FROG CAME SECOND!! Well - would you believe it? It wasn't long ago when we thought the best place for her would be in a dog food can - she has been a complete nightmare, injuring both Doug and myself and everyone else who has ridden her (except Lucy)
However, since she jumped the big regulation fences with Ed, she suddenly changed in attitude as if she had found something that she really wanted to do, although the last schooling session with Will made me wonder whether we were just wasting our time - BUT she walked around the paddock like an old hand, was completely calm going down to the start and then jumped off with the rest of the eleven runners as though she had been doing it all her life - jumped foot perfectly all eighteen fences with Will patting her after some of them, and not getting after her at all, she travelled like a very classy horse with seemingly no effort. Our instructions to Will were to look after her and pull her up if she was even slightly tired as the most important thing is that she enjoys the experience and wants to do it again. Will rode her to perfection and she finished the race still on the bridle, although she blew for some time afterwards - she is a VERY tough mare.
Having just got over that shock we then had to run Dove, which I have got to say I wasn't looking forward to as I didn't think she would start -
Entry on blog 29th March 2009
Velvet Dove was her normally quirky self. Because of the fast ground there were only four in the race which we thought would suit her nicely. Doug led her down to the start and she seemed really calm, the flag went down, Doug went to let her go but then, would you believe, the hot favourite, another mare called Pennytino, flatly refused to start, so the starter had to call them back. This reminded Dove that this was her party piece, and when the starter dropped the flag both her and Pennytino stood there like mules - the two geldings galloped off. Will took his feet out of the irons and gave her a prod in the ribs with the dummy spurs that we had asked him to wear. She then decided that she would quite like to chase the boys and off she went in hot pursuit - at this point they were two fences in front. Will jumped the first two fences with no irons! One of the boys then fell and she just had the one to catch. It seemed an impossible task as he was so far ahead and a very decent horse. however she amazingly caught him up on the second circuit and even managed to get her head in front but because she had burned up so much gas catching him and hadn't had time to take a breather she couldn't keep that pace up to the line but came a very game second. She seemed very pleased with herself though and hopefully quite enjoyed it. She doesn't make life easy for herself as she would have won that race by a distance if she had started with them. We will give her one more chance and if she is still reluctant will put her in foal.
That was last year and I was expecting the same this time - especially as Pennytino was also in the same race again, but they both started perfectly, although Will still needed to have his feet out of the irons for the first two fences, (very brave!) She ran a great race and was up there with the leading three horses (out of 8) right up until two fences from home when she made a mistake which meant that she didn't stand a chance of winning, so Will very sensibly pulled her up as we didn't want to bottom her first time out and she could run again next week all being well. Doug has put an enormous amount of work into her since her accident by doing so much flat work in the school, as she was completely unrideable, and full credit goes to him for her relaxed attitude and the way she jumped those fences, she is now working in the right outline and using all the right muscles. VERY pleasing.
Red wasn't such good news - she ran on Saturday at the Heythrop - the ground was soft and very holding but we thought that as she is such a strong horse she could cope with the ground provided her wind operation had worked. Well it clearly hasn't as three fences from home she 'made a noise' and had to be pulled up. We were very disappointed as she has been giving me a great feel at home and hasn't made a noise at all lately but out of 8 horses five pulled up, so perhaps if we tried her on better ground she would be OK. We will give her one more chance, and if that doesn't work then there is plenty of other things she can do as she is such a lovely horse.
We are just so pleased to have them all home safe and sound and absolutely over the moon about Frog and Dove. The ups and downs of racing....I'm not sure my nerves can take this much longer!