Another Cold Snap!

9/01/23
We started this week with a runner at Ayr racecourse.  Aubis Walk ran with Brian Hughes on board but unfortunately fell.  Both horse and jockey are absolutely fine thankfully and we’re looking forward to her next run.
On Tuesday the 10th we went to Doncaster with four horses.  We were very unlucky to have another faller with our first runner, Rickety Gate.  He is absolutely fine.  I was actually riding him and I’m a bit battered but I’m being well looked after and I’m on the mend!  We also had Summeergrounds, Famous Bridge and Luckie Seven.  Luckie ran a brilliant race on his first start and finished second.  Another promising run from one of our young horses.

                                                                 Luckie Seven and Sean Quinlan

Serious Mickey ran at Kelso on Sunday the 15th, we haven’t had him long so we learn new things about him all of the time.
The cold is starting to creep up on us again here, but it’s definitely been nice to have a break from all of the rain!

16/01/23
We had no runners this week!  There have been abandonments across the country because of the weather so we’ve had a quiet week.  It’s meant we can focus on working hard at home and making sure we’re ready to go as soon as we can make it to the track again.
Yes again, there has been another cold snap and the gallop has been frozen.  Nicky always has a few tricks up his sleeve to keep the horses fit when we have issues like this so we made plenty of use out of our other gallop at the back of the yard.  It’s got a surface made from a mixture of sand, rubber and fibre.  Unlike our main all weather gallop, this one is oval shaped and doesn’t have a hill to it so it’s much easier for the horses.  We normally use it for horses in light work or when we’re jumping.
The week has been spent cantering all of the horses out there to maintain there fitness levels and stop them getting too fresh like our last cold snap!
On Saturday we finally got back up the all weather gallop thanks to a slight increase in temperature.  Although it was cold, it was a beautiful sunny day.  The horses and riders were all happy with a chance of scenery and for the routine to begin going back to normal.

A frosty morning

We are all dying to get runs into our horses so hopefully the tracks recover quickly from the frost and we can get back to doing what we love most!

The next horse I’m going to introduce is Headscarf Lil.
She is a 9 year old bay mare and is well liked in the yard.  Her career started at Kelso in 2019 when she finished 2nd on her first run in a bumper.  Since then she’s won three times over hurdles at Musselburgh, Carlisle and Newcastle under Sean Quinlan every time.  She almost always places in her races so we all love watching her run.

At home, she’s very sassy!  She always makes it clear when she wants some attention and we can never resist giving her a cuddle.

                                                                   Lil making faces at the races!