Clouds and silver linings

Some of you may have read the story which Emma has put on the news page of this site regarding Brief's retirement. There is not really a lot I can add to that, but obviously, as the end of an era in this stable, it has been a significant event in our lives recently. The decision to retire Brief, which was a no-brainer once (much to my surprise) a small amount of inflammation had appeared in a tendon, produced very mixed feelings in me. I was very sad, but the cloud definitely had a silver lining. Brief really has become part of the furniture here, and I had lost count of the number of really happy days at the races which he had given all his connections; I now read in Emma's story that he raced fifty times, and nearly all those days were very happy days, because his poor runs were few and far between. He would put in the occasional very lack-lustre performance, but in time even these proved not to be causes for concern because experience taught us that, even if things hadn't worked out for him on that particular occasion, he would as like as not bounce back the next time, very often with the help of Carol Whitwood, who was always very quick to find and put right any little niggle which might have surfaced in his back.

So Brief's retirement obviously leaves a big gap in our racing lives, but it also means the end of a very special link to the past. Emma's story explains how Brief was owned by Joe McCarthy, a lovely man who became a great friend as well as a wonderfully supportive patron; and I can't think of Brief without thinking of Joe, who raced him in partnership with his daughter Larry. After Joe's death, his widow Iris took over Joe's share, and any time we would meet up with Brief, Joe was so clearly there in our minds too. So Brief's retirement is the end of an era in a far greater sense than merely the end of a horse's lengthy and honourable career. But, and here is the silver lining, it's a retirement which was always going to come at some stage - no horse races forever - and when a good horse retires sound and able to move on to a good life after racing, that is always a big relief, because that is sadly not always the case. The more a horse does for one, the more one wants him to retire in one piece and be able to enjoy a long and happy retirement - so if and when he does so, the disappointment of his retirement is more than counterbalanced by the pleasure of knowing that all is well which ends well. I have explained that Brief's career has ended because of tendon trouble, but he has come out of work in only the early stages of this condition, which means that, while returning him to racing (particularly at his age) would be very unwise and almost certainly not a successful venture, he will be fine to move on to an active, useful and enjoyable life doing something (anything) else. Brief will make someone a really lovely hack, pet and friend, but he'll be here indefinitely until we find the home which will be as right for him as he will be for it.

As mentioned above, it is sadly never guaranteed that a racehorse will end his racing career in one piece. Two lovely horses - Exotic Dancer and Wichita Lineman - have recently acted as high-profile reminders of this fact, and to their connections one can only offer sincere sympathy: for one stable to lose two such special horses within a month must have been very, very hard to swallow. However, it is not only well-known horses who die in, or as a result of, action, and over the years we have lost two as a result of being struck into during races: Joe's horse Stormy Crest at Ayr and my own Ngauruhoe at Wetherby. Stormy's accident was not a typical striking-into injury as it was his back tendon which was severed (by the hoof of another horse), but if Ngauruhoe's accident - severing her own front tendon with her back hoof - had happened now, I am sure that she would still be with us. The reason for this is that we now use what I believe are the best boots in existence, made by Equilibrium, which are very lightweight but offer outstanding protection. I had thought that the ones which we have been using over the past couple of years were as good as you'd ever see, but two days ago we welcomed the arrival of a pair of Equilibrium's latest boots, Tri-Zone Allsport boots, which are astonishingly light and apparently virtually uncuttable. These have been developed over a lengthy period and tested rigorously, and I am very pleased that we shall henceforth be sending horses out to run in jumps races wearing them. In one sense I ought to keep quiet about this, because in a competitive sport one ought to try to keep knowledge of any good innovations to oneself lest the competition also gets the benefit of them, but these boots are so clearly of potential benefit to the horse population as a whole that, for the sake of horses in general, I'd like as many people as possible to know about them. If anyone is interested in checking out these boots, www.equilibriumproducts.co.uk is where to go.