Perks of the job

Running a racing yard has its perks, working with gorgeous, majestic – (if sometimes a little temperamental) racehorses, fresh air, a wonderful countryside environment, an exciting and varied existence where every day is a new day and life is never, ever dull. But, as everyone knows well our racing yard might be something we are rightly proud of having strived for many years to get it to this point (and still we have a way to go before things are as I want them to be) but it isn’t our only business.

True, it is the core business and the one that takes up practically all of my time - plus some, but spare a moment for the little number known as “the cabins” because today George and I managed to extract a delightful perk of the (other) job when we test drove a new range of hot tubs.

We found ourselves in hot water – literally this morning, dressed in nothing other than swimwear, the only downside was we were in a large concrete building on an industrial estate where a couple of hot tubs were bubbling in anticipation, it wasn’t exactly a relaxing environment. Not like Sunhill lodges, where the views are spectacular and a real sense of calm guarantees a feeling of euphoria. But still, it was fun, interesting and not only do we now know all about the latest models of Hot tubs but the really useful thing to come out of our excursion, was that Steve the “hot tub man” is also an expert in Swimming pools and has agreed to pop out this week to have a look at the main (swimming pool) pump on the Horses water treadmill which is working normally and as hard as ever, but it would be good to have someone local “in case “ it decides to slow down one day.

On the yard last week, the horses have been enjoying the mild weather, they all look excellent and are getting fitter by the day. Saturday was a very busy morning for owners, but in the office my Emails have been causing concern with a glitch on the servers system meaning some emails are not getting through, while some replies are not finding their way to their recipient either. Anna’s computer is not affected so if you have emailed me and not received a response please do email me again and copy in Anna – just in case (anna@annduffield.co.uk)

Dave Morison our fantastic IT guru has been working on it over the weekend.