More weather! The temperature was minus 14 at 7.00 this morning which is remarkable. It would still be below zero now (early afternoon - I note that it's minus 6 currently) but it's actually a lovely day. Still as anything, bright sunshine reflecting off the snow, bright blue sky: we really could be in the Alps. It was less cold on Thursday but seemed colder, which was a shame as we had an RUK film crew here to make a Trainer File. They (ie Phil Clarke the cameraman, John McCormack the producer, and Nick Luck the presenter) came out
on the Heath and also did some filming in the yard, and it must have presented quite a gloomy sight. It was probably a long cold day for them, but I found it very entertaining, and I'm looking forward to watching the resultant footage on the TV. You'd have thought that a small stable of relatively obscure horses would not provide too much to digest, but we seemed to bang on for hours about all sorts of subjects, including politics (racing and local - not national, fortunately). Anyway, it was a very enjoyable day, despite the gloomy skies. The only disappointment was that Gus, surprisingly, failed to get himself into most of the shots, but he made up for that by worming his way into the affections of our visitors - and in Phil's case he had a willing victim as Phil has a Dalmatian at home, so Gus was preaching to the converted there.
Compare, then, Thursday's grey pictures with the views we've had in the two days since then. It's just been lovely. There's not really a lot to say about two days of normal routine, but I'll whitter on a bit simply to provide enough text to give sufficient space to fit a few photographs in. We've been on Long Hill for cantering and on the Al Bahathri for the faster work, and all seems to be going relatively smoothly. Both canters are coping with the low temperatures well, although at 7.10 this morning the all-weather canter down the side of Railway Land to take one to the start of the Al Bahathri had a crust of frost on its top, even though it wasn't frozen through. This, though, says a lot about the diligence of the Heathmen: Sir Mark's horses had just
been down it and back up the Al Bahathri and he had told the Heathman that he thought the down canter was a bit firm, so a tractor went on to it there and then, stopping only to let me and Kadouchski (pictured with our icy whiskers in the post-dawn half-light on our return to the yard) on in front of him. And that was for a canter which I'd have said was perfectly usable anyway. No, we're very lucky to be being taken care of so well. When four of us (Jamie on Dr Darcey, Hannah on Sail Past, Terri on Karma Chameleon and I
on Frankie, pictured on our way out, coming off the gallop and finally walking away from it in a cloud of steam) went to the same gallop the following lot, I was delighted to find that we came up the Al Bahathri just after three of Jane Chapple-Hyam's horses, and that that trio contained George Baker riding Secret Asset. George, as we know, is a tremendous jockey and excellent man, and he's just returned a week or so ago from several months on the side-lines, the legacy of a badly broken arm.
You'll be aware how big George is, so he'd be the last jockey to welcome an extended spell out of the saddle, but typically his iron will-power has got him back to fitness and down to the right weight. Anyway, I hadn't seen George since his resumption (I hadn't seen him since before his injury, come to that) so it was good to have the opportunity to salute him and to welcome him back. You might spot him in this paragraph's third photograph: I've become a bit detached from the others trottiing off the gallop, but you can spot Jane's trio in front of ours, and Secret Asset is the grey horse in third.
Anyway, George has ridden a winner since his resumption. Those also worthy of salutation include several from this neck of the woods (George, of course, being a Lambourn jockey, notwithstanding the fact that he rides plenty of work here, primarily for Chris Wall). Patriotic won again for Chris Dwyer only the day after I'd just written about him, and then our fellow Exeter Road inmate Charlie McBride had another winner yesterday; while Willie Musson, whose entrance adjoins Charlie's, continues to enjoy a good winter run of form.
What's been rather pleasing is that he's been able to use Jamie Mackay (pictured here yesterday, riding across the Bury Road, just ahead of Tim Bailey) quite a lot recently, including on some winners. Jamie's completely fallen out of fashion - well, he did so several years ago, and has never yet been able to re-establish himself - but he's been working harder than I've ever known him of late and is in Willie's all morning, ever morning without fail. So it's good that he's now reaping some
reward. He's certainly a very good rider, so let's hope that the tide can continue to flow his way. As it seems at last to be flowing the way of the born-again jockey Dominic Fox (pictured in the pink and black colours at Wolverhampton last month) who is riding out for Roger Varian again (he used to work for Michael Jarvis a few year ago) and has ridden two or three winners for Roger recently. I should just explain, by the way,
with these photographs from yesterday and today that we had a good top-up of snow fall during the first half of the night on Thursday so, not that last weekend's snow had really gone anywhere, we have a particularly good blanket of snow covering the place at present. Which explains why, with two lovely sunny days, we've had such lovely views for people, horses and dogs all to enjoy. I see
from the forecast that the weather is set to warm up, and that certainly won't be a bad thing from many points of view, including those of those who are wanting to run (or ride) National Hunt horses. We've missed out on opportunities to run Alcalde, Dr Darcey and Frankie over hurdles in the past week which is frustrating, but really that has to come under the wise heading of 'Don't worry about things which are out of your hands': there really is nothing which we can do to affect the weather, and whether race-meetings do or don't take place is something over which we have no
control whatsoever. So if they're off, they're off - we just get on with doing the things which can happen, rather than worrying about what's not happening. Things will revert to normal sooner rather than later - but, just for the time being, we've had a fortnight of frost including a week of snow; and, inconvenient and physically uncomfortable that that can at times be, let's just concentrate on the positives: when the snow's on the ground and the sun's in the sky, it's relatively easy to remember that - as the saying goes - for all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it's still a beautiful world.
More weather! The temperature was minus 14 at 7.00 this morning which is remarkable. It would still be below zero now (early afternoon - I note that it's minus 6 currently) but it's actually a lovely day. Still as anything, bright sunshine reflecting off the snow, bright blue sky: we really could be in the Alps. It was less cold on Thursday but seemed colder, which was a shame as we had an RUK film crew here to make a Trainer File. They (ie Phil Clarke the cameraman, John McCormack the producer, and Nick Luck the presenter) came out 
on the Heath and also did some filming in the yard, and it must have presented quite a gloomy sight. It was probably a long cold day for them, but I found it very entertaining, and I'm looking forward to watching the resultant footage on the TV. You'd have thought that a small stable of relatively obscure horses would not provide too much to digest, but we seemed to bang on for hours about all sorts of subjects, including politics (racing and local - not national, fortunately). Anyway, it was a very enjoyable day, despite the gloomy skies. The only disappointment was that Gus, surprisingly, failed to get himself into most of the shots, but he made up for that by worming his way into the affections of our visitors - and in Phil's case he had a willing victim as Phil has a Dalmatian at home, so Gus was preaching to the converted there.
Compare, then, Thursday's grey pictures with the views we've had in the two days since then. It's just been lovely. There's not really a lot to say about two days of normal routine, but I'll whitter on a bit simply to provide enough text to give sufficient space to fit a few photographs in. We've been on Long Hill for cantering and on the Al Bahathri for the faster work, and all seems to be going relatively smoothly. Both canters are coping with the low temperatures well, although at 7.10 this morning the all-weather canter down the side of Railway Land to take one to the start of the Al Bahathri had a crust of frost on its top, even though it wasn't frozen through. This, though, says a lot about the diligence of the Heathmen: Sir Mark's horses had just 
been down it and back up the Al Bahathri and he had told the Heathman that he thought the down canter was a bit firm, so a tractor went on to it there and then, stopping only to let me and Kadouchski (pictured with our icy whiskers in the post-dawn half-light on our return to the yard) on in front of him. And that was for a canter which I'd have said was perfectly usable anyway. No, we're very lucky to be being taken care of so well. When four of us (Jamie on Dr Darcey, Hannah on Sail Past, Terri on Karma Chameleon and I 
on Frankie, pictured on our way out, coming off the gallop and finally walking away from it in a cloud of steam) went to the same gallop the following lot, I was delighted to find that we came up the Al Bahathri just after three of Jane Chapple-Hyam's horses, and that that trio contained George Baker riding Secret Asset. George, as we know, is a tremendous jockey and excellent man, and he's just returned a week or so ago from several months on the side-lines, the legacy of a badly broken arm. 
You'll be aware how big George is, so he'd be the last jockey to welcome an extended spell out of the saddle, but typically his iron will-power has got him back to fitness and down to the right weight. Anyway, I hadn't seen George since his resumption (I hadn't seen him since before his injury, come to that) so it was good to have the opportunity to salute him and to welcome him back. You might spot him in this paragraph's third photograph: I've become a bit detached from the others trottiing off the gallop, but you can spot Jane's trio in front of ours, and Secret Asset is the grey horse in third.
Anyway, George has ridden a winner since his resumption. Those also worthy of salutation include several from this neck of the woods (George, of course, being a Lambourn jockey, notwithstanding the fact that he rides plenty of work here, primarily for Chris Wall). Patriotic won again for Chris Dwyer only the day after I'd just written about him, and then our fellow Exeter Road inmate Charlie McBride had another winner yesterday; while Willie Musson, whose entrance adjoins Charlie's, continues to enjoy a good winter run of form. 
What's been rather pleasing is that he's been able to use Jamie Mackay (pictured here yesterday, riding across the Bury Road, just ahead of Tim Bailey) quite a lot recently, including on some winners. Jamie's completely fallen out of fashion - well, he did so several years ago, and has never yet been able to re-establish himself - but he's been working harder than I've ever known him of late and is in Willie's all morning, ever morning without fail. So it's good that he's now reaping some
reward. He's certainly a very good rider, so let's hope that the tide can continue to flow his way. As it seems at last to be flowing the way of the born-again jockey Dominic Fox (pictured in the pink and black colours at Wolverhampton last month) who is riding out for Roger Varian again (he used to work for Michael Jarvis a few year ago) and has ridden two or three winners for Roger recently. I should just explain, by the way, 
with these photographs from yesterday and today that we had a good top-up of snow fall during the first half of the night on Thursday so, not that last weekend's snow had really gone anywhere, we have a particularly good blanket of snow covering the place at present. Which explains why, with two lovely sunny days, we've had such lovely views for people, horses and dogs all to enjoy. I see 
from the forecast that the weather is set to warm up, and that certainly won't be a bad thing from many points of view, including those of those who are wanting to run (or ride) National Hunt horses. We've missed out on opportunities to run Alcalde, Dr Darcey and Frankie over hurdles in the past week which is frustrating, but really that has to come under the wise heading of 'Don't worry about things which are out of your hands': there really is nothing which we can do to affect the weather, and whether race-meetings do or don't take place is something over which we have no 
control whatsoever. So if they're off, they're off - we just get on with doing the things which can happen, rather than worrying about what's not happening. Things will revert to normal sooner rather than later - but, just for the time being, we've had a fortnight of frost including a week of snow; and, inconvenient and physically uncomfortable that that can at times be, let's just concentrate on the positives: when the snow's on the ground and the sun's in the sky, it's relatively easy to remember that - as the saying goes - for all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it's still a beautiful world.
2 comments:
some lovely photos john, Up in the north east on the coast, we havent had any snow, so feel a little bit envious,
thanks
Ian
Yes, it seems to be a rare instance of the south getting colder weather than the north. Almost looks like they've got spring already in Scotland!
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