Another one bites the dust

It is always with a sense of relief and appreciation of good fortune that one can get to the end of the year without having fallen off. Didn't make it in 2005, but fortunately I did manage it in 2006. Sadly I won't be able to match that feat in 2007, because I've blotted my copy book this morning by falling off the Diktat filly. And it hurt - I hadn't hit the ground that hard for years.

She's been ever so good. Martha rode her last week, and I've been on her this week. Monday and Tuesday I enjoyed very pleasant rides, so today I was expecting the same again. I thought I'd girthed her up tightly enough, but just felt when I jumped on her that the saddle was wobbling a bit. Being so young, she's quite narrow, so it would be easy for it to be a bit unstable. I felt it prudent to check my girths once I was settled on board. I went to pull them up a hole, but got the first girth almost up to the next hole before deciding that that would make the girth too tight for such an inexperienced horse, and just eased the pressure off to let it slide back down to where it had been before. At that point I received confirmation that that would indeed be too tight, because the filly exploded as if she was just feeling a girth around her for the first time. If I'd been sitting straight on her I might have had a chance - although I doubt it - but as it was, with one leg pushed forward in front of the saddle and one hand reaching down holding a girth strap, I was a gonner. I might have stayed on if she'd only bucked once, but as she felt my weight shift on her she just increased her gyration, and I was airborne within seconds. I landed smack on my back, hard, and felt the back of my head slam into the ground - thank God for crash helmets, because I'd have been knocked out otherwise.

Fortunately I had landed in a puddle, and it was raining hard as it seems to do most of the time in the UK nowadays so, as I lay there recovering my composure and working out whether any significant damage had been done, my clothes were getting wetter by the second, which gave me every incentive to get to my feet and climb back aboard the rather shaken filly. It had come as a shock to me, but probably even more to her, so neither of us really enjoyed the ride once we embarked on take two, as she seemed very on edge throughout. But all was well that ended well, and I'll ride her for a walk this evening with David when he takes Bilkie out for his afternoon stroll (the horses aren't getting their usual afternoons in the field, because it's under water), accompanied by little Curtis (assuming he isn't kept back at school in detention, which seems to happen once or twice a week) on Lady Suffragette. It'll do both Diktat and myself good to go out again this afternoon: at my advancing age I could do with the opportunity to re-bolster my confidence, and ditto the filly because of her lack of seasoning.

I entered the filly for the Tattersalls Sales race today (at the Curragh at the end of August), so I can only hope that the rest of her preparation goes more smoothly than that. But we'll have plenty of runners to worry about before we start thinking about that race as a serious option, starting with four in the next week. Things didn't go to the script with Lady Suffragette on Sunday, when we were forced into making an unforced error (as they'd say on RTE). I'd given Brett instructions to start positively from his low draw, but unfortunately she jumped out of the gate so full of beans, and nobody else wanted to make the running, that she raced with no cover and the choke out for the first mile. I thought that she did well to keep on as well as she did under the circumstances, notwithstanding the fact that she finished nearly last, so we'll try again (over a longer trip, believe it or not, but I still think she'll stay well) on Sunday. It's a race for jockeys who rode fewer than 30 winners in the UK last year, and Brett's late-season flourish rendered him ineligible for that, so Cathy Gannon can climb back aboard - with instructions to bury the mare away.

The following day two dear horses, Limit Down and Pantomime Prince, both ought to get runs in 0-45 races, which can be hard to get into. At the moment it's looking like Rab Havlin on the former and Micky Fenton on the latter, so that's two good jockeys for them. We've got to hope for two good runs. Then Millyjean is pencilled in for her third race two days later at Lingfield. She worked like a rocket this morning, but I suspect an open three-year-old maiden will be quite competitive, so whether she's good enough to make the frame we'll have to wait and see. She's definitely going well enough to run really well, but of course the quality of the opposition will might be a problem.

Looking a bit farther ahead, we have the People's Race, which does indeed seem to have our dear leader written all over it. I haven't paid too much attention to it, but it seems a harmless sideshow. And if P.Walrus is indeed going to be in the fray, I'll definitely be giving it my fullest attention. If P.Walrus does take part, we'd have to find a C.Lyon too. I might even have wrested Mark Johnston's book off Emma by that time, so I might by that time have come round to the idea of getting everything to make the running (some chance!) which I suspect probably would be the best tactic in that bun fight.