A brief interlude...

So, the summer solstice, 12 degrees and half an inch of rain already on an easterly wind, no water shortage here, only horses being ridden are the two year olds, all stables disinfected and repainted, barns mucked out and final stages of the annual spring-clean being completed.
I can become a little wistful at this time of year, whilst it's nice to rebalance one's life a little there is an adjustment process and I miss the continuous adrenaline that makes the 24-7 lifestyle such rewarding fun for most of the year.  I have a stack of office work to catch up on and I definitely need the time out to do this; could I train full-on 365 days a year? Answer is, probably, but other aspects of life would suffer.

Skipping Chapel (by Minster Son ex Harrietfield - rather well named!)

It is also time to say goodbye to a few horses and this afternoon it was the turn of Skipping Chapel who I delivered to his retirement home; it will be his first night off the farm after 10 years here but he deserves an easier time.  Although unsound in his earlier years he showed plenty of promise until his wind intervened, since then its been a bit of a battle and whatever we achieved this season in terms of winning races and improving horses I think that winning a couple of point-to-points with Skipping Chapel probably tops the lot and on the way he ended up giving Kit his first winner and brightening up a wet meeting at Balcormo - a real credit to the team as he was unsound of limb and wind as well as being extremely headstrong.  He now joins previous Kinneston luminaries Hayaain, Our Men and Fearless Footsteps to graze the Cunnoquhie hills overlooking the Howe of Fife under the careful watch of former employee Jacqui.... adieu mon ami...
Pull yourself together Alexander, back to normal,  Lucy rides Eastwell Smiles for Sophie Leech in the GB vs Ireland Lady Riders race at 8.40 at Newton Abbott this evening, after that it looks like she is going to head to Yorkshire for a while, probably working for Kevin Ryan but hoping to continue to ride in races all over the country.

With no runners from this yard until late August I will only be updating the blog ocassionally and won't be pestering those of you that are updated by email, in the unlikely event that you are interested in being alerted when it is updated then please register to follow either via twitter or facebook, just search and/or befriend kinneston on either.
One other thing to get off my chest before I sign off (is anyone still reading?)... with little happening here and the children scattered around the country I decided to take Mrs A away for a night last weekend as a treat and we ended up in the rather splendid  Hotel Missoni, a marvellous place but my enjoyment was slightly tempered by a conversation with the receptionist as I was checking out.  In response to my enquiring as to how trade was she said they were delighted because 50-70 rooms are block-booked every weekday night for months on end by a high profile management consultancy whose staff go "a bit mad" with their expense accounts whilst they undertake a long term restructuring project closeby.  I have no doubt whatsoever that they are picking up the pieces of the messy merger between HBOS and Lloyds, wonderful, its good to know that some people are benefitting from the bail out of the banks as the rest of the nation feels some rather more painful consequences.