Being a qualified lawyer has its perks, one of which is knowing what to look out for when setting up an event.  I regularly get asked by friends setting up events the main things they should look out for, here is my quick guide:

1) Location - do you have the right permission in place from the land owner and the local council?  Does it have the right fencing, what will you need to set up?
2) Costs - are you aware of all the costs involved?  Paying for the location, ensuring you have the correct insurance such as public liability - do you know what limit you need and where to go, employees, set up kit, transportation costs, marketing fees; permission fees; have you considered getting sponsors?
3) Sponsors - put simply, sponsors get advertising at the event in exchange for payment.  You will need a good sponsorship agreement in place to cover all bases and so each party knows exactly what they need to do and what their rights are.
4) Arranging the program - do you have a good idea of the order of the events and something in place for when things go wrong?
5) Have you arranged hospitality and catering?  Use someone with a good reputation, you do not want your event goers getting ill !  What about portaloos?
6) Ambulance and health and safety procedures must be adhered to. Do you know what these are?
7) Jump judges, how will you find them, are they volunteers, what will they receive?
8) Marketing the event and associated costs, how will you get the event name out there?  You need people to enter to ensure you cover your costs.
9) Signage for the event - advertising and around the event;
10) As mentioned above, you need insurance.  This will need to cover damage to the location of the event, public liability i.e. if someone gets crushed by a horse, insurance to cover cancellation or abandonment of the event, employee insurance in case an employee gets injured.

There are a huge number of things to think about.  If you need any help or advice, please do get in touch, I have a number of helpful template agreements that can point you in the right direction and get you started - ponypatters@outlook.com

It was recently reported in the Wall Street Journal that Glanders was found in horses in the Olympic Rio Complex prior to the Olympic horses arriving.  Glanders is a deadly incurable disease  caused by the bacteria Burkholderia mallei.  It is characterized by ulcerating lumps in the upper respiratory tract, lungs and skin.  The disease can spread to people and is fatal in horses.  After an incubation period of 3 days to 2 weeks, affected animals usually have septicemia (blood poisoning), high fever, weight loss, and, subsequently, a thick nasal discharge and respiratory signs. Death occurs within a few days.

How will this affect Rio?  Apparently among a number of horses recently put to sleep in Rio as a result of the disease, were two that had been housed in the Olymipc complex prior to the Olympic horses arriving.  Since that time, the facilities have been effectively cleaned and sanitized. 

While the Rio horses are present at the Games, a bubble system will operate where the Rio horses will only ever come in to contact with other Rio horses within the complex.  The worry is, with so many horses and humans coming in from all over the world, how will they effectively stop the disease from entering in the first place?

The disease can pass through nasal discharge, from infected animals touching each other such as through tack and water buckets.  It is easily passed between both horses and humans.  The tricky issue is that it is also very difficult to test for and there is no cure.  The animals, if infected are put to sleep.

As well as Rio being an area known for the disease, as is India.  At present India are dealing with their own outbreak, where else will it pop up?  With horses due to start arriving in Rio at any time, are the precautions that are being taken enough, especially given the ease with which the disease can pass and the fact that it is incurable.  Plus, with such a long incubation period, how will you know that it is even present until it is too late?

There are a few beaches recommended below, but Bracklesham Bay seems to be a favourite due to handy parking and very few horse riding restrictions !  I emailed Chichester Council to check this with them and it is still the case that you can ride at any time :)

Bracklesham Bay -  highly recommended !

1) Tide Times: Look under Selsey Bill which covers this area - http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/coast_and_sea/tide_tables/8/69#tide-details
2) Riding Times (extract from Chichester Council Website): Horses are permitted throughout the year on our beaches (at any time) from the entrance to Pagham Harbour to our boundary edge at Shore Road in Wittering. However due care and attention must be paid to users of the beach, they are not permitted to jump the breakwaters or race on the beach and owners must clean up after their horses - http://www.chichester.gov.uk/foreshore#horse
3) Parking: Large car park where horseboxes are allowed just by Billy's on the Beach Restaurant, East Bracklesham Drive, Bracklesham Bay, Chichester, West Sussex, PO20 8JS
4) Access: Straight from the car park on to the beach !

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West Wittering

I recently took my niece and my two ponies to West Wittering beach in Chichester for a ride. Info as follows:

1) Check the tide times here (Chichester Harbour is nearest): http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/coast_and_sea/tide_tables/8/68
2) Check what time riders can ride on the beach - From 1st May to 30th September, for everyone’s safety, horse riding on the beach is restricted to before 9.00am and after 6.00pm.  It is always sensible to choose to ride at low tide. 
3) Parking - that's a tricky one - Cakeham used to allow parking of horsebox's but they have since stopped this.  TBC
4) Miles of beach to ride along, just don't get stuck with the tide coming in, leave plenty of time as I left it a bit lose and nearly got a little stuck :)

Gorgeous beach, really good fun, watch out for kite surfers but we had a super time, well worth it !!
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Hayling Island - Another well recommended sandy beach

Tide Times: Hayling Island comes under Portsmouth Tide Times : http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/coast_and_sea/tide_tables/8/65#tide-details
Riding Restrictions: From good Friday to 30th September you cannot ride between 10am and 7pm, after 30th September you can ride any time. http://www.hayling.co.uk/activity/horse-riding/
Parking: Just by the Inn on the Beach Pub, 97 SEA FRONT, HAYLING ISLAND PO11 0AS
Access: Straight on to the beach

With two horses currently out with lameness, it is sadly something I am more than familiar with.  They have each had scans and various work ups in order to see what was wrong.  The outcome is essentially that they have bad feet and this is what I need to work on.

So, what to do ?!  Well, something that comes to mind is the following saying from Einstein 'The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.'  I needed to try something different.  Initially I tried different types of remedial shoeing using different types of shoes and various pads.  My farrier is brilliant and I cannot faults his efforts to get my horses sound.  He has certainly tried.  But after going through 4 sets of pads with no difference, it was time for a change.

The shoes were due to come off my mare for her MRI scan anyway, and my new gelding who came in for behavioral issues had similar problems with his feet, although we thought it was just a bruised sole initially.  So, two sets of shoes came off and it came to me that this was a way of trying something different with them.

So they have their MRI scans and both have bone bruising in their feet.  What next?  So I get on to doing some research on barefoot as there is no way I am hammering a set of nails in to sore feet. The first helpful things I came across were the UK Hoof Boutique and Pete Ramey's Hoof Rehab website: https://www.hoofbootique.co.uk/ and http://www.hoofrehab.com/Articles.html

These places really helped and I have since subscribed to the 'Barefoot Horse Magazine' also which has heaps of useful info.  So the outcome of all of this is that I am going to try barefoot for 12 months to see if it helps.  It certainly can't make things any worse.  The idea is that you have regualr trims from a farrier that knows what they are doing.  I am lucky, my farrier Phil Ibbotson based in Surrey is super helpful and keen to help, barefoot or not.  A lot of farriers are not keen on barefoot, but they need to get with the program, things are changing.  After hundreds of years using metal shoes, we are finally moving forward with something else.

So, whats new?  OK, so while in the field, my horses are happy enough wondering about without shoes on, but I need to be able to ride them when they start coming back in to work.  One, now 4 months since the MRI scan is looking relatively sound but what would be the point in going back to shoes when she was lame with shoes before?  Instead I am venturing in to the world of hoof boots.  I figure if a horse can ride a 100 mile endurance ride over rocky terrain in hoof boots (so I've read) then why can't mine?

Off I trot to size up some hoof boots.  To start I measure the hooves and took quite a few pictures.  I then, armed with my measurements, purchased two pairs off eBay and borrowed one pair from a friend.  I bought the Cavallo Sport and the Equine Fusion Joggers and borrowed some Renegade Classics.  Fitting is the most important thing I have found and Liz at the Hoof Boutique has really helped.  To start you need to measure your horses hooves super accurately and take some pictures to email to Liz.  she can then guide you on sizes and types of hoof boots.

The Cavallos are the easiest to fit but slipped around - just not quite right for my horse, the Fusions being tricky to get on and off at times although better fit on the horse with slightly longer toe and the Renegades needing some time investment at the beginning to get the size right.  Once that's done they too are easy although the most expensive set of boots (but worth it in the long run versus shoes).

After much procrastination I have decided on a pair of Renegade Vipers for one horse and the Equine Fusion for the other.  Each fits differently for differently shaped hooves.  Renegades are better on rounder feet, the fusions seem better on a longer toe that is perhaps a bit slimmer, they do a slim version which I will purchase on eBay when a second hand pair come up!

The outcome here I hope is soundness, but being only 4 months in on my 12 month barefoot test, already one horse looks sound.  Can't be bad. The real test will be when she comes in to work.

I have read that I regularly need to test my horses bare hooves on small amounts of different (i.e. rocky) terrain so the hooves adjust, before going out willy nilly over dodgy footing and cantering about.  This is not going to be an overnight process BUT if I get a couple sound of horses at the end, I really don't care how long it takes.  Some people have asked me why I don't just shoot them?  My answer is that why would I shoot something that just needs some time to heal  - we are just always in such a bludy rush !

Next steps ?? Wear the hoof boots when out on walk work, barefoot in the field, regular foot trimming, regualr exercise, hi-fiber & low sugar diets, lots of forage, mixed terrain for the hooves to adjust.......lets see !

I have been wanting to do my horsebox driver training for a long long time!!  As I passed my test after 1997, I cannot drive anything over 3.5 tonne on my current licence, this means I basically can only take one horse out and this just wouldn't do !

So, I started looking around at my options.  Now, I did think of taking the trailer test, so that I can pull a trailer.  However, after seeing some horrific trailer accidents on the motorway, I wasn't 100% keen on this idea.  So the alternative was to look at driving a 7.5 tonne horsebox.  To do this, I found I would need to take my Large Goods Vehicle (LGV), C1 Test.  This includes a medical, multiple choice theory, hazard perception and a practical test.

This enables me to drive a horsebox up to 7.5 tonne total weight including the weight of your horses, your kit and your lorries unladen weight, altogether cannot exceed 7.5 tonne.  Luckily enough I have found a horsebox that is light enough that I can take three horses and my kit and still be within the legal weight limit, which is definitely something to watch out for as the fines for being over weight are massive.

So, I found a nice reasonably priced box that yes is rather old but well looked after and low mileage.  I then sought about finding somewhere to teach me and sort my test.  After a bit of looking I found EP Training who are in Bookham, Surrey.  They were really really good, super efficient and got everything booked and sorted for me with minimum hassle.  The cost is about 1500 GBP, which yes is a lot, but it does get you completely booked and sorted for everything including training manuals and lessons and providing a vehicle for you to test in.  I think I got from my medical to passing the test in under 4 weeks.  Was a really good, easy experience.

So, now I am live and ready to rock, exciting times !!!

It has been a bust few weeks!  I don't think I have posted in a little while but I have tried a few new things, all of which were great fun :)

Firstly, I have never attended a pony camp, not in my life, when I was a kid I was more interested in going hunting than pony camp and so it was never something I did.  However as an adult with a horse who is in training, it looked perfect.  So off I went with Bookham Riding Club to their annual camp at the home of Jonathan Cook where he had us set up in his lovely fields in various horse boxes and tents. 

I couldn't think of anything more fun to be honest.  It was a weekend of laughing, horses and some great lessons, with a lovely crowd.  The first evening was what they called the fast and furious hack, and I thought hmmm we will probably just canter around a field.  So anyway, fortunately I don't go far without my hip flask attached and OMG it was like a evening meet from the local hunt, off we went at a gallop over anything that JC directed us at, including one eye watering hedge.  But HUGE HUGE fun and I massively enjoyed myself and so did my steed.

The next day was filled with XC and show jumping lessons at East Byshee Cross Country Course which is fab with JC and Duncan Lewis who was equally good with some flat work on the Sunday before heading off to the gallops.  Brilliant lessons and I have to say I learnt a huge amount.  My horse was 95% well behaved and I shall definitely be signing up for next year. Very well organised and a lovely bunch !