2010 March | Chris's Blog

Tweets from Talygarn

Mini Show Jumping Wed 8th feb 5.45pm Schedule A To be held indoors. Classes LR 1'6 1'9 2' 2'3 2'6 Entries £7 per... http://t.co/tY4nnghO 2012/02/01
Dressage Feb 5th cancelled Next Dressage Sunday March 4th 2012/01/28
25th Jan Wednesday evening show jumping 5.45pm starts with 2' clear round then 2'3 2'6 2'9 &3' qualifiers for... http://t.co/lKilSp6L 2012/01/25
Tuesday 14th Feb Taster lessons in Equestrian Vaulting, suitable for riders and non riders from 4 to 18yrs of... http://t.co/rUFqMIzx 2012/01/23

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Archive for March, 2010

Horses and BHS Exam results

Monday, March 29th, 2010

There’s been a few changes since we got back and whilst we were away. Storm disappeared whilst we were away. I had asked her owners to look for a new home for her as she has not settled to riding lessons very well and is also difficult to turn out here as she fights with Phoebe and didn’t get on too well with the ponies. I gave them approx 6 weeks notice to look for a new home but when they took her we got an hours notice and she was in a lesson that night. Treat others as you would like to be treated I was always taught and I wonder what their reaction would’ve been if I’d given them an hours notice to move her. Murphy’s owners did a similar thing and whereas I thought it was time he left many clients were very fond of him and upset at not having the opportunity to say goodbye. Fortunately it doesn’t happen very often and most people are happy to leave on a good note and then of course they are always welcome back, ‘don’t burn your bridges’ was another saying I was taught and ‘you never know when you might need someone… I could go on for ever. We were straight into work on Sunday with a jumping competition which I was going to jump Jimbob in but as he had spent the week in the field I decided not to but I did jump him in the clear round on Wed, 2ft and fillers, thats the biggest he has jumped so far and he got his first clear round rosette. We have also made good progress hacking this week and he is now going out on his own with no napping. A new horse arrived by chance on Wed. It was brought down to jump around the clear round and the owner mentioned it was for sale. So straight into Storms old stable it went and has stayed for a few days trial. It is a 4yr old welsh cob approx 14hh called Foley. It’s been in several lessons and although a little green seems to be ok. Splash will also be going home soon but not sure when yet. We had some students take exams whilst I was away and their results came through this week. Jennifer Rogers and Medi Warburton passed their Riding and Road Safety, Kim Evans Adele phillips Carys Morgan and Amy Bartholomew passed their BHS Stage 1 and Gareth Evans passed his NVQ 1 Riding, Well done all!!!

Posted on Monday, March 29th, 2010 at 12:16 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Morocco

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

After seeing the photos from Jen and me in Morocco Steve said he would really like to do the Sahara desert trip and I don’t take much encouraging to take a holiday, so finding a five day trip off we went. I’ve always been terrified of heights and was quite impressed with myself having survived the first trip over the Atlas mountains I didn’t expect to be doing it again quite so soon. It’s an amazing trip with so much spectacular changing scenery between Marrakech and the Sahara Desert but its a long way to travel. There were 9 of us plus the driver. Three French 2 Japanese a German a Greek and us we made several stops on the way, stayed overnight at Dades gorge and visted Todra Gorge. Arriving at the Desert in time to ride the camels into the sunset. Two hours later we arrived at camp, a berber tent, It must have been a full moon last time but this time it wasn’t, it was complete darkness with an absolute mass of really bright stars, sand boarding by torch light was interesting. Some people chose to sleep under the stars but having seen the very large beetles that were around and the thought of the odd scorpion creeping up I opted for the tent. The sunrise was amazing but just at that point my camera refused to work, sand in the lens I think. We rode the camels back through the dunes. The guide walks at the front leading the first camel and all the rest are tied to each other, there were three others behind mine. My camel chewed on the rope tying him to one in front and managed to untie it three times. Although each time he did this he just stood still until the guide came running back and tied him up again. I suppose it would have been quite a site if he had taken off into the distance taking the other three with him. It was then a ten hour trip from the Sahara back to Marrakech. After all the travelling and the not always so comfortable Backpacker guest houses I was quite tired and achy on Saturday so I decided to try a Hammam. There are many Hammams in Morocco which are like public bathing places. We decided to book one in a hotel. Steve was slightly alarmed but having persuaded him to take his swimwear (I had my Bikini) we gave it a go and I would certainly recommend it after being washed down with blacksoap and then having buckets of water thrown over me in what was like a tiled sauna room I was then scrubbed with a glove that felt like a brillo pad, I definitely have less skin now. This was followed by a lovely relaxing massage and I certainly felt so much better after it and all for £20.

Posted on Monday, March 22nd, 2010 at 3:22 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Jimbob

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

Jimbob is a 15.2hh old Palamino Gelding rising 5. He came on trial for a couple of weeks from Carmarthen. Can’t say I like the name but I think he is going to be stuck with it. We bought him this week and I am going to take him on myself for a while at least until he is better schooled and jumping. I took him into the indoor school after the jumping competition a couple of weeks ago, the course was still up at the time and Jimbob was really alarmed, we put the fences down to poles on the floor and spent ages leading him over them working up to riding him in trot over small cross poles. They’ve got a little bit bigger over the last couple of weeks although still small enough for him to realise he must go over them now he is jumping about 1ft 9 with fillers underneath. Hopefully he can go in his first class on Sunday. Last week he did his first dressage test. We did the walk trot test and he was 5th – out of 5 so there’s room for improvement, the flowers scared him, and he was not very straight but at least he behaved as we normally have an issue with the bottom end of the school. We’ve had quite a few issues napping when hacking out but I’m winning and he is getting better. We went out on the road yesterday for the first time and again tonight with a sensible horse for company and he was very well behaved – building up to riding over the Motorway next. I have to say RCT as a council are so not horse friendly, there is no where to ride at all without going over motorways or dicing with death with quarry lorry’s. Jimbob can have a few days in the field this week as I am away on holiday. Steve was away on Sunday so I drove the lorry to Pencoed College for Amelia to jump Destiny and Leo. Its been awhile since I’ve driven it as Steve normally drives so many apologies if you happened to be stuck in the tail back behind. Amelia won the class on Destiny and was 3rd on Leo. Angharad Davies took Sid to her first competition away from Talygarn at Sunnybank on Sunday and did tremendously well, being placed 4th and 6th. Well done Angharad.

Posted on Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 at 12:29 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Splash

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

It is 6.55am and I am on the train to Sheffield Uni with Martha. So I thought I would take this opportunity to write a blog as I haven’t had much time lately. On the New horse front Abbi went home – too nappy and bucking. Billy came and went – bucking and Jimbob will be staying. The 15hh horse that was supposed to be arriving didn’t but there is the possibility of another 15hh horse coming soon. I had a message off splash’s owner yesterday which I found quite amusing. She said she hasn’t seen Splash for nearly two years but she has seen pictures of him on our website doing show jumping and dressage so she figured he must be worth a bob or two now and she wants to sell him and do we want to buy him. The answer to that is NO definitely not. Splash is an 8/9yr old 16hh shire cross. Yes he does do the dressage competitions here even winning his class last Sunday. BUT it was a walk trot class as he is not controllable in canter and there was only 5 adults in the class. He had no warm up beforehand otherwise he gets too worked up. Show Jumping competitions – well as some of you have already witnessed are horrendous. It amounts to a wall of death for the very brave or very stupid. Lessons are manageble for fairly strong riders, he is never ridden by novices. For some reason that is beyond me or Amelia the people that ride him really like him. I think this is because he has no malice in him and they think he genuinely trys to do as asked. I found out some history about him the other day that explains a lot. Apparently before we had him he was ridden and jumped by a young girl who is brave but inexperienced in the schooling of horses and therefore was probably ridden like a big pony. Splash is a horse that trys to please and therefore would’ve tried to jump whatever was asked of him but he would’ve been scared and she wouldn’t have noticed probably jumping him higher than he was confident to do and making the mistake of thinking he was loving it cause he goes like a bat out of hell and hurls himself over. The outcome of this inexperienced schooling of young horses Is typically Splash, a horse that is tense and scared and does things fast out of fear and unfortunately will probably carry that baggage with him for the rest of his life. It is such a shame because his type is the sort that with calm, kind and sensible handling he should have been a calm and steady horse. I was thinking more on the lines of giving him the summer to see if we can make any further progress with him or sending him back. Martha was impressed with the course on offer for Journalism and Sheffield is now looking like the favourite. I have been enjoying these jaunts around the country viewing prospective Universities. Although the train journey today was less than impressive. Why is it dearer to travel at peak times when there is less chance of getting a seat, surely it should be cheaper. I must admit to being somewhat peeved at paying £153 for two return tickets from Cardiff to Sheffield only to find that we had to sit on the floor between Bristol and Cheltenham Spa. Having arrived back in Cardiff at 8.30 with 40 minutes to wait for the connection to Pontyclun we decided to get something to eat We found a Take away on Mary Street called Wok and Walk, Stir fry in a box How cool is that

Posted on Thursday, March 11th, 2010 at 1:34 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.