College | 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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Talygarn Equestrian Centre 2011 – 2012

Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

Normally I like to write a blog looking back at last year at the end of the year, I don’t know where the time has gone but I cant believe we are half way through January already. This time last year was the big freeze and we had cancelled the team jumping at christmas because people couldn’t get their horses out of the stables due to the ice. This year we have had to cancel the team jumping because it has been so wet and parking would be impossible. We had many successes again last year with our students achieving numerous passes. We became a riding and road safety centre last year and our first 8 candidates all passed. We will be holding our next riding and road safety training and exam this spring. Two of our riders qualified for the area dressage last year with Carys and Buffy being placed 6th. Our Quiz team came 1st and 3rd at the area finals and 2nd at the championships in Warwick. We held or annual quiz last saturday for all Pony Club members to select the teams for 2012. There was a poor turnout for the quiz but those that came did extremely well and we will enter the teams for the area quiz in February. Our Pony Club Horse and Pony Care teams came 3rd and 4th in the juniors and the seniors came 2nd and qualified for the champs at Derbys where they came 5th. Talygarn Centre team Carys Morgan, Sarah Blake, Chloe Ellis and Robyn Edwards came 4th in the centre competition at the championships in derby out of 20 plus teams with Robyn Edwards winning best newcomer. The Fun Dog Show, Halloween Party, Christmas Gymkhana, Team show jumping, Camps and many other activities were a great success last year along with the Summer Open Day which gets better every year. After visiting a riding school in france which participate in vaulting I have wanted to have a go at putting a display together which I did for the open day last summer. It was a great success and I decided to take up some further training in coaching. This year we will be adding equestrian vaulting to our long list of already popular activities starting with taster sessions in February. We were very lucky throughout the summer with managing to hold all of our mini hunter trials in the fields and the show jumping and dressage have been very popular. With all the rain we have had this winter i am hoping there wont be too much left and we will have another good run this summer. On the holiday front I managed Morocco Greece Romania Singapore and Malaysia and I’m starting 2012 with Iceland and Belfast. The garden wasn’t as good last year although I did have an abundance of runner beans, lettuce, potatoes and the fruit trees did well. There are lots of photos on the gallery for last year and I’m sure there will be lots more this year. Keep an eye on the website for all activities and a belated Happy New Year

Posted on Tuesday, January 17th, 2012 at 1:04 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

BHS Riding and Road Safety

Friday, July 29th, 2011

I’ve been home from holidays one week and I’m already feeling like I need another one. Friday and saturday were busy sorting out a list of phone calls and a mountain of post plus the lessons and setting up for the mini hunter trials for Sunday. We were lucky with the weather on sunday and the Hunter Trials turned out to be a good day. Our first summer holidays activity was the Non Stay Camp which started at 10am Monday morning with 8 kids, going home at 9pm and coming back at 9am till wednesday 4pm. By wednesday we were all fairly tired but we had a show jumping competition that evening and would you believe, it was the busiest night we’ve had for ages. We didn’t finish until 10.15pm. I do like the show jumping in the outdoor school in the good weather, its a bigger school than the indoor with a lot more room for horses. I think people like to jump outdoors but still like to be on a surface and with entry fees only £6 a class its prob one of the cheapest around these parts. Today has been the mock for the BHS Riding and Road Safety exam tomorrow. We have eight candidates taking the exam so today we took four horses to the test route on the housing estate opposite the Ivor Arms in Brynsadler. We have practiced the route with the horses a few times but today one decided to play up, I think she sensed the riders were a little more tense and that affected her behaviour. Because we want the candidates to have the best possible chance we decided not to use her so the 8 candidates will ride the three horses. The exam will consist of a multiple choice paper with 20 questions. This has to be passed before the candidate can progress to the simulated route which is laid out in the indoor school and contains obstacles (the quad) and traffic lights. If the candidate is successful on this part of the test they can then continue onto the road route. In RCT it is essential to be competent when riding on the road as there is no provision for horse riders in this area and no bridlepaths. Next week Jen and I are attending a vaulting course in Northampton.

Posted on Friday, July 29th, 2011 at 12:58 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Talygarn Equestrian Centre – A busy start to 2011

Monday, February 7th, 2011

Well I hope the rest of 2011 doesn’t carry on as its started as I don’t feel as though there is a minute to spare. Since the beginning of January We’ve run 2 Dressage competitions, 1 mini show jumping, 1 wednesday show jumping, 1 sunday show jumping, 5 college enrolments, 1 quiz to determine area teams and a variety of vets, back people, saddlers etc. All of this requires such a lot of organisation beforehand and after with updating schedules , course plans, dressage times, points, entry forms, Quiz questions, Half term programmes, college registers, mountains of paperwork and hours on the phone looking for dressage judges. Alongside of all this comes the riding lessons and students to organise. Just before christmas I had the bright idea of doing a days advertising on a site called Groupon. In one day we sold 266 lessons which I now have to fit in before April, consequently I have been spending virtually every evening when I haven’t been teaching on the phone. Ella who works part time for me has had to give up for the time being as her mother in law has been taken ill which has left me short staffed this week fortunately I have been able to find a few different people to stand in. I don’t really like have too much change of instructors as I prefer continuity in order to be able to assess progress but unfortunately theses things happen and there can be some positive advantages in having new people with different ideas from time to time. I am also trying to make some progress with becoming a riding and road safety centre and will update on that one when i can get it off the ground. We are sending two teams to the area quiz in half term and I will need some parents to come in order to get the kids there. On top of this the Guy that does this amazing website for me Monico Web Designs wants to update it and that gives me masses of web pages to rewrite. At the rate I am going you might see it by the summer and whilst I am on the subject of summer there is only 12 weeks left before I need to start organising the summer Open Day. Although the most stressful week has been this week just gone with Amelia and her passport, she got a new one last Monday, lost it Wednesday and we are flying this Tuesday. Which means I’ve spent two full days in the passport office this week – Monday getting the new one and Friday replacing it. Was nice to have lunch out twice in one week though and go shopping – every cloud has a silver lining as they say. Dressage went very well today, seemed to run very smoothly. Thanks to the Judges who were pretty good to turn up at such short notice and a big thank you to the writers as well. I’ve taken to writing everything I have to do down now as my memory is getting terrible. I’ve got a huge list to get through tomorrow and then I will be in holiday mode.

Posted on Monday, February 7th, 2011 at 2:08 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Talygarn Equestrian Centre 2010

Monday, January 3rd, 2011

Looking back over the 2010 it has been quite an interesting year It seems to have started and finished with snow and my dieting has followed the same plan as last year, although I am hoping to be a bit more successful this year. Quite a few horses have come and gone over the year. Polo and Lizzie were sold Storm and Athena went back to their owners Coffee has gone to Sharon. Harry, Winsten and Abi came on trial but didn’t stay. Trevor is on loan, Jimbob, Foley, Stuey and Diesel came this year, Angharad now owns Diesel and Amelia sold Destiny and bought Zac and she also has Jo Bailey’s Lily here. The Talygarn Pony Club Centre has had a very busy and successful year. Winning the Area Quiz and the Senior Horse Care. placed 3rd in the National Quiz in Warwick. 5th in the Horse Care Champs and the Overall Team winners of the Pony Club Centre Championships in Derby with Sarah Blake and Chloe Reakes both winning their individual sections. Carys Morgan rode Fred in the Dressage to Music at the Champs and did a lovely test to the music from Lady Gaga. The Pony Club Committee have all worked very hard this year running and organising The Fun Dog Show, Show Jumping and hacks to raise funds to run the Halloween Party The Annual Open Day turned out to be a lovely day despite threats of rain. The Displays included Show Jumping, Musical Ride, Bareback Jumping, 101 Dalmations by the Mini Pony Club, PoloCrosse and Gymkhana. We have also ran many competitions this year The Dressage series was very successful ending in April and has got off to a very busy start for 10/11 series. We are also holding some Pony Club Dengie Qualifiers during the Dressage series and Kate Owen riding Hannah and Carys Morgan riding Buffy have already qualified for the second round in 2011. The indoor Show Jumping and the Team jumping have been very busy with Talygarn picking up quite a few wins in the points series. This year we held the Summer Jumping in the outdoor school and that proved to be very popular. We were also lucky enough with the weather to be able to hold all four Mini Hunter Trials. We have had numerous students passing BHS & NVQ exams this year and Gareth Evans was also chosen by Yale College as Student of the Year Other Activities this year have included The E3 Schools Riding, Pony Days, Camps, Centre Days, Birthday Partys, and a Parents Quiz Night Unfortunately we had to cancel the Pony Club C test because of the snow but we did manage to hold the Child Protection Course and the Christmas Gymkhana which was a bit quieter than normal due to the weather but turned out to be a good day. There a lots of pictures on the Gallery from 2010 and beyond. Lets hope to make 2011 and even more successful year.

Posted on Monday, January 3rd, 2011 at 3:34 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Student of the Year

Wednesday, October 6th, 2010

Gareth Evans started riding at Talygarn 3 years ago with the after school activities E3 programme. Gareth suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome which is part of the Autism Spectrum and several years ago he became interested in horse riding when he saw a medieval re-enactment whilst on holiday. At Talygarn Equestrian Centre we run an outreach programme where students enrol at Yale College Wrexham but receive their training at Talygarn. Gareth enrolled on a course when he left school and over the last two years Gareth has achieved his NPTC Level 1 & 2, Horse Owners Level 1, he has passed the riding section of his NVQ and will complete the care by Christmas and he will be taking his BHS Stage 1 next year. Gareth has taken part in displays at the Open Day and rode in show jumping and cross country competitions. As well as being a student at Talygarn Gareth also has a part time job on the yard. This year Yale College recognised Gareth’s achievements by awarding him the title of Equine Student of the Year. Pam our internal verifier from the college presented Gareth with a certificate and trophy. This summer Gareth was accepted into the Sealed Knot Re-enactment society as a foot soldier and is hoping to achieve his ambition to join the Royalist Cavalry on horse back.

Posted on Wednesday, October 6th, 2010 at 8:55 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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