2009 September | Chris's Blog

Twitters from Talygarn

http://blogs.talygarnec.co.uk/2010/02/nestle-get-set-go-free-promotion/ I think they are having a laugh. 4 days ago
Come to "Unaffiliated Show Jumping" 21 March from 10:00 to 17:00. Unaffiliated Show Jumping Starts with Lead rein... http://bit.ly/dkAclC 1 week ago
I posted 4 photos on Facebook in the album "Amelia and Jaffa" http://bit.ly/cGBWie 1 week ago
More updates...

Posting tweet...

Navigation:

Search:

Meta:

Archive for September, 2009

Equine Students

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

I can’t believe how fast this month has gone. Last week the new students started. I tend to start the courses a week before enrolments as there is always some that change their minds, some that decide to alter the course or the day they are doing and some that don’t turn up at all. Pam Jones and Sarah Henney came out from Yale college today to do the enrolments. If students are re-enrolling onto the same course this is a fairly simple procedure but for new students it is quite a long drawn out process. All new students have to take a maths and literature test, these used to be done on paper but this year we were supplied with seven laptops for the purpose. Your result goes to the college and if they deem you to need help you will get a letter, known as the thick letter, if you don’t get a thick letter you can assume you are at least averagely bright but if you do get a thick letter you are supposed to be able to receive help. Personally I think its a pointless exercise our students are too far away from the college to receive any help and they don’t have to accept help if they don’t want too, also I don’t see the point of part time students who are doing A levels in school and have an arm full of GCSE’S having to sit a basic Maths and Literature test. Still I suppose at least they save some trees now that its done on laptops. After this test comes the induction and the death of a forest. Health and safety form, enrolment form, assessment form and whole induction pack to be filled in, most of which is in duplicate and most of which will never be looked at again by the student in my experience. The whole process took from 2.30pm to 7pm to get all the students enrolled. Yale College has also introduced a course fee this year of £20 per course plus a £25 refundable on completion enrolment fee, we are getting off light really as they are charging £150 for all their non equine courses but I expect it will go up each year. We are starting this year with 18 students doing 31 equine courses between them and another 12 starting after Christmas. Anyone reading this who took a horse Owners course last year – I have your test papers back from Yale. I’m quite impressed with the results the highest percentage mark from all three courses went to Sue Owen.

Posted on Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 at 12:24 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Winter Term

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

For me today was officially the last day of the summer. The new term for students starts tomorrow and I always think of that as the winter term. We have had a good summer despite the awful weather. Camps have been busy and great fun this year. The Pony Club centre has done well especially at the champs in Derby. The pony adoption scheme has been very successful throughout the summer and I have decided to continue with the adoption through the winter but only on a Sunday. There will be a lot more to organise over the next few weeks. The Pony Club Centre committee are busy raising funds for the Halloween party which will take place in the indoor school on Sat 31st October. Their next event is a Fun Dog Show and Table Top Sale on the 27th Sept and they will be taking rides out over the next few weeks on a Saturday. Apart from all the show jumping and Dressage competitions there will be Team Jumping at Half Term, Show Jumping for Riding School Clients and Pony Days.

Posted on Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 at 1:05 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Student of the Year

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009

Amelia received a commemorative plaque and certificate at Yale College on Monday for her achievements in the Equine Field. Amelia was nominated by Pam Jones for the award of Student of the Year at Yale having passed her BHS Stage 1,2,3, PTT NVQ 1 & NVQ 2 during the past three years and now becoming a qualified riding instructor. Yale College is based in Wrexham and delivers equine courses throughout yards in Wales. In Sept we travel to the college for an annual meeting to discuss courses for the following year. Amelia and I caught the train in Pontyclun and had an uneventful journey to Wrexham. After the meeting and Presentation we caught the 15.44pm train in Wrexham and got off the train in Shrewsbury to change for Cardiff. Have you ever noticed how many announcements there are on trains i.e the next station is… Mind the gap between the platform and the train, Remember to take all your personnal belongings when leaving the train. Ten minutes after leaving the train I realised I had left my coat on the train with the car keys in the pocket (should’ve taken more notice of announcements). I have to say the British Rail Staff were marvellous they rang through too the conductor then put us on another train to Birmingham where we met the Shrewsbury train which had now become the 18.24 train to Aberystwyth, the conductor got off that train with my coat and car key and then we caught the 18.40 Birmingham to Cardiff and all at no extra cost although we were two hours later getting home but then that was my fault for forgetting the coat. Everyone is critical of BR but they couldn’t have been more helpful on this occasion.

Posted on Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 at 2:11 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.