Although not officially over for a fortnight the point to point to point season in the North West area came to a close last Sunday. It was a mixed day for myself as John Clayton was a little disappointing in a hugely competitive race but Dr Double Act made up for it in spades running a blinder and getting up to win on the line by over a length. On the bend turning in 2 fences from home, I wasnt getting there and thought we would be 3rd possibly 2nd if misfortune befell the horse in front that was tiring. I jumped two out and gave him a slap and he took off gradually reeling the others in. He made it hard work for himself ploughing the last fence out of the way but landed running and finished going away from the others. I finish the season with a 35% strike rate of rides to placed horses and a 14% strike rate of rides to winners. The race horses are finished bow for their summer holidays. For John its been a long season for a hand full of runs because the ground has been against him all season. This time of year sees the young race horses come in for breaking and pretraining. The flat yearlings and 2 year olds will start filtering in slowly now as well. This is a big learning curve for all involved and striking the balance with their work load and down time is a very delicate job. Our routine and setup suits these horses because theres always something going on to occupy their mind they get plenty of thinking time too. The summer is also the time I get to educate the childerbeasts. Like young horses theres nothing better to stop them getting into mischief than hard work! Although they are pretty good little workers and do a very good line in yard work. Even if they do drive me mad not putting the tools back where they come from! Chloe is the chief horse bather and she does a really good job. Bradley is chief of everything or so he thinks! His interests lie more in the riding side of the job. He does a really good line in delegation of yard work! We have a fairly mixed bunch of horses in at the minute with various issues and niggles. The schooling liveries are always 10x harder than breakers. Youre constantly having to undo things to get the horse back on the straight and narrow. Thursday sees us swap Lulu the tractor cob with another stallion. He is related back to her and Zidane and if hes half as handsome as the picture Ive seen of him he will be lovely!
Posted on: Wed, 21 May 2014 11:01:43 +0000