Chris's Blog

Splash

Chris Rogers — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:34:37 +0000

It is 6.55am and I am on the train to Sheffield Uni with Martha. So I thought I would take this opportunity to write a blog as I haven’t had much time lately. On the New horse front Abbi went home – too nappy and bucking. Billy came and went – bucking and Jimbob will be staying. The 15hh horse that was supposed to be arriving didn’t but there is the possibility of another 15hh horse coming soon. I had a message off splash’s owner yesterday which I found quite amusing. She said she hasn’t seen Splash for nearly two years but she has seen pictures of him on our website doing show jumping and dressage so she figured he must be worth a bob or two now and she wants to sell him and do we want to buy him. The answer to that is NO definitely not. Splash is an 8/9yr old 16hh shire cross. Yes he does do the dressage competitions here even winning his class last Sunday. BUT it was a walk trot class as he is not controllable in canter and there was only 5 adults in the class. He had no warm up beforehand otherwise he gets too worked up. Show Jumping competitions – well as some of you have already witnessed are horrendous. It amounts to a wall of death for the very brave or very stupid. Lessons are manageble for fairly strong riders, he is never ridden by novices. For some reason that is beyond me or Amelia the people that ride him really like him. I think this is because he has no malice in him and they think he genuinely trys to do as asked. I found out some history about him the other day that explains a lot. Apparently before we had him he was ridden and jumped by a young girl who is brave but inexperienced in the schooling of horses and therefore was probably ridden like a big pony. Splash is a horse that trys to please and therefore would’ve tried to jump whatever was asked of him but he would’ve been scared and she wouldn’t have noticed probably jumping him higher than he was confident to do and making the mistake of thinking he was loving it cause he goes like a bat out of hell and hurls himself over. The outcome of this inexperienced schooling of young horses Is typically Splash, a horse that is tense and scared and does things fast out of fear and unfortunately will probably carry that baggage with him for the rest of his life. It is such a shame because his type is the sort that with calm, kind and sensible handling he should have been a calm and steady horse. I was thinking more on the lines of giving him the summer to see if we can make any further progress with him or sending him back. Martha was impressed with the course on offer for Journalism and Sheffield is now looking like the favourite. I have been enjoying these jaunts around the country viewing prospective Universities. Although the train journey today was less than impressive. Why is it dearer to travel at peak times when there is less chance of getting a seat, surely it should be cheaper. I must admit to being somewhat peeved at paying £153 for two return tickets from Cardiff to Sheffield only to find that we had to sit on the floor between Bristol and Cheltenham Spa. Having arrived back in Cardiff at 8.30 with 40 minutes to wait for the connection to Pontyclun we decided to get something to eat We found a Take away on Mary Street called Wok and Walk, Stir fry in a box How cool is that

Show Jumping Competitions

Chris Rogers — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 01:27:36 +0000

Amelia has been doing very well with the show jumping. She had a a 1st with Destiny at Hand beating the winning time by 5 secs in the jump off and Leo had a 2nd in the 1m15 and a 3rd in the 1m20 at Pencoed on Saturday and qualified for the 1m20 at the Bath and West show. Whilst at Pencoed on Saturday I noticed there was unaffiliated jumping on Sunday for juniors and I decided to take down any of the Level 4’s that were helping on the yard on Saturday which turned out to be only Zoe Morgan. Jasper was eliminated in the first class as he hasn’t been out for a while and was spooking at everything although he obviously felt better about it in the second class as he won that one. Lucky was 2nd in the first class but had a run out in the jump off in the second class. Well done Zoe.

New Horses

Chris Rogers — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 01:18:49 +0000

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.

Nestle Get Set Go Free promotion

Chris Rogers — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 21:47:46 +0000

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

Dressage

Chris Rogers — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:55:59 +0000

With 50 entries in the Dressage yesterday I knew it would be a long day. I had booked two Dressage Judges only to find out on sat evening at 7pm that one wasn’t coming. So I am very grateful to Lynn Groves who stood in at the last minute. Steve took Amelia to The Hand Equestrian Centre in Somerset to jump Destiny and Leo. Which left only me to run the Dressage. Olwen Wilkins judged the first two classes and as I did not have someone to write for Olwen Sarah did it. Sarah was supposed to be opening the shop so I did managed to run back and fore and run the shop, the scoring and any other problems. Class 2 was started a little better Helen wrote so Sarah was able to do the shop. Tracey was clipping Fred for Zoe in his stable when I got a message to say that Fred had reared up and struck Tracey in the side with his front leg and she had hit her head against the wall so I left the Dressage and helped Tracey to finish Fred, Tracey was ok, bit shook up and probably very stiff today. Getting back to the dressage at the end of the class Carys added the scores up for me. Lynn Groves took over Judging for the next three classes which included the Pony Club Dengie Dressage. There was a concern over the Dengie as to whether it was allowed to be called which I have spoken to Pony Club about and it is allowed to be called at Prelim level. Very well done to Mollyann Rees who won the Dengie. It was a shame for Kate Owen who was representing Talygarn as the first four qualified and Kate was 5th but we were pleased she did so well. There were no particular problems in the day although some people aired some strong opinions regarding their unhappiness at some of the results. I would like to say that over the years when watching or competing I have sometimes wondered why certain people have won or been placed in classes but I am not a dressage judge and therefore accept the decision. When ever I have written for Judges that have judged for me I have to say that all judges although may have opinions that differ from each other always do their best to mark what is in front of them and to be fair. A friend of mine who is also a judge told me that British Dressage discourages judges from giving low marks these days in order to be encouraging at this level. I think and this is my opinion that if people are only marked between 5 and 7 with the odd 8’s then it does become difficult to seperate people and its anyones guess who will win. Many years ago when I did some Dressage if you did a movment particularly badly you risked a 1 or a 2 and I think thats the way it should be . Marking between 0 and 10 as it says on the Dressage sheet would make things much fairer. Very few people at the level of unaffiliated Dressage would receive a 10 and I have yet to see a score sheet with 10 on it but I have seen a lot of very bad (1) and bad (2) movements and those marks don’t come up either. If someone rides a sufficient movement and gets a 5 and someone else rides a poor movement but only gets a 4 then winning becomes a lottery. Instead of moaning about the Judges maybe people should complain to British Dressage about their scoring system and of course its never the people that win that complain. I would also like to say I saw some lovely riding yesterday and everybody was very well turned out. Amelia had a pretty good day she had a 5th on leo in the 1.15m and won the metre class on Destiny.

Sahara Desert

Chris Rogers — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 19:30:34 +0000

We left the riad at 7am and met up with the group travelling to the Sahara. There were 10 of us 2 swiss, 2 chinese 2 Portugese, 2 Lithunians, us and a French speaking Muslim driver. The road to the Sahara goes over the Atlas mountains and Jen and I are terrified of heights. When I was younger I couldn’t have done it but I figure the fear is related to death and as death is getting closer with age there’s not much point in worrying anymore. We made a stop at Quarzazate for a visit to the set where they filmed Gladiator and for lunch, Tagine (stew) is the local dish or couscous, We had tagine yesterday but not to worry its quite nice. I was very brave crossing the mountains as the manic muslim driver was overtaking lorries with thousands of feet drops, Jen slept all the way, the views were stunning and the pass is high enough to be up in the snow. We arrived at Dades Gorge at 6pm. Lovely hotel – no heating, cold shower and meal – Tagine. We met an American couple and sat in a room we found, with the lithunians Natalie and Andreus playing cards and drinking beer accompanied by three moroccan staff singing, playing drums and marraccas. We stayed there till midnight – there was a log fire. During the night it snowed. After breakfast we left for the desert stopping on the way for lunch, managed to get an omlette the only other choice was a sandwhich or Tagine. We arrived at the Sahara at 6pm. It was amazing riding the camels in the Desert at sunset although very cold. The night sky was starry with a full moon. We arrived at the Berber Camp after 8pm and had been told to take only the minimum with us plus drinking water. Somewhere during this trek I managed to lose my phone. We were all given a mattress in a large tent and loads of blankets. Plenty of sweet black tea and Tagine which was served in two large bowls between ten of us, nowhere to wash your hands and no cutlery or plates. The Berbers then entertained us with song (well a sort of shrieking grunting noise) and music from home made drums. We figured the only way to keep warm was to join in. Later the Berbers gave us a sand board and Jen, Andreus and Roi (portugeses) had a few goes sand boarding down the dunes. I used it like a sled and sat on it, climbing those dunes soon got us really hot. In the morning we were up at 6.30am to see the sunrise and ride the camels back. Our driver was in a major rush to leave we stopped for a loo stop at 11am and were told that the mountain pass was to close for the night at 5pm because of the snow, after that the driver wouldn’t stop again and drove like a madman to make the mountain pass before it closed. We got through at 4.35pm and it was gone 6 before we got through the mountains and stopped for food. Tagine or cold chips.

Moroccan Riad

Chris Rogers — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 10:55:29 +0000

When travelling I like to have a feel of how people live in foreign countries so before Jen and I arrived in Marrakech we booked a night in a Moroccan Riad in the old Medina. I’m glad we prebooked a taxi too or we would never have found it. The Medina is the old part of the town and a Riad is a Morrocan Town House. The taxi dropped us off at the walls of the Medina, the roads through the Medina are not wide enough for cars in fact they are barely wide enough for people although that doesn’t stop manic moped drivers using them. I think the aim was to build Riads as close too each other as possible after following our guide down a maze of narrow lanes we came to a dark door set in a wall. Fran and Abdullah greeted us warmly and made us feel very welcome with endless cups of mint tea. The riads don’t have any heating and minimum electric. the rooms are off balcony’s which face inwards around the central seating area which has no roof. The roof above the rooms has a terrace and Berber tent, well shack with sack over it would be better description. The rooms have a strong smell of mould, common to all buildings with no heat in the winter, disguised by a strong smell of burning joss sticks. during the evening candles or dim electric lit the riad. The muslins do not drink alcohol, although we found some, but I’m not surprised they all smoke so much hash.

Goldfish

Chris Rogers — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 01:01:29 +0000

Blogs have been few and far between just lately. Between the snow, Steve being in hospital and several more problems with the website servers I’ve not had much chance to write any. Rob who designed and built all my websites for me has had so many problems that he has moved all my sites to a new server. Hopefully the website will be working fine now. Steve is making a good recovery and is back on his feet The snow has gone but you never know theres plenty of time yet for it to fall again. Last week an American girl Eva arrived to stay with us for a few weeks. Eva comes from Chicago and is keen to experience life in a British riding school. Eva was not put out by the snow she remarked that what we had here last wednesday was a light fall at the beginning of winter where she comes from. Eva has ridden for many years and worked on a couple of yards in the states. Whilst talking about water for horses Eva informed us that the yard she was at used to put goldfish in the water troughs to eat the algae, not something I’ve heard of before and can you imagine the problems I would encounter trying to buy them. Last year I tried to buy a goldfish for Jen as hers had died. The man in Leekes would not sell me one until I had disinfected the tank, filled it, added anti bacterial Tablets and allowed the water to stand for one week until it had reached room temperature and even then he wasn’t entirely happy to part with his goldfish unless I bought a filter, he would have a heart attck at the thought of me bunging them straight in a horse trough. I have visions of a cat perched on each field trough. Fred has now been sold to Zoe Hughes although he will be remaining here on working livery for several months. Several Pony Club competitions are coming up. We have the Pony Club Dengie Dressage at the beginning of Feb, the Area quiz in Feb and the Horse Care comp in March which we are hosting at Talygarn. There will be a quiz here on Saturday 5pm open to any pony club centre members who would like to come. The winners of the quiz will make up this years teams. There is also unaffiliated show jumping on Sunday 24th 10am. I had a surprise visit from Medi this week. I doubt if many people here now will remember Medi except perhaps Chloe. Medi rode here for many years at the same time as Amy Bartholomew both were very active Pony Club Centre Members and its great to have them both here now as students. Anyway with the snow, the students, the dressage, showjumping, schedules, quiz questions, riding lessons etc that I have to organise I am feeling the need for another holiday - so Jen and I are going back packing in Morocco on Monday.

Snow

Chris Rogers — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 22:54:42 +0000

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/

Dieting

Chris Rogers — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 00:53:04 +0000

All year round I seem to be on a diet these days, sometimes it goes well sometimes not so good. I have a target weight I’d like to reach which i did acheive a couple of years ago but then lost it again. Sometimes after a good run I get a little closer sometimes it seems miles away. I get excited if I lose a lb then try harder but if I only lose a lb the following week I feel depressed. (marginally I haven’t got time for serious depression) Sometimes I think about food I shouldn’t eat and I try to avoid going out for meals. I know how many calories there are in certain foods and I have to take this into account. I know that Vodka and Diet Coke has 57. I try not to drink wine cause it has more calories (well thats not strictly true I just fall over quicker on wine) and a pint of lager is def out at 250. Christmas is even more depressing cause the weights bound to go up. So this year I changed my plan and decided to have an upper weight limit over Christmas, still unreachable (I hope) but less depressing when I fail. I still think about food but now I eat it and I’ve been out for quite a few meals with suitable quantities of vodka, lager, wine and baileys included in the festive celebrations. Its been a good Christmas and I was even a little gutted the other day when I lost 2lb. So I have 2 days left to enjoy my upper weight limit target and then unfortunately from Monday its back to the lower weight target. I’ve certainly enjoyed my challenge and when I weigh on monday and fail I won’t even be depressed. I’d just like to say a huge thank you to all the customers that gave us and the staff Christmas gifts, it is nice to be appreciated and we enjoyed eating and drinking all the wine and chocolates, in fact I probably ate the most.

Hope 2010 brings you all that you want (2 dresses sizes less for me and a winning lottery ticket) HAPPY NEW YEAR