THOSE readers who have visited Hazeldene Farm are well aware of the design and building talents of Andrew Napier who, along with his wife Laura, runs the farm and equestrian centre on the outskirts of Ballynahinch.

However, thanks to an article written by Alex Garrett and published in the Belfast Telegraph last Wednesday week (October 4th), Andrew’s skills with a chainsaw have reached beyond the confines of the equestrian community in Northern Ireland.

Andrew told Alex how he decided to make a fun fence out of one of the trees on the farm which fell during Storm Agnes. ‘“We always find that when you go to horse jumping competitions, the bigger classes/top level competitions always get very nice, fancy fences,” he explained. “But your lower-level riders usually just end up with very basic things like simple logs. So I wanted to make a special jump that smaller riders, such as kids, would enjoy and after jumping they would go home with a big smile on their faces.”’

So, far from basing the carving on any native species – as he has done in the past – Andrew chose the more exotic crocodile as the design for a fence filler and a life-sized one to boot. The ‘croc’ was jumped for the first time in competition last Sunday when the Napiers hosted the second leg of four in an arena eventing league.

We can well believe that carving the scales was particularly difficult and those who like to study such matters should watch a video on the Hazeldene Farm Ballynahinch Facebook page.