Saturday 23 December 2017

We are getting into the Christmas spirit here - The snow has been gone for some time now and we only lost two days of work with the horses, all of which are feeling really well and exactly where we want them at this stage. We are hoping to take Flemensmix to Chaddesley Corbett on the 29th December in the Ladies Open, it will be his first time racing over big fences as he has only hurdled before, but he seems to be a natural, and Premier Gold in the maiden for Paddy to have a practice run on. She was on the transfer list as we didn't think she liked racing but she seems to have matured this year and she is a great jumper so Paddy persuaded us to keep her to get more experience on. She is known to misbehave in the preliminaries so it may not be such a good idea on the day....
We have entered Exclusive Rights for Cottenham on the 31st December, although she may go to Larkhill the following week, Jess, Budge and Tik have also been entered and depending on the ground, will run if it isn't too soft. Once again Jess and Budge are running to give Paddy and Scott more experience - Scott is also riding Tik (Velvet Steel) as she is very quirky and he knows how to handle her as he rides her every day. A big day for both of them.
The run up to Christmas has been very hectic but now we are just beginning to feel organised. We are at home with the family but will also be doing the horses as Scott and Paddy are going away for the Christmas period, so hopefully the relatives will all be bringing their wellies as they may well get roped into a bit of mucking out!
We had a little pre Christmas present opening with Josh, Emma, Archie, India and Hector as they are also at their home for the day. It is Hector's first proper Christmas as he was too young to understand it last year and he is a real character. We gave him a talking hamster which he absolutely loved and howled with laughter every time it copied his voice. SO sweet.


Early Christmas presents for Hector and India