29th February 2012

Nothing too serious happened with the horses this morning and they all did routine canters. Chris McHale and his son James were here to see their yearling colt by Holy Roman Emperor who is going into training with Marco Botti. Chris is a great raconteur and had us all laughing over a cup of tea and a slice of toast. Our aga is due a service and the toaster has blown up, I think the toast would have been quicker cooked in the sunshine! Chris told us a hilarious story about a mate of his who managed to pull a bird in a lift - the man in question complemented the lady as she entered the lift on the 1st floor and by the time they had reach the top floor he was "snogging her. This appealed to my warped sense of humour and I've found myself giggling about it all day.

Struan Cochrane an old mate of mine turned up unannounced at evening stables, he works on a large estate in Scotland and is spending his weeks holiday traveling the country catching up with old friends. It was a lovely surprise to see him.

Sam is in tomorrow so Chiquilline had an extra scoop of oats tonight!

28th February 2012

All the horses have come out of their gallop at Towcester well. They just walked and trotted this morning. All the others had routine canters and seem fine. Chiquilline behaved himself and I'm pleased to report that he didn't launch me into space.

Pat, my bookkeeper was here for the day, always a very depressing day as I realise that I owe more than I am owed. Pat sets up all my bills to be paid 30 days from date of invoice and enters the data into the computer. She also does my payroll. I used to do it all but as the business has grown it just became another thing that I couldn't keep on top off. One of the best pieces of advise I received when I set up the business was, pay your bills on time and make sure your clients pay theirs on time too.

This afternoon I took Sholto to his weekly football training before he helped me harrow the gallop, check all the legs and feed. The lads had the mist blower out this evening and disinfected all the stables, walker and horsebox.

I always enjoy reading about the Godolphin Stud and Stable awards and was delighted to see that Jerry Walsh from Paul Webbers won the special merit award. Jerry always has a smile on his face and works endlessly travelling horses around the country for his boss. It's great that these people get regonition for all their hard work as no one could operate without them.

27th February 2012

A successful trip to Towcester this morning. Proximo and the 4 year old by Oscar worked well, Cavite Alpha and the 4 year old by Midnight Legend worked and schooled well. It is very good of Towcester to allow us on the track, I'm told that they don't charge for it and consider it a good will gesture for the trainers. Obviously all and sundry can't turn up and you need permission from the management team at Towcester. Maybe some other courses should consider doing a similar thing. It maybe naive of me but I can't imagine running my business without an element of good will, If people are good enough to send me their horses I am happy to repay them by doing the best job i can and the odd thing without charging.

Once we got back we rode one lot on the all weather before schooling Harris lead by Silver Breese over 9 fences. Harris has always jumped with great enthusiasm at home but seem to lose it last weekend at Chaddesley Corbett. Whether or not he was phased by the hustle and bustle of a race we'll find out on Sunday at Tweseldown.

Chiquilline amused us all this morning, he threw Sam about 6 ft into the air and took off for home. Thankfully neither horse or rider were injured. He came out of his stable like a bull and decided that spring was in the air and he was going to have a bit of fun. Once Sam was reunited with him I sent him for an extra canter as I'll be riding him again tomorrow and I want his back down! We haven't put him anywhere this weekend as he was a little sore shinned after Whitwick and I want to keep working on those shins for as long as possible before we run him again. We hose each shin for 20 minuets every day and then he goes to bed with clay politices each night. The plan remains the same which is to head for Whitfield on 18th March.

We got a shoe back on Beckhani and I rode him. He had a bruised foot, he thought his leg was going to drop off and was being a bit soft. It is important to know when these horses are being soft and when they are actually in pain. After we'd gone 100 metres he was sound as a pound. Horses are like humans, some have a much higher pain threshold than others and some make a fuss over nothing.

All the horses that galloped and schooled at Towcester this morning have clean legs tonight which is always a huge relief after a serious work out.

I received an email from a very kind man this morning telling me that he enjoys reading my daily blog. It was much appricated, I often sit here thinking does anyone read it.

26th February 2012

Sam Drinkwater popped a 4 year old by Midnight Legend over 9 fences lead by Silver Breese this morning. He jumped well and got his eye in before he goes to gallop and school at Towcester tomorrow morning. We are also taking Cavite Alpha, Proximo and another 4 year old by Oscar to Towcester. James Froggit came to look at my hunter who I want to move on as I simply don't have the time to hunt nor do I want to make the time, he's going to take him for half a day tomorrow and hopefully they'll be well suited - they're very similar in character!

Sholto and I went to rugby training as he won the action man for dodge ball. We are very spoilt at Stow as the under 6's have a great coach who really connects with the kids and makes it great fun for them. The afternoon was spent cleaning the flat roof on our cottage before evening stables.

Sam rode a winner at Towcester this afternoon for Andy Martin who's a local farrier. I am really pleased for Sam as he rides well and works very hard. I am just going to ring the P2P entries secartary for next weekend to make sure she has received my entries. Harris and Silver Breese will head to Tweseldown.

25th February 2012

Thankfully we seem to have got through the day without any serious drama. I picked up our young horse from the vets after lunch and he is fine.

I put some tack on the Generous filly and she didn't seem phased by it at all, I expect we'll be riding her by the end of next week. Tomorrow we'll have to ride out the horses that are working at Towcester on Monday so my extra hour in bed will be sacrificed. Once we've got the horses out I'll be heading to Stow RFC with Sholto for his under 6 training session. We have missed the last 4-5 weeks due to frost and racing. He's a natural and we've kept up his ball handling skills in the kitchen - Sophie loves us!

The England v Wales match today was great - apart from the result. I think it was the most exciting game I've seen England play for sometime and there appears to be some really good young lads in the side. For me it all went wrong when Matt Stevens was pinged for "hands in the ruck" he choose to ignore the referees warning which was really annoying. Wales converted the penalty to draw the scores level before scoring a good try. I don't think either side deserved to lose really.

I watched Nacarat win at Kempton, he loves the track and I am sure he's another horse with a great following.

24th February 2012

I feel like I'm living on the edge of a cliff and my nerves are at me. We seem to be getting more than our share of bad luck at the moment. This morning when I was feeding round a lovely young horse we have decided to let off for the year was suffering from colic. The vet was here at 5.30 a.m and found that he had an impaction. He stomach tubed him and I took him into the surgery. The last report I had was at lunch time when I was told that the vet was happy with him. I have experienced a few of these types of colics over the years and I think they are actually the easiest ones to deal with. You just hope that there is no displacement of their guts when the vet initially examines them. Thankfully on this occasion there wasn't. I just keep thinking what an earth is going to happen next, if I were a horse I'd ceratinly be box walking and may even consider taking up weaving too. I've just heard that he is comfortable but still hasn't shifted the impaction.

Once the horses were exercised and the yard was finished up I went to Paul Webber's with his Oscar gelding. I gave Paul a pony on trial for one of his daughters, she belongs to a mate of mine from Ireland and she is for sale. Unfortunately I had to bring her home, she isn't made yet and Paul felt that his daughter needs a "made" pony and isn't quite ready to make one. However his eldest daughter loved her and got on famously with her. The pony is lovely and jumps like a stag but needs someone to put some time into her. She'll be an absolute belter if the right kid gets her. He only wants £5000 for her and she'd jump a gate now. I'd have given my right arm to have had a pony like her when i was a kid. Instead I had a wild thing called Fudge with one eye and a chewed tail that used to bolt. It did jump though! After many frightening experiences I did manage to get upgraded to Sweeney Todd who was top class.

Tomorrow I've no runners and hope to be in a relaxed enough mood to watch England hammer the Welsh.

23rd February 2012

A steady enough day, both horses that worked yesterday just walked, all the others had a canter or 2. Sam was in so we only had 5 or 6 lots each. Juliet White, the owner of the Generous filly dropped in this afternoon to see her. She's a really sweet filly and a joy to deal with. We managed to give the 3 new arrivals trace clips, they will feel much better for getting all that hair off them and won't have to spend the day drying after exercise. Antony Tory was here yesterday and rasped their teeth and removed any wolf teeth, they've all had a right M.O.T and we are now set to get on with them.

Beckhani, a horse that last ran at Towcester on Boxing Day was just getting going again and I had planned to start getting stuck in to him again this week But he's suffering from a bruised foot, he must have trodden on a stone over the weekend. I had the shoe off and polticed it for 48 hours, the farrier was here today, he put the shoe on and he was even worse. I'll see how he is in the morning and may take the shoe off again and tub the foot. He trached washed dirty after Boxing Day and I had hoped to run him mid March but having now lost the guts of the week he's more likely to run towards the end of March.

Tilly returned home from ballet with her distinction certificate and was so proud of it she's insistent that she takes it in to school tomorrow to show it off to here friends.

22nd February 2012

Proximo and Cavite Alpha worked on the grass this morning and they both worked very well, Proximo may head to Stratford for a maiden bumper on 12th March. Cavite Alpha is being targeted at a novice chase in Hereford on 5th March. Both horses will work at Towcester on Monday. Proximo was only beaten 7 lengths by The New One, The New One is one of the leading fancies for the championship bumper at the festival. Proximo ran a desperate race at Exeter on New Years day, we subsequently found him to be sick after that. I'd be expecting a run up to form at Startford.

Liz Willls popped in to see Trouble Digger after his weekend excertions, Anthony Webber also came by this evening to check his back over. He took a heavy enough fall at the weekend and it is always worth having them re aligned. Anthony is exceptional at what he does and offers an amazing service, he's always here within 48 hours of being asked.

21 february 2012

Sam was in this morning and all the weekends runners went for a walk, trot and a hack about the place. They all seem in great nick. I have very kindly been given some birch to re stuff my schooling fences, I need to get them up to a certain height to meet the criteria of the BHA. I don't think we'll get round to it for this time round but I spent the afternoon collecting it all. I only need to do one plain fence and the ditch. This is great as I like a baby fence to give the young horses confidence.

I feel for Paul Nicholls, what a time to get a cough in the yard. The Cheltenham festival would miss his horses presence and it would be a great lose to the occasion if he has to pull some of his horses out. I read that he doesn't think it is big deal and he can get them over it with 6 days of antibiotics, if this is the case I'd love to know what he uses and what measures he takes that we dont to stop the spread of any virus. The problem that i found most difficult was staffing this type of problem. No matter how hard you try staff have to go from horse to horse. We disenfect all bridles between lots but it is probadly a complete waste of time, I'm sure these things are air bound, carried on clothing etc etc. We took 3 months to sort it out at huge expense to the owners and me. At one time we were putting £200 of disinfectant throught the mist blower a week.

Loose Preformer a horse I sold to Mr Henderson was having a run before Cheltenham today at Wetherby, he missed the start, missed the first fence and it was all over from there. I wouldn't have thought he could possibly go on to Cheltenham on the back of that run. I was hugely disappointed as it is so important that horses we sell go on to prove themselves.

I took Sholti to football in Chipping Norton before he assisted me at evening stables. He is a very willing helper and I am sure in another 10 years when I ask him for some help he'll just grunt at me.

20th february 2012

2mm of rain last week.

I have felt rather miserable today after yesterday's upset.

All the weekends runners seem in good order, a touch of sore shins on one and an over reach on another. Avidius Cassius had his hind shoes off and spent the day in the field, he'll be ticked over until the sales. Chiquilline will be aimed at the intermediate on 18th March at Whitfield, we'll move on one step at a time. I'd love to get him qualified for the intermediate final at Cheltenham in May. I note that his time on Saturday was faster than the ladies race. Trouble Digger may head to Ottery st Mary in a fortnight, there is an older horse maiden and it can get quite wet down there, I think the track will suit him if the conditions are right. I had a fall there one day, the horse kicked me in the back of the head and I watched my helmet go flying along the turf like a football, a little disconcerting with 20 odd horse galloping past and over me.

Harris got roughed up a bit and we'll make a plan for him in a few days. There are some great pictures on www.all-sport-photos.com of James and Silver Breese, Silver thinks he's jumping Beeches- worth a look. PPORA novice riders race.

I don't understand the logic with some people, to race at Barbury Castle this weekend was madness, I hear that the crowd was appalling. Wincanton staged the Kingwell Hurdle with Binocular running. I would have thought that it would have made much more sense to have rearranged the meeting for either this weekend or even the following one. I dont think it would have mattered so much clashing with the Beaufort. This weekend there is nothing around here with Badbury Rings being the closest. I read that all the hunts where hugely disappointed with attenadance figures, with so many meeting being rearranged for last weekend the pointing fraternity were really spread far and wide.

Another horse arrived today, a filly by Generous, she's come to be broken-in, she appears to be sweet. I 'll keep you posted on her progress.

19th February 2012

A day to forget, having started work at 4 O'clock this morning I can't wait to get to bed and re group for tomorrow. Trouble Digger ran a decent race finishing 3rd, he redeemed himself for his appalling head strong behaviour the day before. The day got considerable worse, Commodus a smashing 4 year old by Osacr fell at the 3rd last when cantering upsides in front and broke his leg. We all live and breath these horses and it is very upsetting when this happens. I spend more time with the horses than I do with my wife and children and inevitably get very fond of them. The lads were mortified, they look after them every day of the year and they too also get very attached to them. It is without doubt the hardest thing to deal with.

Harris a 5 year old by Beneficial was just getting into his race and got stopped to a walk 6 fences from home when a horse fell in front of him and that ruined any chance he had.

Silver Breese is a horse I was given as a school master for James Seivwright who works in the yard. Silver flew the fence and jumped James out of the saddle at the 1st fence. Sadly for James the results will read UR 1st - not something for the scrap book! It's character building for James and nothing but his pride is hurt, he's there for another day and James is getting invaluable experience off him.

When I finished work I came into the house to be told by Tilly that she had "buggered"the rubber on her pencil!

18th February 2012

A great day, Chiquilline won the restricted comfortably and Avidius Cassius won the maiden at Whitwick. Sadly Trouble Digger failed to make it a treble. He had been off the track for over 2 years and ran with the choke out! He showed little or no respect for the fences and just ran aimlessly at them before tipping up at the second. He landed on his head and hopefully it has knocked some sense into him. He has done more schooling than any horse in the yard as he is always used as a lead horse for the babies. I think the moment just got to him. If he is fine in the morning he'll head for Chaddesley for the 1st division of the maiden. I feel so sorry for the owners, John and Liz Wills, they have been so patient as we've entered him 5-6 times and pulled him out as the ground has been too fast. Lucky they've owned horses for longer than I can remember and they understand the game better than anyone. It's just so disappointing. Anyhow, one mustn't labour on the disappointment. Chiquilline could be anything and he will certainly give Tessa Blazey some good days out. Avidius Cassius has it all in front of him, he's only 4 years old, 17 hands and as raw as the day is long, today's performance was incredible and I think he's a good prospect for the future. He'll have his hind shoes off on Monday and will be ticked over until the sales. I would rather sell in April when trainers only have the option of turning them into a big green field. I think he's done enough this year. He's just going to get better as he strengthens up and fills his frame. I love him and have always thought anything he does this year is a huge bonus. I actually choose him at the sales and Charlie was kind enough to let me buy him for the partnership. Sam gave both winners smashing rides and said Chiquilline just jumped and took him there sooner than he wanted.

Enjoy the good days as we have plenty of bad ones.....................!

Off to bed now as I have an early start in the morning. I'll be feeding round at 5 and getting everything sorted for another days p2p.

17th February 2012

Another frantic day without enough hours in it. Once we got the horses all done, I headed off to Whitwick to walk the course. There isn't much of a coving of grass but the ground is safe and I'm happy to run there. There is some rain forecast in the area but I don't know if it will arrive in time for tomorrow. No doubt it will start to rain at midday and stop when we all head for home.

There's a number of jobs to be done when we are racing over the weekend. All the tack has to be organised, bridles made up with the correct bits and nosebands, girths, pads and banadges have to be arranged. Horses need their manes and tails touching up and bridle paths clipped. Athough i dont tell them often enough i am lucky to have a great team of lads that help me to do all of this.

I'll be saying my prayers before bed tonight that we have a successful weekend and none of the horses get injured. Avidius Cassius, Trouble Digger and Chiquilline will run at Whitwick. Harris , Commodus and Silver Breese will head to Chaddesley.

16th February 2012

The weekends runners schooled over 9 fences this morning and I was very pleased with all of them. Robert Chugg rang to say he'd walked the course at Whitwick and tells me that it is plenty fast enough with a good covering of grass on kinder soil than that at Dunthrop.

Charlie Brooks and I have been playing email tennis with the BHA about schooling fences, Charlie's licence allows him to run in bumpers and hurdle races. Our fences don't fit the criteria of the BHA as they are too small and the wings aren't plastic. They are happy to allow one to use a neighbours facilities if they are within 3.5 miles as they consider that to be hacking distance. Mark Rimell has kindly agreed to allow us to use his fences and he is well within hacking distance. The BHA now want conformation by letter and then it takes them 14 days to process it!

Tessa Blazey came by this afternoon for a cup of tea and to see her horse Chiquilline Before he runs on Saturday, I am expecting him to run a big race and believe he has more to give. He won his maiden with his head in his chest and would have done more on the gallops on a work morning.

Sophie and the children all went to Slimbridge to look at all the birds. Apparently it is a lovely peaceful place and maybe I should consider moving there.

We plan to run Cavite Alpha in a novice chase in 14 days time.

15th February 2012

The horses all had an easy day after yesterday's galloping. I was very happy with them all and they seem to have taken the gallop well. Harris will run at Chaddesley Corbett in the maiden and I'm leaning towards the non sponsored one as it is earlier on the card and I am fan of getting the best ground possible for the young horses. I'll walk the course and make a choice which way to. Avidius Cassius will head to Whitwick Manor with Trouble Digger and Chiquilline. Commodus may join Harris and Silver Breese at Chaddesley Corbett. Tomorrow we'll be giving them all a school over the fences.

Once the horses were all done up for lunch we spent a couple of hours raking in the side of the gallop, the harrow pushes it out to the sides and I've not managed to find a machine that levels it so well without breaking up the woodchip.

I collected Custers Last Stand from the vet and his pallet is now quaterised. I am pretty sceptical about soft pallet operations and believe that they work in a minority but when they do work the improvement in some horses is amazing. I won't be holding my breath in this case!

14th February 2012

Breakfast was taken at 3 pm this afternoon and I think I'm about to collapse! Sam Drinkwater came in and we took the weekends runners off to gallop. I think they all needed it and that was to be expected, we've really missed their serious bits of work for over 2 weeks. I can't remember when we last took them to our grass gallop but it's over 2 weeks ago anyhow. We'll decide what babies we do and don't run as soon as I can evaluate how they have come out of todays work. Trouble Digger, Chiquilline, Harris and Silver Breese are definite runners at this stage.

This afternoon was spent to and froing horses to the vets. Custers Last Stand went to Ben Brains for a soft pallett operation. A young horse went to Bourton Vale to have his knees Xrayed and they were very clean so that is good news for the owner.

Bruce Robbins has now confirmed that Supreme Asset is going to Donald McCain, Donald will see how he finds him and if he doesn't settle in and take to his work he'll come back to me. Keep an eye out for him, if he runs he's a very nice young horse who I think has a real engine.

I now note that the Weatherbys p2p site is notifying us that several meetings have been rearranged for this Sunday. I find it unbeliveable that the P2p organisers hadn't bothered to contact those who had made entries. I am sure that they have email addresses as they are on entries forms and an efficient secretary would have a group database. I have just experienced a p2p entries secretary who is unable to confirm that she has received entries by clicking her cursor on a tab requesting a read receipt yet is able to send a email asking for rides for her son. I get extremely angry with p2p organisers and I do understand that they have their hands full and that it is a very demanding and thankless task. However to acknowledge receipt of enties isnt too difficult is it? I was always taught that if your going to volunteer your time do it in good grace or say NO.

I am probably one of the most intolerant men alive.

13th February 2012

The snow at the weekend amounted to 6 mm of water. The results from this mornings trach washes are A1 , tomorrow the weekends runners are having to elsewhere for a gallop as my gallop wasn't fit for fast work at 6 O'clock tonight. I am sure it will be fine by the morning but I didn't want to risk it. Trying to arrange something in the morning would have been painful.

I haven't had a chance to look at the weekends entries but I am told that Barbury Castle has been rearranged for Sunday as has Milbourne st Andrew. I have 3 entries in at Barbury and had no idea they had rearranged it. It wasn't on the Weathebys Pt- pt website at lunchtime anyhow. I find this sort of thing astonishing!!

Cavity Alpha is in at Taunton next week, he's entered in the novice hurdle and the bumper, we bought him at the DBS May sale in 2010, he won his p2p by a fence, he then went into training with Nicky Henderson. Nicky loved him and he showed plenty, however the ground went and we had him home for the summer. Sadly when we bought him back in to work he was making a noise so he went under the knife and had a hobday and a soft pallet operation. We won't know how successful it has been until he runs. He worked at Towcester over 2 miles 3 weeks ago and seemed to cope well, having said that he was ridden to finish the gallop and racing pace is very different.

Having spent 3 hours this evening trying to book flights to Portugal in the summer I think I have finally done it. I had no idea it was so difficult and also that the budget airlines charge you extra for bags, checking- in, using the loo and for our seats. I really loath that type of carry on and nearly paid an additional £200 to fly with BA all in. I now have a £200 saving to spend on water parks and ice creams...........

12 February 2012

Having sorted out the horses first thing I took a pony over to Paul Webber's. Sunday is always an easy day for the horses. For the second weekend on the bounce we all went out for lunch to The Swan in Swinbrook.

Evening stables was made all the more difficult by another burst water pipe. 2 beds watched out at a cost of £180.00 of shavings.

The vet is in in the morning to trach wash next weekend runners. We'll just have to decide what we do and don't run at the weekend once we have worked them on Wednesday, this last bit of work will gauge whether or not they have lost that edge of fitness due to the cold weather. Although we haven't missed a days exercise we haven't been able to keep the work load up to the normal.

11th February 2012

Certainly the coldest morning this year -12 first thing and still -6 at 11 O'clock. We only managed to walk and trot this morning as the gallop was frozen. We had planned to go to Mary Hambro's but her gallop was still covered in snow as was Mark Rimell's. In the end I just accepted defeat and made the most of what we've got. Most gallops are frozen, Paul Webber has just told me that he had to take a lorry load to Wolverhampton.

I note that Milbourne St Andrew has now been postponed until next weekend. I did find the reports hard to believe as they were being posted on line. It must have been the only place south of Newcastle where they thought they could race. It is also interesting that they have managed to arrange that it takes place next weekend. All other hunts seem to be unable to find alternative dates. Makes me wonder how much others really want to rearrange!

The joys of Sky Plus allowed me to watch the England Italy match. The first half nearly put me to sleep until the final 2 minuets when it got lively, Italy scoring 2 tries within 2 minuets. The second half was much more interesting and once Ben Youngs was replaced at scrum half the English boys got their tails up and played much better.

10th February 2012

It has been one of those days when I haven't stopped. We woke up to halve an inch of snow but managed to get all the horses out on the gallop. We are very lucky that we don't have to touch a road to get to the gallop and are able to get there by crossing fields. I think some people can be too cautious in theses conditions and horses aren't stupid, they know when it's slippery underfoot and many old school horsemen back horses for the first time on concrete. They believe that it stops wild ones mucking about. Not something I 'd be happy to try.

I spent the afternoon making entries and getting horses sponsored for those ridiculous condition races. It is fine for me as I sponsor the horses and the owners just have to pay the £60 for registration. It doesn't make sense to me to have theses races, although, I do believe that the money goes back into the sport which has to be a good thing.

If the weather gets better I plan to send Chiquilline, Trouble Digger and Avidius Cassius to Whitwick Manor and Harris, Commodus and Silver Breese to Chaddesley Corbett next weekend. Sam Drinkwater will ride all apart from Silver Breese which will be ridden by James Seivwright. James works hards and I hope we can get a winner for him somewhere soon. It won't be fair on James or the owners to put him up on the babies until he's got more experience. Carl Evans reported in last week Weekender that he had watched a 4 year old maiden in Ireland last week. It went something like this - 9 runners 4 finished 5 didn't. The 4 that finished were ridden by experienced jockeys and the 5 that didn't by novice riders.

David Black a mate of mine for over 25 years is coming over from Ireland for the weekend, we first met when we worked for Kim Bailey as 16 year olds. David often comes over for the p2ps and sadly this weekend its all off so I'll find him some jobs to do instead. He can look after his goddaughter Panda who is desperate to face paint him into a lion.

9th February 2012

All the horses cantered this morning as the gallop was fine. I've just spent £6,000 having it toppped up with new woodchip, it is certainly money well spent. Had I not done so I think it would have been out of commission for the last week or more. It looks like we are getting more snow tonight and tomorrow morning. However the forecast looks brighter and warmer from Sunday onwards. Barbury Castle is off so we'll be making plenty of entries for next weekend. I will send Trouble Digger, a lovely 4 year old by Flemensfirth may make his debut and Chiquilline to Whitwick Manor, it is a course I like and horses have plenty of time to get into to race. Harris may go to Chaddesley Corbett for the maiden, he is by Beneficial and 5 years old. We bought him in Ireland as a 3 year old but he was too weak to race at 4.

Tilly went to ballet this afternoon, she passed her first ballet exam with a distinction so maybe she can get a scholarship to the Royal Ballet school. Christ Maude, a great mate of mine has a daughter there, he tells me that it is pretty hard core stuff and the school day is very long - I only jest about Tilly, she wouldn't like boarding school and I am sure she's not quite up to that standard yet!

It is only in cold snaps of weather like this that I realise how much I miss the racing on a daily basis. Oh well with no racing at the weekend I'll be able to watch England play Italy in the 6 Nations, there's always a positive note in everything if one looks hard enough!

8th February 2012

A very cold start to the day and the gallop was fine for lobbing on, having worked them the previous day all the horses walked and trotted only. Once we had finished exercising I headed off for lunch with Verity Bourne, Verity has a lovely place near Southam north of Banbury. She breeds a few horses and has a few in training. Henry Candy, Ben Case and Mark Usher have her horses in training and I am fortunate enough to be asked to do all the breaking and pre- training. Mark Usher was there too, after a tour of the paddocks to look at her stock we had a very good lunch.

The weather is setting in and we may well take a few horses to Mary Hambro's gallop on Friday, she has a 5.5 furlong poly track gallop that can be power harrowed through cold periods of time.

I was told at lunch that this cold spell could be here for a long as a month, I hope not as the horses are all in great nick.

7 th February 2012

Sergey who has been working here for nearly 5 years has gone home for a holiday. We all rode 7 lots starting on 1st lot at 6.30 and finishing our 7 th just before 1p.m. The horses all worked on the all weather and I'm pleased that we were able to get that work into them as I think the weather is setting in for a few nights. The gallop will be fine for cantering but I'd rather not do fast work on it if there is any frost in it at all.

I failed to get an entry in on time for Plumpton next Monday, I was convinced in my head that they closed at noon on Wednesday but in fact they closed at noon today. As I've mentioned in this blog before Charlie Brooks has seen and done most of it all before and is very understanding. However, I still beat myself up for being so stupid. Judging by the current ground conditions at Plumpton I guess they'll be lucky if they race anyway.

I took Sholti to football this afternoon after school. He then assisted me and the lads in the yard disinfecting with the mist blower before we headed up the gallop in the tractor to work the gallop.

Mouse and Charlie Balow have kindly invited us up to Cheshire for a hunt ride and a days hunting. I am tempted to take Silver Breese for the hunt ride and Goose my hunter ( who never hunts) for the hunting. Not sure if I'd ever forgive myself if anything happened to Silver charging over large Cheshire hedges. I had a fantstic day with them a few years ago, Christ Stockton is field master and believes his horses can jump anything, having been schooled by his wife Polly I expect they can. I followed him all day and must say that on occasions I certainly couldn't see over the top of the hedges. I fired my horse at one hedge and to this day how I expected him to jump it I'll never know, it was ridiculously huge and he refused.

Sadly, I don't think I'll be able to take the time away from the yard, not helped by Sergey being on holiday. I am determined to have a good holiday at some point this year as we have not been further than Cornwall for a week in the last 5 years.

6th February 2012

The 2 inches of snow in the rain gauge amounted to 16 mm of water. I am not sure how accurate this would be as I thought there was a little more that 2 inches of snow. Other than that we had no rain fall at all last week.

I spent a good 45 minuets working what snow hadn't thawed into the gallop this morning, and it actually rode very well afterwards. Working the snow in isn't ideal, if we get a few hard frosts now the gallop will freeze and be unusable. I had no other option though as it was only going to melt into it if I didn't harrow it in. The temperature isn't due to drop drastically until later in the week anyhow. -4 and -5 have been forecast. This must surely make Barbury Castle doubtful at the weekend. The forecasts aren't always right and we'll just have to wait and see.

I would imagine that if we do race there the ground will be dead after the snow lying on it.

Sam is in tomorrow and we'll give a few a squeeze on the all weather if it's safe.

Sophie has gone to the theatre with her mother so I'm in charge of 3 small children. They never make a fuss when I put them to bed and I've concluded that they have their mother wrapped around their little fingers!!!

5 th February 2012

Woke up to much more snow than I had expected, if you can use a rain gauge to measure snow we had just over 2 inches. Once we'd sorted out the horses and cleared the snow away I headed out sledging with the children and Sophie. Having got sufficiently cold and wet we decided to go to the Kings Head in Bledington. Archie Or Ewing has the Kings Head in Bledington and The Swan in Swinbrook, both pubs are great. Archie and I were in the pony club together, we both did a fair bit of trethalon, Archie was an amazing shoot, he always scored near on the maximum of 1000. After a lovely lunch we walked the dogs before evening stables.

When we have a freeze up I am paranoid about burst pipes and not to disappoint we had one! The pipes on the farm are very old and one always splits or breaks completely, today's broke completely and flooded only one stable. Last year we flooded 10. Not only is it a huge pain it is very expensive as all the shaving end up on the muck up with new going in. If you work on the basis that it takes 10 - 12 bags at £6.00 / bag a burst pipe cost me a minimum of £60.00 for every flooded stable.

Thank god for Sky plus, I thoroughly enjoyed the Wales v Ireland match and felt for the Irish as the penalty given against them in the last 3 minuets in my mind wasn't justified. They we penalised for a dangerous tackle and that cost them the game. It maybe that I am able to watch plenty more of the tournament with the weather forecast and p2ps next weekend have no change if the weather doesn't change.

4th February 2012

Charlie and Adam Horne came to watch 2 lots first think this morning. Adam is a share holder in The Pudlicote Partnership, which currently has 5 horses in it. It was pretty chilly this morning at -11, the temperature raised to -8 mid morning and was -1 when I came home for lunch. The snow has arrived but judging by the forecast it will be gone by lunchtime tomorrow. This weather must play havoc with trainers wanting to get final runs into horses before Cheltenham. They must be getting stressed!!!!!!

England won their opening match, well Scotland lost it by failing to execute their opportunities. I was very impresses with the Scottish number 8 David Denton who looks world class, he was everywhere, a huge presence and only 21 years old.

Tomorrow we've an easy day in the yard as all racing was cancelled in plenty of time. Once i've built a snowman with the kids and got them cold enough not to want to go back outside I think I'll light the fire and watch Ireland V Wales.

3rd February 2012

Another frustrating morning sorting out frozen water -8 first thing. We had no problem getting the horses out but if the forcast snow arrives followed by hard frost we may struggle.

A pretty routine day with the horses and all seem well. Paul Webber popped over to see his new purchase from the Cheltenham sales last weekend and seemed to like what he saw. It is one of the greatest pleasures I get watching young horses progress. I do my best to follow any horse that has been through the yard whether it be a flat or jumping horse.

I'll have to stay up later than normal tonight as I'll have to break the ice on the water buckets.

Tomorrow is a very special day as the 6 nations start and we have a cracking match against Scotland to get things underway. Rugby was my first love, when I was at prep school all I wanted to do was play rugby for England. I played 1st team rugby throughout my school life and even took it up again in my mid 20's and played for Stow on the Wold until my early 30's. In the end it was taking me until Wednesday to recover from Saturdays match. I keep telling Sholto that it is down to him now to get into the England squad. He has started training and goes to Stow every Sunday morning when we aren't racing. Hopefully he'll watch tomorrows match with me. He and Tilly are off for their riding lesson in the morning and come the summer I ought to get them swinging a golf club.

Made a few entries for Barbury this afternoon. Due to this weeks weather we missed our final bit of work for the babies at Towcester so we've decided not to aim them at Barbury but wait a week or two.

I made a fundemental mistake last night and started a thread on Jumping for fun. I suggested that we started p2ps in October. I feel that as I started it I ought to continue making comments as the tread gathers steam with other people's thoughts. It is painful! Not something I intend on doing again. However, I am rather opinionated and intolerant, not a good combination for web based chat rooms.........

2nd February 2012

Alasdair Kirk of Designtoo has helped me sort out the setting on this new format that Google have decided to change my blog onto. Alastair helps me with all things that involve a computer and he also designed my website. I could not recommend him or his services highly enough and have received numerous compliments for the design and layout of my website. Designtoo operate out of Kemble near Cirencester and are easily found through a Goggle search.

A chilly start but we had no problems getting the horses out. There has been no rain and the gallop is in perfect order. All the babies worked and we were pleased with them.

Sadly Tweseldown has been lost to the weather. I feel desperately sorry for Steven Astaire who I am reliably told was painting the guard rails of the fences this afternoon with a local bookie. Steven puts in endless hours not only at the track but behinds the scenes of point to pointing. People like Steven are few and far between. Tweseldown is on sandy soil and drains very well, I'd have expected very quick ground. It would have suited Silver Breese and I'm sorry for James as there was a race for 10 year olds and over for novice riders. I think James would have ridden his first winner. Silver is in great shape and we'll find something else for him ASAP. Trouble Digger would have had to stay at home again. I hope to run him at Whitwick Manor, he'll love it there.

I can't understand why point to pointing doesn't start in October, there is no alternative date for Tweseldown and the meeting is lost for another year. I get very annoyed as the hunts would rather stage their meetings with large crowds and no horses in April when the ground has normally gone.

Last year I suggested that more clubs should be running point to pointing but it was pointed out to me that there becomes at least 2 major issues adopting clubs:

1 Who's land are they run on? - Traditionally they are run on landowners belonging to the hunts.
2 Where do the helpers come from? - Normally they are associated with the hunt.

The powers that be have an impossible task on their hands but I do believe that things could be better in some areas and more consideration should be given to the horses that make it all possible. Sadly, hunts just want to make as much money as possible, if the truth be told that is their sole objective, owners and horses are secondary to that.

Cavite Gamma has come out of his race feeling well and we'll aim to move him on as a summer jumper. I have no doubt he win novice chases at that time of year and fences may well be the key to him.

1st February 2012

Having written this blog once tonight and losing it somewhere in hyperspace I will try again.

Charlie Brooks came in and rode out 2 lots, Charlie was a good amateur jockey and rides very well. He tells me that he is going to lose a stone in weight. I think the horses will appreciate that!

Tom Campbell was in at 9 AM to trach wash 4 horses. The results are very satisfying as some of the horses have been undere a cloud since the New Year. I think we are coming out the other side now and the horses are kicking their doors down when the feed barrow comes out. A very pleasing noise.

A lovely filly arrived form Snailwell stud. She is by Clodovil and owned by Fiona Gordon, she will go into training with Henry Candy once we've got her broken in and going nicely.

I spent a couple of hours doing invoices this afternoon. One might think that is enjoyeable but I always seem to owe more than I am owed and wish my software wouldn't keep telling me so.

I'm not too hopeful of going to the p2p this weekend as the weather is now playing its part in causing annoyance.

Sam is in tomorrow and we'll work a few on the all weather, schooling is on hold now until the frost clears off.

I hope I am able to upload this successfully as I really don't fancy writing it again. Fingers crossed.