Meet the Supreme Team- Penny Hollings

In this feature, we introduce you to our team members - whether it be head office personnel or our Sponsored Riders.  In this edition, we introduce to you :  Supreme Products Sponsored -  Penny Hollings

Tell us about your team and the different roles that people play?

I oversee the yard and work with Stacey to ensure that the horses receive the best care, looking at diet, exercise and constantly monitoring them. I am in charge of schooling and teaching, formulating exercise regimes to suit each animal.

How many horses are currently on your yard (for 2014 season)?

We have Hermits China lace (NCT pony), Whittakers Prince (Large hack/PBA), Pendle Mattina (148cm sp)Ninfield fable (138cm sp/PBA) Pendle First Light (153cm SHP) plus 1 part livery, several DIY and animals who come to us for pre show prep and short term schooling

What is your earliest riding memory? 

Riding a donkey in the park in Eastbourne where my grandparents lived. I was so horse obsessed I used to sit on the back of the settee with a bridle on one end of it!

Which is your favourite horse or pony from years past?

Fair Breeze, Royal Bronze, Royal Angel ,Deaconwood Goldprint & Dutch Dame. I am extremely lucky to have had some fabulous animals to produce so my list really could go on and on. Some have been special as they were big winners and some were just lovely people.

Which horse would you love to ride (any discipline, past or present)? 

Valegro

What is the make or your horsebox and how many can you transport?

We are in between lorries at the moment but will have a 7.5 ton to take 3 as two of our clients have their own wagons so we don’t need a massive one. These days I’m strictly lo-tech....the less extras they have, the less can go wrong!

Which is your favourite restaurant or favourite meal? 

Tiggis Italian at the bottom of our road. My favourite meal would be Seafood Ravioli followed by Chocolate ice cream

What’s your favourite holiday destination?

Anywhere really hot but I do like Tenerife

What is your essential piece of kit that you cannot live without? 

My Samsung Galaxy note....when it broke I was bereft!

What is your greatest memory from competing? 

Winning the supreme championship at the BSHA Champs in 2006 on Dutch Dame, she was amazing!

How do you unwind after competition? 

Glass of wine and a chat with friends

Favourite music / band? 

Muse, Florence and the Machine, Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian plus I’m partial to a bit of dance music as my friends will testify!

What is your favourite Supreme Product and why?

Sparkle spray, you can use it anywhere!

Sweet or savoury? 

Sweet & savoury!

Do you have pets and if so, what are they? 

A 15 year old Cavalier King Charles called Libby and a 2 year old Jack Russell called Luna. We have a big fluffy cat on the yard called Sweep who we acquired from Chelsea Foster and a couple of semi feral ones too.

Do you have a lucky charm and if so, what is it? 

You make your own luck!

Twitter or Facebook? Both!

Book or i-Reader? Book, i read too fast

What would your dream car be? I love my Peugeot 207, I’m not into ostentatious cars

Do you have a nickname? Pen but my staff probably have others!!!!

Penny and Alex Hollings with Pandora at Great Yorkshire Show

Training Your Horse or Pony- with Penny Hollings

Penny Hollings, from Team Hollings, is a familiar face on the show scene, competing over many years at the highest level. Penny has numerous wins, HOYS and RIHS qualifications to her name, both in her own name and for horses and ponies produced by the team. Penny also breeds under the Pendle prefix.

Penny is a Registered BHS Instructor and she is very approachable and friendly. In recent years, she has focused on teaching and offers support for novice and more advanced pupils and is available for clinics and lessons. She is an Arab Horse Society, NPS, BSHA, NCPA, CHAPS and BSPS judge and judges both In Hand and Ridden Arabs.

Penny is going to be a regular contributor to our blog and in this series, Penny will be offering invaluable advice for developing horses and ponies for the show ring to improve way of going as well as ringcraft.

In the first of the series, Penny looks at some of the problems that everyone may face at some time or another and offers some great advice on training your horse or pony for the ring.

Training your horse or pony

The first thing that I impress upon anyone having a lesson is that they give their animal their full attention in order that they may read accurately the horse and his reactions and to assume the role of teacher rather than a bickering sibling

People quite often tell me that their animal is fine at home but then is “naughty” at shows or vice versa. This statement indicates to me that the rider is not fully aware of the horse and has not developed a sufficiently strong relationship where the horse is obedient to the rider and they have mutual respect. If an animal believes the rider then the surroundings will have little impact, the horse instead will be focussed on the signals given by the rider.

Another frequently used excuse is “he’s not listening to me”. More often than not, the horse is not ignoring the rider but instead is not receiving clear signals or in some cases no signals, and yet is expected to perform beautifully. Accurate communication and an understanding of the horse’s reactions will result in a more harmonious partnership.

Penny on China Rose

Where a horse is expected to be ridden by the judge, many people think that the poor animal must endure a procession of different shapes, sizes and abilities of rider in order that “he gets used to different people”. A better way to approach this scenario is to train and prepare the horse so he offers a ride with minimum input from the judge. If he is educated and worked so that he is soft and relaxed he will give a lovely ride.

Spooking is quite often exacerbated by the rider. I will quite often get riders to close their eyes as they ride past the object of terror and usually the horse’s response to the object is massively reduced and with repetition will diminish even further.

Quite often riders hold their breath and tense up when they perceive a threat. As soon as that happens, the horse no longer receives clear signals, so will then not do what the rider wants. The calmer and more focussed the rider remains, the more likely it is that the horse will perform in the way the rider would like.

The closed eyes also work for horses that don’t stand in front of the judge, although quite often the fidgeting is caused by a lack of straightness in the halt resulting in the animal having to adjust his balance thereby starting the fidgeting.

In conclusion, the rider’s priority is to improve the balance and straightness of the horse, through clear and accurate signals. This, I believe, is the key to a happy and harmonious partnership.

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If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact us on info@supremeproducts.co.uk as we really enjoy hearing from you! We also love to see your pictures, so please feel free to visit our Facebook page and post them on our wall, making sure you tell us all about you and your horse or pony.

Our office number is not just for people wanting to buy products – if you have a question or would like some advice on how best to use our products or what would be the best product to use in certain situations, then please call us on 01377 229050 – we will be happy to help where we can!

Best wishes,

Sarah

Meet The Supreme Team- Meghan Robinson

In this feature, we introduce you to our team members - whether it be head office personnel or our Sponsored Riders.  In this edition, we introduce to you:  Supreme Products Team Member - Meghan Robinson

Tell us what role you play in the business and the types of things you do day to day?
I mainly work in the office as an administrator. I deal with the orders, answer the telephone and respond to emails as well as many other office duties. I also do the essential task of tea making. 

How long have you worked for Supreme Products?
I’ve been here since September 2013, so not very long. But I am really enjoying it so far and looking forward to learning more. 

 
Do you have a horse and if so, tell us a little about him / her?
I have a 15.3hh Thoroughbred mare. She’s 22 years old so is older than me! Her grumpy attitude is the only thing that gives away her age though.

Which is your favourite restaurant or favourite meal?
Mcdonalds is a restaurant isn’t it? I love fast food and junk food. Italian foods are my favourite.

What’s your favourite holiday destination?
I love Bath and Northumberland. The roman baths are fascinating and the scenery around Bamburgh is stunning!

What is your essential piece of kit that you cannot live without?
My magic brush!

Do you follow any particular sport or sports team?
Apart from being into horses, obviously, I also loved volleyball and netball at school. Unfortunately I don’t get the chance to play anymore. 

Favourite film?
Horror films are my favourite as well as fantasy and fairy tale.
 
What is your favourite Supreme Product and why?
Mane and Tail Builder - definitely! My horse has a beautiful mane up until winter where she rubs it. This promotes hair growth better than anything that I’ve ever used. I also love the smell! 

Tea or coffee?
Tea. I’m one of those awful people who puts milk in first and adds two big spoonful’s of sugar!

Do you have pets and if so, what are they?
I have two very fat cats. 

Twitter or Facebook?
I guess I’d have to say Facebook as I don’t have a Twitter. 

Book or i-Reader?Book! It doesn’t break if you drop it in the bath.

Have you ever had a holiday disaster?
Not me personally, but my sister. When we were a lot younger, too young to pack our own suitcases, we went to Disneyland Paris. My mum had packed my things and hers but forgot about my sister! We had to buy her new clothes there. 

What would your dream car be?
I’m really not into cars but I would love a black Range Rover.

What time is your alarm clock set for?
7 O’clock. But do I get up at that time? Nope!

Educating Caitlin.....

Katie Duxbury, based in Darwen in Lancashire, is a familiar face on the county show circuit and has qualified and ridden at HOYS. She fits in home producing her native ponies and coloureds around her work for BAE Systems as an aircraft engineer. Katie says of her showing, ‘I’m showing-mad and I love preparing, taking part, watching and learning from others.’

When Katie found her latest project in December – the young Fell mare Greenholme Caitlin –  she was almost untouched and Supreme Products and The Showing Journal decided to follow their progress in the form of this monthly diary…. The Showing Journal diary will focus on Caitlin’s training, whereas our diary will focus on how Katie has trained and prepared Caitlin for her showing career, detailing the products that Katie has been using.

‘I bought my new project, Caitlin, from John Potter of the Greenholme Stud in December. She is a five-year-old 13.1hh Fell pony by the fantastic stallion Greenholme Look At Me.

‘When I first saw her out on the fell at the stud she stood out a mile to me.  I think she’s an extremely good example of the breed, with a lovely action – she just had to come home with us! She had spent her life thus far running on the fell, having only been kept indoors as a weaned foal, but she has the sweetest temperament. Naturally, she was a little wary of us at first!

‘When she arrived, we let her settle in and then spent a week or two getting her used to being handled – simple things like grooming, leading and practising picking her feet up ready for the farrier. We also wormed, vaccinated and had her teeth checked.

Her mane and tail were quite dry and untended when she first arrived and understandably she was very woolly, so in the first weeks we are focusing on getting her settled and improving the condition of the coat, mane and tail and improving her overall appearance.

‘In week three, once she had settled in, we pampered her with a nice hot bath where we used High Shine Shampoo to break down the dust and dirt in the coat. We found that this gave her a really deep clean and left a smooth, shiny and conditioned coat. We also got her rugged up so we could start to bring her coat on.

One of the areas that needed attention was her mane as it was matted in places. We used a couple of different products and her mane has already shown great improvement.

We started with Detangle and Shine and just sprayed this on to the mane and tail and left it on. Where possible we ran fingers through and started to de-mat as well as remove the tangles. We did this daily over 3 or 4 days and on day 4 we were able to really loosen  some of the tangles and start brushing her mane and tail through.

Caitlin does have a few thinner patches on her mane. She has good length in her mane and luckily there are no bald or rubbed patches but we would like to see some thickening in places, so we are using Mane and Tail Builder on a daily basis. We massage it in and leave it on.

The third product used to focus on the hair is Moisturise and Condition. Caitlin has always been out on the fell and her mane was a little dry and brittle in places. Once again, this is a ‘spray and leave on’ product and so we have applied this daily to improve the overall condition. We’ve started to see and feel the beneficial effects of this product very quickly and the mane is already less brittle and flows much better, much more in tune with her breed type.

After all her pampering, Caitlin was then bitted and we started lungeing her in the school. She has taken to it all very well, with her sweet temperament showing through.

‘It’s now week four and we have just started long-reining Caitlin down the quiet lanes and so far she has taken everything in her stride! The benefits of long-reining her at this stage are to develop straightness and obedience; helping to create and keep a soft topline and develop her confidence as well as the bond between us and get her working through from behind.

I hope to have her out to some shows in-hand once she has grown her mane and feather back as she was bog-burnt from the rain and mud on the fell. Ultimately, my aim for her is to qualify her for the Picton final at the NPS Summer Champs and hopefully gain a place there!

‘I will tell you more next month when, hopefully, I’ve been able to sit on board and begin the next chapter of her career.’

For more information, visit :

www.supremeproducts.co.uk

www.theshowingjournal.co.uk

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact us on info@supremeproducts.co.uk as we really enjoy hearing from you. We also love to see your pictures, so please visit our Facebook page and post them on our wall, making sure you tell us all about you and your horse or pony.

Our office number is not just for people wanting to buy products – if you have a question or would like some advice on how best to use our products or what would be the best product to use in certain situations, then please call us on 01377 229050 – we will be happy to help where we can!

Best wishes,

Sarah