Yesterday we went to the Grafton team chase at Sulgrave. A beautiful spot and only ten minutes from where we live. Dickie and Rowan's team, 'Relentless' won the open by 10 seconds. They are flying at the moment and should win the National championship. While we were there we met up with Aga Dave and Cindy - they sponsor the point to point Ladies championship and are so enthusiastic about the sport and a really great couple. They came back to Blackgrounds for a bit of supper (cooked in the Aga needless to say!) and had a look around the yard.

Doug, Dave, Doctor Kingsley and Cindy

This morning we had a new work rider called Jason in - He is a very good two goal polo player but has never sat on a racehorse before and although his riding style was 'interesting' he seems brave enough and a thoroughly nice person, so a great addition to the team. He was thrown in at the deep end a little as Bill Adams, a local farmer wanted us to help him load up his cows and calves using the horses as they are very difficult to load. Jason was riding Jess, who turned out to be a complete natural and wasn't at all fazed when the cows started to chase us and happily faced up to them and turned them back in the right direction. Doug was on Jake, who was very much on his toes and slipped right over, silly old fool (horse not rider)  I was on Bryn who also loved it and Pete was on Popaway who thought it was great fun. Whisper (Tara), Eeyore (Dickie) and Goody (Esme) were horrified by the whole exercise and tried to run away. Goody in particular had no excuse for being scared as she has grown up with cattle but we think it was more because she didn't want to put her precious little hooves in the cow pats as she does rather think that she is a bit special!
After a few attempts we managed to get them all in to the cattle race and Bill was delighted. He now wants us to get the rest of his cattle in next week on his other farm - So if we don't succeed at training racehorses we can always hire ourselves out for cattle mustering. Great fun and now we can use the field for canter work without feeling guilty...