The End is Nigh

James, our neighbouring farmer has been harrowing and fertilising the fields. We can now see light at the end of the long dark winter tunnel, and if the weather continues to be mild, we hope to be able to turn the horses out in a couple of weeks or so. This will be such a relief to all, everyone gets so tired at this time of year. Feeding, exercising, grooming and mucking out 50 odd horses everyday with a relatively small staff can become pretty daunting. Everyone has been brilliant, we have such a good team and everyone feels so responsible not only for the horses but to their team members and therefore everyone comes to work despite maybe feeling a bit under the weather.
We have had the added pressure in trying to add more horses to our already choccabloc yard. The little colt, and the gelding, we picked up a couple of weeks ago have been joined by three mares and another gelding. We hope to pick up the remaining horses (another six) in the next few days. We now have horses in places where we didn't even know we had places.
The new horses have settled in well in their big loose box made out of straw bales, and are visibly relieved to be out of the elements. The little colt has had a blood test and although he has been dehydrated, thankfully his organs haven't been damaged.
He is looking much perkier if a little odd. He had a massive infestation of lice and although this has been treated, all his hair is falling out.
We have also had to pick up one of our rehomed horses. We had warned his carer that unless she took more care of him we would have to bring him home. Sadly, the warning was to little avail, and we picked him up last week. He gave a great whinny when he came into the yard, greeted a few of his old chums, went into his warm box with alacrity and hasn't stopped eating since. He was a good chap to have his teeth done and he is altogether much happier.
We have been tying up some ends before our raceday next Saturday but trying to get hold of anyone when it is the fabulous Festival week at Cheltenham is jolly difficult. There was a flurry of activity on the phone in the morning and then a deadly silence in the afternoon, which I have to say was absolutely brill. We spent a good couple of hours last Saturday, in rigging up a television in the office so that we could watch the racing. Mikey balanced on the roof waving about a portable ariel shouting down to see if there was a picture....it wasn't that good but hey at least we could make out something!
It's been great that we have been included in some of the winnings. Mark Howard from RUK donated his winnings to us and Victor Chandler presented the stupendous sum of £2,400 to our Patron Nigel Bunter. Clive Smith has nominated Greatwood as one of his two charities for the Order of Merit. Following the fantastic performances of both Masterminded and Kauto Star, we might be in with a good chance of receiving a fairly substantial donation. This will be welcome, sadly our donations have been horribly hit.
It has been a wonderful week with such great racing that like almost everyone we are sad that it is all over but looking forward to next year!