6 minute read
Riding Jane Paterson
Memories of Christmas past
THEyear has flown by with alarming speed. After the shortest day, we are heading slowly towards lighter times. What a relief for anyone who has to creep round in the dark to muck out, ride out, and turn out, all by torchlight or moonlight. We’ve all had quite enough of that by now and even though January and February can seem endless, cold and wet, we know that it won’t be long until spring shows itself again.
Competitions are still attracting fairly good numbers around the area in all the riding disciplines. From the Mendip Farmers minis to the top racing yards, the show jumping and dressage venues and the Point to Point meetings, folk are getting out having fun.
Team Ditcheat under champion trainer Paul Nicholls, is having a great season so far. Jockey Harry Cobden was voted Great British Racing’s Jockey of the Month for November, and Lorcan Williams scored a hat trick of winners for the yard at Chepstow.
Paul’s daughter Megan also had a win, riding Shantou Flyer at Larkhill Point to Point, coming joint first with Molly Landau in a dead heat. It looks like both young women are destined to follow in their famous dads’ successes.
Last but not least, Mendip Farmers Pony Club members William and Izzy came back from Stockland Lovell Manor with bags full of booty won at Taunton and District Riding Club’s Christmas show. Izzy won the 70cm show jumping, they both won the pairs, and William and little Coco who stands at 12.2 h.h. won the Accumulator, clearing 1 metre 10 cm. What a day, with thanks to Taunton club for their generous prizes. Enjoying this cold snap we are having as I write, I am reminded of a Christmas a few years ago. I wasn’t on duty for the day job, so decided to get up with daughter number 2, ride and get all the stable jobs done so that we could have a nice few hours in the warm before
With JANE PATERSON
getting the four legged dears back in, then settle down with the rest of the family to a good Christmas dinner, a glass or two of wine, and a snooze by the fire. It was one of those beautiful sunny, crisp mornings, frost on top of the gates, water buckets frozen…you can picture the scene. The dung heap which I kept really tidy in a neatly stacked “brick”, had got very tall, so I thought it was an ideal day to put a match to it and let it smoulder and reduce in size. The match didn’t really do anything so (gasp . . . I know . . . silly idea), I poked in a very small fire lighter for good measure. Everything seemed fine as we set off on a hack, out through Loxton, up to Bennetts, over Hundred acres on the edge of Canada Coombe, and then back down the hill. As we started to descend from the top, I could see smoke rising in the distance. My stomach churned as I noticed a little surge of what looked suspiciously like flames, similar to the blast a hot air balloon makes as it rises up in the sky with an audible “whoosh”. Panic set in as it dawned on me that it was actually coming from the dung heap…so we trotted briskly most of the way back with me imagining we would be met with devastation and Merry Christmas from Izzy Penfold and Lucy irate neighbours, not that were any very nearby, thankfully. Fast forward a couple of hours and a jolly band of firefighters trundled off back to their fire station, (thank goodness for mobile phones). As is the way with these amazing, selfless
Merry Christmas from William and Coco
emergency service workers, they smiled and said they’d enjoyed their little trip out, having hosed down the offending stack of smouldering and flaming muck, layering sand on the top and generally leaving it looking as if nothing had happened.
We crept sheepishly away from the scene, hardly believing that no-one at all seemed to have noticed what had happened. Lesson learnt. Do not try this at home, and a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all!
Remember there’s plenty of excitement with hunting and racing on Boxing Day, weather permitting. Check local hunts for meet venues, Wincanton racecourse for their Boxing Day programme, or watch the King George VI Chase at Kempton, from the comfort of your armchair with glass in hand. What could be more perfect?
Mare and foal rescued
STAFFat the rescue charity HorseWorld in Whitchurch have been battling to save the lives of a cruelly neglected horse and her young foal who had been discarded like rubbish and left for dead in a field at Dundry.
The mare was so weak she could barely stand and was unable to provide for her fragile young foal.
Head of equine welfare, Sarah Hollister, said: “It was a miracle she had managed to give birth to a living foal when she was in such horrendous condition herself. Her skeletal body had nothing left to give her baby and they were both in imminent danger of dying.”
The mare, now named Blossom, and foal, Forest, are responding well to rehabilitation. A winter appeal has been launched to help care for them and others in the charity’s care.
Details: www.horseworld.org.uk/winter-appeal
Sycamore trees get the chop
Rob Banwell (front), with tree surgeons Sam Binning, Nick Mowson, Luke Power and Jason Beasley
THE owners of an award-winning Mendip livery yard have taken dramatic action to prevent the risk of horses eating potentially fatal sycamore seeds and seedlings.
Julia and Rob Banwell, who run Mill Farm DIY Livery on the edge of Wedmore, called in a team of experts to fell a number of sycamore trees on their land.
Sycamore poisoning, or atypical myopathy, is a muscular disease and can The team at work cause the sudden death of a horse. The Blue Cross says younger horses can be more susceptible. Owners and landowners are urged to be on the lookout for any signs of seeds and seedlings all year round, but the disease is more common in the spring and autumn months. The “helicopter seeds” can be airborne spread.
Julia said: “It’s not 100% certain, but many equine vets believe the disease may be caused by the toxin in the sycamore seeds, so we didn’t want to take any chances.”
The yard won the 2022 title of livery yard of the year in the SEIB Yard of the Year Awards, in association with Horse & Hound magazine.
The felled trees – some believed to be up to 200 years old –will be replaced by silver birch supplied by Chew Valley Trees. Julia added: “We’ll be planting many more trees than we took down.”
