Riding School | Chris's Blog

Twitters from Talygarn

http://blogs.talygarnec.co.uk/2010/02/nestle-get-set-go-free-promotion/ I think they are having a laugh. 4 days ago
Come to "Unaffiliated Show Jumping" 21 March from 10:00 to 17:00. Unaffiliated Show Jumping Starts with Lead rein... http://bit.ly/dkAclC 1 week ago
I posted 4 photos on Facebook in the album "Amelia and Jaffa" http://bit.ly/cGBWie 1 week ago
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New Horses

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

We seem to have the same horses for ages then several new ones come at once. Last week a 13.2 Liver Chestnut Mare called Abi came on trial for two weeks. She has not been ridden very often only once a week in walk and trot by a six year old child. I don’t think she will be staying as she is too nappy and refuses to canter without bucking. Yesterday a 15.2 Palamino TB x ID called Jimbob arrived He is only a four year old, 5 in May. He is very sweet but very green I think I may buy him and ride him myself for a few months until he is better schooled and jumping. I rode him out on a hack today with Amelia on Destiny, as we approached the lake a swan took flight. Destiny was horrified and promptly whizzed round and shot back up the lane a few yards. Jimbob stood routed to the ground, grew a hand and just stared at it till it landed. He was quite wary an wobbly in the school but probably not been in an indoor school before. Next week I have a 15hh horse coming which will mean being 2 stables short but Coffee is nearing retirement now, Polo is not settling very well to riding school and we do need to sell Destiny so maybe a few changes ahead.

Posted on Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 at 2:18 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Nestle Get Set Go Free promotion

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

I received an interesting letter from The British Horse Society yesterday regarding the Nestle Get Set Go Free promotion The British Horse Society are encouraging all BHS approved riding centres to join up. This is how it works. Nestle a multi million pound company encourage you the public to purchase their product, you collect the points from the product and when you have enough points we give you a free riding lesson. Nestle pocket the money from their sales to add to their large and successful business and give themselves a large pat on the back because the public are getting fitter and we the small business get nothing. Benefits to us are inclusion in advertising on their packs and their website and increased membership to our riding school. I wonder if anyone has ever done any research into whether this actually works because I have and it doesn’t. Over the last 2 years we have been involved in the E3 scheme in schools. We have had up to three schools a week riding here with up to 15 kids in ech session. We are paid for this service as E3 is funded but the children or their families do not pay so in effect it is free. In 2 years we have gained 1 student and 3 clients and we also have had clients who would normally pay cancelling to have their free lesson instead. I conclude from this that if people want to ride and can afford to ride they will, they won’t suddenly find the money each week or the desire to ride from 1 free lesson but they will take free lessons if they can and Nestle expect us to provide this free along with the cost of an instructor and general wear and tear. The British Horse Society state that we can give the free lessons when we are quiet maybe in the week. We are not a large riding school but we teach all day on weekends, Tues Thurs and Friday evening and run shows on Wednesdays to make ends meet, our horses have a day off on Monday and the rest of the time the kids are in school. We can’t afford to have free time sitting around on our backsides and paying the staff whilst waiting to give lessons away. If Nestle would like to be involved in providing riding for the general public perhaps they would like to buy the vouchers off us because I’m sure they can afford it we can’t.

Furthermore these points are going to appear on cereals confectionarand beverages. So whilst we are expected to help the public get fitter Nestle is acually encouraging them to get fatter

Posted on Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 at 10:47 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Snow

Saturday, January 9th, 2010

I’ve always liked the snow especially when is newly fallen and carpets everything in a lovely white blanket. It looks so nice in Austria and that’s where it should stay and if I want to see it I’ll go there on holiday. Here it is such an inconvenience. On Tuesday it wasn’t too bad but I knew they had forcasted snow so we double rugs 28 horses which are normally in and put them out leaving 4 in, Amelia’s two, Storm cause she fights and Michigan cause he jumps field fences and runs away and I’m so glad we did. Wednesday we couldn’t get anything in or anything out but not to worry 2 days of snow then it rains washes it all away and we’re back to normal, well thats what normally happens obviously not this time. We have had to cancel all evening lessons this week as once the temperature drops in the evening and everything freezes it is difficult to drive up the lane. We have only one tap working so Steve has spent all his time transporting water and hay around the fields. Staff and students can’t get in so there’s not much help either, although Jess, Caroline and Gareth have all managed one day. We did manage some lessons in the day today but the dressage has been cancelled tomorrow. Jennifer was supposed to fly home from Portugal Thurday but her flight was cancelled, having arrived at the airport severely hung over from the goodbye party the night before she then had to return to her apartment. Having packed to leave she had given away or thrown out all her food, shampoo, soap, etc and returned the radiator she had borrowed. Fortunately her agent got her on a plane to London yesterday and she gets home tomorrow. Steve goes into hospital Monday for surgery. So that means me and Amelia and the Quad if this snow keeps up. It will probably be worse for me if it starts to thaw though, I imagine we will have a lot of burst pipes and my plumbing skills are not that good. I’m not sure Unibond and sellotape will work. The horses don’t seem any worse for their unexpected holiday. I think they are far happier out as long as they are warm and have plenty of food and water. Colic is a worry after the incident with Fred and therefore we need to make sure they are drinking enough. I am very impressed with my garden pond/waterfall which has frozen up considerably but is still pumping the water

If these Artic weather conditions keep up Please check the Website for updates on lessons and competitions http://www.talygarnec.co.uk/

Posted on Saturday, January 9th, 2010 at 11:54 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

October Half Term

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

Some one please remind me next year not to run a dressage competition the morning after the halloween party which was only two days after the team jumping. Not that I expected 39 teams and to be on the go from 7am to 10.30pm and neither did I expect 54 dressage entries. The Team jumping kicked off with the first of the series on Wednesday and it was a a very good day with some excellent rounds and some very competitive teams. Talygarn managed quite a few places and a win in the 2ft teams. It was also lovely to see Gareth Evans compete in the 1ft 9 teams and for his team to come 5th, Gareth had some riding lessons here then started here as a student, Gareth suffers from slight Autism and Aspergers syndrome but he has acheived so much in the time he has been here. It was also my birthday on Wednesday so I kinda tried to look upon it as a rather large party! Photos from teams are on the Gallery. The Halloween Party which is run and organised by the Pony Club Centre was one of the best this year. I thought it was going to be a bit quiet but we ended up with quite a good crowd and some brilliant costumes. Its lovely to see so many people being supportive of the event after all the hard work the Pony Club Centre committee do to raise money to pay for all the equipment. Millbrook riding Club are always very supportive and it was lovely to see Freya Murkowski who drove down from Essex for the evening. After nearly knocking myself out in the Sumo wrestling last year I decided I wouldn’t go on anything this year but after a few glasses of wine I found myself on the gladiator jousting and then the rodeo bull I should know by now to fall off straight away because the falling off doesn’t hurt but gripping onto the thing for ages kills my hip the next day, sure sign of a candidate for hip replacement I’m thinking. By 11.30 most people were leaving so we had a major clean up in readiness for the Dressage the next day followed by a few drinks on the picnic benches whilst waiting for Sharon and Darrens Taxi. Which Sharon had ordered for 11.50 but was now coming at 12.50am. Darren insisted it was the worst Taxi ever as they had ordered it for October and it was now a month late. This week I have had a new Yard Manger/Instructor start – Jodie. I’m not sure its been the best week to start with having so much on and I think Jodie doesn’t know whether she is coming or going. I have also been trying to get all the horses Clipped before the end of this month. We left Michigan as we knew he would be difficult but I wanted to get him done this week as he is now getting very hot in lessons. We had a riding school show jumping comp on Friday so after it had finished and I had ridden Destiny I picked Leigh up at 5.30 Before I left I gave Michigan 10ml of Sedazine to calm him down. Unfortunately he still looked rather alert when Leigh turned on the clippers. Michigan is so big he doesn’t have to do much and we have no control. He merely moved sideways and threw his head up. I left the floor and Leigh was knocked into the wall. So another 5 mls of sedazine and 30 mins later also armed with twitch we tried again. We managed to get him to stand still but in the worst light possible and on the basis that we really needed to get some coat off him I resorted to clipping in the dark. We did eventually get him full clipped by 8pm, don’t look too closely. Steve took Amelia to Gloucester to jump on Saturday Which mean’t I was up at 7am to pick up the rolls for the evening. After all the preparation for competitions I have had to do this week alongside helping Jodie, teaching, college paperwork, clipping, students, lessons, Pony Day etc I really felt like I had run out of Steam by this dressage today. I have to say it ran very well and our Judges Barry Kelvin Hall and Jacqui Jones were marvellous along with the staff but I was glad to get to see the end of the day. This October Half Term has been more than hectic and tomorrow I am going to pack and try and clean up the house a bit before I leave tomorrow night, once I’m on that plane I am going to forget everything for a couple of weeks and relax in Thailand. See ya all when I get back, ready for the Christmas Gymkhana and more Team Jumping!!!! More Photos from Halloween Party on Gallery

Posted on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 1:25 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Talygarn Equestrian Centre

Sunday, October 18th, 2009

Leigh came down to carry on with the clipping on Monday. We knew Michigan would be difficult but we thought we would give it a go anyway. Not a chance, He doesnt do anything really mad but he just doesn’t like it and he knows his strength, with one swing of the head he sends us flying, being a 16.3hh ID cross theres not much chance of holding onto him. So Leigh clipped some of the others instead. I had to take Shelley to the vets tuesday, slight eye infection so I picked up some sedative for Michigan and Blue. The vet always asks how old the dogs are but I have no idea how old Shelley is, I remember going with Jenni and Emma Davies to somewhere Swansea way to buy her and I’m thinking Jenni was about 12, as she is 22 now I am guessing that would make Shelley about 10, I know Fudge is younger and Todd is the youngest. Maybe I should have written it down. Wednesday Chloe was away and as Amelia and I had a Pony Club meeting in Brecon I needed some else to teach as well as Amy Bartholomew so Leigh stepped in and taught Wednesday evening. Tonyrefail comp were here for the last week till after half term and Amy and Jess took them on a hack. Many of the clients on Wed night used to be taught by Leigh and were thrilled to have a lesson with him. The Pony Club meeting in Brecon was interesting. Dates were sorted out for next years area competitions and Talygarn Equestrian Centre will be hosting the Area Horse Care Comp in April 2010 also two Pony Club Dengie Dressage in January and February 2010. The pony Adoption scheme is going well I think there is only 5 ponies not adopted and there have been more enquiries. Life seems to be somewhat hectic at the moment we have a waiting list for lessons, quite a lot of students of which I am teaching everyday, alongside organising everything else there are not enough hours in the day. So I am pleased to say I have found a new yard manager/instructor from Swansea way who should be starting at half term. Just in time for my holiday to Thailand in November!!! Amelia took Leo and Destiny to Gracelands in Worcester on Saturday. Destiny had a couple of fences down in the 1.15m but Amelia was pleased with her as Destiny has not done a 1.15m class before also it was a progressive class which started at 1.10 the middle fences were 1.15 and the last few fences were 1.20m. Leo won both of his classes. As Steve and Amelia went to Worcs I had to teach my lessons, teach Amelia’s lessons and take the money, which wasn’t really possible so I left the office to Sarah. Thank goodness Sharon did the birthday party. The Show Jumping today was a bit on the quiet side although I must say I was quite glad after this week. There are only two kittens left and hopefully they will be picked up this week although I will miss them a bit as they are very cute and playful but I am getting worried they are going to get run over as they are starting to wander. We have 39 entries for the team jumping and as I said the max would be 40 and the entries don’t close till next sunday I think its going to be a very busy day. Also anyone thinking of entering the next Dressage best hurry up as I think that will also be closed before the closing date at the rate the entries are coming in. Everything is now organised for the Halloween Party and the Pony Club just need to sell the tickets. The Pony Club committee members have tickets to sell and they are available at the office. Martha is finalising the DVD of the summer Open Day & BBQ which we hope to have on display at the client show jumping on the Friday of Half Term. I have had a few previews and it is very good.

Posted on Sunday, October 18th, 2009 at 11:37 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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