This morning the horses did four miles of solid trotting and then they all had a pop. We are still working on trying to get them to make a shape over their fences and use their hocks, they jump a little cross pole virtually at the walk to begin with, one stride and then jump the barrels. When it gets nearer to racing them we put the brush hurdle in the school and work them at a canter over that. We also take them to the schooling fences on the estate, where we can work them upsides at speed.

Frog clearly didn't get bottomed during the race as she is full of beans this morning and we have now found out the problem with Leon - he has corns. I've never had a horse with corns before and Andy Hartgrove, the blacksmith, said that he had obviously had them before, They need managing by making sure that he is regularly shod and that the shoes don't put pressure on the corns. That might explain why he has such a short choppy stride.