Four seasons in a few days! We’ve had sunshine, rain, frost and even snow showers too! It’s a good job we are a hardy lot up here in the North Cotswolds!
We have really enjoyed owners coming back into the yard this week and it seems to be working well with us ensuring we stick to the rule of 6. Obviously most of our work is outdoors so we are much safer than most settings and with so much space available to watch the horses, be it on our sand loop or across watching on the grass or carpet gallops or schooling grounds, everyone that has visited so far has commented on how safe they feel.
Yesterday we had visits from Nigel and Karen McAllen and Christine and John Clarkson along with Paul Davis. We worked a few horses so had assistance from James Best, Kai Lenehan, Warren Marston and Harry Stock who was reunited with his old friend Mr Mafia, who he won four races in a row on during the summer of 2018 where they were the winning most combination for the first three months of the season. Belinda loves Mr Mafia and is very reluctant to ever let anyone else ride him but her and Freddie had a busy day and they left home at 5.15am so she couldn’t manage to squeeze in riding him too but knew he was in very capable hands! We worked Dreamsundermyfeet, Cul De Poule, Brianna Rose, Fiddledi Dee, Be Thankful, Kazontherazz, Eclat Des Mottes, Found On, Miss Antipova, Enforcement, Duke of Luckley and Capricia. Hannah Ashton, one of our physios, was here too so lots of the horses were checked and treated with her fabulous Indiba Machine.
Frustratingly Sarasota Star missed out on the cut for Aintree by one and was balloted out but he has got into a hurdle race at Chepstow on Saturday so heads there.
This morning the horses all cantered up the long gallops and we had more owners in too. Pete and Sue Wilson were in and Neil Jakes too – neither knowing the other one was in and amazingly they all used to work together at BBC Radio Gloucestershire so plenty of catching up to do! What a small world and awesome that they could have a proper catch up especially after the ridiculous year we have all endured. Paul Davis here as well to ensure everyone was well looked after. Thanks to Neil for the fizz for the team and to Sue for the amazing cakes (& easter eggs for the boys which have already disappeared!). All very thoughtful and much appreciated.
Those of you on Twitter – we have had an ongoing struggle to get our old twitter account back online after a music mix up and have given up and started a new one so please look us up and follow us …. @KeighleyTeam We promise no politics just plenty of feel good tweets and updates on the yard and team – both human and equine.