unlikely to be a team for the Open Amelia was entered as an Individual. A couple of days before the event it was discovered that one of the team members from the Intermediate team was unable to jump and Amelia was asked if she would switch to this team to make up the numbers. I was a little concerned that Destiny may not be eligible for the Intermediate so after much reading of the rules and a phone call to Pony Club everything was ok. The day before I rang up for the times and found that the open individual classes could be entered on the day so we took Chloe Reakes and Fred with us. On the day one of the other team members was not able to compete so it meant they were a team of three and all scores would count. There were 4 teams in the intermediate and several individuals. The first team to jump was Monmouth who finished on a penalty of 4. Victoria Tamplin was the first to jump for Llangeinor and jumped a clear, Amelia was next who also went clear and The final member Josh Rees also went clear. After the other two teams had jumped Llangeinor was in the lead. One of the parents seemed to think that Amelia’s horse was not eligible for the class but having already checked this I knew she was wrong. I presume she didn’t say anything otherwise the whole team would’ve been withdrawn had she been right. Monmouth finished the second round with a penalty of 8 and the other two teams were well off the lead with lots of penalities. Llangeinor knew that between all three members they could only afford to have one fence down. Victoria went clear Amelia went Clear and Josh had the last fence down which gave us only 4 faults. So Llangeinor won the competition and will now go to the Pony Club Championships in August. At the Championships there is a team competition on the Sunday and an Individual competition on Monday so all the people who went clear had to go into a jump off to decide the three qualifying places for the individual championships. Unfortunately Amelia had the last fence down but with a good time and only two clears finishing she took third place and qualified. Amazingly the parent of the child who didn’t qualify later decided to voice her concerns over Destiny’s eligibility, to no avail I might add. We decided to get some lunch at this point the queue was a mile long and the guy serving could definitely have done with some help but the food was great I really enjoyed my Bacon Brie and Cranberry Wrap, you don’t often get that at a horse show, Chloe had quite await before her 2′9 class and there was well over 20 entered. Chloe rode a good clear round. Only four competitors managed a clear round and of the four I knew Nancie Edwards would be Chloe’s main rival. Chloe jumped a fast clear round in the jump off and unfortunately for Nancie although fortunate for Chloe, Nancie took a fence down. Chloe received a first place rosette a Silver Salva and A lovely rosette with Best Centre member on it. The weather had been boiling hot all day and I was quite surprised when Kelly rang me to see if she should put rugs on the horses as it was hammering down at home, although it did cloud over and start to rain as we were leaving. As we were driving home sunburnt, stuck in traffic (due to an accident) and tired some friends rang Steve to find out how long we would be as they were starting a BBQ in our garden. apparently they had mentioned this to Steve earlier in the week and he had forgotten to tell me. It was the last thing I was feeling like. When we arrived home the rain got worse so we moved the BBQ into the indoor school and actually really enjoyed the evening. I’m also glad a grew all that lettuce at least I could throw some salad together. They left at around midnight and then I remembered the decorators were coming in at 8.30 in the morning and I was supposed to be packing everything up.

Posted on Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 at 2:23 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Open Day Practices

Sunday, July 5th, 2009

I can’t believe that the Summer Open Day is next Sunday it seems to have come around so fast. The musical ride practices have been going very well. Wednesday is the fourth and last practice for the Musical Ride and is also a dress rehearsal. From past experience this is going to involve an older member cantering Jane round and round until she gets used to the skirt. I think the costumes are nearly made thanks to Carys and Jacqui Morgan although I do have some work to do with black flower pots to finish them off. Friday we had a jumping practice, Jess managed a cracking fall off Jynx to go with the cracking fall she had off Storm the night before practicing the Gymkhana. Last week we had a free for all practicing the Barrel racing and Gymkhana, Tonight the finalised gymkhana team had a practice it was a bit of a disaster here and there but quite funny. The mini pony club had their practice which I think we will do again next saturday along with the bareback jumping. The tickets are on sale and pony club members are trying to out do each other to see who can sell the most. Michigan decided to go lame this week and Phoebe has an abcess in her foot. I’m sure several horses do their best to injure themselves this week just to add to the stress of organising it all. 32 young riders are taking part and they all put so much effort in. We need to keep our fingers crossed for a nice day and hope lots of people will turn up to support them.

Posted on Sunday, July 5th, 2009 at 2:14 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

BHS Stage 3

Sunday, July 5th, 2009

My Daughter took her BHS Stage 3 last week at Usk College in Gwent. The BHS Stage 3 has changed quite a bit since I did mine. There is no written paper, no ride and lead and no riding in a double bridle. The exam is split into two parts the Horse Knowledge and Care and the Riding. No longer do candidates receive their results on the day but have to wait 7 to 10 days for them to arrive in the post. Although you will find out if you have failed the riding on the day if you don’t get through each section. After the flat section any candidates that the examiners feel are not competent enough to jump will be stopped from going any further and therefore will have failed the riding same with the show jumping. If you manage to get through to the cross country then you can only fail on the cross country as you will have passed the previous sections. Amelia rode all three sections and has received a pass certificate for her riding. The Care section consists of theory, practical, practical theory and lungeing. Amelia felt that the practical theory did not go well and neither did the lungeing. She had previously lunged the horse she had on the day and she knew it was particularly lazy, unfortunately on the day it had probably been lunged before her turn and it was a very hot day and the horse didn’t want to go at all. Needless to say she failed the care on the lungeing the practical theory was fine but thats the way it goes. BHS exams can be very frustrating sometimes as your fate can often depend on the horses you are given on the day. I personally think the system works quite well and people do have to reach a standard, although I think there are one or two who might not have passed if luck wasn’t on their side with the horses they were given. I took my stage three in Chiverton in Cornwall with Emma Davies. We travelled down the day before and visited the centre only to find they were practicing the jumping with their horses, all of them were stopping and we nearly left for home. The horses were dreadful to jump and I actually fell off, in fact two people rode the horse I had for the show jumping and both of us fell off. I also had a horse to lunge that was very lazy and the minute in got 1 inch out of reach it slowed down even more, luckily for me the other candidate luneging was making a right mess of it and the examiner spent most of her time watching her and I don’t think she noticed me too much. Amelia is going to resit the care section of the exam at the end of the month. Unfortunately she will have to do the whole care section again so there is always the risk she could fail on something she has already passed.

Posted on Sunday, July 5th, 2009 at 1:41 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.