Monday 23 February 2009

On Saturday, at Whitwick Manor, Dream jumped well but ran like a hairy goat. She did a circuit and a half and then David pulled her up, she was lying about 5th at the time, she just wasn't travelling and had to be niggled along. We had given David strict instructions to pull up if she was tired but we wondered whether she was just taking the mickey as she is rather lazy, and as he was really worried about bringing her home safely he was erring on the side of caution. However, on Sunday we took her out for a short gallop and she wasn't tired from the race but had a really high heart rate and a very poor recovery rate. She didn't come below 110 even when she got back from the yard so she may have an excuse. The vet is coming tomorrow to take blood so we will know by Thursday whether she is just a lazy toad or worth persevering with.
I was a complete nervous wreck beforehand and after seeing them go down to the start disappeared off to the trailer on the pretence of checking that Dove was OK but also to have a Whisky Mac (for medicinal purposes only) The people in the next but one box to us had lost a horse in the previous race and were in tears. It had brought the horror of losing Blu back and I couldn't bear to watch the race so just reappeared when Dream arrived back - all in one piece thank goodness. We then had to celebrate her safe return and also shared a bottle of sparkling with Julie Houldey and Dave Mansell who had trained and ridden three winners respectively. we were trying to find out how it should be done... By the time we left I was fairly shabby, tired and emotional. Very pleased to have got that hurdle out of the way but also a bit disappointed - why is it always the good ones that die?