Oh dear. Things didn't exactly go as planned.....
Would you believe that having arrived at the race track we very nearly didn't declare Harry because the ground was too hard??!! This was less than a week after not running a horse because the ground was too soft. There has been a really drying wind and a couple of heavy frosts which has really dried the ground out. We watched the first couple of races, and whilst the times were ridiculously fast there were no casualties so we thought that as we had paid our entry fee we might as well give Harry some jumping practice and see if he could learn to jump at speed. The plan was to start him out the back, get him jumping in a nice rhythm, and then after the first lap put him up with the leading group. Will jumped him out at the back, not for one moment thinking that his fellow jockeys (most of which are a lot less experienced) would go at such a breakneck speed into the first fence - needless to say he was 30 lengths behind before he even jumped the first - the rest of the field were strung out like washing almost immediately as the less senior jockeys, who probably hadn't expected the ground to have become so fast so quickly, were just letting their horses gallop freely, gaily forgetting that there was three miles ahead and 18 fences. The result was carnage and not pretty to watch. Before Harry had even jumped five fences there were four horses on the deck and just before he jumped the open ditch another two horses fell in front of him, he jinxed to avoid them and Will fell off. Harry then went on and jumped the next couple of fences very well on his own before being caught by the mounted stewards. Sadly, there were two fatalities in that race alone, so we were very relieved to bring Harry safely back to the box.
It was then Ben's turn on Jake. During Harry's race Ben had been walking Jake around in the car park as he had got rather upset when he had been left on his own in the box. He was OK at this point but when Doug started to take him down to the paddock, he took one look at the crowd and went completely mad - standing on his hind legs and trying to strike Doug with his front hooves -rearing over backwards and crashing to the floor - luckily this happened before he got in the paddock as if the stewards had seen this he probably would not have been allowed in - with his last trainer he ran with a visor on and once we had got this on he seemed a bit calmer. The race started and Ben was in the leading group with Jake jumping really well - at the fourth fence we couldn't believe it when he ran out through the smallest gap, avoiding the fence. Race ended. Very disappointing as he is a brilliant jumper but has obviously decided that he doesn't like racing anymore. Something has clearly happened in his past racing life to have scared him. It also hasn't helped that he was at his peak last week and has now gone 'over the top'.
As it was the last race we asked the secretary if Ben could school him around over the fences so that he didn't think he could get away with such bad behaviour - this he did, and although he was reluctant to jump the fourth fence again, Ben got him over it and finished on a better note.
Now that the ground has dried out a bit and the days are longer (Ben can only come in at lunch times to exercise him) we are going to let Jake out each afternoon and hope that he settles a bit better in the field, thereby winding down a bit. Had we known how much he hates racing we would have hunted him a lot more to try and make him relax and enjoy. It's terribly sad as he is clearly talented but has possibly been rather harshly treated in the past and has not forgotten it.
Since seeing how badly the amateur jockeys handled the quickening ground I am now in two minds as whether to run Frog under rules with professional jockeys rather than risk her in a race with a bunch of amateurs. It will be much more competitive but at least there will be less fallers as the professionals know how to judge pace. I had said that Ed could ride her but although he is a good horseman he lacks racing experience. Hmmm, something to think about....
Anyway, the most important thing is that both horses and jockeys are home safely and for that we are very thankful.