2010 May | 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 May, 2010

Mini Hunter Trial

Monday, May 31st, 2010

I was worried earlier in the week that the ground was going to be a bit hard for the Mini Hunter Trial but that rain we had yesterday did it the world of good and it turned out to be a fab day. The course is a small course approx 1ft high in the lead rein, then 1ft9 and the max height in the last class is 2ft3, suitable for Novice horses or Novice riders and also the very scared and we had quite a few very scared adults. There wasn’t many in the lead rein but we had a very good turn out for the rest of the next classes. Ashton Newton riding Smartie won the lead rein. Sophie Thomas had a fall but was ok and Olivia Murray nearly fell off but her leader Sarah Blake was very quick to catch her and throw her back on. There were a few fallers throughout the day but none injured. Shannon riding Quattro manged to fall off twice at the same fence (I’ve seen a few photos of that pop up on facebook) Malissa and Rupert parted company when they had a disagreement on which way to turn. There were also a lot of smiling faces, some because they had been placed, some because they had got round and a few because they had survived. We need quite a bit of help to run this event and we rely on parents from they riding school and a great job they did too, from fence judging to taking entries and even the catering. Next Mini Hunter Trial Sunday 27th June 11am start.

Posted on Monday, May 31st, 2010 at 1:31 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Bye Bye Destiny

Monday, May 17th, 2010

For many years Amelia has competed in show jumping along side many other horse related sports by the time she reached 15 Amelia had decided she wanted to take show jumping more seriously and join the BSJA. By this time Amelia was getting a little tall for ponies and we decided to buy a horse for her. We went to have a look at Destiny (Ami De La Destinee) at Emma and Kate Bevan’s yard in Abergavenny in 2006. They offered to take Destiny to a local show at the Ponderosa for Amelia to jump her in a BSJA class on a ticket. Amelia won the class and we decided to buy her. Competition horses are a different kettle of fish to riding school horses and it’s also a big jump coming off ponies. Any competition horse that has the potential to be good has to has to have a bit of spark and are usually quite intelligent especially mares I think. Amelia had not long recovered from a cracked vertebrae and 4 cracks in her pelvis from a nasty injury riding a racehorse which reared up and fell on her, At that time she was a little nervous of horsers playing up when Destiny found that weak spot she tried it on a bit as competition horses often will. She made me very angry one day and I got on her and it was soon sorted out. Once Amelia’s confidence grew with her they have never looked back. In fact she is very well behaved now. Amelia has had four really good years with her mainly show jumping where she has won her out of British Novice and Discovery and had just started jumping Newcomers. She is such a fast horse in a jump off Amelia has won so many classes with her. When we first bought her Amelia did some Dressage with her and qualified for the Pony Club Champs in Nottingham. She has also hunted her and done a bit of cross country. Amelia only ever fell off her once and that was at a recent cross country event, as she hadn’t done any cross country for a few years Amelia decided to go in the pairs behind Fred, feeling confident that Fred would go straight through the water Amelia was taken by surprise when Fred stopped, Destiny obviously thought if your not going I’m not going either, spun to the side and Amelia slipped off her. Amelia has had such a lot of fun with her and so have I, riding her in lessons and hacking her out. We have been saying for the last year that we really must sell her now because Amelia has really outgrown her ability and needs to move on. Two weeks ago we advertised her in Horse Mart and Horse Quest and have had several replies. Last monday whilst I was away some people came to see her for their 14yr old daughter to start out on horses. They liked her and after she was vetted on friday decided to buy her. On Saturday Amelia took Destiny out for a last hack and I took Jimbob. At 3.30pm they arrived to pick her up. True to form Destiny put up a show of refusing to go on their Trailor then after 5 mins just walked straight on. As they were driving up the lane we could see Dest in the back of the trailor and she turned her head back towards us and gave a neigh as if to say Bye Bye.

Posted on Monday, May 17th, 2010 at 10:43 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Venice

Monday, May 17th, 2010

This four day break has been more traumatic than staying at home. We had the Ash cloud which mean’t we didn’t know whether we were flying until the actual day consequently we had no accomodation booked in Venice as we didn’t want to lose the money if the flights were cancelled. We flew from Bristol and arrived in Treviso Airport at 10.30pm with a backpack and no idea where we were, spotted some people buying tickets from a machine in the wall for a bus to Mestre which looked promising at its only 15mins from Venice island. An hour later we arrived in Mestre. Booked into the first 3star hotel we found at £75 a night which was a bit of a shock being used to my Thailand £3 a night rooms. Next day we caught a local bus to Venice. People told me Venice was dear but £115 a night (low season prices as well) for a 3star hotel I thought was a bit extreme, managed to find a 1star room which resembled a shed on a roof, 4 flights of stairs and no lift for £60 B&B a night, but it was great I would definitely recommend Hotel Rossi, no room to swing a cat but comfy bed and hot shower, 2 small rolls, tea and jam for beakfast, what more do u need. Exchange rate was dire 91pence to the Euro but somehow we fell lucky and found a place giving £1.05 to the Euro in St Marks Square. As there is no Traffic on venice there are no taxi’s either except the water bus so we walked miles probably more miles than necessary as most streets and canals look pretty much the same. Decided to give the Gondolas a miss at £80 for 40minutes of being steered around fairly smelly canals. Took a boat trip instead. Took some pics of buildings that looked like you should take their pics but had no idea what they were. Spent the last night on a camp sight, not sure where but it took an hour on a local bus to get there, as we didnt know where to get off we enlisted the help of the other Italian passengers who all shouted at us at the appropriate time. The camp site was right next door to Marco Polo airport, which mean’t large aeroplanes taking off every five minutes but that’s ok I love watching aeroplanes take off. Had a lovely little Porta Cabin for £39. Caught a bus to Treviso on Friday went into the town and took some pics of some more nice looking buildings then got flight back to Bristol from Treviso Airport. Was not impressed that they do not have Duty Free as it a small airport only handling european flights. Ryan air decided to have a crack down on hand luggage, standing in the queue waiting to go through to departures was so funny watching people panic 0ver their hand luggage everyone had to fit it into those oblong shaped things they have and if it didn’t fit or weighed more than 10kilos you had to pay extra. People were trying to squash their bags down lots of people couln’t get them in, one man got the bag in but couldn’t get it out and people were pulling and tugging. Customs officials look so serious and and important, its obviously in the job description that smiling and sense of humour is not required. For some reason I seemed to be intent on setting off the alarms First me that was fine, although in the event of wanting to hide something as long as its on the front or back of your body you’ll be fine as they only ever feel down your arms down your legs and your sides. Then my hand luggage set off the alarm so I had to stand in a queue to have my bag checked in front of me was a woman arguing with the customs official who was trying to confiscate what looked like a fruit slicer with a serrated edge made of metal and the size of a dinner plate. This argument was going on Italian and she kept looking for me as if for support and I was thinking ‘Are you serious that you really thought you would get that through customs in your hand luggage’ after about 10 minutes the custom woman won and the metal grater/slicer went in the bin. My bag was next perhaps the customs lady was feeling a littled jaded by then because she merely glanced in the top and then said thats fine thank you, I wasn’t gonna argue. Whilst queueing up at the gate customs officials who were obviously very bored that night decided to do some more sides of the body security checks and were pulling approx every 5th person out of the queue to search I remarked to Steve it was bound to be me The man in front of me remarked it would be him but they had his wife so Steve and I scuttled off to the plane sharpish

Posted on Monday, May 17th, 2010 at 12:34 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Horse/Pony Adoption

Thursday, May 6th, 2010

We started the adoption scheme last year when lessons were a lot quieter due to large hints of a major recession by the press. We are now finding that we need to use the ponies/ horses again for lessons and more people wish to participate in shows, although some people are quite keen to carry on with the adoption. As most people only ride for an hour anyway we have decided to run the adoption during the afternoons on a fortnightly basis. Another issue that has been brought up is that some parents would like to adopt but due to other commitments and holidays do not wish to be tied to the scheme therefore the Adoption scheme will run fortnightly from May 8th to September 12th inclusive this is a total of 10 sundays and ponies may be ridden between 2pm and 4pm. If you would like to adopt a particular pony and stick to that pony this will be payable up front and will cover all ten sundays. Any other ponies will be available to adopt on a first come first served basis and it will be possible to adopt a pony for only one sunday at a time (dependent on which ponies/horses are available). Adoption will not be linked to lessons but it is not a replacement for lessons and anyone not having lessons on a regular basis will not be able to adopt a pony.

Show Jumping Horses and ponies have been allocated to riders to take part in competitions on a Wednesday. There are still some Horses/ponies available to jump at the Sunday competitions which are held monthly. If you are a Pony Club Centre member and would like to be considered to enter show jumping competitions please let us know.

Posted on Thursday, May 6th, 2010 at 1:17 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.