Half Term last week so it was great to have the boys at home and Freddie made the most of it riding plenty of lots out. Willow, our labrador, loves Harry so was very happy he was at home all day and she is probably happy of a bit of a rest this week now he’s back at school!
On Monday we went to Huntingdon with Miss Antipova and Ambassador but they have both previously suffered from a leg injury and the ground, in my opinion, was just too quick to risk either horse so they came home again. Frustrating as Ambassador had been one of three horses I’d taken to Worcester three days before and brought home again without running. It’s that time of year and difficult with the weather at the moment but I’m very particular about the ground and, with the owners’ agreement then I’ve been able to declare these horses and decide after I’ve walked around. Thankfully I’ve had support from them but it isn’t easy for any of us. We are all desperate to run these horses but it’s devastating when they get injured, as poor Spanish Present did recently at Southwell. He’s doing well and Belinda is even picking him grass to brighten up his period of box rest. If he can’t get to the grass then it must come to him!
It was lovely to see Helen & Stephen Sugden on Friday and they got to see First Angel on the gallops and then watch Maggie Turner, one of our physios, check him and talk them through what she looks for and what she was doing. Not only are our horses elite athletes too, they obviously can’t talk to us so we feel it is even more important than human athletes that our physios check them regularly and pick up on anything before it hopefully becomes a bigger problem. Maggie, along with Hannah Steedman, are in weekly and we work with our team here who always let me know if a horse feels different to usual and they can then take a look.
Afterwards we took Helen & Stephen to see Release The Kraken who is enjoying his summer holiday here out with a lot of our other geldings on their holidays. Back On The Lash is probably the smallest but is in charge generally and he’s taken a shine to Krakers so they are usually near each other. It’s a lovely sight although you do take your life in your hands a little when they are all trying to get the polos or carrots we have for them! We even arranged a fly past from the Red Arrows whilst we were checking the horses! We later found out they were en-route to the Midlands Air Festival!