The iceman goeth

The snow arrived Thursday evening last week and now, Thursday afternoon this week, it seems to be in retreat, thanks to some solid thawing from yesterday afternoon onwards, whose effect was redoubled by cold light rain. But it's been nice while it's been here. Sunday was arguably the most spectacular day, with the Heath completely covered by snow, a very cold night making everything crisp and even, a lack of horses on the Heath keeping it that way, and a crystal clear skies producing some wonderful bright light. Three of us rode out - Gemma, Adam and I on Kadouchski, Ex Con and Douchkette respectively - and, while the photographs which Gemma took better illustrated the brilliant blue sky, I was happy enough with mine, as I hope that these two will make you understand. That exercise was a real pleasure, and similarly enjoyable later in the morning was the christening in the Catholic church at the end of Exeter Road of young Matteo Botti, son of our friends Marco and Lucie (who are seen with their freshly-baptized boy in the church, behind Matteo's godfather and godmother). I headed off straight after the service to collect Anthony, who was here for three days for a pre-Christmas visit (which of course meant that, for him, Christmas comes but twice a year!). It was a memorable drive because, although the main roads were perfectly navigable, the snow was impingeing very closely onto them and the sun, into which I was driving pretty much for the entirety of the outward journey, was pleasantly dazzling, being in its usual midwinter position fairly low in the sky.

Monday was almost as splendid. There seemed to be more strings out on the Heath than there had been at the end of last week, probably because people were realising that the conditions were, after all, bearable. One string which it was interesting to see was that of Godolphin, which operation of course nowadays leaves quite a lot of horses in Newmarket over the winter. These horses were naturally in conditions very different to the ones which the Godolphin string was previously said to appreciate, but I know that, given the chance of preparing a horse for an English spring in a series of fresh frosty mornings or in a desert, I'd opt for the former every time. Mornings such as the ones which we have been having will surely set horses up better for the forthcoming season than would a switch to a completely different climate, and certainly the Godolphin hack, pictured above with the former jumps jockey Terry Kent, looks very happy with his lot. The sun was less in evidence later in the day when Emma and I, plus Stan and Bean, took Anthony up onto the Heath towards Side Hill with his sledge, which disappointingly didn't see as much action as I'd have hoped. However, Anthony was game for one descent of the icy track, which he managed to accomplish with a smile on his face. Thereafter, however, he decided to quit while he was ahead, so I don't think that I've sired a future master of the Cresta Run. As memorable a part of his day (well, memorable in my mind anyway, if not necessarily in his,) was the opportunity to introduce him to two of Newmarket's best characters, Ian Watkinson and Bill O'Gorman, into both of whom we bumped in the High Street (pictured). Chancing upon either is always an interesting and entertaining experience, so to fall in with both of them (independently but almost simultaneously) was both fortuitous and fortunate ( - yes, there is a difference). As they've known each other since they were at school together they make a good double act (even if, by and large, their conversation tends to lead in different directions) - and after Bill had gone Ian, whose reminiscences are always worth hearing, took the opportunity to recount to me the story of his riding the only steeplechase runner which Bill ever saddled, a four-year-old colt who won a novice chase at Nottingham in blinkers, beating a horse trained by John Edwards and ridden by Jeff King by a neck. I really enjoyed this, even if Anthony was probably slightly bemused!

Tuesday dawned much gloomier and, even after dawn was behind us, when we went out onto the bottom of Warren Hill in the morning we couldn't see the top (as this photograph shows), which was shrouded in fog. And when we got to the top, we were in a real winterland, with the trees burdened with plenty of both snow and ice. However, the temperatures did start to rise noticeably through the morning, and by the time that the ever-cautious Dave Morris was bold enough to lead Cragganmore Creek's unraced three-year-old half-brother down the road under Jinks Harkness, the rise in temperatures, combined with the salt and grit which had eventually found its way onto the surface of Exeter Road, had made conditions so safe that not even Dave could have found too much to complain and worry about. Not, of course, that Dave needed have any worries about how to handle the conditions, because Anthony naturally had been only to happy to make a few suggestions about how things should be done when we had passed the time of day with Dave and Jinks before they took the horse out. Seeing the photograph of him and Dave deep in discussion, it makes one think that it probably won't be too long before Anthony is taller than Dave, which is a strange thing to say about a six-year-old compared to an adult. Mind you, Anthony is growing fast, and compared to other adults Dave isn't very tall.

Although we'd had some good thawing, as soon as the sun went down on Tuesday evening the temperature started to plummet as the sky had cleared dramatically. I took Anthony round to see Cliff and then we got up onto the Heath by around 3pm. We ended up not taking the sledge, but we did have the dogs and it was a lovely evening to walk in the snow, because the lower the sun got, the more glorious the light became. The sun was beginning to disappear behind the bare trees on the horizon by about 3.30, and it was a wonderful, but cold, place to watch a lovely sunset. As darkness fell, we headed in to visit Colin and Eileen Casey in their flat beside the Heath while we were there, but I didn't want to stay for too long because it seemed wise to head for home before it got too dark and too cold because it was an evening to get the horses fed and get indoors earlier rather than later. Anthony, who so far has not shown much more enthusiasm for stable life than he has for sledging, brought a smile to our faces when I had said in what I thought was an inspiring tone of voice, "Well, we'll get these horses fed as quickly as possible and then get ourselves indoors. You'll help me with the feeding, won't you, Anthony?"; his reply, in a very determined voice, was, "I think I'll start building my Lego". One had to smile at this illustration of the saying that one can take a horse to water, but one can't make him drink!

So yesterday morning was probably the coldest we've had. I heard on the radio that the temperature in Scotland was minus 16, but in this area it was probably around minus 6 or 7. However, warmer air (relatively speaking, of course) was on the way and a day which I spent behind the wheel was also one which saw the thaw arrive. We've been lucky enough to have a lovely horse join the team: She Is A Cracker, who yesterday became the fourth of Douchka's offspring to take up residence here, following Kadouchski, Douchkette and Douchkirk. She has been in training with Emma Lavelle near Andover in Hampshire, so yesterday I went to collect her, dropping Anthony with at his mum's house en route. He'd had a great start to the day because Santa had snuck into his bedroom overnight to deposit a stocking full of presents: Emma had been kind enough to contact Santa and explain that, although Anthony would be in his main home for Christmas and naturally would be expecting a visit there then, he'd be here beforehand and he'd love to have an early delivery. So after riding one horse I loaded Anthony plus a few toys into the box and headed south-west, dropping him at his mum's house en route to Emma Lavelle's stable. It wasn't the best day to be driving because apparently, even though today is not a public holiday, most people knock off for Christmas one day early so the roads on December 23rd are busy - and that on top of wintry conditions which make driving harder anyway. So the 300-mile round trip took over eight hours, but during this time we went from relatively bright conditions, via fog, to rain, which obviously helped to expedite the thaw. Even though it had started to rain by the time I got near Emma's stable, the country roads around there were still not easy to navigate as there really was a lot of snow and ice around there (as this adjacent photograph shows, which includes a car which had slid off the road) and I really felt for her having had a horse go up to Haydock for the last-minute abandonment on Saturday: in those conditions that day it would have been hard enough to get a truck to her local track Newbury, never mind Haydock. So I was relieved to get home in the evening - and happy to have a nice horse (who seems to have arrived in perfect condition, which obviously makes my job easy) arrive here with me.

So that's taken us nearly to Christmas. The thaw and light rain continued for much of the night, so today - Christmas Eve - dawned with quite a lot of the snow having gone. What this meant in our yard and on the walking grounds on the Heath was that conditions are now very, very icy, because the ice which had been packed solid under the snow is now exposed and is like a skating rink. On the Heath it is best to walk on the grass rather than on the very slippery walking grounds and, while riding down Exeter Road is straightforward, riding down our yard would be madness: walking down it is hard enough. Whether this thaw will continue quickly enough for Huntingdon to take place on Boxing Day is another matter, but if the meeting does go ahead Kadouchski will run there. He seems in good form. Hugh has been galloping him, but I had a gallop on him yesterday and then today I had the pleasure of cantering alongside him (on Ex Con, who we hope will run on Monday, the eliminator permitting) while he was ridden by Philip Robinson's very nice son Daniel. Some readers may remember Daniel starting off very promisingly as an apprentice with Michael Jarvis, but when he started to grow upwards he shot up, which sadly ruled out his following in his father's footsteps. He has been out in Australia working for David Hayes at Flemington, but has just come home for Christmas and was kind enough to come and lend us a hand this morning. His help was very much appreciated, and as you can see Kadouchski was enjoying it too!