Firstly I must apologise for being so remiss and not updating my newsletter as frequently as I should. One of my pet hates is going to a website to glean some information only to find that the last update is to tell us that Hitler killed himself. I will try to follow my school report to the letter and try harder.
November got off to a pretty good start with Aileen’s birthday. I am sure she will not thank me for telling you that it was her fortieth so I won’t do that, oops, let it slip. We had a nice quiet party and eased her gently into middle age, I have been there for some time and it doesn’t hurt too much, and anyway Aileen is one of those annoying people who will look thirty till the day she dies.
I did a couple of clinics at Foxley Court in Berkshire but due to the poor support I have had to suspend them for a while. This happens to coaches and trainers. People are madly enthusiastic to start with then maybe adopt the attitude of well he is coming next month so will catch him then. I don’t blame them but do feel sorry for the centres that are really keen to put on these clinics and work hard to do so.
Scotland is galloping away with two new venues plus all the old ones except for Kinross. It is a shame to lose this important indoor arena but the riding club felt like a change of coach so hey ho. On the plus side they were very magnanimous and said that they were happy for me to continue to come to Scotland and find other work, ironic really as I have been visiting and teaching in Scotland for the past twenty two years and for some eight years I was living in Scotland. I will bravely try to struggle on. Inverness has a different format now. Instead of lots of one day clinics I am now doing three, three day clinics. These usually go down well so please contact Siobhan at Dark Deer 07801891549.
The new venues are in Aberdeen and Glasgow. Aberdeen is a great new place called Ardmedden Equestrian Centre, a brand new; state of the art establishment with great facilities including an International size indoor arena with the very best surface money can buy. I am visiting every month and the manager Davy Harvey is very keen and enthusiastic. His contact number is 075435215 so if you are in that part of the world give him a call. I have yet to confirm the Glasgow venue but it seems positive so watch this space.
Northallerton is crazy; I am now doing two very full days and have great clients. Laura Jennings is a star and so well organised it puts me to shame. I have been helping Laura for well over twenty years (see my testimonials page) and she has not changed a bit. Her contact number is 07974750974.
I have had some funny moments over the last few months. One of them allegedly is down to my advancing years. I got up early one morning just before Christmas to travel down to Surrey. A couple of miles down the road I glanced into my rear view mirror and saw the baby seat strapped to the back seat, oops, I thought, Eleanor is going to school today so I had better get it back. I was already running late but being the dedicated father that I am I did a U turn and delivered the car seat back home. Whew, that saved a row. Finally driving along the motorway catching up on my journey, but keeping to the speed limit, my phone went off. Answering it on my ‘hands free’ it was Aileen. She asked “Have you seen my car keys darling”? “No darling” I replied, then I looked across the car and sitting neatly in the middle of the passenger seat were, yup, her car keys. The rest I shall leave to your imagination, but it wasn’t nice.
I have completed some more training videos on www.horsehero.com as I have said previously; it is a great site with lots of videos, blogs and articles from some great riders and trainer, and me. Try it out, it is really great value.
On a sadder note. Just before Christmas one of my colleagues Kenneth Clawson FBHS passed away. He was only sixty three and succumbed to leukaemia. He had been fighting this dreadful disease for about six years and he did put on a very brave face and was courageous to the end. In fact he had allegedly been given the all clear one week before his death. I did not always get on with Kenneth and did not always agree with his opinion and I will not be a hypocrite, however, he was a great coach and did his job with a very professional and pleasant manner. He was the official show jumping coach to the British Three Day Event team for many years and his success is legendary. His funeral gave testament to his popularity with more than fifteen hundred people in attendance.
Christmas is always a really happy time when you have young children. This year was no exception. Eleanor’s face on Christmas morning was a picture, Santa had been and she was glowing. The only slightly nervous part was that she kept asking which of the big boxes contained her pony. Non I’m afraid, but he did bring her a bike. Longer lasting, cheaper to keep and nearly as much fun, isn’t it? Her birthday was a couple of weeks later and she very sagely pointed out that perhaps she would get a pony for her birthday, sorry, maybe next year.
I loaned my lorry to some friends before Christmas to go to a training show with Aileen. Guess what happened? It got to the show ok, and then all ready to come home it was as dead as a stone. I dashed over armed with jump leads. Two of my pals were already on the jump lead case with no joy. Aileen and Nigel (my friend) went home and brought the big horse box they didn’t want to use and collected the two horses. Next day I sent the mechanic out. Fifty pounds later the lorry was on the road. The problem? Oh yes, a loose wire in the ignition switch. A one minute job! Happy days.
I have a nice new horse to ride, Cassie, she is very scopy, very brave and very careful, and so I am really looking forward to getting to some show in 2013. Coco my young one, who, some non-believers told me was useless, has found her jump, she is now showing real signs of having much better than average ability. I am so often disappointed and annoyed when people write off young horses so early on. It may simply be lack of strength or most commonly lack of good balance. Horses develop, like people, at different speeds, often the slow developers last longer both mentally and physically, so to the knockers, remember that impatience is one of the biggest barriers to progress.
I was teaching last week in Surrey. Having just left the yard I felt a drag to the left. I stopped to see I had a puncture. Why do you always get a puncture when it is raining and you have three ton of stuff between you and the spare wheel. Well, being a fit athletic young thing I changed the wheel. Don’t these stupid bicycle type spare wheels get on your nerves? I drove to the nearest tyre repair shop and they dually removed the tyre, checked everything and declared that there did not seem to be anything wrong. They sealed the tyre, replaced the valve, charged me nothing and sent me on my way. We got home just fine but when I got out of the car I heard an ominous hissing sound, Aileen detected a pin prick of a puncture that the professionals had missed. The tyre took about an hour to deflate. The next day I had to drive all the way to Wiltshire so I needed to get up pretty early to change the wheel back to my skinny spare. Seven am, wheel changed. Seven twenty, at garage to purchase emergency repair kit. Seven forty five, changed wheel back to emergency repaired tyre and off I went. All was well. On my way home I felt a distinct wheel wobble so stopped to check right away. The wheel I had repaired was fine except it had two wheel nuts missing and the other three very loose. The moral of this story? Don’t change a wheel twice before 8.0 am when you are ‘tired’. All is now well with the tyre.
At the time of writing the weather is on the turn, we have had some snow, a deep frost and six inches of snow and high winds forecast. I am praying hard and if my prayers in this department go unanswered it will be bread and water rations for a week or two. Don’t you guys who are self- employed, work outdoors and rely on the weather being bearable get sick to death of the smarmy, ridiculously healthy and prosperous looking salaried TV presenters who tell us to wrap up warm because we are in for a real cold snap and driving conditions may be hazardous. “YES, WE F------G KNOW THAT SNOW AND ICE ARE HAZARDOUS. OH BOY GET A LIFE ”. Speaking of the news, anyone had a horse burger yet?
I am continuing to conduct clinics at Twin Oaks courtesy of Trudy and Nigel Johnson. Littleton Manor in Reigate and Parwood near Guildford both in Surrey and new venues in Wiltshire and Kent. All the contact details can be found either on the home page or the calendar page.
My book ‘The Complete Showjumper’ is doing well as are my Precision Reins so if you have neither then check them out.
I think that just about covers it and I will try harder to keep this page updated. Happy show jumping.
November got off to a pretty good start with Aileen’s birthday. I am sure she will not thank me for telling you that it was her fortieth so I won’t do that, oops, let it slip. We had a nice quiet party and eased her gently into middle age, I have been there for some time and it doesn’t hurt too much, and anyway Aileen is one of those annoying people who will look thirty till the day she dies.
I did a couple of clinics at Foxley Court in Berkshire but due to the poor support I have had to suspend them for a while. This happens to coaches and trainers. People are madly enthusiastic to start with then maybe adopt the attitude of well he is coming next month so will catch him then. I don’t blame them but do feel sorry for the centres that are really keen to put on these clinics and work hard to do so.
Scotland is galloping away with two new venues plus all the old ones except for Kinross. It is a shame to lose this important indoor arena but the riding club felt like a change of coach so hey ho. On the plus side they were very magnanimous and said that they were happy for me to continue to come to Scotland and find other work, ironic really as I have been visiting and teaching in Scotland for the past twenty two years and for some eight years I was living in Scotland. I will bravely try to struggle on. Inverness has a different format now. Instead of lots of one day clinics I am now doing three, three day clinics. These usually go down well so please contact Siobhan at Dark Deer 07801891549.
The new venues are in Aberdeen and Glasgow. Aberdeen is a great new place called Ardmedden Equestrian Centre, a brand new; state of the art establishment with great facilities including an International size indoor arena with the very best surface money can buy. I am visiting every month and the manager Davy Harvey is very keen and enthusiastic. His contact number is 075435215 so if you are in that part of the world give him a call. I have yet to confirm the Glasgow venue but it seems positive so watch this space.
Northallerton is crazy; I am now doing two very full days and have great clients. Laura Jennings is a star and so well organised it puts me to shame. I have been helping Laura for well over twenty years (see my testimonials page) and she has not changed a bit. Her contact number is 07974750974.
I have had some funny moments over the last few months. One of them allegedly is down to my advancing years. I got up early one morning just before Christmas to travel down to Surrey. A couple of miles down the road I glanced into my rear view mirror and saw the baby seat strapped to the back seat, oops, I thought, Eleanor is going to school today so I had better get it back. I was already running late but being the dedicated father that I am I did a U turn and delivered the car seat back home. Whew, that saved a row. Finally driving along the motorway catching up on my journey, but keeping to the speed limit, my phone went off. Answering it on my ‘hands free’ it was Aileen. She asked “Have you seen my car keys darling”? “No darling” I replied, then I looked across the car and sitting neatly in the middle of the passenger seat were, yup, her car keys. The rest I shall leave to your imagination, but it wasn’t nice.
I have completed some more training videos on www.horsehero.com as I have said previously; it is a great site with lots of videos, blogs and articles from some great riders and trainer, and me. Try it out, it is really great value.
On a sadder note. Just before Christmas one of my colleagues Kenneth Clawson FBHS passed away. He was only sixty three and succumbed to leukaemia. He had been fighting this dreadful disease for about six years and he did put on a very brave face and was courageous to the end. In fact he had allegedly been given the all clear one week before his death. I did not always get on with Kenneth and did not always agree with his opinion and I will not be a hypocrite, however, he was a great coach and did his job with a very professional and pleasant manner. He was the official show jumping coach to the British Three Day Event team for many years and his success is legendary. His funeral gave testament to his popularity with more than fifteen hundred people in attendance.
Christmas is always a really happy time when you have young children. This year was no exception. Eleanor’s face on Christmas morning was a picture, Santa had been and she was glowing. The only slightly nervous part was that she kept asking which of the big boxes contained her pony. Non I’m afraid, but he did bring her a bike. Longer lasting, cheaper to keep and nearly as much fun, isn’t it? Her birthday was a couple of weeks later and she very sagely pointed out that perhaps she would get a pony for her birthday, sorry, maybe next year.
I loaned my lorry to some friends before Christmas to go to a training show with Aileen. Guess what happened? It got to the show ok, and then all ready to come home it was as dead as a stone. I dashed over armed with jump leads. Two of my pals were already on the jump lead case with no joy. Aileen and Nigel (my friend) went home and brought the big horse box they didn’t want to use and collected the two horses. Next day I sent the mechanic out. Fifty pounds later the lorry was on the road. The problem? Oh yes, a loose wire in the ignition switch. A one minute job! Happy days.
I have a nice new horse to ride, Cassie, she is very scopy, very brave and very careful, and so I am really looking forward to getting to some show in 2013. Coco my young one, who, some non-believers told me was useless, has found her jump, she is now showing real signs of having much better than average ability. I am so often disappointed and annoyed when people write off young horses so early on. It may simply be lack of strength or most commonly lack of good balance. Horses develop, like people, at different speeds, often the slow developers last longer both mentally and physically, so to the knockers, remember that impatience is one of the biggest barriers to progress.
I was teaching last week in Surrey. Having just left the yard I felt a drag to the left. I stopped to see I had a puncture. Why do you always get a puncture when it is raining and you have three ton of stuff between you and the spare wheel. Well, being a fit athletic young thing I changed the wheel. Don’t these stupid bicycle type spare wheels get on your nerves? I drove to the nearest tyre repair shop and they dually removed the tyre, checked everything and declared that there did not seem to be anything wrong. They sealed the tyre, replaced the valve, charged me nothing and sent me on my way. We got home just fine but when I got out of the car I heard an ominous hissing sound, Aileen detected a pin prick of a puncture that the professionals had missed. The tyre took about an hour to deflate. The next day I had to drive all the way to Wiltshire so I needed to get up pretty early to change the wheel back to my skinny spare. Seven am, wheel changed. Seven twenty, at garage to purchase emergency repair kit. Seven forty five, changed wheel back to emergency repaired tyre and off I went. All was well. On my way home I felt a distinct wheel wobble so stopped to check right away. The wheel I had repaired was fine except it had two wheel nuts missing and the other three very loose. The moral of this story? Don’t change a wheel twice before 8.0 am when you are ‘tired’. All is now well with the tyre.
At the time of writing the weather is on the turn, we have had some snow, a deep frost and six inches of snow and high winds forecast. I am praying hard and if my prayers in this department go unanswered it will be bread and water rations for a week or two. Don’t you guys who are self- employed, work outdoors and rely on the weather being bearable get sick to death of the smarmy, ridiculously healthy and prosperous looking salaried TV presenters who tell us to wrap up warm because we are in for a real cold snap and driving conditions may be hazardous. “YES, WE F------G KNOW THAT SNOW AND ICE ARE HAZARDOUS. OH BOY GET A LIFE ”. Speaking of the news, anyone had a horse burger yet?
I am continuing to conduct clinics at Twin Oaks courtesy of Trudy and Nigel Johnson. Littleton Manor in Reigate and Parwood near Guildford both in Surrey and new venues in Wiltshire and Kent. All the contact details can be found either on the home page or the calendar page.
My book ‘The Complete Showjumper’ is doing well as are my Precision Reins so if you have neither then check them out.
I think that just about covers it and I will try harder to keep this page updated. Happy show jumping.
RSS Feed