A springlike day and just a quiet day of cantering for the horses in training and then, as usual, a day out in the paddocks.
A wonderful evening here yesterday where we hosted an Owners’ BBQ and were joined by lots of the professionals that help keep our horses in peak fitness too and they were here to meet our owners and were happy for them to pick their brains too! Vets Jeremy Swan and Ben Brain, physios Maggie Turner and Hannah Ashton, Farrier Nick Partridge and Kay Scrivens from our Feed company Spillers who very generously provided the wine. We were also delighted to be joined by Anna Goodley and Zoe Wales from Lycetts, who look after all of our insurance, and they also presented us with a fantastic ‘Lycetts Team Champion Award’ sign with the top accolade of three stars that we so proudly won a few months ago (and a bottle of champagne too!). Thanks to Lucjan, it already has pride of place at the entrance to the yard next to our Cheltenham winners’ board!
With my father Trevor helping me on the BBQ, we managed to feed around 60 owners and friends and after Birthday Boy Jon Hughes had introduced the professionals mentioned above, everyone tucked into the vast array of salads and BBQ food on offer followed by a wonderful selection of cakes and puddings. What a brilliant night and thanks to all for coming and to everyone for so many messages of thanks today – it was our pleasure.
By 9am this morning you’d not have known we’d had a party – Lucjan had returned all the tables and chairs to our Landlord Robert Wharton across the road and last night my mother and Mary Cull did most of the washing up and clearing away. A huge team effort and thanks to all that helped and provided food too.