Bottling it...

Four Fiddlers

 So, Andy bottled it, well I don't think he did, tired legs more likely but no doubt the press will give him a hard time; according to the Sunday Times Elton's going to be Dad so I infer that little Zachary will need a hairpiece & thick specs before long. A bitterly cold day at the "Jed" point-to-point yesterday, our 3 runners were 2nd, 3rd & 4th, they all ran well but we could do with a winner, Lucy took a heavy fall when riding Aggies Lad in the Ladies for the Hamiltons, went through the wing at the last when holding a 5l advantage, I withdrew her horse Amulree in the maiden, all rather traumatic. Today we run Forcefield in the 1.45 at Ayr, 18 run, Lucy rides - it looks a good race and he will come on for the experience, Four Fiddlers goes in the 4.30, 11 run and Lucy rides, he should have an each way chance at a decent price.

Forcefield

Touch and go

It will be a close shave as to whether we manage to race tomorrow at Kelso, frosts last night were sharper than anticipated and they wouldn't have raced today, we'll be up and ready to go if its on so fingers crossed. We plan to run Commercial Express, Noir et Vert, Amulree and possibly Skipping Chapel, the latter schooled this morning with Commercial Express, the rest of them worked on the all-weather as the grass was a bit frosty and Twelve Paces, Buffalo Ballet and our un-named Terimon 5yo went to Lucinda's.  We will all be routing for Andy tomorrow, it would be nice to see him smile!

Skipping Chapel

this pub aint big enough for the both of us

hmm, Sparks 1974, or was it "town" not pub, never mind, the gauntlet has been thrown down, Mrs A and her friends have decided to meet up in our pub tonight at exactly the same day and time that we (men) normally go there.  What do we do?  We can't go there, we wouldn't be able to hear ourselves think let alone talk and there wouldn't be room anyway, admit defeat and head elsewhere? surely not... I'm familiar with the problems that some of our eminent Clubs are having with the Equality Act but I'm not sure they have had to deal with anything as confrontational as this, bet they drink white wine as well, not even pints, I have offered to lay on some considerably superior fare here but to no avail......... we'll just have to get there first, or we could let all their tyres down (but we'll end up having to blow them up again - might be worth it)... oh dear.  I think it's a revenge act for me giving her a hard time for once again leaving her rather valuable binoculars in the Ladies loo at the point-to-point, it's just that I feel that the Clerks of the Courses probably have better things to do on Monday mornings than follow what is now becoming the rather regular ritual of searching the loos for Mrs A's bins (better move on, I'm just trying to put some content together for my application to join Sky.....no, actually, Mrs A of course is the rock upon which my life is built & I must stop being frivolous in case she slips something unpleasant into tonight's salmon and asparagus lasagne, that's if she remembers to put it in the oven - oops, no, that will now be my job I suppose..... anyway, just hearing rumours of a compromise, they're going to sit outside or something...)
Right, sorry about that, a fine start to the point-to-pointing season last weekend with Noir et Vert and Skipping Chapel running well prior to tiring and Amulree putting up a career best effort to finish second, most encouraging considering their disrupted training, the West Percy was well-supported and produced excellent competitive racing. No runners under rules this week but we've had a highly productive time here being able to use all the facilities properly for the first time in ages, the horses have all done loads of work on grass, we've had three schooling sessions over hurdles and fences and half a dozen have been away to work at Lucinda's. More work planned for tomorrow and then on Sunday weather permitting it will be off to the Jedforest point-to-point near Kelso where we hope to have three or four runners. Ideally we will then go to Ayr on Monday where we intend to run Forcefield and Four Fiddlers for the Earley Macdonald partnership and Northern Flame for the Peglegs, ballots to be negotiated first but they also have entries at Newcastle on Wednesday where we might run Native Coll and Seeking Power as well, going is good at Ayr and very soft at Newcastle, hopefully somewhere in between at Kelso... so, busy time, let's hope the weather behaves, we have glorious spring-like conditions today.... 

Noir et Vert (Jamie)

Noir et Vert, Buffalo Ballet & Twelve Paces head down

Buffalo Ballet (Lucy)

and stretching out...

Un-named Alflora 4yo (Emma) looks on

Playing Footsie (Gemma)

Novelty

It still seems a bit of a novelty to be able to actually do what we want and need to do with the horses after all that awful weather, it's a much more satisfactory state of affairs and makes the job much more enjoyable; conditions have been most benign for the time of year and although we may see a little bit of frost from time to time the long range forecast isn't bad at all (TOUCH WOOD!).

Amulree at the West Percy Point-to-Point

Today most of the horses did long steady canters on the BGF (aka "big grass field"!), they can go for a couple of miles round here and they seem to love it particularly as there a couple of hundred sheep running around to entertain them.  Apart from that this morning Almost Blue and Amulree schooled over fences and Peter came in this afternoon to school Daasij and Isla Patriot over hurdles, they were led by Lucy on Forcefield and Northern Flame.  Peter also jumped a couple of other un-named youngsters in the school.  I prefer to do most of our schooling in the afternooon, the horses have already had an hours exercise in the morning so they are more settled and we are under no time pressure so can give each of them as much time as is necessary. 

Progress

Good progress this week so far with the horses working mostly on the grass which is in good shape, in addition to that yesterday Almost Blue, Commercial Express and Daasij worked on Lucinda's woodchip and today it was the turn of Northern Flame, Forcefield and Four Fiddlers.  They all seemed in good heart and will have benefited from a trip away on the lorry and some faster work in a different place.  Commercial Express & Almost Blue are scheduled to run on Sunday, entries for the Jedforest point-to-point are not strong so we might be tempted to bring out one or two of last weekend's runners as they seem none the worse for their exertions.  The three that went today are intended runners for Ayr on Monday. 

Good start

A thoroughly satisfactory start to the point-to-point season,  masses of horses from all over Northern England and Scotland produced large competitive fields with an excellent atmosphere; I was happy with all three of our runners, particularly considering they had only had one proper piece of work, Noir et Vert showed plenty of class in the Mens Open until fitness told and Jamie pulled him up quickly 3 out.  Skipping Chapel gave Kit a great spin in an 18 runner Maiden going well clear on the second circuit, sadly these early exertions meant he failed to stay the trip and he also pulled up 3 out.  Amulree was the star of the show finishing 2nd at long odds in the Restricted race, a most encouraging effort considering how much she should improve. 

Amulree exercises in the snow

A mixture of all-weather and grass today with Peter Buchanan coming in to do some schooling this afternoon.

Productive Morning

Bizarre weather conditions left the grass gallops frost bound but the schooling fences & all-weather were in perfect condition, the recent runners went for a long hack and tomorrow's runners all schooled over fences; the rest of them did plenty of work on the all-weather and I was particularly pleased with Commercial Express, Four Fiddlers and Daasij.  Conditons look good for tomorrow and the horses all schooled with plenty of enthusiasm.



Commercial Express with Kit at Hexham (2nd colours!)