We have just been to see Jack's puppies and they are just gorgeous. Jack has to get a mention here because effectively he is my 'assistant trainer' as he always helps with the schooling and when I used to train on my own and take one horse up the hill at a time he was also my pacemaker. He is getting on now and completely blind but has an uncanny knack of knowing when we are schooling - He will inevitably turn up with some unfortunate incidents.... Minnie is the proud mother - not a bad effort for first time around.
We took all four horses up the gallops this morning. Dream is racing tomorrow at Whitwick Manor, near Hereford, so just went the one time up. The other three, Dove, Frog and Red went two and a half times up the long gallop. It was really foggy and impossible to see if anyone else was on it so we didn't really get any good HR readings as twice we had to turn around to avoid other horses. Dove had every excuse to plant as there was a lot of activity with other horses but although she thought about it once she soon gave in. She seems so much happier in herself since the 'Roy treatment' and I am so relieved that we didn't try 'strong arm' tactics on her when she was playing up before. We thought we had explored every avenue as we had the chiropractor, vet and the dentist to look at her and they couldn't find anything wrong. We feel a little guilty for all the names we called her now though, as she is obviously thoroughly genuine to still have done what she has done in spite of the pain she must have been in. Frog is feeling well and dumped Georgia on the way home, luckily she had a soft landing and held on to the reins so no harm done.
I am not looking forward to putting another horse on the track after what happened to Blu. Doug and Georgia have decided that I either need a good dose of Sedalin or a very large measure of whisky before the race. I can then snooze in the trailer and they can wake me up when it is all over...
