We will not be defeated!

Increased resolution is required to keep the horses working now that we are well into the 4th week of the big freeze, the tractor can no longer cope with the depth of the drifts on the all-weather gallop so Sunday morning was spent shovelling the snow off manually with Lucy and Mrs A, it is important to have a supervisor in these circumstances and there is nothing like a wallop with a shovel to provide encouragement to work harder.

Later in the day I had to drag Mrs A away from a most enjoyable lunch party to start the second shift but we were pleasantly surprised to discover that Lucy had spent the entire afternoon shovelling and had cleared it completely enabling me to rotovate it three times in order to have it serviceable for Monday morning.

Because I know that when (if?) the thaw starts we will be confined to the all-weather we have been cantering the horses in the snow for most of the last week; they have only been able to go steadily but have all cantered 5 or 6 miles each day, despite the low temperatures the horses seem to love it, though even Skipping Chapel's eyelashes froze after 5 miles cantering at minus 12 degrees.

The only new problem that this has given us is some of their coronet band's have started bleeding, we try to avoid this by applying vaseline prior to work and then sudocream afterwards, it seems to have worked as having checked them all over on Sunday evening there are no problems with their legs and they seem healthy, hard and raring to go as soon as racing resumes, roll on the day....