Golden Castle

News

One phrase we’ve heard more than anything this last month is “thank goodness for the indoor school”! The rain and wind has been challenging (as always this time of year) but being able to ride inside (lessons and privately) has made January a lot more bearable. Don’t forget that if the indoor school isn’t being used for lessons then livery/loan owners are welcome to use it for schooling, lunging, ground work etc at any time. If you do use poles or jumps please put them away afterwards so everything is clear for the next rider. And as part of our facilities upgrade programme watch out for the new solarium being installed! The sun has started to shine again now so look forward to seeing more people out and about this month!

Sam & Fiona

Out and About!

GC Show jumping and mounted games – December 22nd

24 people (adults and children) took part in our end of year SJ and games competition; heats included bending poles, walk/trot/canter and ride and run. Great fun for everyone and lots of rosettes given out throughout the day – with team placings as follows: Rhiannon (1st), Becky (2nd), Morgan (3rd) and Simon (4th).

Xmas Eve Ride – December 24th

Mulled wine and mince pies on the return from a good canter across the hill – and the weather stayed fine too!

To the beach – again! December 28th

Rhiannon, Gabriella, Sam, Kate, Marian, Fiona, Cath and Sarah headed for Pembrey Sands for a long hack around the woods and a long gallop on the beach. The weather was absolutely terrible – horizontal rain when we hot the beach, but didn’t spoil the day. Sensible people took a change of clothes with them!

Cricklands Eventer Training – January 5th

Sam and Sarah took Goose and Maverick to their first eventer training session at Broome’s Equestrian Centre. Goose took 1st place and Mav 5th in their 2’6 class. Classes consist of dressage, show jumping and a knock-down xc course of 10 – 12 jumps, run immediately after the SJ.

Forest of Dean Pleasure Ride – January 6th

Fiona and Simon took Angel and Toby on the 15km ride on a marked trail through the Forest of Dean. See other pleasure rides coming up below.

More out and about…….  

A month of “firsts”!

Lots of things going on this month but we wanted to highlight the following milestones, in no particular order….

  • First endurance ride in India – hard to beat that one isn’t it? Fiona went to India as part of an Endurance GB organized trip and took part in a competitive 50km ride, on hired horses, as part of a profile-raising tour for riders and the sport. Congratulations to Fiona who finished 1st across the line on her horse. See the full report over the page.
  • First competition for Becky and Minnie – Becky has had Minnie on loan for just xx months and took her to her first competition on Saturday 9th at Cricklands – Eventer training – comprising dressage, SJ and knock down XC jumps. Beck and Min did brilliantly and won the 2’2 class and came 6th in the 2’6 class. Full details of the classes, future competitions and photos can be found at www.theshowground.com - (p.s. another first for Becky, first time she’s gone to a competition and forgotten her girth………!).
  • First horse walker for GC!! – after months of planning the horse walker is finally in place, ready to take it’s first “walker”. Everyone will have been aware of the concrete circle down near the school – which could have easily doubled for a helicopter landing pad. Thursday Jan 31st two men in a lorry turned up and started to assemble the walker completing the job the following day. We’re just in the process of laying down a sand track and then the walker will be ready for its first horses………..will be so useful in the rainy months to supplement usual exercise regimes.
  • First jumps for Rosemary! – on the Monday Rosemary had said she really enjoyed her riding out and flat lessons but didn’t want to learn to jump. On the Friday of the same week she jumped 11 times – Fudge was the trusty steed – and loved it!
  • First Solarium for GC – in addition to the horse walker we are also installing a solarium for use by anyone on the yard. A pay as you go system will be set up and the solarium made available to anyone who wants to give their horse the benefit of a heat treatment.

Horse and Rider(s)………Chris, Sarah and the mighty Maverick

Big Mav, Mighty Mav, Maverick Pony (not quite accurate), the Mavster or simply Mav has been a familiar face at the yard since Sam bought him as a 6 month old foal in the summer of 2002. Pictures of him as a baby with his mum are on the website - it’s hard to believe that the little foal in the snow is now a strapping 16’1 horse. Sam did all the work backing him, training him, teaching him to jump, taking him to his first shows and first competitions and was planning to start competing him when he turned five. So how did we manage to get our hands on Mav? Well this time last year we had started looking for a new horse for both of us to ride. We had Ceri, but wanted to find something a bit bigger and more versatile than Ceri and a bit more suitable for Chris. We wanted the perfect all rounder: someone to compete, but safe as houses to hack out; someone bold and brave to jump, but steady and a confidence giver; someone strong enough for a man to ride, and obedient enough for a smaller rider to manage; someone friendly in the stable (Sarah), and “pretty” (Chris). We started looking and went to see a few horses (with Sam) but nothing was really quite right. I had joked with Sam that if she ever, ever, ever thought about selling Mav that we would love to buy him but knew he was really special as she had had him since he was so young so didn’t think we would ever get a chance to own him. I had to go away on a work trip to Australia and decided to continue looking when we came back. On the train back to Wales from Heathrow I got a text message saying that having thought a lot about it, if we did really want him, Sam would sell us Maverick. Fastest texting in the world back – I didn’t want to seem too keen but it was the best message to receive – especially after 24 hours of flying! So March 2007 Mav became ours – with a promise to never move him out of Wales, or away from GC……..We love him to bits. As Chris said the other day at Pauntley – Mav can do anything – and it’s true. He will jump anything in front of him, if you ask him, he will walk out happily on his own or canter along next to a group of other horses (yep he gets a bit excited but then settles down), he is friendly, cheeky, the nosiest horse on the yard (especially when out at parties), we’ve both competed him and had some rosettes and we both love taking him out on the hill. Now for 2008 as he comes up for 6 we’ve got a new challenge for him – to do some intro level eventing, hopefully starting in April. We have to say a massive thank you to Sam for letting us have him – he is a very special horse and is helping us both achieve more than we thought we could with our riding! Sarah & Chris

Mav and Sarah at Pauntley XC

Master Maverick!

Cricklands - again – January 19th and February 9th

Sam competed Goose (2’10 and 3’2) and Ice (2’3 and 3’6) and Sarah took Mav (2’6 and 2’10) to continue their training and preparation for the eventing season starting in March. Ice was 1st in the 3’6 class and 4th in the 3’2 class; Goose was 4th in the 2’10 class and Mav was 6th in the 2’6 class. On Feb 9th Becky took Minnie to the 2’2 and 2’6 classes and Sarah took Mav to the 2’6 and 2’10 classes. Well done to Becky who was 1st in the 2’2 class and 6th in the 2’6 class!

Pauntley XC and SJ – January 27th

Chris and Mav and Sarah and Ali completed the 2’3 SJ and XC classes with Mav placed 3rd in both and Ali 5th and 6th. Ali’s rosettes are flying outside her stable!

Sunnybank Dressage – January 30th and February 16th

The January competition was definitely one of the latest sessions, leaving Sunnybank at 10pm….Sarah and Mav did Prelim 1 and 13 and Sam and Ice did Prelim 13 and Novice 21. Ice was 3rd in Prelim 13 and 1st in the Novice 21 class. The Saturday session in February was much better weather, although still a long day. Mav scored 63.18% in Prelim 4 and Ice took 4th place in Prelin 18. Nice to see Michelle and Mouse taking part there with their new livery owner.

Coming up – things for the diary

Please see the Events list attached for a summary of external competitions. The highlights below are events people are already planning to attend or we are running internally.

Dressage, Sunnybank – March 12th

Cricklands Eventer Training – March 15th

Pauntley XC & SJ – March 2nd and 16th

Dressage competition – Easter weekend – see website/Fiona/Sam for details

Pub Quiz – date to be confirmed

Trailer training – another session to be fixed for those wishing to compete or travel this year

Day ride – to Cwm Du – date to be fixed (probably week after half term)

If anyone is interested in anything on the Event list or on the diary list then please let Sam or Fiona know.

A Trip to India……….Fiona and Endurance GB

Fiona crossing the finish line – ahead of the rest of the pack!

It all started with an advert on the EGB website asking if anyone wanted to make up a team and fly the British flag. India were putting on an international 50k race ride, to run along side their National Championship Rides of 100k, 80k and 60k. Well it sounded like an adventure and as I’m of a certain age thought I should go, if it was possible. Problems first. Time off, horse care, visa, and money. Sorted: daughter covered work, friend covered horses, I had a day in Birmingham to get the visa (interesting) and then I saved and borrowed and off I went. On the way to Heathrow my daughter said I was mad, I didn’t even know the other three ladies, but that was ok they were just like me, mad. Long trip, slept

and talked and made three great new friends all total wrapped in their horses. Anyhow the accommodation was a wonderful ancient fort (dilapidated) the food totally authentic Indian and the service slow. We learnt over the first couple of days that everything is slow. Eventually we tried our horses, riding them twice for about 30mins each time, they were the horses used for safaris run from Dundlod fort. They were fit and hard but we had no idea if they would be up to 50k. They were kept tethered by the neck 24/7 in the sand. The tack was something to behold, ex army saddles and bridles that didn’t fit, even where they touched, they seldom wore the same stuff twice. We did our best to make them comfortable but you couldn’t make too many changes, as this is what they knew. We were getting excited now. On the Saturday there was a grand parade of all the teams, a real spectacle of colours if we had known, we to would have dressed up, Jim the Scottish rider carried the flag for us, we thought we may lose him at any time, as his was the tent pegging pony, very fast and probably the fittest of our horses. Sunday was 100k day and we went down to see them off.  Leslie Ann got involved with her heart rate monitor and was sought by everyone, she worked hard and the rest of us helped out crewing as they had little idea. I also spent some time vet writing. We were pretty much left to our own devices, so had plenty of time to chat with all the officials who were very keen for us to see how well run the event was. Monday was our day all very excited, team plan was to ride together for the first loop and the do our own thing on the second, Jim joined us, as did the French lady Carly. The mass start was a little hairy, but we were lucky to be able to set off in front and lead the way for the first 7km when the Indian ladies team and some individuals passed us. The horses settled well and Leslie and I were able to keep up a good pace, both of us having taken our garmins. Caroline who has ridden in India before on safari, led the way with Leslie stopping her from galloping and burning and I rode with Bryony whose little horse was turning out to be the least fittest but still game. We covered our first 25km well; Leslie vetted first on 1.40.10 with me just after 1.42.20 the others took a little longer. Leslie set off first flying out of the vet gate, we were on our own now and it seemed for ever before I was allowed to go off, as I went cantering across the polo field, I didn’t even know if my horse had ever ridden on her own before, but nothing for it, we just had to kick on. I was hoping to catch Leslie as she had a much better sense of direction than me. Pushing hard I caught her before the 5km markers - relentless is the only word for it, hot, dusty, sharp right hand corners on narrow cart tracks, and bushes with needles, camels, donkeys, water buffalo, the colours and the smell. I was really here and going for it, very exciting. Just after the 20km mark we heard the Indian ladies team coming up behind, on we went push, canter, push, water at every opportunity push, Leslie would not let me stop. I was amazed at my little horse she felt as if there was nothing left, but she still picked up. As we got close to the polo field I said to Leslie should we go in together or race for it but Leslie is a real fighter and wanted to race. So we pushed on the horses holding there own, as we went around the polo field past the grand stand and back to the finish, my little horse managed to find a hidden reserve and we left Leslie behind. I fell off in my haste, in front of everyone. Forgot to engage legs - now to get her through the final vetting. 30mins later she was fine, all over now just to get the rest of the team home, everyone congratulating me. I hadn’t realised Leslie and I were the first back out on to the second leg and I had won! The other teams and riders were coming in and we helped to crew there horses all fine and safe just to wait for the official results. No news over night. We had the 60km ride on Tuesday and another good day watching and helping; the standard of crewing had gone up 100 %.Then we were told there’s a presentation and we had to be mounted that caused a little concern but all was sorted. At the presentation we were awarded team gold, Leslie Ann had individual gold and I had silver much to all our surprises, but we could do nothing in front of everyone. I was very upset, but a week later I was given my times, to find I was 8 secs slower than Leslie??? We never had vet sheets or any written results. I’m a big girl, I knew it was a publicity event, but I was still upset. Would I go again, yes like a shot and I would go to win or at the very least try my best. The horses were all fine the next day, still stood in the sand, no obvious signs of there ordeal. We had a day off to rest and travelled home on the Thursday. Had a brill time, made wonderful new friends.

Joiners and Leavers

Welcome (back) to Sam from The Bear who has returned to riding after a break having her first baby. She is going to have Minnie on part loan.

And welcome to Lola, who is starting her training life as a nearly 4 year old, coming up to GC full time.

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Goodbye to Jeeves who has gone to live with Jenny.

And sort of goodbye to Ceri who is moving to Sarah’s to be a companion for Dice and go off to stud in March to hopefully breed a super Section D foal next year.

Sam and Goose and Sarah and Maverick at Cricklands