When someone suggested a Summer Party, we loved the idea, especially as Brave Helen offered to organise it. This will be a great opportunity for us all to meet and exchange endless horse related stories while long suffering husbands man the barbie.

All you need to do is drop Helen a line on the forum under the summer party topic, or send us a message if you prefer.

See you there!

We wanted to show you the girls with their lovely smiles, but the images are a bit small. They enjoyed it so much it was suggested that a BBQ party for all forum members and MSC owners in August is the ideal way to meet.

If you are a regular reader but haven't registered yet and would like to join in the fun, why not do so now? The forum topic is called Summer Party. See you there.

Now we are so pleased to be able to add sub-pages to the website, where we can accommodate our growing content without cluttering up the menu bar.

One of the first uploads will be of our day with Beau and his mum Penny, pictured above, and Sam's description on getting to grips with riding alone on her new pony Oxo.

Their experiences of horse ownership will resonate with many of you, and we hope you find their words encouraging and even inspirational.

Toby is leaving his home in the New Forest at the beginning of April to come and live with us until he graduates in Foundation Training. He will have his own Diary where we can share his triumphs and chronicle his progress.

Teresa says," I want to keep Toby as I know he will be a wonderful horse once he has the correct training but I’m not experienced enough to do it or be sure what I’m doing is the right thing. However, I am lucky enough to be able to send Toby to Avril who I think is very definitely the person to make Toby into the horse I know he can be!"

Pleased to say Richard and I survived a hectic Your Horse Live event last weekend at Stoneleigh Park ! Here’s our stand.

The weekend was very productive, and we received a good number of entries into the draw to win a free NHC course (a tear out voucher was put in the middle of the show brochure), the winner will be picked in 3 weeks time on the closing date.

Please note Mysafecobs has migrated to Mysafecobs.com which caused all sorts of issues almost at the worst time possible (over the show weekend). You may find Avril’s .co.uk email still bounces and this is being investigated as it should/will work.

Those of you who read the forum may remember Izzie who came to us in an usual way this summer in foal. We didn't know when it was due, or who the sire was, but look at the result! A few hours old and already gorgeous.

I attended Hadlow College in June to see a Dressage Masterclass with Emile Faurie organised to raise funds for his charitable foundation. Just imagine the look on my face when my raffle ticket was picked out as the winner of first prize. You cannot imagine just how shocked I was to learn that I had won a lesson with Emile Faurie on my horse Beau at his yard!.

Well I may have been shocked at my wonderful prize but I wasn’t sure just what Emile would make of my handsome skewbald cob Beau who is rising 5. No problem at all; Emile was charming, gracious and perceptive and immediately got to grips with putting our ‘style’ in order by encouraging me to get Beau to soften and come round consistently, to work forward obediently and keep Beau’s attention in this awe-inspiring arena. I described Beau as “push rather than pull” then Beau did an exuberant leapy lurch and Emile retorted “I don’t think so! Well sat!!” I laughed at Emile’s advice to take care at the open doors then had to eat my hat as Beau almost carted us at speed through the opening!

Gradually we settled into some very nice work with Beau doing us proud. A great day was had by all. I consider myself extremely privileged to have had the opportunity to be taught by such an inspiring trainer who has an excellent eye for how to bring a horse and rider together in a more harmonious partnership. So the moral of the story is, attend Emile’s dressage demonstrations and buy raffle tickets! Not only will you be supporting a good cause but you too might win a lesson with Emile Faurie!!

Penny Price September 2009

Designing the website was great fun and totally absorbing, while an equally important aspect for us is advertising. I contacted Jane at Adhorse UK who is also a horsey friend with a keen interest in cobs, especially showing them.

We are really pleased with the response we get from advertising with Jane, and definitely intend to continue working with her.

She did very well to come fourth with her home bred bay mare pictured here, one of the two horses she competed on.

We had a stand at this year's Beta for the first time in order to launch the Duett range of saddles in the UK. This was an ideal venue for us to do so, and was well worth all the hard work involved.

We had a fantastic three days, and we were very proud to have the Duett Elite as the saddle of choice on Beta's own Robocob. He was stabled just in front of our stand, giving many hours of gentle riding to hundreds of happy people.