Jackdaws Castle

Happy Birthday Doug!

We have just come back from a superb couple of days away - we took Dove to stud on Tuesday to see a stallion called Pasternak , stayed a in a lovely pub in the Cotswolds called the Kings Head at Bledington. In the morning we walked along a footpath that runs alongside Jackdaws Castle , where Jonjo O'Neil trains over 100 horses. It was quite a sight to see strings of horses working up the magnificent gallops with the stunning scenery as a backdrop.It has been completely purpose built for training horses - you would think that it would be impossible not to churn out hundreds of winners from there and yet Jonjo went through a very lean spell earlier on in the season and had 80 runners without a single winner. It just shows that even with such amazing facilities it isn't always easy to train horses and a lot can go wrong.

In the afternoon we went to Cheltenham races where, as usual, it was great racing. On the way back we stopped at the Castle Inn at Edgehill for a meal. Very nice indeed, and once again stunning views. The spring countryside makes us realise how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful place.

We have just heard from the stud and Dove has already been covered so we will be picking her up tomorrow. I wonder if she will be more mellow and easier to train when she is pregnant...?