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

Twitters from Talygarn

I posted 3 photos on Facebook in the album "Staff & Students 09 - 10" http://fb.me/B5aPtTnk 4 days ago
I posted 21 photos on Facebook in the album "Julie and Sharon" http://fb.me/G1cqtI46 4 days ago
Big Thank you to everyone who stayed and helped with the party tonight :) will be putting on a free ride tuesday... http://fb.me/FxoLfNk2 5 days ago
More updates...

Posting tweet...

Navigation:

Search:

Meta:

July 16, 2010

Open Day 2010

Filed under: Home, Horses, Riding School — Chris Rogers @ 11:43 pm

Open Day
What an absolutely fantastic day it turned out to be, worth all the stress and extra hours of putting it altogether and there were a few problems this year. Both Cleo and Lucy had been lame and both were in the bigger jumping last year. Lucy was ok but as she was in the musical ride we decided not to risk the jumping and with Cleo out as well we were a bit short of horses. All the riders in the jumping did extremely well with Chloe winning on Michigan. Kate and Hannah were amazing jumping the 4ft planks but I could have cried tears of joy for Carys who has worked so hard over the years to improve Blue’s jumping and was so excited to have a go on Blue but was sure she would knock a few down, on the day Blue did Carys proud and didn’t knock down a single fence. I also felt for Zoe Hughes who should have been in the jumping display but had broken her wrist in a gymkhana practice which put her out of a few displays but Zoe showed true spirit and came along and helped out and took part where she could. The bareback jumping went well but I think the audience like it when a few fall off and they didnt disappoint with Sarah and Carys falling off Buffy after the first fence and Libby and Molly falling off Gem before they even got to the first fence. I had not seen the dalmations in costume before the day and couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw them in the kitchen where they had got ready. The musical ride always goes down well and they rode it perfectly and looked very smart as ballroom dancers. Some of our students put together the Polocrosse display and we rounded up the afternoon with an exciting gymkhana display. As you can imagine an awful lot of time goes into practices and organising the day Amelia gave up a lot of her time to help with practices and did an amazing job on the day of organising all the displays but we still couldn’t manage without the help of parents etc. All students come in on the day and give their help. Gaynor Blake, Jackie Morgan and husbands and Sue Reville did a brill job on Burger van, Mini Pony CLub Mums Leanne, Lisa, Nikki and Sarah ran the shop, Sharon ran the pony rides, Sue Owen carried bucket after bucket of water down to the yard to wash the horses. Several people helped with making costumes and Tracey Bushrod did an absolutely brilliant job of face painting all the dalmations etc. So a big thank you to everyone that helped and I hope I haven’t missed anyone out. Photos are on Website curtesy of Tim Lambert and Julie Whiles and Martha is working on a DVD of the day

July 5, 2010

Ducks

Filed under: Home — Chris Rogers @ 2:28 am

Last week I decided to get two ducks to go with the four chickens. Laura and I went over to Brynna and collected the ducks. Both were approx 8 weeks old, one is a Cayuga the black one and the other is a Welsh Harlequin. I have a little routine with the chickens. They get let out in the morning into the large run and have fresh water and some scraps, at 5pm they expect to get their layers pellets and corn, if they dont get it on time Rita flys out of the run into the garden and attacks my plants, as soon as its dark they go in their house of their own accord and I lock them in, easy. Same routine for Ducks – No. They stick together at all times, they dont seem to care when they get fed and they obviously have no concept of foxes. Each night I shut the chickens into their house and the ducks live in the run underneath, except they dont get it and I end up chasing them round the large run until I can catch them and its no good catching one as the other one just runs faster and squawks on top of her voice. If I catch one and put it in the run I have to shut the door or it will run out again then I can’t catch the other cause it runs round and round the run at 90 miles an hour and food does not tempt them. In the end I have to corner both of them and catch them together. Tonight I went out after dark and they were actually in the small run so I shut the door quickly relieved that I didnt have to chase them in the dark on the muddy ground. As the chickens are named Rita Vera Audrey and Mavis – Coronation Chicken Laura named the Ducks Pat and Peggy from eastenders

July 2, 2010

Another busy week

Filed under: College, Home, Horses, Riding School, Shows — Chris Rogers @ 1:04 am

With less than two weeks to go before the Open Day there is still much to organise and its been another busy week. We have one more practice for the musical ride, the dress rehearsal next week and several other practices to get in for the other displays. The practices have been going very well but unfortunately we had a disaster last weekend when practicing one of the Gymkhana games and Zoe Hughes fell and broke her wrist. On saturday Jen came in the house asking if Paul Curnock could have a cold wet towel for a twisted ankle. I have to admit my first thought was ‘Oh No Emily can’t be injured she is in the Musical ride’, but it was ok is was his wife Kath. No sympathy there Kath just relief Emily that was ok but the next day I was panicked again when Emily fell off in the Mini Hunter Trials. I have asked her to sit in front of the TV for the next week. The Mini Hunter trial was very successful and busy but the ground was very hard. I’m glad to say we only had a couple of fallers and they were ok. Its good for us that England are now out of the football as the World Cup final is on the same day as the Open day although it doesn’t start till 7.30pm and we should be finished by 5.30ish. Mini Show Jumping on Wednesday was a bit quiet this week. The weather was good enough to hold it in the outdoors school. Kate Owen rode Hannah in two of the best jump offs I have seen in a while. Well done Kate. I think those jumping clinics with Amelia and Jo have really paid off. Last Tuesday I drove up to Warwick for Amelia to have a look at some horses. We went to a yard speciallising in competition horses with approx 50 horses. Amelia looked at some 4yr olds 5 yr olds and a 7yr old and eventually decided on the 7yr old which she picking up tomorrow. I am staying home as I have the students, the farrier, the sawdust, and the washing machine mechanic coming out. I also have to get to tescos and and organise the lessons for tomorrow night. Open Day Sunday July 11th gates open 1pm.

June 28, 2010

Potential Show Jumpers

Filed under: Home, Horses — Chris Rogers @ 3:17 am

Every year this seems to be the busiest time ever I think this might be because as well as the usual running of the riding school, student training, shows etc I try to add other activities into my already busy day such as Open day organising and gardening (which although quite rewarding does take up a lot of time). Also now that Amelia has sold Destiny she wants to buy herself another horse to show jump therefore I am also trying to make time to go and see horses with her (mainly because Amelia is not to keen on driving long distances on the motorway) Last sunday Amelia found two horses that she wanted to see in Kent. As we didn’t have a show that day Steve and I decided to go with her. So armed with google maps and directions we set out. Both horses are 4yr olds just broken and come over from abroad in the last 10 days. Neither had done much under saddle but both had exceptionally good breeding. Amelia rode them whilst I sat armed with video so she could watch them afterwards. Both moved extremely well on the flat and she jumped them over a small fences. My main thought whilst videoing was I hope she is not expecting me to ride these. The first one had quite a bit of spirit (I did like that one) and tried to buck several times when cantering and the 2nd one was also very sharp. Over the years I have often ridden Amelia’s horses to keep them in work when she has been away and when she broke her foot. Destiny although was a bit of a handful when we first had her at 6yrs old has been a dream to ride and I often rode her. Leo is also very good but has a lot more power than Destiny and is sometimes a bit too quick for my liking and a bit too much spring for my older bones but I must admit I think I’m getting a bit past sharp youngsters nowadays. I think I’ll stick to Jimbob who is a lot steadier although having said that he is only 5yrs old and he reared and napped on the road the other day (when I say reared my definition of rearing is front legs 2ft off the ground any higher and I think I would jump off) He had a smack for that one and hasn’t tried it since. Anyway Amelia wasn’t too keen on either horse the first one was the nicest but maybe a bit too inexperienced and the second one tapped the fence a few times and didn’t seem bothered about hitting it. Personally I like to see a youngster that hits a fence come round to it again and put a big jump in, its good to have horses with the sttitude that they don’t like hitting a fence. So off to Warwick on Tuesday to see a couple more.

June 15, 2010

Quiz Night

Filed under: Home, Riding School — Chris Rogers @ 1:36 am

Several weeks ago Leanne (parent of Ashton) suggested it would be nice to have a social evening for parents so we decided on a quiz night for parents clients and students. I agreed to do the questions and Leanne put some posters up. We got a room for free from upstairs in the Hand and Squirrel in Talbot Green (Big thanks to Mike) and decided on Sunday June 13th. As everyone is connected with the riding school we decided to have one horse related round. So last week I copied and pasted a 20 pictures containing famous horses or riders and saved them on the computer. Friday and Saturday I was away with Amelia who was show jumping at Broomes. Sunday morning I did the rest of the questions and printed them out before the showjumping started. We are holding the showjumping in the outdoor school during the summer, provided it’s not pouring down with rain and although it wasn’t hugely busy there was a reasonable turn out. and we didn’t finish till 6pm. Agreed to meet at pub at 7.30pm for quiz so just had to water the garden, feed the chickens, have shower, grab a quick bite and print off the pictures and answers for the picture round and thats where it all went wrong, I needed to send the photos to the other computer to print them and could I get an Internet connection, I tried everything from unplugging it to shaking it (that worked best) and don’t you just love it when a little box comes up and says ‘your internet is not connected’ I know that. By 6.50pm I had managed to get them printed, had the quickest shower ever, slung food at chickens, ran out of door with bread roll in hand and got to pub by 7.30(ish) There were 19 of us all together split into 4 teams, we had 2 rounds of questions, one picture round and one round of cryptic nursery rhymes. The quiz was fairly lighthearted and a good laugh with the entertainment provided by Sheena Davies. The winning team ‘Bringing up the rear’ Sue Reville, Jackie Morgan, Gaynor Blake, Kath and Paul Curnock donated the £17 winnings to the Pony Club fund raising for the Championships at Derby in August. We will try to organise another one in July. Having become a keen gardener over the last couple of years you will realise how devasted I was when I got up this morning to make a truly traumatic discovery – My greenhouse blew over in the night. Glad to say it is actually ok and I’m so glad its not made of glass.

Tonight we had the first practice for the musical ride. First everyone rode around the arena to make sure the horses were ok with the music and then started to learn the moves. I was very impressed at how well it was all going – until we got to the canter. There were several near misses, 2 nearly fell off, one crashed and one was at the wrong end. I really think that first practice at the canter movement is more entertaining than on the day. I wish I’d videod it. PS Tickets for Open Day on sale soon – July 11th.

« Previous Next »