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Archive for August, 2009

Dressage Aug 09

Monday, August 10th, 2009

Steve has an abcess on the kidneys and needs to be admitted into hospital tomorrow, needless to say he was unable to be outside for the Dressage. We were also short staffed so I knew the day would be difficult. Jen Amelia and I started early on the yards to get the horses in, several people turned up quite early and gave us a hand. I was so grateful to Sharon who turned up at 9am to get all the burger van up and running and also to Bethan who helped me set up the arena, watered it all down and helped with the scoring and the yards. We started the competition just after 10am with a Walk and Trot class. Theses classes are becoming very popular, we had 15 entries which we split into the 12yrs and under section and the over 12’s. Amelia won the senior section on a fairly green but nice moving horse and 5year old Libby Johnson won the under 12’s. Next was Prelim 1 which was a busy class with Eve McGowan winning the under 16’s section and Lynne Cronin winning the Seniors. The school was becoming quite dusty at this point so we had a break to water the school down before commencing with Prelim 10 Amy Bartholomew and Carys Reville were joint winners of this class and Amy Bartholomew went on to win the Novice. Sheena Davies did some in house training and then left Hannah Cogbill and Emily Groves in charge of the burger van and they did a fab job and cleaned it all up at the end of the day. Everybody that took part looked very smart and their horses were very well turned out. I know some people from Talygarn were a little disappointed not have done so well but remember dressage is marked on the horse and not the rider and some horses will not be as good as others but the better you ride the more you will help your horse and read your comments then aim to improve on them next time, take it as a personnel achievement rather than trying to win. Photos are on the Gallery and results can be found on the Website

Posted on Monday, August 10th, 2009 at 2:43 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Beach Polo, Swansea Bay

Monday, August 10th, 2009

Jen and I were invited to join Arwel Richards party at the Beach Polo, Swansea bay on Saturday. Steve was feeling unwell again on Friday and Martha was flying to Jersey for a weeks work experience with ITV Jersey on Saturday. I managed a couple of hours on the settee before getting up at 4am to take Martha to the airport after deciding what to leave out of her suitcase to decrease the weight by 10kilos we left for Cardiff. Grabbed another couple of hours sleep when I got back before getting up at 8am to open up and sort the ride list out. Then left Amelia in charge for the day, Jen and I made a last minute dash for the train literally and got to Swansea at lunchtime. We had a bit of a wander around the town then got a taxi to Swansea Bay I spotted the Beach Polo but the taxi driver insisted on taking us to a car park,Swansea Polo the traffic was bad so Jen decided we would walk back up the beach to the Polo Marquee – we didnt realise how far away this was, so after a vigourous calf muscle exercise we eventually got there. Arwel did a great job of organising the event. The pitch was much smaller than Fonmon which led to a much better atmosphere. There was some exciting play from the Welsh and Spanish team’s with Spain winning 5 – 4 The after party was fab with a Beach Boys Tribute band. At some point Jen decided to go for a swim in the sea in her dress. So as she was soaking wet, we went with some friends to a house in the mumbles, while Jen dried her dress in the drier I managed to get another hours sleep on the sofa Leigh picked us up from Wind Street and we got home after midnight. Dressage tomorrow so just time to print out the judging sheets before bed.                                                                                                                    Picture Credit Nigel Ward

Posted on Monday, August 10th, 2009 at 1:15 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Natural Fruit Flavoured Water

Saturday, August 8th, 2009

My daughter Martha bought a bottle of natural fruit flavoured water from Starbucks in Talbot Green It was still water flavoured with cranberries and raspberries called This Water. She bought it on Saturday drank half of it and left the rest on a cupboard in her bedroom till thursday. On the side of the bottle it does say once opened drink within 2 days and keep refrigerated. What it doesn’t say is what will happen if you don’t. I would have thought after 2 days not refrigerated it would have gone off. I wouldn’t have thought – fermented, exploded and ricocheted off bedroom walls during night. You should see her bedroom it resembles a slaughterhouse. She actually heard some fizzing noise when she went to bed and thought her TV might be going to blow up so she unplugged it from the wall but she could still hear the fizzing so she thought it must have been the rain. It woke her up in the night when it exploded but she calmly got out of bed put her laptop in its case and went back to bed apparently thinking that her sheets felt a bit sticky. It has actually sprayed 3 out of 4 walls and her floor, bed and everything else in its path and the bottled landed up in bed with her. I couldnt help laughing when she was staring at her walls looking utterly confused in the morning but on a more sober note it could have struck her in the face. I did ring This Water who said this had happened once before to their knowledge and this is why these drinks must be refrigerated  because the problem with fresh friut is fermentation. They kindly sent me a voucher – which I will put towards paint. Theres a lesson here to be learned by all untidy teenagers       Put Your Rubbish and EMPTY bottles in the Bin

Posted on Saturday, August 8th, 2009 at 1:19 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Unaffiliated Show Jumping

Sunday, August 2nd, 2009

Because we have had so much rain this week we decided to cancel our Mini Hunter Trial as the ground conditions were not good. So not having anything else planned today and as we have to take a pony to the Pony Club Champs in Derby in a couple of weeks we decided to take Lucky and Jasper to Sunnybank. Both jump very well in show jumping competitions at Talygarn but have not been away anywhere else very much. We have been having a bit of trouble with the lorry lately which Steve thinks is air in the diesel and it has been cutting out a few times when you first start it. We loaded up the ponies the lorry cut out a few times then off we went arriving at Sunnybank in time for the 1′9 class. Zoe Morgan took Lucky in the class and managed to get him round clear. Molly took Jasper in. Being quite young Jasper was quite difficult he wasn’t bothered by the fences at all but napped quite a bit. So Molly had a good try and got him round with a few stops and circles. Lucky proved to be on form and Zoe rode a very competitive jump off and took 1st place. For the 2ft class Zoe rode Jasper who having been in once did much better and went clear with a good jump off time. Lucky also went clear but unfortunately clipped a fence in the jump off. Zoe was placed 2nd on Jasper. Both girls looked smart and rode very well. On todays results though I think we will take Lucky with Fred to the Champs as I think Jasper would be a bit too naughty with the napping, especially in the dressage arena with no fence to keep him in I can just see him cutting across all three arenas. After loading the ponies on the lorry we tried to start it and it kept cutting out to the point where the battery was going flat. Steve got a lift back to the yard with Helen Morgan and fetched the trailor and the land rover so I could get the ponies home but we decided to jump start the lorry first, after a few trys we got it started and left straight away while it was going, we should have put the ponies on the trailor really because we managed to get as far as the slip road going on to the A470 when it cut out altogether. There was too much fast traffic to take the ponies off the lorry so I called the police to close the road for a few minutes to swap the ponies once we had this done I took them home in the trailor and Steve waited for the rescue services to get the lorry home. Zoe and Molly thought it was all quite an adventure. We had intended to come home with the ponies and go back with Amelia and Destiny but needless to say this just didn’t happen.

Posted on Sunday, August 2nd, 2009 at 11:21 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Millbrook Camp

Sunday, August 2nd, 2009

Steve has not been at all well this last week so things have been more than hectic, after driving to Reading Wed and Thurs we then had a busy day friday and Saturday followed by a busy Show Jumping Competition on Sunday. Then Monday morning was the start of Millbrook Camp. None of us started work till 9 in the morning being shattered from the day before. Jen, Carys and Sophia started the feeding and mucking out with Amelia, Chloe and Lucy. I went to check the stable that the camp would be staying in only to find a nest in the middle of the stable and a whole pile of bird mess all over the floor, realising that this would not be suitable for them to stay in We decided to use Cleo’s stable instead and Chloe had about 20mins to do the best job she could of getting it ready. Horses started arriving at 9.30ish and by just after 10am we had 10 ponies installed in the top yard and 10 kids ready for camp. During the morning they made name plates for their stable doors practised their grooming and plaiting. Carys and Sophia brought the crisps drinks and chocolate up to the top shop for me and when I opened the fridge I found a can had exploded in there and the whole fridge had to be emptied and washed out. Martha and I made the statutory Ham and Cheese sandwichs for dinner. After lunch all the kids tacked up and rode in the indoor school. Starting to learn a musical ride with Amelia and Lucy. I went down to have a look how they getting on and had to laugh it was so dusty they were all black. Amelia took them up the outdoor school to play some games. Chloe and I tried to water down the indoor school but we couldn’t turn the nozzle and ended up watering it with the weakest dribble you’ve ever seen. I cooked tea for everyone and then the girls did the night yards and played games in the indoor school, it was near midnight when we got everyone to bed. Tues morning they did the yards then had breakfast followed by a game of polocrosse, Sophia and Carys joined in to make up the numbers for three teams. After lunch there was a show jumping lesson then in the evening a trip to the swimming pool except the mini bus didnt turn up. So Amelia and I took them all in the her car and the Landrover. Arriving home at about 10pm with 10 much cleaner kids they did the night hay and decided an earlier night would be a good idea although that didn’t really happen and it was gone midnight again before everyone was in bed and at least 1am before they were all asleep. Wednesday morning 10 rather tired looking kids fed and mucked out their horses with Amelia and Lucy followed by breakfast then a gymkhana session. After lunch we had another practise of the musical ride and then they performed it for their families. It did go a little bit wrong but the girls got back into place and carried on in true professional style. We had a presentation with lots of rosettes and certificates before everyone packed up to go home. It was a shame about the awful weather we had as we didn’t manage to get to ride in the fields but on the whole it all went well and I hope everyone enjoyed themselves.

Posted on Sunday, August 2nd, 2009 at 10:51 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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