Rising waters

The wet weather shows no signs of stopping and, although we have to deal with a lot of mud in the yard at the minute, my heart goes out to all of those in the north who are battling daily with flood water in their homes. A few years ago we had a pipe burst underground which flooded the hay barn area and caused a fair bit of work to get rid of all the sodden stuff so I can’t imagine what it’s like to have water in your home. Although we do not have any jumpers at the minute, I still watch the jumps action daily and it looks pretty tough at the moment with the bottomless ground around the country but I suppose it may be a blessing for some as it could just be the perfect ground for their particular horse.

York racecourse under water

All-weather racing has its critics but at least you can go to the races with the peace of mind that the ground will be roughly as it always is. So many times during the summer we have traveled to the races only to find the going is not at all like the Clerk of the Course’s description and had a fruitless day as a result.

On Wednesday, Dakota City heads to Kempton. I had been planning to run him over two miles but there just isn’t a suitable race around for him at the minute so we will stick to the distance he usually runs over until the right opportunity arises. He is working well at home and seems in good health but I do feel the handicapper has him in his grip at the moment.

Automotive (Nick) & Dakota City (Adam)

I’m sure you all know that Automotive is one of the more ‘characterful’ horses in the yard and one of his pet hates is the dentist. I like the horses to have regular dental check-ups as bad teeth can affect their appetite and also their comfort when ridden. However, Automotive will not go near a dentist and had gone a long time without seeing one as he seemed none the worse for it. Dodging the dentist eventually caught up with him this last week though as he wasn’t eating as much as usual and further inspection revealed he had some nasty ulcers in his mouth. Horse’s teeth are not like human’s – they continually grow, hence the term ‘long in the tooth’. Horses have to have their teeth painlessly rasped regularly to ensure the teeth do not get too long and start digging into the gum line. This is the stage Automotive had got to so action had to be taken – he was sedated by the vet and then could have his teeth sorted out. Since then he has been much happier and eating as well as ever. We’ll see if he’s feeling better this week as he goes to Chelmsford on Thursday and it will be interesting to see how he goes at a track he has never run on before.

Limerick Lord (Mark) & Kemsing (Ross)

Serendib's Glory (Chloe)

Veeraya (Sam) & Candesta (Caitlin)

Attain never really fired at Chelmsford last week but it was a race run at a muddling gallop which would not have suited him. He has come out of the race in good health so I’ve given him an entry at Lingfield on Saturday. I’ll have to see how he takes the next few days and if he is feeling fresh enough we will take our chance.