Chris's Blog - The Blog of Talygarn Equestrian Centre: Horse Riding in South Wales

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January 30, 2010

Sahara Desert

Filed under: Home — Chris Rogers @ 8:30 pm

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.

January 29, 2010

Moroccan Riad

Filed under: Home — Chris Rogers @ 11:55 am

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.

January 22, 2010

Goldfish

Filed under: Home — Chris Rogers @ 2:01 am

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.

January 9, 2010

Snow

Filed under: Home, Horses, Riding School — Chris Rogers @ 11:54 pm

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/

January 2, 2010

Dieting

Filed under: Home — Chris Rogers @ 1:53 am

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

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