It wasn't a great day at the office today, but to be honest I was just so pleased to get both horses back home safely after the tragic event of last weekend. Firstly, I forgot to declare Ponty's cheek pieces and consequently he didn't concentrate and got distracted going past the crowd and went from second to second last, he then caught up the leading group but then got distracted again coming back towards the crowd and lost his place so Pete pulled him up two from home, as fresh as a daisy, so he is now going to Whitfield next week. Then we had Rosie, who we knew wouldn't be easy ....Well, we were right. We treated the whole thing like a military operation and thought that we hadn't left a single stone unturned. She had earplugs plus a hood.  We had given her all sorts of herbal concoctions to calm her nerves and also had smothered her nose with lavender cream so that she couldn't smell 'fear'. She had permission to go to the start early and we had people posted all the way down to the start so that if she planted there was someone there to leg Tara back on board if necessary. As it happened she went to the start fairly calmly but then refused to go anywhere near the other horses. (Seventeen of them) Doug was with her and when the flag dropped she just stood there and wouldn't go a yard.  As it was the last race of the day we asked if we could school her around and would you believe it she jumped around as good as gold, even jumping a loose dog which was standing in front of the open ditch   Grrrrrrr!
There is no rhyme nor reason to her behaviour though as she then planted on the way back to the horse box. She is such a talented horse and when she wants to do it is one of the best horses we have ever trained, but we are getting close to giving up on her. She will have a few days holiday now and then we will try again, but try and find a quieter race for her. If that doesn't work she will have to go back to doing nothing in a field (or worse..) such a shame. At least tomorrow we have some lovely horses to look forward to. We have Lady Barfad in the maiden, Popaway in the confined, Val D'Auberge in the novice riders and Velvet Royale in the restricted. All lovely uncomplicated horses. Bliss!