---------------------------------------------------------------- New Rider Newsletter December 18th 2001 Issue 3 ---------------------------------------------------------------- In this Issue 1. Christmas Competition 2. Side-saddle 3. Coping with long box rest (3) - a personal story 4. New Rider T-shirts 5. Help us with Schools and Holidays 6. Feira National do Cavalo - Golegã 2001 7. Classifieds Adverts 8. Unsubscribing details ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Introduction Well Christmas is nearly upon us and I hope you all have a good time and a nice break. It can be a chance to get in some day light riding for many - I hope the weather is kind to you. At least the days will now begin to get longer (at least if you're in the northern hemisphere). We have a lot of new things planned for next year for New Rider. Expect to see a completely new and revamped shopping area launching very soon in the new year. We've teamed up with an established saddlery shop and will be able to offer a wide range of goods across all areas. We've also been planning a complete guide to jumping from the first trotting poles to tackling bigger jumps. Claire from Court Equestrian has a vast experience in teaching jumping and with pictures and video clips we'll try and include lots of hints and tips for all the common problems. If you've lost a previous copy of the newsletter we will be adding them to an archive which you can find at http://www.newrider.com/Other_Bits/newsletter.html Have a Happy Christmas Mike Tomlin mike@newrider.com --- Christmas Competition ---- Thanks to all of you who entered the November competition. In the end there were 53 correct entries who got through the final round. All the tie-breaker suggestions were good, so finally we did a random pick and Sharon Jackson from East Sussex was the lucky winner and the Mountain Horse jacket has found its way to her. It seems from the feedback that this style of multi-round competition was popular with you and so we've adopted a similar way for the Christmas Competition which is now open for entries. Larri Davison, known as Larri on the message board, has kindly offered one of her commissioned portraits as the prize for this competition. Working from photographs Larri will produce a unique pastel portrait of your horse (or favourite school horse if you are not an owner). You can see more details of her work on http://www.newrider.com/Features/index.html The Christmas competition will have 3 rounds plus the final and due to the holidays we'll run this over into the new year. Round 2 will begin in the Christmas week. If you answer the questions correctly you'll get a special pass code that you'll need to enter the next rounds. Keep this safe as we can't issue you another one. It's important to be happy with your answers first time as you only get one chance to submit. More details and links to Round 1 on http://www.newrider.com/Competition/xindex.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ --- Side-saddle --- We've added a great introduction to side-saddle riding by Lindsay Smith. Lindsay is a side-saddle instructor and judge and has put together some notes and guidance for anyone interested in side-saddle. If you thought side-saddle was rather genteel there is a team chasing team who compete against normal astride riders in side-saddle. These are 3 foot 6 plus cross-country jumps, taken at a fast pace over a several mile long course. Quite a sight and shows how versatile this style of riding can be. If you'd like to know more about any aspect of side-saddle do leave a comment on the pages and we'll try and cover it in future articles. http://www.newrider.com/Specialisms/Side-saddle/introduction.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ --- Feature: Coping with Box Rest (3) --- Following on from the previous newsletter, Sarah continues the story of Tango's box rest. On the Monday after her operation, we got a call from the hospital saying that Tango was ready to be discharged. I immediately called Catherine who had kindly given us a lift to the hospital to see if she could take Tango to her new home in Berkshire. Luckily Catherine was free and was happy to help us. We were told that Tango would need to have 2 weeks total box rest then the stitches from the operation could be removed then another 4 weeks of box rest with us taking her out for a 10 minute walk in hand twice a day. After that we were to bring her back to hospital for a check up. She had no shoes on and John Walmsley said that she might as well be barefoot while on box rest. We then loaded Tango into the lorry and set off for the new yard. On arrival we unloaded Tango and settled her into her stable. She seemed very tired, but not too worried by the new environment. Just after we arrived at the yard there was a power cut, but luckily I had already made up Tango’s bed and sorted out hay and water and her dinner. The next morning she was still in good form, and was a bit more awake. We did the flexion exercises to her stifle which didn’t seem to worry her at all. We did several things to try to keep her interested in life while on box rest. There was a horse in a stable opposite her recovering from very serious laminitis so at least she could see another horse. We left a radio in her stable constantly playing to give her something to listen to. I think this worked as often we would arrive at the yard and if she wasn’t shouting at us to hurry up with her dinner, she would be standing watching the radio. There were a few ledges in the walls of the stable so we put carrots on them for her to find. We also gave her a swede to eat and roll around the floor. She has always had a football in her stable as a few years ago she used to love playing with it. I think she has now grown out of that activity though. We did start with giving her hay in a very small holed haynet, but then decided that as she was to be on box rest for a long time it would be better for her to eat hay off the floor so her nose could drain. We also asked the other liveries to talk to her when they were up at the yard when Stewart and I were at work. After the first fortnight, our old vet from Winchester came to take out the stitches and take some blood. Tango was absolutely terrified to see him. The vet very narrowly avoided being kicked by her when taking out the stitches. We then moved Tango into the stable to take the blood. As soon as she saw the syringe she totally panicked and it was very scary to be in the stable. The vet suggested twitching her (which has worked in the past for minor fear problems) but she was petrified of the twitch. She had left the hospital with a bald patch round her nose so I think she had received some very severe twitching there. After a while we managed to get some blood from her. Poor Tango had obviously been very traumatised by her trip to hospital. Now that the stitches had come out, we were to start walking Tango in hand for 10 minutes twice a day. We started off by walking her in the schooling area. The first time was rather exciting – a lot of rearing was done! After a few days she settled down a bit, but if something exciting happened or it was windy they she got excited. We then started to walk her down the lane as the schooling area was basically a grassy area so was beginning to get very muddy. Walking down the lane worked well, but with the shortening days it started to get a bit risky as the light was poor in the mornings and evenings. We then started walking her round one of the fields which was fine as the field was well drained. She did however one morning get very excited and pulled me over and along on my front until I had the sense to let go of the lead rope and watch my ‘lame’ horse gallop off into the sunset. Luckily she came back to me when I called her and I took her back to her stable. We got the results from the blood test back and her CK enzyme level was now back to normal so we were to maintain the level of salt in her diet for ever more. To be continued... Have you got an interesting story or technical article that you'd like to share via the newsletter? Let us know. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ --- New Rider T-shirts --- We now have a small number of New Rider T-shirts available in the shop. Following on from suggestions on the message board they are in in black or white with a small full colour logo silk screen printed on the front. They are available for £10.99 including delivery to the UK. The postage for overseas readers will probably add another £3.00 to this price. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ --- Help us with Schools and Holidays --- We have over 1000 UK riding schools listed in our schools database, many of them with extended details including photos. We would like to keep adding to this database to make it a really useful resource for riders and need your help. If you use a school or know its owners, have a look to see what details we have on them. http://www.newrider.com/Riding_Schools/search1.html If they are not complete do encourage them to send us more details and pictures. This is a free service and details can either be submitted online or we can post out some forms to be filled in. We have recently opened the new Holidays section which features details on over 130 UK holiday destinations. For those centres that sign up for our extended service, more details and the Latest Offers facility becomes available. For any reader that can introduce a riding holiday centre to our listings which results in them taking the extended service we will send you an introduction cheque for £20. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ --- Feira National do Cavalo - Golegã 2001 --- Pedro Fortunato, the author of the highly entertaining 'Chronicles of a New Rider' has done a terrific photo report of the Feira National do Cavalo - Golegã 2001. With 4 pages of pictures Pedro really captures the spectacle and beauty of this unique gathering. Do take a look, you can see the article at http://www.newrider.com/Other_Bits/Chronicles/golega1.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ --- Classified Adverts --- Don't forget that New Rider classified adverts are currently free with up to 3 pictures per advert. Here's a couple of the latest entries that can be found in the Horses for Sale section. ********** Warmblood X (South Midlands) Eye catching 15.2 warmbloodX, six year old, bay gelding. He has good natural movement and outline. Good technique over fences, enjoyable safe hack alone and in company. Would excell in a RC/Dressage home, 100% box, shoe, traffic.We are looking for £3600 for him. ******** TB pony Type (South Midlands) Shaadante has outstanding ability to develop into a great dressage/show pony with: - Good show pony paces, - Responsive to hand and leg - Lovely consistent head carriage. Make BSJA, jumping 90cm/1m courses. £1750 ********* Irish Cob (North East) Black horse with a white blaze and one white sock. Buffy is good to do, shoe, etc just walk up to her in the field to catch. Loves to canter, likes to hack out in company or alone. Just started jumping and really enjoyed it although she is a novice at this. Needs a competant teenager or lady willing do have fun with her and perhaps do more than just plod around. Have to sell her due to work load increase. Lovely temperment and is a real beauty. Everyone loves Buffy. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ***************************************************************** --- Advertising Information --- The New Rider newsletter reaches thousands of horse riders and in-situ adverts can be very effective for promoting your products or services (after all you are reading this advert now). Find out how to get YOUR sponsorship ad in this newsletter. 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