Let the melt begin...

At last, temperatures above freezing and a slow thaw has started, in the vague hope that Ayr might defrost in time for Monday we worked the potential runners a bit harder in the snow today - Isla Pearl Fisher, Isla Patriot, Northern Flame, Forcefield and Four Fiddlers all had a surpisingly decent blow-out, the two "Islas" were then clipped and are now wearing three rugs.  The rest of the horses had a quieter day and went for a long hack with a bit of a trot, Northern Flame and Daasij also were treated by the in-house physio Gillian.

So, the BHA have decided that to help fill the gap left by reduced Levy Board funding they are going to up their charges to Owners by £100 per horse per year - great - I think they are barking mad, their charges to Owners are already absurdly high (why should one have to pay £35 to re-register one's colours each year for instance?) and increasing them is only going to put people off at a time when what the industry needs is more people to come in.  Everything that the BHA does seems so detached from the realities of trying to run a successful business that I know of nobody in the industry that has any confidence in them whatsoever, they appear to everyone as the ultimate quango - unanswerable, unaccountable and certainly unelectable and now the former Chairman (Martin Broughton who presided over much of the creation of the current debacle) is going to try to buy the Tote, hmm, not sure how I feel about that, you would think he would be better to spend his time concentrating on one of his many other jobs - being Chairman of British Airways, another huge success he is to be being paid a fortune to preside over as it slowly disintegrates, oh well, at least he owned and raced the best horse my Father ever bred, can't remember what it was called, Hen Knight trained it and it was out of Cramond Brig - one that got away!

Sorry about the politics, glad to have that off my chest, Mrs A meanwhile has decided that her chickens are feeling the cold and lovingly prepares them a big bowl of steaming peas every lunchtime, I think I might see if she would like to start feeding the horses, the care and attention to detail puts me to shame.  I was very pleased that Susan our book-keeper made it in today after a couple of weeks stuck in the snow, conditions where she is near Auchterarder are so bad that she has had to move out completely and rent a holiday cottage, we are meant to be be having a famuily golf game at a little hotel near there in 10 days time as part of Mrs D's birthday celebrations - I doubt it somehow...