2010 December | Chris's Blog

Tweets from Talygarn

Riding and Road Safety Training and Exam at Talygarn Equestrian Centre June 5th to 8th - limited spaces available 16yrs and over 2012/02/21
Show Jumping Wed 22nd 5.45pm 2ft clear round then 2ft3 2ft6 2ft9 and 3ft. Double clears qualify for Cricklands.... http://t.co/Ap8epCZu 2012/02/20
Show jumping Tomorrow sunday 19th Feb, 1pm start with lead rein followed by 1ft6 1ft9 2ft 2ft3 2ft6 2ft9 3ft.... http://t.co/BjGWhdu1 2012/02/18
Well done to everyone who took part in the Team Show Jumping today. Talygarn had lots of places and one win which... http://t.co/GVjpzrt8 2012/02/15

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Archive for December, 2010

Speed Awareness Course

Thursday, December 16th, 2010

Last week I had to attend a Speed Awareness course in the Heronston Hotel Bridgend at 2pm for doing 35 in a 30. The letter warned if you were late you would not be able to attend and would lose your fee of £80. I thought the Heronston Hotel was on the road to Ewenny but I thought I had better be sure so I downloaded the map off the speed awareness website only to find that it was on Brackla trading estate. I left home at 1.35pm, most people on the course had booked an afternoon off but that’s not so easy when you work for yourself who do you ask. As soon as I got out on the road I thought my car didn’t feel right so I stopped at the Spar in Llanharry and nipped in to buy a bar of chocolate, cause you have to do that if you randomly stop at Spar’s. I then noticed that my back tyre was virtually flat. There was no way I had time to go home and change the vehicle so working on the assumption that horses carry the majority of weight on their forehand I thought cars might too. I carried on to the Garage in Pencoed by the Motorway. I pulled up by the air and a lorry driver pulled up by the pump. Putting on my best smile and useless looking face I asked him if he could put air in my tyre for me. He seemed more than happy to oblige. He did the tyre in fact he did every tyre, explaining all about the air pressure, the effects on the tyres etc. He was marvellous but it was now 1.50pm but Brackla was only a few minutes away. I drove round and round Brackla looking for this hotel which I could not find. The problem with Brackla trading estate is it has lots of units with no people and the units don’t even seem to have doors. Eventually I found a building with a door and a person so I went in to ask. The guy was on the phone so I waited a few minutes and asked where the Heronston Hotel was. I love it when you get the response ‘Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh its not here love’ I had already worked that out. ‘Its on the road to Ewenny’. Back in the car its now 2.05pm. Its now a toss up between being very late or putting my foot down. I got there and up the stairs found the right room by 2.15. Fortunately the guy Graham running the course let me stay. The next person who turned up another 10mins later he turned away. At Coffee break he told me that I was OK cause he could allow 15mins but no longer. I said I would have been annoyed if I had been turned away as the directions I had downloaded off their site were wrong to which he replied ‘Yea I know, I have told them,Cardiff’s directions are wrong too’ . One of the first questions we were asked was is there ever a reason to speed. I was very tempted to say ‘When you have been given the wrong directions’. We also had to look at some pictures and point out the Harzards to which Graham remarked that we were very observant and again I was tempted to say ‘Not observant enough obviously or we would have seen the speed camera’. I thought I was going to be bored rigid in this 4 hour course but sad as it may sound it was actually quite good and informative and in case you that didn’t know there is no 3 mile an hour allowance over the speed limit you can end up on this course or with a speeding fine for doing 1 mile over the speed limit.

Posted on Thursday, December 16th, 2010 at 12:57 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Kirby Cane Genius

Friday, December 10th, 2010

When Jennifer was 6yrs old we bought her a second pony called Kirby Cane Genius. He was a very well bred pony and was related to Princess Anne’s first Pony Kirby Cane Greensleeves. Kirby was Strawberry roan, 12.2hh and 17yrs old when we bought him. Jen was very tiny on him. He was a wonderful pony and Jen had many years of great fun riding him and winning many show jumping competitions. When she grew out of Kirby she didn’t want to sell him so we used him in the riding school for a while. He became ill when he was about 23yrs and lost a lot of weight to the point that we thought he may have to be put to sleep. We had vets and the dentist look at him to no avail and then a new dentist happened to come along who noticed that one of his teeth was preventing him from eating so he removed the tooth and Kirby was very keen to eat straight away. We put him in the field and unfortunately he had a bout of mild colic from over eating after a couple of hours. After that incident he regained weight and looked very healthy. I was approached by the parents of a young child at the riding school who wanted to buy him for their daughter as a first pony. Jen was reluctant to sell him but she knew he would have a good home and it would be better for him than being in the riding school. Gemma also had several years of fun riding and show jumping with him. When Gemma grew out of Kirby they retired him and have always sent us a Christmas card with a note letting us know how he is. This year we received the sad news that Kirby has been put to sleep at the age of 34. He could no longer eat and it was felt that he was suffering. If you do get to read this Margaret, Ian and Gemma. Thank you so much for giving Kirby such a wonderful home, it has meant a lot to Jen to know that he was so well cared for.

Posted on Friday, December 10th, 2010 at 1:50 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Cambodia

Friday, December 3rd, 2010

I thought there were a lot of mopeds in Thailand but Cambodia is something else. I don’t think I ever knew they could be so versatile either. I mean who needs a people carrier when you can get 6 on a moped. People worry about the size of their engines to tow a trailor you should see what they tow over here with a moped, I would never have thought it possible. Today I saw 4 people on a moped and the last person was wearing pyjamas and carrying an Intravenous drip. There doesn’t seem to be any rules to driving on the road either it doesn’t seem to matter which way you go and three lane roads become 10 lane roads for mopeds. Junctions are amazing everyone just drives at each other from any direction but somehow they all seem to manage to get through and there doesn’t seem to be any road rage about it either. Twice this week we have seen an elephant wandering down the main road of the city. It seems ironic as well that a lot of people don’t wear a helmet but do wear a dust mask. We managed to pack quite a bit in in a short time we’ve seen Angkor Wat and the floating villages in Siem Reap, the killing fields and Tuel Sleng in Phnom penh. the beach at Sihanoukville, stayed a couple of nights on Bamboo Island, that was quite an experience, didn’t realise just how basic it would be. Been on the Bamboo train at Battambang. All these towns are between 6 and 8 hours apart and we’ve travelled on buses that would be condemned in our country. Generally I get bit quite a lot by mosquitos and as Cambodia is high risk of Malaria I thought I had better be more careful. I bought a gel from Boots, own brand, 50% Deet and I haven’t had a single bite. Really pleased about that. Not looking forward to getting back to the awful weather the UK is having after being well into the 30’s here everyday. Maybe it will pick up by next week.

Posted on Friday, December 3rd, 2010 at 4:49 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.