It’s been a busy weekend, the horses went through their various paces on Saturday morning, some are still on the semi easy list, and some are stepping up again having already been on it. The runners headed off early to Beverly with “Dale” and “Les” driving the two lorries and “Aslam” (aka The Captain) and new man on the team “Pradeep” went along to lead up the runners.
Thankfully the trio of juveniles ran well giving us hope and encouragement that the yard is starting to turn the corner and kiss goodbye to a “vile virus” which has quite literally “wrecked” our season but I am not foolish enough to proclaim we are out of the woods yet, because I have been around long enough to know better. The biggest lesson trainers, owners, breeders and jockeys can learn is this…..
“When your season is absolutely flying and you can do no wrong, enjoy it because it won’t last- equally when things are going wrong, the horses are sick and the winners are thin on the ground, that won’t last either” and, as the Great man “Sir Winston Churchill” said “when you’re going through hell, keep going…………….”
Hayley got some fantastic photos yesterday and as you can see the horses look fantastic, that’s what makes this all so exasperating. The horses who worked enjoyed doing so on the grass, Steve Parkin got unceremoniously dumped from a naughty two year old who was feeling frisky. George and I got back from Beverly just in time to show “Evelyn the Duchess of Sutherland” her brood at evening stables and the lads had to pop out late last night to check water buckets and put a light sheet on the horses before the evening air produced its famous “Dales nip”- which usually arrives in the middle of the night!
After the usual check round of horses in and out of fields, trotting up and weighing the horses who ran yesterday, taking a few photos of them and letting owners (in this instance Craig Buckingham) know they are ok, today’s jobs for me and George included cutting acres of grass while the weather is fine, viewing a property with some lovely owners who are considering making a move near here, and returning home to another few hours of grass cutting. A perfect day which beats sitting in an office hands down.