Still lots of snow on the ground and a hard freeze last night has made the roads and tracks treacherous. Poor Ben Case spent the whole of yesterday harrowing the snow into the gallops as it had started to ball up, which made it rideable but since the freeze last night it has now frozen solid. Red was lunged in the school while the others went for a hack around the farm.
I rode Dove and am delighted with the way she is going. She is so relaxed since the 'Roy treatment' and really happy in herself. She hasn't planted or run backwards since, and made a lovely outline in the canter. The big test will be on the gallops where previously she often either used to plant or bolt. The Frog was relatively well behaved today, she just had a couple of bucks on the way home so Doug took her into the school for a bit of flat work until she settled and Dream was her normal sweet self. Weather and ground permitting Dream will be going to Whitwick Manor on the 21st February. After what happend to Blu I am dreading having another runner but know it is a bridge I have to cross. We really thought we had got everything right for Blu - the ground, the jockey and her fitness- but it all went horribly wrong.... yesterday Andrew Higgins, our vet came to vaccinate all the horses and said how terribly sad he was about Blu. He also said that a vet friend of his had watched the race and saw the accident. He said that she was going incredibly well, still very much on the bridle - when she appeared to collapse before the fence and her propulsion took her over. He thought it was an electrical fault between the brain and the heart- similar to that of Denmans - but luckily with Denman they had a warning sign at home. According to the vet, it happens very rarely but seems to be more common with the better class of horse. We use heartmonitors all the time and there was no sign that Blu had anything wrong. It makes it slightly easier for me to handle knowing that it wasn't a tired fall and she was doing what she loved - in the lead, thinking that she had beaten off 17 opponents and there wasn't any pain involved.
I am off to London this evening with a group of friends. We are going to a film evening about Richard Dunwoody's holiday company Wild Frontiers .