2011 June | 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 June, 2011

Horse Sales

Sunday, June 26th, 2011

The maddening thing about trying to buy horses from private sellers is the time it takes. Once you have found a suitable advert, tracked down the sellers, cleared at least half a day off work, travelled 30 plus miles and thats if its local, got lost then eventually found your destination invariably one of the following occurs – the horse/pony takes 3 steps forward and you can see its lame (the owner can’t or doesn’t want too), It has sweet itch, its 14hh (was advertised 15.2), It is not quiet in fact bordering on wild, it has several confirmation faults. I tend to find one in twenty matches the advert. I try to see at least 3 in the same direction if that is possible and I’ve been known to have to take the entire day off to do this then find none are suitable, get stuck in traffic on the way home, forsake the diet and buy a very unhealthy meal to ease onset of depression. The other option is to visit the horse sales, easier because there are several horses to look at in one place but not without its problems. When buying the private horse the owner will lovingly tell you everything about the horse down to what it eats for breakfast, they even tell you things that eventually put you off buying the horse. At horse sales the majority lie at every opportunity, favourite saying when selling small ponies is “only selling because I don’t have anyone small enough to ride it” , one wonders why she bought it if she doesn’t have anyone small enough to ride it. The other classic is we have to many so we are selling some from our riding school, on that basis would you take the best or the worst to the sales. Most of these people are dealers. You do get the odd genuine people at sales but it is hard to work out which is which and some people are very unscrupulous. Being short of ponies we decided to take a trip to Leominster Sales. The sale starts at 11.30am with the biggest horses and works its way at a rate of about 40 an hour to the smallest ponies. We decided to aim to arrive about 12 noon in order to give us time to look at the ponies before they went in for auction. Unfortunately half way there the engine overheated and set fire to the insulation under the bonnet. Slightly worrying but glad the diesel tank is at the back. Arrived at the sales just before one but in time to have a look at the ponies. I marked off a few in the catalogue to look at in the ring. A small palomino and a grey I was interested in were bought by the same person, both looked lovely but didn’t look sound and a couple I liked the look of were much sharper and spookier in the ring. In the end we settled on a 12hh bay pony who appeared to have a laid back nature, called Evan and still stopped on the way home for an unhealthy meal of pie and chips. I am glad I am not a dealer I don’t think I could cope with buying and selling horses every day, its bad enough just trying to buy for the riding school now and again.

Posted on Sunday, June 26th, 2011 at 12:46 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Open Day Practices

Thursday, June 16th, 2011

This time of year most of my time is taken up with practices and preparation for the open day (and NVQ files). Originally we started the open day with a BBQ and a few riding demonstrations which were performed by the kids that give their time freely to help on the yard on the weekends and evenings providing they rode at a good level 3 and up. Today the demonstrations have grown in size considerably and with costumes although I still try and stick to selecting the kids and the kids of parents that give their time free to help throughout the year. At the end of May beginning of June I start the practices on a saturday after lessons. Everyone thats here helping on the day has a go and we and then we choose who is in by whether they can do it. The Bareback jumping always starts with loads having a go. They all jump through a grid with their saddles and bridles. Each time their jump down the grid we remove something like their stirrups, then their reins, then the saddle. No one has to take anything away if they don’t want to and they are not allowed to if they don’t look safe. By the time we get to no saddle no hands we usually have half a dozen or so riders left that are then in the display. The next practice involves taking off bridles and two on a horse. This is done in the outdoor school over 6 fences. Generally some one falls off and on this occasion Katherine and Katie fell off 3 times trying to do pairs. The riders in the musical ride are chosen from the level 4 an 5’s with a couple of good level 3’s for the youngest ones again with emphasis on those that help out. Last saturday we practiced the the vaulting and the gymkhana. I still have lots of costumes to organise for Pony Club (delegating to Lisa Vukashin). The musical ride have had two of their 4 practices and I am impressed with how quick they have picked it up. The bareback jumping and vaulting is organised just need more practices. The pony club display and gymkhana still need organising and we were going to do a horse football display but that is not working to well in the outdoor school so that may be changed altogether. The open day will take place on Sunday July 10th gates open 1pm tickets are £2 everyone welcome. Everyone needs to start keeping fingers crossed etc for good weather. Needless to say after all this stress and organising I do feel the need for a holiday, so I’ve booked the flights to Romania 9 days backpacking, Bear watching, dracula hunting and bird watching from a floating hotel.

Posted on Thursday, June 16th, 2011 at 12:40 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.