User Archives: tehri

Holiday time is approaching and I am sure everyone can’t wait for the long awaited festive season the lies ahead of us.
The polo club will be closed from the 19 December and will re-open on the 4 January.

The ponies are going to enjoy a mid season break, which will give them time to re charge those batteries, put on a bit of condition and get them ready for the busy polo that awaits them next year.

We have had a great season so far, the polo and skill that has been exceptional and we are expecting a number of overseas visitors in the new year.

We have sadly said goodbye to a very important Val De Vie personality, Toffee. He was a very precious and dear little chap. He has moved to a big farm in Stellenbosch, with huge lush fields that would be the dream of any pony, to be a companion to another horse. We are also sadly saying goodbye to a very special polo pony, Angel, who has been with us since July 2011. She has unfortunately become blind in her one eye and can’t play polo anymore. She will be going back to Natal to retire on a farm with her previous owners.

We have had a number of new ponies arriving at Val De Vie over the past couple of months. We also welcomed Jason Drew s three ponies, Whistler, Charlie and Hunk at the beginning of October, Gavin Watson’s two ponies, Fernanda and Pepita that arrived at the beginning of November and we welcomed Joseph Bronn s three polo ponies that arrived on the 6 December all the way from Natal. Girlie, BMW and Jura stepped out of the truck late Tuesday afternoon and settled into the Val De Vie way of life as if they had been here before.

The Bentley Polo was held on Friday 25 November, with all the top polo players from around the province coming together to display their talents and skill on the polo field. This was truly a chart topper of an event with the prestigious Bentleys everywhere added in the mixture with exceptional polo, what more could you ask for?

Val De Vie was very proud to sponsor a Championship class at the South African Dressage Championships that were held in Stellenbosch from the 14 till the 20 November. We have a number of talented Dressage riders from Val De Vie that will start competing in shows next year such as Karen Dormehl on her young horses Kontikki and Frosty Kiss, Stacey de Villiers on her horse Dallas and Michelle Evert riding her new polo pony, True Rhythm. Hopefully all of these riders will be competing at the next SA Dressage Championships and we can offer as much support to them along the way as possible.

That’s all from us at the Polo club for now, wishing you all the best for the holidays!

Tehri

As the start to the new polo season is on the horizon, we are getting ready for what should be the best, most exciting polo season Val De Vie has see yet. With the growing numbers of people wanting to become members of the Val de Vie polo club every week, and our stables at full capacity, we are all very excited and can’t wait for the season to start in October.

I thought I would share a little information about what we, the Polo Club and Stable personal have been up to all winter. With the end of Polo Season at the beginning of 2011, the polo ponies have all had a well, long deserved rest. They have had the opportunity to re charge their batteries, relax, get as fat as possible and as furry as possible. The grooms and Polo Team have been keeping a close eye on them, making sure they get sufficient feed, love and attention.

The horses have been kept to a very structured schedule, being creatures of habit, they do not adjust to drastic changes very well. So we have to make sure that they get their feed at specific times in the morning and afternoon. Horses mainly get two meals a day . With drastic cases with horses either being drastically under weight, or at times of excess pressure and hard work, they can get up to 4 meals a day. The stomach structure is such that they need to have sufficient grazing all day long. Without this grazing, the stomach acids can cause serious damage which can lead to serious medical complications and stomach alsers. With the lack of grazing down at the sand paddock, we supplement the horses grazing with a product called oat hay.

We have also had a few more livery clients joining us over these past months, I would like to welcome them. Karen Lewis who has just recently purchased her new Polo Pony Angel. Stacey and Kaylee, they came to us from Franschoek with their three beautiful warm blood mares, Star Bucks, Dallas and Moet. Stacey is also a qualified Equine Physiotherapist, so if you are interested in having her look at your horse please feel free to contact me for more information. Tessa Moxon who also moved from Franschoek with her Polo Ponies and young warm blood mare that she will be training as a dressage horse. The Anderson Family, Anuchka, Albert and Sharron and their lovely ponies Trixi and Leo. Anuchka has represented South Africa in Show Jumping up in Johannesberg. Candice Starke who will be with us at the end of the month with her two very talented show jumpers Just London and Chase. Candice was competing in the 1.45m show jumping classes last year. We are very excited to have such top quality horses and riders at our yard. I am sure that the Val De Vie flag will be flying high at many of the big horse shows locally and nationwide in the months to come.

I would also like to welcome Erin and Marilyn Young. Erin has recently joined us from another stable yard in Cape Town, she is leasing a lovely pony from the Anderson Family, Leo. Erin is a very talented and gutsy rider and we can t wait for her to start competing and going to shows on her lovely pony.

The Polo Ponies have also just received their second African Horse Sickness Vaccination. We vaccinate the horses once a year during the “off season” . The purpose of this vaccination is to strengthen the horses immunity against this deadly viral disease which kills thousands of horses around South Africa every year. The vaccination consists of 2 injections 3 weeks apart. There are two types of AHS ( African Horse Sickness) that the horses can contract, Dunkop and Dikkop. I have inserted some additional information with regards to AHS below.

WHAT IS AFRICAN HORSE SICKNESS?
African horse sickness (AHS) is a highly infectious non-contagious, vector born viral disease affecting all species of Equidae. It is classified as an Orbivirus of the Reoviridae family of which there are 9 serotypes. All serotypes (1-9) are distributed throughout South Africa, although there is a variation in their temporal distribution. It is endemic to (occurs naturally on) the African continent, and is characterised by respiratory and circulatory damage, accompanied by fever and loss of appetite.

Host and Vector
Animals affected are, all breeds of horses (mortality rate of 70-90%), mules and donkeys. Wild life Equine species (Zebras) are resistant to the disease. The vector host, Culicoides midge, spreads AHS virus.

How do horses contract the disease?
AHS does not spread directly from one horse to another, but is transmitted by the Culicoides midge, which becomes infected when feeding on other infected equidae. It occurs mostly in the warm, rainy season when midges are plentiful, and disappears after frost, when the midges die. Most animals become infected in the period associated with sunset and sunrise, when the midges are most active.

Symptoms
The disease manifests in three ways, namely the lung form, the heart form and the mixed form. The lung (dunkop) form is characterised in the following manner:

• very high fever (up to 41 degrees).
• difficulty in breathing, with mouth open and head hanging down.
• frothy discharge may pour from the nose.
• sudden onset of death.
• very high death rate (90%).

The heart (dikkop) form is characterised in the following manner:

• fever, followed by swelling of the head and eyes.
• in severe cases, the entire head swells (“dikkop”).
• loss of ability to swallow and possible colic symptoms may occur.
• terminal signs include bleeding (of pinpoint size) in the membranes of the mouth and eyes.
• Slower onset of death, occurring 4 to 8 days after the fever has started.
• Lower death rate (50%).

The Polo Ponies will start exercising in September so they can lose their winter “fat layer” and get into shape for Polo Season that starts in October. I am sure many of the Polo Players will also be exercising to rid themselves of the excess “winter warmth layers” that have accumulated over the past couple of months. The horses exercise program will consist mainly of walking for the first couple of days around the track located around the stick n ball field and then we will gradually increase the exercise speed and distance as the weeks go by, so the Ponies will be sleek, fit galloping machines come polo season. As for the Polo Players, we have the gym and Mieke! There are many exciting events, tournaments and family days planned so be sure to keep a close eye on the Events calendar. Polo lessons and educational chukkas with Kevin Rixon will also start in October.

Tehri

Here are some great photos from the Educational Chukkas we hosted on 14 April 2011.

Val De Vie Red: Rolf Thielen, George Mumba, Gavin Kanigowski, Tessa Moxon
Val De Vie Blue: Jessica Henrich, Karen Lewis, Kevin Rixon, Gavin Watson
Referee: Roy Rixon

The Val de Vie Cape Town Cup was recently hosted in the elegant surroundings of the Val de Vie Estate utilising the estate’s world-class polo fields and luxurious club house facilities.

The line up for the 6-Goal tournament saw a number of international players from Argentina, Holland, Italy, Germany, Zimbabwe, the UK, India, and South Africa competing, bringing an exciting flavour to the matches, lunches and the prize giving Val de Vie Polo Club Captain Rolf Thielen said that he was particularly pleased with how well the tournament was received and how much support there had been for the tournament had been throughout.

This is the third time the Cape Town Cup has been hosted at Val de Vie. Western Cape Polo Chairman Pawel Kanigowski originally conceived the cup in 2007 and with the support of the clubs in Cape Town and Boland areas it has now become and exciting annual fixture. The format of the tournament was a round robin over three days with a subsidiary final and a final on day 4. The four teams, Lanquedoc, Maremmana – Central Academy, Cape Town Polo Club and Val de Vie were in fierce competition from day one.

Val de Vie walked away as the winners of the trophy but it was a hard fought competition. The Lanquedoc team of Martin Hartmann took second place. Best Playing Pony went to Cold Steel, owned by Tom de Bruin, who also took the coveted Most Valued Player award.

Val de Vie Polo Club President Allesandro Balestri de Verrand thanked SAPA Executive Director Clive Peddle, the visiting and local patrons as well Martin Venter (Chairman of the Val de Vie Group) and sponsor of POLO SA magazine. Alessandro mentioned that without the support of patrons such as Pawel Kanigowski, Peter Stuart, Martin Hartmann and Ankur Mishra polo in the Cape would not have been able to grow as quickly and successfully as it has.

The Cape Town Cup is set to grow to an 8 team two week event over the next few years and the interest and excitement has left us all with bated breath for next years gala performance.

We also look forward to seeing you join us for another exciting polo event coming soon. The Veuve Clicquot Masters is to be held at Val de Vie for the first time this year on Sunday 17th April and is set to become the jewel of the South African Polo Season, expect a sophisticated day amongst South Africa’s socialites, VIPs and celebrities, so get your designer dresses ready!

Two ticket types are available for purchase through Computicket – The Polo Club at R350, which includes a bottle of wine and a light lunch on arrival and The Masters VIP Lounge at R950, which includes an array of delicious foods, Veuve Clicquot Champagne and a selection of Val de Vie's award winning wines.

Tickets available at: Computicket: http://www.computicket.com/web/event/the_veuve_clicquot_masters/323640746/0/24774328
For more information: www.valdevie.co.za

Kind regards,
The Val de Vie Team

The Val De Vie Cape Town Cup will be held at the Val De Vie Estate this week. We have some of South Africas top players joining us for the 6 goal tournament.

The days and times are as follows:

Wednesday: 02 March 2011

Cape Town Polo Club vs. Val De Vie Polo Club at 4pm
Lanquedoc vs. Maremmana at 5h30pm

Thursday: 03 March 2011

Val De Vie Polo Club vs. Maremmana at 2pm
Cape Town Polo Club vs. Lanquedoc at 4pm

Saturday : 05 March 2011

Maremmana vs. Cape Town Polo Club 9am
Val De Vie vs. Lanquedoc 11h30am

Sunday : 06 March 2011

Team 3 vs. Team 4 at 9am
Team 1 vs. Team 2 at 12am

Please note that these times are subject to change due to extreme weather conditions.

Tonight at 645pm on Goodhope FM we have an interview with Clive Peddle - you can listen in via streaming on www.goodhopefm.co.za