Wasteland on the way

I'm afraid that Herbert Lom's wasteland looks to be on its way.  Today was a really lovely day during which we enjoyed another dose of our paradise in the East Anglian Alps, but I fear that it could prove to have been just about the last such dose of bliss of the current winter.  Today's dose came with a difference in that the temperature was above zero from the outset (pictured) and, although it never got more than a degree or two above zero, it felt gorgeous in the sunshine; and it is set to remain above zero all night and beyond.  And so we have seen a lot of our snow and ice melt already, and the rest shouldn't be long before it's gone either.

So what could we do other than enjoy this lovely weather while it's here?  In one sense, a freeze-up isn't lovely weather - but it sure is lovely compared to what follows.  As John McNamara says, snow's OK until it melts - and, while it would be OK if it melted and spring arrived, what happens in reality is that once it's gone, winter still remains for another month or two; so we go from cold but dry weather and conditions to cold but wet weather and conditions.  Which basically means that we go from mud nowhere to mud everywhere.  And I know scenario which I prefer.

So today was lovely, and all the more so for the fact that the knowledge that the conditions won't last made it all the more savourable (if that's a word).  Even allowing for the fact that the thaw has been coming in from the south-west, Cheltenham did really well to put racing on today, and it was really enjoyable to watch that on the television.  That was the only jumps card in England this week, but no doubt we'll be back to something like normal service in the near future, water-logging allowing.  I'd like to think that Frankie (Douchkirk, whose ears are shown today in the previous paragraph and in this one), Alcalde and Oscar (who is seen in the distance in the same two photographs) will all run over jumps during the next month.

We might have one more runner this month, although that's doubtful.  Gift Of Silence is entered at Kempton on Wednesday, but I'm not sure if she's quite ready to make her long-awaited (by me, anyway) debut yet, which might be seen as surprising as, aged four, she's been here for nearly two years (and has never had anything of significance wrong with her).  But there you go.  But, as New Approach reminded us a few years ago, while the horse remains engaged in the race (and alive), he or she should always be regarded as a possible runner.

Anyway, she hadn't until today been in the stalls since she was a two-year-old and, although she was always very good in them on previous occasions, she obviously needed a session or two before she runs, whether that means next week or a small amount of weeks later.  Hence her being today possibly the only horse to use the stalls on the Heath since we've been under snow (pictured in the previous paragraph).  Anyway, she was as good as gold: very relaxed.  And it was very relaxing, as we obviously didn't jump her out at speed.

The reasons for that being obvious are shown in the fifth paragraph, those reasons being the snow balls which collected in her feet as she walked around on the snow.  The ones pictured above had been ejected and I've put them upside down on the stalls' tyre for the picture.  Only the smaller sections at the bottom were inside the hoof - the larger sections act like platform soles for the horse, so if you're wondering why AW races are often called off while and shortly after the snow is falling, this photograph will help you to understand the dangers of racing when the snow can 'ball up' in the hooves, dangers both of the horses stumbling and falling and of blocks of ice being hurled back as 'kick-back'.

Anyway, that's Gift Of Silence, who should either make her debut on Wednesday or sometime after that. That thought, though, won't be worrying her: her main concern at the moment is that her neighbour Ollie (Orla's Rainbow) has recently gone off for a spell, so she'll need to spy on someone else (see previous paragraph).  I spent a large part of yesterday driving around the countryside taking various horses off to various places as it's that time of year of horses coming into and going out of work.  It wasn't the best way to spend a day, but it wasn't the worst either - and it was lovely for Gus, whom you can see looking as smug as a bug in a rug as the East Anglian arctic wasteland flashes past out of the window.