Harvest Home

Harvest in the 21st century lasts all of two days at Kinneston and today it is the turn of the oats, 60 acres of which will disappear in a few hours. The horses are all progressing steadily and we are on target to have our first runners in the middle of next month.  

Meanwhile our neighbours the Grahams have put about 1500 lambs onto the grass; either homebred on the Lomond Hills or bought in from the Highlands they will be finished here, this has a number of ancilliary benefits for the ground - as the autumn rains arrive the sheep level the areas where we gallop without compacting the ground in the way that a roller would; they also add vital nutrients to the soil and create a lovely even sward,  additionally you should never have ragwort where you have had sheep. By late October most will have moved on, just at the same time as the rains have softened up the ground to make it perfect for galloping…

I took these photographs whilst waiting for 3rd lot to come home, also surveying the scene was the Kinneston “matriarch” Harrietfield; she has produced 9 good foals and Mrs A advises that she has been retired, she's done them all very well and I mustn't be greedy...

Third lot today were Mrs Gammell's lively pair, Isla Pearl Fisher and Isla Patriot.  They are both prone to becoming a little excitable when out with a bigger bunch of horses so they came down together for about 3 miles of steady cantering on the stubbles.  At the same time another pair of siblings, Skipping Chapel and "Tara", both due to go point-to-pointing and at an earlier stage of their training, went for a long walk on the hilly side of the road.