2010 April | Chris's Blog

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I posted 3 photos on Facebook in the album "Staff & Students 09 - 10" http://fb.me/B5aPtTnk 1 week ago
I posted 21 photos on Facebook in the album "Julie and Sharon" http://fb.me/G1cqtI46 1 week ago
Big Thank you to everyone who stayed and helped with the party tonight :) will be putting on a free ride tuesday... http://fb.me/FxoLfNk2 1 week ago
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Archive for April, 2010

Hunter Trials

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

Its lovely to have such nice weather but we really need rain for the grass to grow. The fields are looking reasonably good after they have been harrowed and rolled but the couple of centimetres of grass is not going to feed the horses for very long. I was contemplating several extra long hose pipes and a sprinkler system. The sprinkler system would’ve consisted of all the kids on a saturday holding the hose pipes. On the plus side we have had quite a few lessons out in the field doing Cross Country and the horses have been amazingly well behaved. With the exception of Jimbob who decided to leap in the air last week and cracked his head against my ear. Many apologies to those who might have heard me swear at him. The XC has done wonders for Rupert who didn’t have the faintest idea of what to do with a show jump. He’s got the hang of it now though. Just have to hope we have good weather for the Mini Hunter Trials we are holding at the end of May. We have three Mini Hunter Trials planned this year. The course is small with no ditches or water and suitable for the nervous or novice horse and rider. There is a lead rein class max height 1ft along with pairs, novice and open class maximum height is 2ft 3. The light evenings have also mean’t we can hack out a bit more as the roads are a little less dangerous in the evenings when there are not so many lorries. Jimbob is going through a temper tantrum stage at the moment, last week I put a pony martingale on him as he was throwing his head right up and then I had no brakes, he is very cross about this and is now half rearing spinning round and refusing to turn right. He managed to upset Cleo whilst out hacking on Monday Cleo gave a bit of a jump and spun round and Jen caught her hand on her neck causing quite a bit of pain to her hand and little finger which has now turned blue. We did call in casualty but there was a four hour wait so we went to the chicken farm instead and got another two chickens, I have four now all different colours. Next I want to get a couple of ducks. Another new horse arrived on trial last week named Harry a 15.2hh section D Cob. He has a shadow in his left eye which his owner did not realise and is probably a result of an injury maybe when he was quite young. The vet is seeing him on friday so we can try and work out what damage is there. Now the weather has got warmer my garden is keeping me busy in my spare time. Some one told me that as women get older they either take up religion or gardening so I thought it better be gardening. I’ve added another tree to my orchard. If you can call three trees an orchard. I’ve expanded the vegetable plot and am trying out several new varieties after my success with lettuce and runner beans last year. The patio has been laid and also the base for my greenhouse which involved moving the clothes line but at least its straight now and not threatening to fall over.

Posted on Thursday, April 29th, 2010 at 2:41 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Easter Holidays

Monday, April 12th, 2010

What a fantastic Easter Holidays we’ve had at Talygarn. The week before Easter Talygarn were placed third in Warwick at the National Quiz Final with our Centre quiz team. The Dressage finals at Talygarn were on April the fourth and Kate Owen and Hannah Centre member from Talygarn won one of the classes. Our Horse Care Senior team qualified for the Championships in Derby. This week was the finals for the Team Jumping series. Talygarn teams won the points for 4 out of the 5 classes with Glamorgan Pony Club winning the last class. There can’t be many riding schools that can put together 10 teams who have held their own competing against pony clubs and riding clubs, these riders don’t have any extra lessons or help its just what they learn in their lessons and their own motivation to be here and take part in competitions. All of the teams from Talygarn did well picking up placings and wins throughout the series. Team jumping pics can be found on the Gallery. Pony Days, Mini Pony Club and Show Jumping for Riding school clients have all gone well during the holidays. Mini Pony Club for 4 to 6yr olds will be starting back next saturday, and will be fortnightly from 2pm to 3pm. Kelly Galsworthy runs the yard every other Sunday and she’s brill, its the one day I don’t have to have anything to do with the yard and after such a busy Easter hols it was nice to have that day today. We built a chicken run Saturday night, well when I say built I mean put together from a flat pack. Although it was impressive we managed to follow all the instructions with Sharon’s help (Sharon wants chickens and hasn’t got any so she is trying to muscle in on mine) We did have quite a few screws left over so thats a bit worrying but never mind perhaps they gave us extras. I painted it with wood preserver today So now I just need to get the chickens. Jimbob has been hacking out over the hols and we have progressed to the main road now. I took him out for over an hour this morning with Libby and Freya and he is very good going over the motorway bridges although I had no brakes at all cantering behind Freya, I’m glad to say at least he stopped when she did. Will have to do something about that. Managed to get lunch in the pub, do some gardening and even went to my Salsa Class tonight. Back in Student/Lesson mode next week and Show jumping next Sunday.

Posted on Monday, April 12th, 2010 at 1:33 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Dressage

Sunday, April 4th, 2010

The Winter Dressage series has proved to be very popular. We have run one a month since September except for January which we lost to the snow. Today was the last in the points series, a bit of a shame this one fell on Easter Sunday as it was quieter but I can’t say I minded after the busy week we had last week and another very busy week to come. Jimbob did his second test, not great but better than last time at least he didn’t mind the flowers so much. Class 1 under twelves walk and trot was very close with Ellie McVay on her pony Midi winning the series by one point. Ellie Dix won the over 12’s, Ellie has been very consistent throughout on her pony Moss. Kate Owen won Class 2 prelim under 16’s by two points riding Ty Ysgubor Hannah. We bought Hannah with her half sister Heather approx 6 years ago unbroken. Emma Davies who taught here at that time broke them both in and both were in the riding school for several years. Martha was very successful jumping on Heather and eventually she was bought by Emily Groves and is still doing very well. Kate bought Hannah and its lovely to see her doing so well at the Dressage and the Show Jumping. Elaine Burt won Class 2 prelim open and also class 3 prelim on her lovely grey Silver Codie. Unfortunately Meryl Hanmer couldn’t be here today but had picked up some very good points throughout the series and was the winner of Class 4 the Novice Test. Pictures can be found on the Gallery The next dressage series will start in October. We haven’t organised any for the next few months but some people have asked us to run them as they are qualifiers for Cricklands. Keep an eye on the website and if we can fit any in we will. Which just leaves me to say a big thank you to all that took part, all the judges for their time and patience and everybody else who has helped out. Team jumping Wednesday.

Posted on Sunday, April 4th, 2010 at 11:05 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Pony Club Quiz and Horse Care Competition

Friday, April 2nd, 2010

Last Sunday we made the trek to Warwick for the National quiz most of the team went up the day before but I went on the Sunday with Sue and Carys Reville. Iwas up at 5.45am which felt like 4.45am as the clocks had gone forward. We found the college quite easily with only one slight detour, the wrong way up the M40. The team this year was Carys Morgan, Carys Reville, Millie Bushrod and Zoe Morgan. The team did very well some sections were quite easy but I did think there were some very hard questions this year. Jackie Morgan and Sue Reville supplied us with a lovely picnic although unfortunately it wasn’t really picnic weather. There is a prize at the quiz for the best Mascot and Talygarn won with their horse and stable and it was pretty amazing. I hadn’t seen it beforehand. Mill House Centre won the quiz and Talygarn finished in 3rd place. We stopped at McDonalds just outside Evesham on the way. This seems to be the tradition after Area Competitions. On Tuesday Talygarn hosted the Area Horse and Pony Care Competition. There are six sections to the competition slightly easier for juniors than seniors. They are Tacking up for travelling, plaiting, Identifying objects, question paper, Ailments/points of the horse and putting together a double bridle in ten minutes/snafflebridle juniors. Monday was a hectic day as there was so much printing and paper work to do and judges to find. Amelia had the identifying objects on the kitchen floor at nearly midnight labelling them. The weather as per usual was horrendous but at least it was indoors. We had 5 senior teams and 14 junior teams take part. Talygarn had 2 junior teams and 1 senior team. I had high hopes for our senior team as they are a very strong team this year. We asked each pony club to supply a judge for each section so that the marking would be fair. The Senior competition was finished by dinnertime. Sandra Fisher Area Rep for Area 10 did the prize giving and Chloe Reakes, Carys Morgan and Sarah Blake for Talygarn won by a considerable margin and qualify for the championships in Derby in August. I provided lunch for the judges in the kitchen and Sandra was fascinated by the chocolate finger tower and was itching to to try pulling one from the bottom with out it falling. I thought this was worth a mention because Sandra did actually manage it The Junior section finished at 4pm Irfon and Tywi Branch were the winners and Talygarn team Kate Owen Angharad Davies and Zoe Morgan finished 4th The other Talygarn juniors Malissa Yates, Zoe Hughes and Bethan Davies did not receive a place but did do very well and all the scores were very close. (Photos in Gallery)