However, being the idiot, I ignored Emma's advice that I should use the flash because (a) I'd forgotten her instructions about how to use it and (b) I wasn't too worried because, although she'd told me that I'd need a flash because of being in a barn, I reckoned that she hadn't realised how good the light was in the barn, because to my eyes the light was good. However, you'll be able to tell from the couple of photographs which I'm putting up that I was very wrong.
Still, you might just be able to discern Ex Con, Gemma and Yogi Breisner. Mind you, even if you can't see what was going on, I could, and I'm pleased about that: it was almost as much a lesson for me as it was for Gemma and Ex Con, because it was so instructive and interesting watching the jumping guru explaining things so that they made sense and looked straightforward. I'm really glad that the session took place, and I'm really glad that I witnessed it. I can now approach Ex Con's impending hurdles debut even more confident than I was previously that his jumping won't let him down.
That session was actually the second good piece of equine instruction we'd had yesterday, because Aisling and I had struck lucky first lot.
We'd just cantered around Bury Hill AW, she on Rhythm Stick and I on Frankieandcharlie (who very soon shall be called something else) and, as we walked down the hill with a gloriously pink sunrise (as seen from the stalls) behind us, I suggested that we might as well walk over to the stalls and walk our mounts through them a few times. We did this and, although there had been nobody in sight initially, the reknowned stalls guru Steve "Yarmy" Dyble appeared out of nowhere, with one of Michael Jarvis' lads in tow, and asked if we'd like to be shut in. This was too good an offer to refuse, because both geldings are due to run shortly and, although they'd stood in the stalls umpteen times previously, Rhthym Stick had had only had one previous session of being shut in and then coming out, and Frankie had had none. Anyway, that all went really well, and the timing was perfect because we'd just headed away three of Michael Jarvis' horses appeared, so we had been able to avail ourselves of Yarmy's kindness without getting in the way of the job he was there to do.
Having ended the preceding chapter with an update on Colin Williams, I thought that it might be worthwhile to throw in a few other names who have appeared on my radar recently and of whom some might be interested to hear. As you'll have gathered, I spent plenty of time over the past couple of weeks at Tattersalls Sales. You'll find plenty of people who'll use the sales as a social club, but I'm not one of them: I wouldn't want to be there unless I had a horse to buy or sell, and if one does have a horse to buy or sell, then standing around talking is hardly conducive to making sure one concentrates on doing one's job well. However, one always ends up bumping into some interesting people, and the October Sales duly proved to be no exception in this respect.
One of the early days of the sale had seen the Racing Post announce that Guy Harwood's former second jockey Tony Clark, best remembered for making all the running on the stable's second string Ile De Chypre to post a shock win in the International Stakes at York 20-odd years ago, is to become assistant trainer and, presumably, chief work rider in Liz Nelson's Whitcombe Stable in Dorset, where Jo Crowley is the trainer. I was pleased to read this because Clarky, who has been the rep for McArdle all-weather gallops, was too good a horseman to be lost to the practical side of things - and I was pleased to bump into him (pictured here with Liz Nelson in the sales arena) and hear all about this project. It sounds as if the stable is going to receive quite an injection of fresh equine blood, and I wish him and it well in this project.
Another figure from the past whom I was pleased to see was the former Epsom trainer Arthur Pitt, with whom I was not previously acquainted. I best remember Arthur for training the good hurdler Freight Forwarder, although I also remember him primarily as a Flat trainer; and it was good to meet him and pass the time of day with him on a couple of occasions at the sales. I had also had the pleasure earlier this autumn of meeting another former trainer: Jeremy Hindley, who now lives in South Africa but who returns to his homeland regularly. This meeting came about in rather surprising circumstances. Our motley string was trotting up the walking ground beside the Moulton Road one morning a few weeks ago when Michael Stoute drove past, pulled up onto the side of the road, got out and shouted, "Here's another old Aysgarthian for you". What he meant wasn't instantly obvious, but all became clear shortly afterwards when Jeremy Hindley got out of the car. My old prep school Aysgarth has produced five (at least - there could be more) trainers in relatively recent years, and unfortunately I rather let the side down by being massively less successful than the other four, all of whom have trained Classic winners: Jeremy Hindley (Protection Racket, Irish St Leger), William Haggas (Shaamit, Derby), the late Alec Stewart (Opale, Irish St Leger) and Charles Milbank (Policeman, Prix du Jockey-Club). Anyway, Jeremy was already training very successfully by the time that I was at Aysgarth, and there was a chair in the sixth form class-room with his and his brother's names on it, so I always made sure that I sat on it, to give myself inspiration; so he, in my mind anyway, played a fairly prominent role in my formative years, so it was really nice to meet him at last.
And finally, before I wander off onto ever more irrelevant circles, I must just mention another trainer whom I was delighted to meet recently. When Batgirl ran at York on the day of Dale Gibson's last ride, I was very pleased to find myself chatting to one of the trainers who was putting Dale up on his last day: Peter Salmon, who has started training near Wetherby. To cut a semi-long story short, Peter seems a really nice guy as well as an experienced and sensible horseman, and I wish him well; like so many of us, all he needs is that hard-to-find good horse to walk through the stable gate and he'll be right.
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