We've got the blood results back and thankfully (in a way) there is a reason for Harry running so badly. The bloods show that he has been fighting a virus which has also caused a mineral imbalance. The virus has inhibited Harry's ability to absorb calcium and so he has a calcium deficiency which when under pressure during a race would make his muscles cramp up. Some horses are able to absorb calcium better than others and the only way you can ensure they are getting it in their system is by feeding them calcium gluconate which is much more absorbable ( and more expensive) than the calcium carbonate that is already in the diet. The cold weather would have exasperated the problem. We think he may have caught the virus at Plumpton where Doug said it sounded like a TB clinic with so many horses coughing. All the horses are now on either antibiotics, azodine or calcium gluconate so hopefully in a couple of weeks they will all be feeling a lot better.
We had two lots of owners watching their horses work this morning - Laverty's owners Darren, Steve and Colin and Shade and Oaka's owners, Caroline and Adam. They all worked around the round gallop, Laverty is just coming back after having a spot of heat in his leg and Shade and Oaka are on easy duties as they have both been coughing. They all went well and Lavertyis particular loved being back doing a bit more. Fingers crossed his leg will be OK in the morning. It felt fine when we brought him up just now.
I have a rather embarrassing confession to make - we have been telling everyone that we are going skiing this Saturday for the week and we were due to go down to Gatwick tomorrow night to stay over and get the 6 am flight. This afternoon I phoned David who did the group booking just to check the final details and it was mentioned that we should get to the slopes early enough to ski on the day of the 15th - the 15th I thought, surely we should be coming home by then??!! Oh dear, that was very close as for some reason I was absolutely convinced that we were going from the 8th to the 15th. I have absolutely no idea why. Thank goodness we didn't tootle off to Gatwick - I think Doug may have had a sense of humour failure if we had been hanging about at 4 am looking for our ski buddies only to find that we were a week early!!
On the plus side I will be able to pick Jay up from the airport on Sunday and spend more time with her before she goes back to university on the 17th. Highly embarrassing!..