Hi Everyone,
Just a quick note to let you know that the club AGM has been set for Tuesday 4th October at 7.30p.m. at the stables. The AGM will take the same format as last year, where Sally will do a 20 - 30 minute talk on the accounts and the year past/ahead and then we will give an educational demo. This years demo is:
"How to get yourself and your horse ready for x-country - indoors".
After the demo, the meeting takes an open floor format where members can make suggestions/chat to the directors or voting members.
Hopefully we'll see lots of you there - if you want to attend (members only) then you can add your name to the list in reception so we know how many seats we need.
Thanks
Monday, 26 September 2011
Monday, 19 September 2011
Winter fast approaching
How depressing - we moved the horses to their winter fields today. Its depressing because it doesnt' seem like 2 minutes ago we were moving them to their summer fields - summer in the North East seems to be getting shorter and shorter (and wetter and wetter!).
We have also started using the haylage we have made now as quite a few liveries are now in for winter, and it is lovely stuff - the horses seem to be enjoying it a lot! We don't put haylage into the fields yet, as there is still plenty of grass, but come October, it will be time to get the feeders out to the fields again and then the huge task of supplying hay to all the fields starts - we'll be a bit sick of the sight of the tractor by the end of it!
The new riding prices were also implemented in September, and that all seems to go smoothly - hopefully all our members understand that we need to put a price increase in every couple of years to ensure that the club remains solvent and that we can afford to get the best equipment for everyone and afford to give our staff good training - we still think its very good value for money, and it would seem the BHS would agree as we were recently graded as "highly commended" in our inspection.
Some bad news on the horse front this month though - Timone started to go lame in front around 3 weeks ago, so we booked in in for an examination by the vet. The vet did nerve blocks on his right fore - nerve blocks are where the vet anaesthitises specific areas of the leg in order to diagnose where the lameness is coming from. Timone blocked out to his foot, and then when lunged looked a little unlevel on his left fore. The end result was that we booked him in for x-rays of both front legs to investigate the cause of his lameness. He was x-rayed last week and the x-rays confirmed our suspicions that he had low ringbone. Ringbone is athritis in the joint and in low ringbone cases it is athritis of the coffin joint, which is inside the hoof. Timone had a fairly hard jumping career in Europe before he came to join us and has worked really well with us in the school, so at 15 its no surprise that he has developed some type of athritis.
The prognosis is not brilliant for ringbone - the vet has injected the joint with steroids and he will be ridden in a few weeks to assess his soundness. We're hoping that the medication will make him sound enough that he can work through the winter, then be retired in the Spring and probably put to sleep at the end of next summer as we're not willing to keep going with him if he can't be made comfortable in the field. Hopefully the medication will work, as we don't want him to retire over the winter - we'd rather he could retire and enjoy a nice summer out at grass as a reward for his hard work.
Right, think thats all the updates for just now!
We have also started using the haylage we have made now as quite a few liveries are now in for winter, and it is lovely stuff - the horses seem to be enjoying it a lot! We don't put haylage into the fields yet, as there is still plenty of grass, but come October, it will be time to get the feeders out to the fields again and then the huge task of supplying hay to all the fields starts - we'll be a bit sick of the sight of the tractor by the end of it!
The new riding prices were also implemented in September, and that all seems to go smoothly - hopefully all our members understand that we need to put a price increase in every couple of years to ensure that the club remains solvent and that we can afford to get the best equipment for everyone and afford to give our staff good training - we still think its very good value for money, and it would seem the BHS would agree as we were recently graded as "highly commended" in our inspection.
Some bad news on the horse front this month though - Timone started to go lame in front around 3 weeks ago, so we booked in in for an examination by the vet. The vet did nerve blocks on his right fore - nerve blocks are where the vet anaesthitises specific areas of the leg in order to diagnose where the lameness is coming from. Timone blocked out to his foot, and then when lunged looked a little unlevel on his left fore. The end result was that we booked him in for x-rays of both front legs to investigate the cause of his lameness. He was x-rayed last week and the x-rays confirmed our suspicions that he had low ringbone. Ringbone is athritis in the joint and in low ringbone cases it is athritis of the coffin joint, which is inside the hoof. Timone had a fairly hard jumping career in Europe before he came to join us and has worked really well with us in the school, so at 15 its no surprise that he has developed some type of athritis.
The prognosis is not brilliant for ringbone - the vet has injected the joint with steroids and he will be ridden in a few weeks to assess his soundness. We're hoping that the medication will make him sound enough that he can work through the winter, then be retired in the Spring and probably put to sleep at the end of next summer as we're not willing to keep going with him if he can't be made comfortable in the field. Hopefully the medication will work, as we don't want him to retire over the winter - we'd rather he could retire and enjoy a nice summer out at grass as a reward for his hard work.
Right, think thats all the updates for just now!
Friday, 12 August 2011
Catching up
Lots of stuff to catch up on as our blog has been broken, so we've been unable to update anything! Anyway, here goes...
We now have 260 bales of haylage wrapped and ready to munch! We are taking a second cut of haylage off the cow fields in order to try and save a bit of money by not having to buy in as much from elsewhere to supplement our own home grown stuff.
We are also raising the price of lessons by £2 as of the 1st September - we've held off having a price rise for nearly 2 years, but unfortunately needs must now and we're experiencing such higher costs, we have no alternative but to increase the price of lessons - however hopefully everyone can see the massive improvements we're making at the moment, with the new shower bay for horses and the x-country jumps.
The x-country jumps are now pegged and ready for use in the field - the bumps that we built will be out of action until next year as we are reseeding them with grass and the ditches are not quite finished yet as we're waiting for the wood to support them. A few of our liveries have already enjoyed using them.
We also said goodbye to Aero this morning as she was put to sleep. We had always planned to put Aero to sleep at the end of this summer as we thought she was struggling a bit last winter, and after a few years retirement, she was ready to go. So big thanks to Aero, who has been a great horse over the years both in the riding school originally, then working as granny to our foals in her later retired years.
We now have 260 bales of haylage wrapped and ready to munch! We are taking a second cut of haylage off the cow fields in order to try and save a bit of money by not having to buy in as much from elsewhere to supplement our own home grown stuff.
We are also raising the price of lessons by £2 as of the 1st September - we've held off having a price rise for nearly 2 years, but unfortunately needs must now and we're experiencing such higher costs, we have no alternative but to increase the price of lessons - however hopefully everyone can see the massive improvements we're making at the moment, with the new shower bay for horses and the x-country jumps.
The x-country jumps are now pegged and ready for use in the field - the bumps that we built will be out of action until next year as we are reseeding them with grass and the ditches are not quite finished yet as we're waiting for the wood to support them. A few of our liveries have already enjoyed using them.
We also said goodbye to Aero this morning as she was put to sleep. We had always planned to put Aero to sleep at the end of this summer as we thought she was struggling a bit last winter, and after a few years retirement, she was ready to go. So big thanks to Aero, who has been a great horse over the years both in the riding school originally, then working as granny to our foals in her later retired years.
Monday, 11 July 2011
Lots of news
Loads of exciting news today!
Firstly, big well done to Martin, who passed his Stage 3 with flying colours. It's a difficult exam to get as it involves riding and stable management, but he did really well and got the whole thing so now both Hannah and him are fully qualified!
Our haylage baling also went well - we managed to get 168 bales, which came from the field across the road, the cow fields and the front field nearest the road. This means that we have the mast field and hill field still to cut, and hopefully a second cut from the cow fields and field across the road, so its all go and we're praying for good weather again!
We have also welcomed three new liveries in the last couple of weeks - Toastie - a big grey gelding, Possum - a 14.2h.h. grey mare and Meghan, a 14.2h.h bay mare s0 its nice getting to know all the new ones.
Tuesday, 5 July 2011
Jumps have arrived!
Great news - the new jumps arrived on Friday morning so we now have a lovely course of showjumps up in the sand paddock, and cross country jumps waiting to be secured and pegged down into the field. We used the showjumps in our lessons last night, and they went down a storm so the horses seem to like them! As they're wooden, we'll be painting them each year with new colours and designs, so it'll keep them looking fresh.
The cross country jumps also look brill - there are lots of variety with brushes/rolltops/houses e.t.c. We're also planning to get a digger in to do some work to the field to make bumps/ditches e.t.c. so hopefully in around 5 weeks we'll have a new play area in one of the fields!
We're busy on the horse front as well, with 3 new liveries coming in this week - they are all existing clients who have bought new horses, which makes it easier as they know where everythng is and the yard rules, but it is still hard work as each horse has to get settled into its new group, get tack organised and all the other little things that we forget about until its time to get another new one!
The cross country jumps also look brill - there are lots of variety with brushes/rolltops/houses e.t.c. We're also planning to get a digger in to do some work to the field to make bumps/ditches e.t.c. so hopefully in around 5 weeks we'll have a new play area in one of the fields!
We're busy on the horse front as well, with 3 new liveries coming in this week - they are all existing clients who have bought new horses, which makes it easier as they know where everythng is and the yard rules, but it is still hard work as each horse has to get settled into its new group, get tack organised and all the other little things that we forget about until its time to get another new one!
Monday, 27 June 2011
Assessments are over and poor Reggie
Yipee! The assessments are finished. Sally has spent the last seven days assessing over 300 weekly riders and she has square eyes from looking at her laptop and repetitive sprain injuries from typing! We were delighted with the standard that everyone rode at in their assessment - we already knew we had great staff, but this just proves it as the standard was higher than ever. The new way of delivering the assessment sheets seems to work well with the riders collecting them the next week, as it saves us running late for each class from giving out the sheets to the previous class. As normal, if anyone has any questions about their assessment, they can just ask Sally or their regular instructor to explain things. It will hopefully be a nice quiet week for everyone now so that they can recover from assessments.
We were also delighted with Hannahs results at Stage 3 - she passed her riding exam with flying colours, making her a full BHS A.I. The stage 3 exam is a difficult one, with a high standard and we're delighted she passed it as she put so much hard work into her riding in the months leading up to the exam. Martin is away doing his today, and his reports back are good so far in that he got through the jumping and flatwork - we'll need to wait 10 days for his results though, so fingers crossed!
On another note, poor Reggie got kicked in the field last night. It was his own fault really, as he has taking to "playing" with his pals Monty and Amos, and was seen climbing on their backs. One of them has obviously given him a kick to his forearm, and he has a small cut and a lot of swelling on it. Our first concern was that it was close to the joint, but it is just above it - however for safetys sake, we will be getting an x-ray done of his leg on Friday to make sure there are no small cracks or fractures. He is sound on it and happy in himself, but we want to be on the safe side as he's such a lovely chap. The small cut on his leg has bled quite a lot as he has nicked a blood vessel, so we're keeping an eye on it and if it doesn't stop the vet will revisit him tonight to try to dress the wound to stop it bleeding.
We were also delighted with Hannahs results at Stage 3 - she passed her riding exam with flying colours, making her a full BHS A.I. The stage 3 exam is a difficult one, with a high standard and we're delighted she passed it as she put so much hard work into her riding in the months leading up to the exam. Martin is away doing his today, and his reports back are good so far in that he got through the jumping and flatwork - we'll need to wait 10 days for his results though, so fingers crossed!
On another note, poor Reggie got kicked in the field last night. It was his own fault really, as he has taking to "playing" with his pals Monty and Amos, and was seen climbing on their backs. One of them has obviously given him a kick to his forearm, and he has a small cut and a lot of swelling on it. Our first concern was that it was close to the joint, but it is just above it - however for safetys sake, we will be getting an x-ray done of his leg on Friday to make sure there are no small cracks or fractures. He is sound on it and happy in himself, but we want to be on the safe side as he's such a lovely chap. The small cut on his leg has bled quite a lot as he has nicked a blood vessel, so we're keeping an eye on it and if it doesn't stop the vet will revisit him tonight to try to dress the wound to stop it bleeding.
Tuesday, 21 June 2011
Belinda is happy again!
So Belinda has now spend 10 days away from her baby Melody after the initial stressful seperation. We kept her in her stable rather than turning her out after her gate jumping incident, so good old Archie moved in with Melody and Aero to keep them company. We then reintroduced Belinda today who proceeded to chase poor Archie around and annoy him. He is so good though, he just keeps out of the way and looks at Belinda as though she is slightly mad - he's a great companion.
Melody came in and got her feet trimmed today and she was very good, standing to have them trimmed and tidied. More excitingly, for the first time in 2 years we finally managed to get Dinkys back feet trimmed properly. Dinky is terrified of farriers - when we first got her she was very nervous at being handled in general and whilst she has slowly become better and more confident, she still has an issue with getting her feet done. We keep her unshod to reduce her (and the farriers) stress, but it is nearly impossible to lift her back feet. So she was sedated today by the vet with special drugs so she was sleepy and then she didn't really notice her feet being done. Well done Dinky!
Assessments are still being done - we are doing them electronically this year, so our riders will collect their forms a week after their assessments rather than right after the class, but it is working well so far because we can do the assessments faster and keep a clear record of everyones standard for future assessments.
Melody came in and got her feet trimmed today and she was very good, standing to have them trimmed and tidied. More excitingly, for the first time in 2 years we finally managed to get Dinkys back feet trimmed properly. Dinky is terrified of farriers - when we first got her she was very nervous at being handled in general and whilst she has slowly become better and more confident, she still has an issue with getting her feet done. We keep her unshod to reduce her (and the farriers) stress, but it is nearly impossible to lift her back feet. So she was sedated today by the vet with special drugs so she was sleepy and then she didn't really notice her feet being done. Well done Dinky!
Assessments are still being done - we are doing them electronically this year, so our riders will collect their forms a week after their assessments rather than right after the class, but it is working well so far because we can do the assessments faster and keep a clear record of everyones standard for future assessments.
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