Greatwood

January 28th 2002 - We finally leave Devon

2012-01-28T12:22:00.002Z

The following is an extract from the orginal manuscript of 'When Sophie Met Darcy Day' published by Harper Collins

Thankfully the horses didn’t travel too badly and everybody arrived to Wiltshire in one piece. Michael and I unloaded the horses and put them into the new stables. They all greeted each other and soon settled down to their hay. We popped Angie, Monty, Big Ears and Noddy into their new barn, which they then explored with interest, and put the the hen houses into the poultry barn. It was over, we had moved everyone and they were all safe and well. We kept our wellies on in the kitchen,(a leak in the bathroom had flooded the cottage) made some tea and went to bed.

The next few days came and went in a flurry of activity. We sorted out the feed shed but soon realised that the boiler wasn’t up to cooking the barley and linseed, it was taking far too long, and using up too much electricity and we had to change the horse’s diet to ready prepared sacks of feed. We couldn’t turn any of the horses out into the fields because we had to put up new fencing, so we decided that they could go into an adjacent barn, the floor of which was covered in deep sand. The horses had settled in well and although they were pretty perplexed about going into a barn for a buck, kick and a roll rather than going out into fields, they got used to it. Red was perfectly happy in his new barn, although he would have to get accustomed to being turned out into a small paddock as opposed to wandering in and out as he had in Devon. Angie and Monty with Big Ears and Noddy explored everywhere, they too, were happy in their new home. I managed to get hold of the eejit who had flooded the bathroom and kitchen and he fixed the leak. I then had a problem with all the soaked linen, duvets, and blankets together with the curtains that I had planned on asking my mother to alter for the cottage windows. I bagged up the curtains and put them outside the door, Michael mistook the bags for rubbish and put them out for collection. I never saw them again. In between making sure the horses were alright, I made some sense of the cottage. The old stove at the end of one of the downstairs rooms was a nightmare, it ran on oil and it was supposed to be able to heat the rooms as well as cook. It was called Stanley and it couldn’t do two things at once; we were constantly faced with a choice, food or heat?

That winter was the wettest I could ever remember, every day was dark and windy, and we began to worry that we had moved somewhere that never saw the sun. We began to question the name of the farm ‘Rainscombe Hill’, and prayed that it hadn’t been called this for a reason, but of course, it would have been.

27th January 2002

2012-01-27T07:46:00.002Z

A continuation of the orginal manuscript 'When Sophie Met Darcy Day' published by Harper Collins:

We arrived back to Devon at about teatime and spent most of that night making sure that we had packed everything. We had arranged for a cattle truck to come to us the following morning as well as the horse lorry, so that we could load up the poultry, sheep and goats and all the outside equipment. I shut the poultry in their respective houses because it was an easy and safe way to transport them. Thus, they went to bed in Devon and woke up some hours later to find themselves miraculously transported to an entirely different world. Colin stayed overnight in his lorry, we managed to grab a little sleep and in next to no time it was time to load everybody and everything else. Our dogs by this time were a bit bemused, their home was empty and we knew that they sensed our stress. Beryl was more sensitive than the rest and kept hiding in corners, but they all had their tails between their legs and were nervous about what was happening.

We would be glad when we could get their routine back to normal.

The cattle truck was loaded and filled to the gunwales, we sent it on its way and began to load the horses. It was a nightmare and took ages. I had ordered tubes of sedation for some of them but they still played up and in the end, just as Al threw a wobbly in the lorry and put his head through the roof, I called in our vet for stronger sedation. Doris, one of the fillies refused to load. We did everything, and she got angrier and angrier, and in the end threw herself down upon the lorry ramp in a massive sulk. At one stage, I even thought that we would have to leave her behind and I would have to stay and try and find someone to look after her until such time we could come back for her. Finally out of desperation, we tried big bales of straw, we stacked them either side of the ramp to stop her running out and then about six of us rolled a further large bale of hay behind her and she had nowhere to go but up into the lorry.

The horses were stamping and fractious in the lorry because they had to wait such a long time for Doris to load but instead of nearly tearing my hair out, I was calm, even when Al’s emerged from the top of the lorry, all I could think was that I had inadvertently absorbed some of the sedation from my hands which I had tubed into the horses. We had to do then was to load Red and Toffee into the back of the lorry but we also had to do something very sad; say goodbye to our dear friend Peter.

A couple of months before we had told Peter that we were going to move to Wiltshire, he and his wife Greta were sad but understood the reason. I told Peter that if he so wished we would take Fasci with us, she was happy and she loved the company of Ben, it would have been a big wrench to have separated them. We had over the years managed her sweet itch ( the cause of her bald and sore mane and tail: biting midges had plagued her for years throughout the summer months). Peter knew that Fasci would not be happy to be on her own once more and told us that he would like us to take her with us. It was a hard thing for him to decide, he loved his little horse and not to be able to go and see her twice a day would leave a huge hole in his life. Nevertheless, he helped us load her into the lorry and as we drove off, he turned away. I was sad to leave Devon, I knew that our life would never be quite the same again.

The Day of the Move - 26th January 2002

2012-01-26T14:38:00.003Z

The arrival of Noddy, Big Ears and Monty - looking somewhat perplexed.
From the original manuscript of 'When Sophie Met Darcy Day' published by Harper Collins:

We moved the charity at the end of January 2002. I had travelled up and down to Wiltshire on a number of occasions to keep an eye on how things were progressing.

We had to arrange new vets and farriers and deliveries of haylage ,straw and concentrates, this was quite difficult because we didn’t know anyone. I had worked out that we could boil the barley and the linseed in an electric boiler until such time we could re-instate our Aga. (We had determined to take our Aga, come what may. Our new Landlord had spent days and days cleaning and painting the cottage and it was now bright and fresh, it also smelt clean and the prospect of moving into it no longer seemed so unattractive. We had arranged for new carpet to be laid, my mother and Freddie had altered curtains for us and had even made blinds for the kitchen and loo and an arctic van had delivered enough cleaning products for us to use on the bathroom so even that looked reasonable. Inside the bathroom was quite a big linen cupboard with a cold water tank resting on rotten slats, we had these replaced because the last thing we wanted to sort out was water flooding through the house. It seemed just such a lot to do and organise from quite a distance away. The furniture men came to pack up the house in Devon and I followed them to sort out the unloading in the cottage, leaving Michael to camp in the now empty house. He was long faced as I left, but took comfort that I had at least left him a kettle, tea bags and milk. I took Brian, Beryl and Bessie for company, leaving Lucy and Sadie to look after Michael. All the furniture arrived and we unloaded it all into the cottage along with countless boxes. We had already cleared out the sheds next to the cottage which meant that we could safely store any overflow furniture, this was a blessing because by the time we had finished there was hardly any room to move, let alone try and make sense of anything. Beryl, Brian, and Bessie tore about the place exploring everywhere and were particularly delighted when they discovered the newly bedded up stables. Graham and Lucy had been joined by Dawn and had done a fantastic job in rebuilding the stables to make them safe and secure, and I thought that the horses would settle in really well. I realised the reason for the dog’s glee when I saw that the beds were moving and shifting with hundreds of rats. When we had cleaned out the barns they had lost their warm beds and had moved into the new stables. I managed to find a pest control company who promised to come in as soon as possible but in the meantime the dogs would have a high old time. I did as much as I could that night, and unpacked until late. I knew that we would be pretty tired when everyone had finally moved so I unpacked the linen in the cupboard in the bathroom and made up our beds. Just when I thought that I had done as much as I could, I got in the car to drive home, but for some reason I couldn’t turn the interior light off. I was incredibly tired and I couldn’t see how to sort this out. I spoke to Michael on the telephone but he too was baffled, and I didn’t know a soul that I could ask. I had to get back to load the horses first thing in the morning and couldn’t drive three hours with the light on in the car, in the end I managed to unearth the Landlord’s telephone number and much to my amazement he shot around to have a look (by this time it was nearly midnight). Sadly he couldn’t work out what to do either but in an incredible act of generosity told me to take his Jeep and he would try and get our car sorted out for us. His Jeep had seen better days and if I went over 55mph it made a horrid grinding sound, in addition it was nearly empty so I spent some miles worrying that I would break down before I could find a petrol station that was open. It was a rotten drive and I got back at about 3am.

The horses were due to be picked up at 7. The lorry arrived and we loaded Sam with Tish, BT, Poppy, Frank, Monty and Anna. They all went into the lorry easily, I sat with the driver and off we went. I had arranged for Michael to stay behind and look after the remaining animals whilst I settled the horses in Wiltshire before travelling back to collect everybody else. The first journey was quite uneventful but Colin, the lorry driver had to take a break by law and this he chose to take by eating his lunch in an Asda store café in Swindon. It was one of the largest stores I have ever seen. It was agony having to watch him shovel down huge mouthfuls of congealed baked beans, and greasy sausages all the time washed down with gulps of tea when all I wanted to do was unload the horses and settle them in for the night. There was however something about it that did help, I managed to locate the in store pharmacy, the fellow behind the counter groaned as he saw my hands, they were chapped and bleeding from days of packing and cleaning and he was kind and helpful in his advice as to what cream I should use.

After what seemed an age we arrived at Rainscombe Hill Farm. It was a dark, and windy day with driving rain and the horses spooked at shadows when they got off the lorry. Horses can be quite conservative creatures and don’t always react well to change and BT, living up to his name (Broughton’s Turmoil) was particularly unnerved about his new surroundings. We had created open plan stables and the horses could easily see each other and even groom each over the dividing walls, they took comfort from this and before long started to eat their hay. I checked that everything else was ready for the goats, sheep, poultry and the rest of the horses and went into the cottage to make a cup of tea for us all prior to returning back to Devon.

10 Years at Rainscombe Hill Farm - 26th January 2002 - 2012

2012-01-25T08:14:00.004Z

The following is an extract from my original manuscript of my book 'When Sophie Met Darcy Day' Published by Harper Collins in March 2011.
It describes in detail the move from Greatwood in Devon to Wiltshire. I think it is interesting because it portrays the lead up to our move and the enormity of the decision in upping sticks and moving the charity.
Chapter 7 Rainscombe Hill Farm

Michael was driven. He began to scour all the newspapers for suitable alternative premises.

Whenever he thought that perhaps one could be suitable, he would take off early in the morning and return late at night. He always put a brave face on it, but sometimes the length of the journeys and the fact that he couldn’t seem to find anything vaguely suitable made him secretly doubt if we were ever going to succeed. In addition, our car was 20 years old, unreliable and it was hard to find enough money to afford petrol for long journeys. It was a case of food for us or fill the car.

An agent, whom we knew, had advised Michael that a farm lease was on the market in Wiltshire. The agent recommended him to waste no time in viewing it.

I hadn’t shown much interest, as he yet again went missing for the day. When he finally came back he told me that he had stopped at a town called Marlborough in Wiltshire. He had gone into a pub and ordered a cup of coffee. As he sat at a table on the pavement to drink it, he told me that out of all the places that he had visited, this was the one place that he felt that we could be happy. I hadn’t been enthralled by this little piece of information and asked him ‘how could he possibly envisage us being happy in a town, had he plans for the horses to run around the pub car park?’

Of course, what I hadn’t known, until he finally ventured the information was that as he had sat and drank his coffee outside the pub, he had already viewed the farm and had offered to take it. Thirty other people had been queuing up for it the same day and he knew that if he didn’t move we would lose the opportunity.

Furthermore’, he added as he took another swallow of pink gin, his bravery getting stronger by the moment, ‘I have made an appointment to view the farm with you tomorrow’. He took another long slow drink and added:

‘I’ll get my own supper then’.

It was a silent drive on that dreary day in the winter of 2001, as we made the long journey from Devon up to Wiltshire.

We drove through Marlborough and Michael pointed out the memorable pub (it must be the only pub that he has ever gone into and asked for a cup of coffee). I could understand what had attracted him to the town. It had a broad high street with old buildings and shops on either side with a church at each end.

Having left Marlborough we drove for about two miles until we turned into a long lane leading from the main road. I noticed a field that was full of docks, it was poached and there were several broken old bits of jumps lying around, this only added to my gloom and bad temper. We approached Rainscombe Hill Farm and were met by the agent. A cottage overlooked good farm buildings. We weren’t much interested in the cottage.

We just wanted to find out if we could make any sense out of the buildings for the horses. We were told that the present tenant had sub-let the cottage and 13 acres to some Eastern Europeans and had also sub-let one of the barns to some people who had pygmy goats. In addition a few make shift stables had been erected for separate liveries. It was a mess.

The stables were filthy, a bit of Perspex was suspended precariously over one of the open barns which banged and flapped in the wind. A good concrete yard was inches thick in years of mud with grass growing out of the cracks. Grey breezeblocks were everywhere. The drainpipes were broken and blocked with weeds sticking up from them. The yard was full of rubbish, in one area there were hundreds of old rubber tyres which had been used for silage. Inside one of the barns was an old milking parlour which had been ripped out. Electric cables dangled from the ceilings and the walls and the pit had been filled with bricks, old bits of equipment and iron. A small lean-to had clearly housed the milk tank at some stage.

As we looked into one of the barns, we did ask ourselves if we were always to be beset with welfare cases. We saw a skeletal mare that had been shut in on her own. Out of sheer desperation and starvation, she was eating her own droppings. One of her hind fetlocks had dropped to such a degree that she had no alternative but to use it to walk on. We knew that whatever we decided to do about the farm, we had to sort out this mare.

We were also sorry for a scraggy German Shepherd dog that had been tethered by a long heavy chain to one of the buildings. We could see the tracks that she had made as she tried to gain attention from anyone that passed by.

Michael continued to look around and chatted to the agent. He said that he thought that we were interested but only if we could have all the barns, (in which case the goats would have to go) and if we could have more land.

I knew then that his decision had been made, if he negotiated the land then that was it, we were moving.

I also knew that there wasn’t much point in arguing; once Michael determined on something he was immoveable.

Reluctantly I could see the potential: the barns were large and airy; we could make stables to our design, ones that horses could have direct communication with others and once the fields were re-seeded the horses could go out in herds.

The agent promised that he would try and sort out our further requests. There must have been something about us that made him decide that we would be good tenants. The advertisement that he had placed in the Horse and Hound had brought forth all kinds of people to look around all of whom declared an interest in the farm, but none had demanded anything like the sorts of things we had. It would have been much easier for him to take someone else.

He also promised us that he would get in touch with the tenants and get them to come and sort out the poor mare. When we had pointed her out to him, he, too, had been shocked about her condition.

Just as we were about to leave, we thought that we better take a peep into the cottage. One of the Russians had been lurking about, he didn’t look a particularly nice chap, he scowled and raised his hand threateningly as we entered, as indeed he had when I had attempted to make a fuss of his dog.

The cottage was small, unkempt, and dirty. An ancient oil burning stove was at one end of a narrow room and another small room contained a sink, and with filthy white cupboards, most of them hanging from the hinges.

There were a couple of small downstairs rooms with three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs. The whole cottage was grimy and horrid as only houses can go when no-one cares about them. I won’t describe the bathroom. A garden door led out into an overgrown area that must have been a garden at some stage. There was a good box hedge on one side and some kind of trellis that was held up by ivy. Beyond this, there was an area overgrown by nettles and brambles to such a degree that they all but covered a rotten falling down old hen house.

We could see that we could make something out of it. It could be pretty given a bit of work, the only problem would be fitting what remained of our furniture into it. Despite having sold a lot of it to look after the horses, we would still have too much to go into this tiny little place.

However, crucially, it overlooked the yard so that I would be able to hear any problems that may arise in the night.

When we returned to Greatwood, I couldn’t help but think that the place we had just seen was such a far cry from this, our home. I pondered over it all as I sat in our kitchen, and watched the dogs who, exhausted by their joy at our return, were sleeping on their beds in front of the Aga. Of course, my period of reverie was only achieved after I had cleared up what remained of a few cushions that Lucy, our Labrador, had eaten.

Mr Trickster

2011-12-22T16:24:00.002Z

This poor little chap has been with us for a couple of days and is pathetically grateful that he is now being looked after. A kind lady had saved him from going for meat money (not that he is carrying any meat on him) - and hadn't realised how painfully thin he was and asked us to help. We went to see him on Tuesday and within two or three hours he was at Greatwood.
Richard our remarkable vet has, as usual, pulled out all the stops to try and get him well again and we have just received the blood test results, good in one way, in that there doesn't seem to be any organ damage but he has a hefty worm burden which will have to be dealt with carefully.
We will keep you updated as to his progress.

Sunshine & Donkeys

2011-12-03T18:27:00.002Z

The new arrival of two donkeys has been greeted with glee. Jack and Simon are great little chaps, they have been with us for a week and have settled in really well. Many of our racehorses seem only mildly interested, however the big bold Sunshine Boy has been reduced to a trembling wreck on two occasions, we wonder if he'll ever get used to them!

Winter has arrived

2011-11-29T16:08:00.002Z

It has been absolutely amazing that the horses have been able to stay out in the fields almost up until the end of November. We brought in the old boys a week or so ago but it has been so mild and sunny we decided to leave the younger ones out a little longer. In the end the decision to bring them all in was slightly taken out of our hands; the mares bust out of their field, sprinted across the front of the school and generally created mayhem. They are all in now and are obviously as pleased as punch especially when it is now pouring with rain and blowing a gale!

Ravastree ran in the 1.50 on the Saturday of the Hennessy weekend, he was in a competitive field, jumped almost faultlessly (although made a mistake over the water jump) and came a very credible fourth. His first time over jumps since he arrived in England and everybody was thrilled to bits. He came home safe and was mooching around in the field on Sunday!

The sun shines on the The Greatwood Hurdle

2011-11-14T15:09:00.004Z

Despite lurching from one crisis to another; we couldn't find a minibus to take the children, young people and teachers for the best turned out, Toyboy wasn't up to date with vaccinations so only two out of the three amigos could go, and then Millfields lorry broke down in Bristol - our day turned out to be excellent. It didn't matter that we just had two little ponies (instead of five) for quite alot of children to polish up for the best turned out prize. Aaron and Poncho loved all the attention and the prize was given to both sets of teams, Mick Fitzgerald was good enough to undertake the judging. The Greatwood Hurdle was a good race with Harry Derham (who took part in our Charity Race last year) winning on the Paul Nichols Brampour.
The highlight for our fundraising was the Charity Sweepstake, masterminded by the awesome Sarah Oliver of AJA - we had a full house of jockeys and they raised a remarkable sum of over 30,000! The sun shone all day and it was just a fantastic day for everyone - This day for Greatwood wouldn't happen without the extraordinary generosity of Nigel and Penny Bunter - we owe them a great debt of thanks

The Greatwood Hurdle

2011-11-12T21:06:00.002Z

Tomorrow is the biggest day in our calendar, the card for the Hurdle is as strong as ever and it will be an exciting race. We would love it if Nigel won with Kumbeshwar! - we have a trade stand, ponies from Millfield & Greatwood will be dolled up to the nines by students who have completed our Greatwood Horse Power Course and we must thank Cheltenham, Amateur Jockeys Assoc for supporting us with the Charity Sweepstake - thank you to the FAB 12 Jockeys who are all riding to support us at 4.10 tomorrow

Red and Tish RIP

2011-11-10T17:25:00.006Z

Red and Tish died on the 27th October, just a fortnight ago today.
Red had been suffering with painful arthritis in his knees which was manageable with painkillers but in the end his kidneys began to fail. Tish, had been poorly on and off, since our Open Day in June. He finally succumbed to a particularly aggressive bout of laminitis (he had also recently been diagnosed with Cushings Disease).
These two boys loved each other as much as I loved them and sadly, the decision had to be taken to let them go together. We had looked after Red for nearly 20 years, 10of which he had spent with Tish. Red was ours before we became a Registered Charity, he has seen us go through so much and I miss seeing him and his little mate who could be seen sometimes peeping out from under Red's belly and I miss going in to see them after a long hard day, and I even miss feeding them their breakfast each morning.
I guess it will get better and I will get used to them not being here but at the moment, it just seems the end of an era.

Melanie is Treated to a Birthday Tish Wish

2011-10-13T15:17:00.003+01:00

It is Melanie's birthday today and we thought Tish would like to come in and wish her a very Happy Birthday!
We have had quite a busy week, Becky and Sam went to The Donkey Sanctuary to undergo a course prior to a couple of donkeys joining us later on in the year. They dropped off a whole load of rugs and tack to go into Exeter sales and we raised a staggering £590! wonderful news. Newie has been rehomed and we have also taken in a new horse called Tipping Tim. He is taking a little time to settle in and is really quite unsound but we will try and do our best for him.
The horses are still electing to come in before they are supposed to - Aldo has quite a nasty little puncture wound on his fetlock (dangerously near his tendon) Scotty's has achieved a really nasty gash to his front upper leg, Sam remains on box rest as does Randy with his fractured pedal bone - but at least Mally and Whisky are now repaired and back in the field.
The beds are now almost all made up in preparation for the horses coming in for the long winter months but it is over 20 degrees today so winter seems quite a long time off.

Especially For Jane

2011-09-23T13:16:00.004+01:00

Jane the very kind lady who rescued Poppy earlier on in the year is anxious to see a picture of her now....and here she is!

Horses Take the Choice about the Weather!

2011-09-20T16:23:00.002+01:00

The weather is horrid and because we are right on top of the hill outside Marlborough the weather seems to hit us with more ferocity than outlying areas. Of course, I can't help wondering why we had taken the decision to move to a farm called 'Rainscombe Hill' but there we are.
The horses are hating this sudden spell of bitterly cold weather, we've even had hailstones almost the size of golf balls - anyway, the horses will have to stick it out a bit longer because after all it is only September.
BUT It is becoming rather eventful on the injury front at Greatwood and I can only think that the horses are so eager to get out of the rain that injuries are more preferable to getting wet. It began with Sam who came in because he had been hoolying about the field with his best pal Forgery and he had tweaked an old problem in his tendon. He has been in for a couple of weeks, we think that he appears to be quite smug as he gazes out at the rain coming down in stair rods. Whiskey came in on Sunday with a leg the size of a tree trunk (the result of a rather small wound above his knee) and Tritonville Lodge had to come in today with a suspected abcess in his foot. I wonder how many more will come in over the next few days if the weather doesn't cheer up?

Jilly Cooper comes to Greatwood

2011-09-13T08:57:00.002+01:00

Congratulations to the NOCN students from Downlands, Pewsey Vale, Rowdeford, Hardenhuish, Abbeyfields and Springfields school.
We had a really exciting day when Jilly Cooper very kindly agreed to come along to present some of our students with certificates following their successful completion of our OCN course. We had a really lovely day with Jilly spending lots and lots of time signing autographs and copies of her recent book.

The Booby and Grouse Meet Gavin & Smithy

2011-08-26T11:14:00.002+01:00

Jenny McCririck visited us yesterday to bring us some goodies for our tradestand and to introduce us to her lovely new dog Grouse. Poor old Grouse was a little puzzled about the 2 very bold sheep (and a little scared) - but at least he isn't as nervy as Mabel who regularly gets chased out of the orchard by Gavin!

Maddy

2011-08-11T07:21:00.004+01:00

On the final morning that The Prince's Trust were with us, Maddy told me that she was going to leave us for a job nearer her home. Maddy has been with us for nearly six years and has steered our ship with a steady hand....so....it was a big blow for both Michael and I and everyone in the charity. Six years is a very long time and throughout this time she has arrived to work every morning at 8.30am despite having to drive through horrid weather in the winter and having to do her own racehorse before she gets here. Her boots will be very hard to fill.
We have been interviewing now for nearly a week, we have seen some strong candidates and I am glad to report that we will be joined by Fiona, I think that the helm will be safe in her hands. Luckily, she will be able to shadow Maddy in her final week and so, with luck, will not be quite so daunted at the enormity of the job.

Get Started with Horses at Greatwood

2011-07-23T11:30:00.003+01:00

This last week has been a new experience for all at Greatwood. During 2011 The Prince's Trust and the British Horseracing Authority worked closely together to develop and part fund Get Started with Horses, an engagement programme targeted at young people who are furthest from the job market to boost their confidence by focusing on their interest in horses and giving them an introduction to horses and the racing industry. They also gain practical skills in handling and grooming horses and basic first aid, team work and presentation skills.
Ten students undertook the programme which was written by Tricia and it is a testament to her skill in understanding the diversity of the needs of the students that all remained engaged and interested to the extent that they attended each day. It was wonderful to witness their progress during the week. We had a great day on Thursday when Andy Haynes was kind enough to show us around Conkwell Grange Stables and he had even held up his last lot so that everyone could see the horses on the gallops. We then went on to a 'behind the scenes' at Bath Racecourse. The students went into the weighing room, watched the horses in the parade ring and a couple of races and then went up to see the horses at the start.
Georgie came over from Northern Racing College to assess their course work during the week and the students were delighted that they all attained their certificates.
I think that everyone involved in the success of the programme hope that this is something that can be done a few times a year.

Fingers Crossed

2011-07-01T10:46:00.002+01:00

I had failed to mention that in amongst all the organisation required for running the Open Day, our neighbouring farmer phoned up to say that he thought that there was a long enough fair weather window to risk cutting our field for haylage. We agreed, and on the Tuesday of the week before our Open Day, the Met Office predicted 7 days of dry weather. We cut the grass, only for the weather forecast to change and it looked as if we may lose the entire crop. This would have been a disaster because not only would we have to then buy forage when it is at rock high prices owing to all the dry weather in the Spring but also we would have to pay for the fertilizer, cutting and getting someone to take it away. Thankfully the haylage was ready to bale on Saturday and James worked until after midnight to wrap it. The heavens opened on Sunday morning but at least our winter forage was saved.
We cut the remaining hay fields a couple of days ago,and given a fair wind, baling should take place on Sunday. Fingers crossed for continued sunshine!

Back to Normal

2011-06-28T08:53:00.002+01:00

We always take it for granted that there will be alot of work running up to our Open Day but we rarely remember that clearing up afterwards also takes time and energy. For example, despite having an industrial bin from the council, it has taken us all this time to get rid of all the rubbish left around everywhere - so goodness knows how long it takes the Glastonbury organisers to clear their site.
We are back on track with working the horses - and we do have a number of potential carers that are coming along who seem to be fairly realistic upon what future career our horses may be able to embark upon. Harriet who helped us to such a great degree with the PR for our Open Day (and also sat on the Newbury Raceday Committee) has been coming in most mornings to give Robbie a hand working Scotty's. We did encounter a bit of a set back when it appeared that Scotty's was feeling his back a bit, but we asked Richard to come in and x-ray it and although he is a tiny bit sore there is nothing sinister going on. Harriet rode him for the first time yesterday and I think that she and Robbie will be taking Scotty's out for his first hack later on this week.
We are in the midst of organising putting the wonderful piece filmed by Attheraces on our website and perhaps utube, so for all those that didn't manage to come along you will at least have a bit of a taste of the day. Other than that there is nothing much to report, funding is as difficult as ever and it doesn't help that Malapropism seems to be singlehandedly working through our vet budget - he went out into the field for the first time along with Aldo, Ravastree and Poltergeist; and despite going into our safe post and rails field came back with a wound that needed staples and stitching and he had to have the vet again yesterday because he had an extreme allergic reaction to..........flies, and this was the horse that I thought would be relatively easy and not quite so high maintenance as some of the horses we take in!!

Rain and More Rain

2011-06-09T10:29:00.003+01:00

The Open Day began with a knock on my door just before 6...I was just about to leg it out of the door to feed the every hungry orphan lambs (Gavin and Smithy) when Nicky tipped up, and so the day kicked off in pretty good time. It had been a bit of a sleepless night for us all because the thunder and lightening had rattled around our hill in sporadic bursts and we were expecting the heavens to open at any moment - in which case the horses would have been soaking wet and probably covered in mud (we had taken a bit of a flyer and left them out in the fields, thinking that they would be calmer during the day when we brought them in)... luckily this was not the case and we just escaped by bringing them in the nick of time. I am absolutely astonished by the number of kind and generous volunteers that arrived dead on 7.30am - Sam Ricks with daughter Keira, Susie, Gary et al, I think there were about 20 kind and generous folk in the end, all willing to turn their hand to anything, at one point I even saw Sam clearing out a drain.
It is always exciting when the tradestands start arriving and you can start to see the day take shape and before we knew it visitors started to arrive, including Peppa Pig. The arena displays were fantastic although Coudy was a bit disappointed that little Transpique didn't perform quite as well as usual; TP was a bit taken aback at all the flapping of the banners and couldn't concentrate but it didn't really matter he still managed to give everyone a small glimpse of his tricks. This was followed by an inspiring glimpse of Polocrosse undertaken by Neil and Karen Smith from Horsewyse, I am sure that it will encourage many people to take more interest in this relatively new sport (kind of a lacrosse on horseback) and it was even more impressive because they used 4 ex-racehorses. Mr Andrew Hoy was phenominal, he demonstrated the art of teaching a horse to jump and his finale jumping over 2 blocks was extraordinary. Then came the parade of horse led by Menorah (the winner of the 2010 Greatwood Hurdle)followed by Blazing Bailey, Strong Flow and Bindaree. Then we had the rehomed horses: Lesley with Fairfax Flicker, Patrick with Mistress Polly, Graeme with Park Lane Princess, Helen with Natterjack and Rachel with Farnborough. The horses looked fantastic - Helen won best turned out with Natterjack but it was a really hard call! Tish the naughty little Shetland pony disgraced himself yet again by bolting out of the arena hauling poor Becky behind him but not before he had managed to give her a hefty boot on the shin. South West Greyhound Rescue came out in force and paraded their greyhounds and it was moving to hear some of the sad stories. Huge huge thanks to everyone for making such a great show and taking the trouble to turn up.
Tricia and Harriet were flat out in the outside classroom organising the children's crafty corner - Harriet told me her back was killing her after bending over for 5 hours helping children with their painting and poor Tricia hardly had a moment to turn around, I don't think either of them had time for lunch. Kayleigh, Melanie were fully occupied at the tradestand, with Maddy and Craig ducking and diving gathering the money from the cars. It was a fantastic day, and all credit to everyone.....
Big thanks to TH White for sponsoring the day, to Richard from Mcgonnell and Gillatt for ensuring the welfare of the horses throughout the day, William Hill and Charlton Baker. I must mention Turf Legends - their support in producing Greatwood shirts is unbelievable - please support them and us by ordering them - great shirts - great value and great generosity by Turf Legends.
The only downside was that the weather was simply dreadful, it poured with rain most of the day but at least it didn't put everyone off from attending.

See our New Arrivals at Open Day on the 5th June

2011-06-04T07:21:00.002+01:00

In amongst the long days and hard work in preparing for our biennial big Open Day we have also taken in a number of new arrivals. Following the loss of Noddy, Peejay and Reg we have had to beef up our number of sheep and goats. The first addition to the Horse Power flock were six 12 week old pygmy goats - I hadn't intended on taking in quite so many but there we are! Kate, my neice, is over from Australia and is undertaking work experience here and she has become great friends with Amy. The two of them have spent alot of time in looking after the kids and trying to get them tame enough to be used with our visiting children. The next addition were 2 orphan lambs (called Gavin and Smithy), they are an absolute delight; Kate and Amy have been bottle feeding them and they are growing well. There is a bit of a downside because I hadn't quite taken in that they need feeding through the night.....and who is on call? so I have had quite a few weeks of broken sleep!
A rather unexpected arrival came in the shape of an outstanding looking horse:
Poltergeist - The Hon Harry Herbert had called me in the week to ask if we could help Highclere Thoroughbred Racing by taking in a 4 year old gelding. He went on to explain that this gelding had sustained an injury to his knees. He made a good recovery following surgery but when he ran again at Newbury at the end of May, he was extremely upset and lost alot of condition in just one day. It was decided to retire him and because he is so young and has such a kind nature the syndicate wanted to see if he had a chance of a future in another career. Of course, I agreed to help because Highclere are fantastically generous in their support to Greatwood. What I hadn't quite counted on would be that he would arrive so soon! It did throw us into a bit of a spin because we had already allocated all the boxes to our horses but we have sorted a box out for him and he can now be seen tomorrow. He is such a beautiful horse so do come along if you can!
Let's hope the Met office have the forecast wrong......

A Holiday For Ravistree

2011-05-11T16:22:00.002+01:00

Ravistree came to us on Monday for his holiday. He was on good form and we turned him out pretty much straightaway with his companion for the summer Aldaado. Both horses settled together and I even saw them lying down the following morning. It will be a good break for Ravistree and I am sure that it will do him good. Chris came over to watch him being turned out for the first time and although I was quite relieved that he didn't ricochet off the fences, it was a bit of anti-climax when he just put his head down to graze.
We have had a few more additions to the team - 6 pygmy goat kids which Amy and Kate had great delight in naming; there is going to be a children's competition on the Open Day to see if anyone can successfully come up with the correct name for each goat. I have also picked up a couple of Belwar orphan lambs, Gavin and Smithy which were transferred over to me in the A&E car park in Swindon as the half way point. That must be a first for the hospital!

RIP Noddy

2011-04-26T09:12:00.002+01:00

We lost Noddy a few days ago. She lived to the not inconsiderable age of 14 years which for a sheep was pretty good going. Our friend Sid had made his annual visit to shear both Noddy and Rosie and we came to the sad conclusion that Noddy was now too frail to undergo shearing. On welfare grounds (heavy fleece and the strong risk of being fly blown) we had to put her to sleep.
Noddy and her brother Big Ears had been born in Devon when I had a large flock of sheep. Noddy was a weakly triplet,and Big Ears was rejected by his mum, therefore both had to be brought up by hand. Fortunately I had sold the flock before the devastating foot and mouth outbreak, but I kept back Noddy and Big Ears because by this time they had become extremely tame. Big Ears was a one off, I think that because his mum had so little time for him he much preferred humans and considered us his family. Most orphan sheep retain a certain wildness but Big Ears behaved just like a family dog, he loved to have his tummy tickled and we used to have a real job keeping him out of our large Devon kitchen! Big Ears became one of the largest sheep I have ever come across and in keeping with his name had huge ears. One day, when we were still in Devon, I realised that Noddy and Big Ears were missing. I looked high and low to no avail. Finally I got into our ancient rather battered car and went up and down the lanes trying to catch a glimpse of them. I only came across one flock of sheep (there must have been 200 or so in one field) and just thought I would see if they happened to be in amongst them, (I had little hope), anyway I called out and to my absolute amazement I saw one sheep look up and that sheep had big ears.... two sheep made their way out of the flock and ran down the field, I opened the gate, opened the car door and they hopped in the back and I drove them home. They never strayed again. We lost Big Ears a few years ago but Noddy lived to a great old age.

Good News

2011-04-20T10:39:00.002+01:00

We are all delighted that Malapropism recovered from his operation and he came back to us at the weekend! he has lost a fair amount of condition which is hardly surprising but is otherwise on quite good form. I have to thank our vets Mcgonnell and Gillatt for their amazing diagnostic skills and care and also Jessica at Valley Equine in Lambourn, without their help Mally would not be with us today. He has to undertake a month's box rest with walking in hand two or three times a day and after that he should be good enough to go out in the field. He is already showing a bit of a cheeky side, he is fed up that he can't be fed hard feed yet and is a bit disgruntled about having to eat soaked grass pellets but almost turns himself inside out if he sees a packet of polos!
We are thrilled to bits to have him back in one piece - the sleepless nights and nursing were worth it.

Poor Malapropism

2011-04-11T10:14:00.002+01:00

Only just a couple of days after I wrote about Malapropism (or Mally), he appeared to become even quieter than usual. We had used him in the photograph for the local newspaper article about the children and young people who had successfully completed the OCN course. He was so so withdrawn on this occasion, that although he had eaten up in the morning, we took his temperature - it was sky high, (39.5, it should be around 37.5). Gudrun our vet came to see him, gave him a good check over and administered painkillers and anti-biotics, thinking perhaps that he had some sort of infection. His temperature came down and he appeared to be responding well to the medication. He seemed to be uncomfortable and off colour the following morning and this time Richard came to see him, we were both beginning to suspect that there was something else going on. Richard scanned his belly, and that together with a peritoneal tap confirmed that he was suffering from peritonitis. His medication was increased and Richard was optimistic that we had caught it early enough. Mally deteriorated that night and I feared for him but yet again our vets (this time Richard's partner Andrew) came along and managed to stabilise him. Our vets came along at least once a day for the next week and I kept an eye on him every two or three hours during the night for the next eight nights. He went downhill on Thursday and Claire detected an impaction, he was then tubed and we hoped that he would recover. On Friday morning he became very ill again and Gudrun and I began to worry that this was becoming a welfare issue. The impaction hadn't shifted despite Richard's own recipe of solution that is proven to be extremely efficient in clearing impactions of the gut. Mally was such a good patient throughout, and because of his determination (and ours!!) we decided to send him to hospital. Nicky, from Marlborough Horse Transport arranged for James to come and pick him up within the hour and off he went into the capable hands of Jessica, the surgeon at Valley Equine in Lambourn. Mally was operated on Friday afternoon, and as Richard had suspected all along, he was suffering from a ruptured abcess in his large colon and another couple of tears in his large colon. The operation was a success, Mally came round alright and Jessica rang me yesterday to say that he was doing as well as could be expected and 'so far so good'. I'll keep you posted.

Malapropism - New Arrival

2011-03-26T11:27:00.000Z

Malapropism
2000 chesnut gelding
Compton Place – Miss Malaprop (Night Shift (USA)
154 starts 14 wins 37 places (flat).
We were asked if we could help this horse by finding him a good, safe and secure home. He had been at livery nearby and was greatly loved and looked after but his owner wanted to feel that he could have a second career. We looked up his form and were astounded. I have only ever come across one horse that could even try to measure up to his number of runs, and that was Montendre with 104. We popped over to the yard to see him and I have to say I was expecting a sharp little flat horse, and he was quite the opposite. He was standing in a stable with his head buried in his hay net, a hen was pecking around his feet and he hardly looked up when went in. This was not a case of being shut away he is clearly well balanced and well adjusted and not at at all like Monty who spent most of his time on his hind legs when we led him anywhere. Mally came in and took everything in his stride and didn’t bat an eyelid when he saw a goose fly past with Mable the Unstable (our Jack Russell) firmly attached to its tail.
We have taken in some more new horses - details to follow

All Change

2011-03-21T16:30:00.002Z

Sue has come in at least once every week since she has supposedly been off on maternity leave. When she came in last week I gave her the unenviable task of deciding when we should start to turn the horses out. After some puzzlement, worry about a ridge of low pressure,and concern that the temperatures may drop, she decided upon Thursday of last week. The younger fitter (and naughtier) horses went out first. We always ask our vet to come in to sedate them a little beforehand (it saves injuries caused by over exuberance at their sudden taste of freedom after the winter). We decided that Jack (Wild Colonial Boy) and Fundamental should join the younger crowd because although it is unlikely that they can be rehomed they are a little too boisterous to go back in with our old boys. We also turned out half of the girls and it all went extremely well; Zero and Luca had their first taste of being in the herd and Zero was a bit of a scary cat and stuck to Luca like glue in case he lost him in amongst the others. We just had to turn out Deano's, he had already spotted something was up when all the rugs came off and headcollars had begun to be put on, he is funny, he knew immediately it was all change and began kicking out at his box in his anxiety to go out. Everyone is quite relieved that there isn't quite such a lot of mucking out to do although we are expecting some new horses in over the next few days.
Jenny McGregor MBE, an old friend of ours, (founder of SWHP) had been featured highlighting the plight of some 1800 horses that had been left in a pretty shocking way. I had asked her if we could help and she told me that she had a pretty little mare called Dee Cee Elle and it would be terrific if she could free up some space and would we take her in? So Ellie has come in and settled and has made friends with Poppy. We have also taken in a smart little gelding called Tritonville Lodge and I rather hope that given a little bit of time we shall be in a position to bring them into work with a view to finding good homes for them. I'll post some pictures up in due course.

Saturday the 5th March

2011-03-07T16:05:00.003Z

Michael Yeadon & John McCririck
Six whole months of planning finally came to a conclusion on Saturday. We had spent most of Friday afternoon packing up the cars, so that we could arrive in good time at Newbury the following morning. It really is astonishing as to how much stuff you need to prepare and take..... tables, cloths, chairs and posters, let alone all the auction lots and silent auction boards. We had to pick up enough tartlets to serve to nearly 300 guests as well as take all wine. We arrived at Newbury just before 9 to set up what has now become our major fundraising day for the year. I have been blessed with a terrific committee and we have achieved sponsors for all the races. All sorts of people very kindly and generously offered some stupendous lots for us to auction and Jenny McCririck has been absolutely amazing in sourcing many prizes.
The pavilion at Newbury was full, and nearly 270 people sat down for lunch. Steve Styles, a great friend of Bill Simpson, ran the auction with dear Henry Hannon jumping up now and again to cajole people to bid more. Henry and Kim Bailey conducted their extremely popular and amusing version of Heads & Tails, this is something that is gaining in popularity each year and is not only great fun but also a pretty good fundraiser. I think everyone enjoyed themselves and have already started to book their tickets for next year!
Ravastree ran 6 out of 8 in the fifth race, he dropped in at the rear 3 out, he is still young and he may only run once again before being put away for next season.
The only slight downside to the day was the sad loss of two horses and our sympathy goes to all the connections.

Our Raceday on Saturday

2011-02-28T17:00:00.004Z

We are all working absolutely flat out trying to get everything ready for the raceday, incidentally we have almost sold out but we do have 4 tickets available on a first come, first serve basis! Do please contact us if you would like to come. Harriet arrived this morning to see the classroom full of lots of displays and pictures and expressed a certain degree of horror because she was expecting a group of children any moment. Thankfully we managed to clear it up in time for the children's arrival but the office where Melanie and I work looks like it has been hit by a small incendiary bomb and Maddy's part doesn't look much better. Nevetheless, all is going to plan and we look forward to a successful fundraising day. Sue came in last week and today, despite expecting her first baby in just a few weeks, just to help us prepare everything.
It looks like Ravastree will be running in the first race which will be really exciting.

Weekends......

2011-02-15T07:12:00.002Z

Last weekend started off quite quietly but as it wore on it was apparent that it was going to be another of those times - Bank Holidays and or out of hours, when the vet would have to be called in to help.
About five years ago we were asked to take in three orphan white kids (as in goats),we called them Bill, Ted and Reg. They were in pretty good health and we bottle fed them for some weeks and they soon became very friendly and great characters. However, one called Reg, continued to be rather frail, he suffered from a skin ailment which gave him and us a level of concern. We couldn't quite get to the bottom of what exactly provoked the onset of his extremely irritating and itching coat, which would then result in the poor little chap rubbing and scratching until places became raw. We tried all sorts of things, changed the type of bedding, the food and treated him for the obvious skin complaints. Nothing really worked and the only way to keep on top of it was to administer steroids when he was particularly laid low, this although, not ideal, made him feel alot better and between bouts he gavorted around in as good health as any of the others.
In the last week, he had been quiet and generally off his food, we kept him warm and gave him as much attention as we could, Becky sat by him and tried to tempt him to eat, but sadly, on Sunday, the vet decided that we would have to say goodbye to him.
So dear old Reg passed away, in amongst his dear friends, Bill and Ted and of course everyone here. He was a great goat and will be sadly missed, and he had been very good with the children. I can only think that perhaps he didn't receive enough colostrum when he was born and consequently he didn't have sufficient anti-bodies to keep him going well into adulthood.
On Saturday, Michael and I were invited for lunch in The Royal Box at Newbury, it was a day that promised good company, and good racing, sadly all brought to a hasty conclusion by the tragic death of two horses before the first race resulting in the whole meeting being abandoned. It was horrible for both horses and people and sympathy has to be felt with the owners, trainers and lads and lasses who lost their horses on that day. A real tragedy.
On a brighter note though, Ravastree ran a good race at Exeter in pretty ghastly conditions, he kept up mid field but was slightly one paced and couldn't keep up with the two leaders....still 3rd second time out was good and we are hoping that he will run in The Novices Hurdle at Newbury on our raceday. March 5th!! don't forget we are offering cut price tickets!

First Day At School

2011-02-07T15:59:00.003Z

This should read the first day in the school. We use the sand school in the winter to let the horses have a good old buck and a kick and a roll. They really love it and hurtle about at full speed and more often than not come in covered both in sweat and sand and are a nightmare to groom. Aggy and Poppy have been led out in hand every day from the moment they arrived. But Saturday was the big day when we felt that we could give them their head and let them have their turn in the school... always a bit nerve wracking!
We led Poppy round so that she could get used to it and then let her off the headcollar. She dropped straight to the floor, rolled three or four times and then got up and had a good old buck, a kick and a belt around the school. She then refused to be caught for ages. Aggy was different, she was slightly nervy but she wandered around, rolled a few times and then proceeded to frighten everybody out of their wits by trying to balance on very shaky crooked legs as she attempted to scratch her quarters. They both had a good time, and came in unscathed, although by the time Poppy had finally agreed to be caught the coffee was cold.

The Book is Well Underway

2011-02-01T14:35:00.003Z

Harmony River - Poppy

Harper Collins have just been in touch to say that the book about Greatwood will be published on the 3rd March. It is a collection of stories about animals and children, and explains about our work from the inception of the charity until now.
It is called 'When Sophie Met Darcy Day' and can be ordered in advance from Amazon.

We have also taken on another chesnut mare that needed our help(see above), her name is Poppy and she, like Aggy, is in her early twenties. She is a very sweet and kind mare, but from the moment she walked into the row of boxes (known to us, as the 'girls row') she took one look at Aggy and hated her immediately. We had to pull her out for the farrier quite soon after she arrived and although she was in the ally just outside Aggy's stable and certainly beyond even sniffing distance, she squealed if Aggy had the audacity to even glance at her. It is a case of hate at first sight and even gentle little Tara has difficulty in keeping the peace between them. Sue and I just wonder how we will manage them when they do have to go out in the field together, at the moment, it looks as if one will have to be at one end of the farm and the other in the next county.

New Arrival

2011-01-26T16:29:00.002Z

This little mare (Aggy) came to us at the end of last week, and probably just about in the nick of time. Her previous owner had struggled to keep her and the only place she had found was at a farm in a field full of cows. Of course, this meant that the cows pushed Aggy away from any food or hay, the ground was wet and poached and there was little cover from the rain. She is such a sweet horse and has already stopped retreating to the back of the box when anyone approaches and I think we saw a bit of contentment in her eyes as she rested in her box with a lovely deep warm straw bed as the rain came down in torrents outside.

Deano's JUST had to be in the picture!

2011-01-25T13:37:00.001Z

A Saturday Morning with Greyhound Rescue

2011-01-25T11:57:00.003Z

GRWE is the leading greyhound rescue charity in England and Wales independent of the greyhound racing industry. GRWE is dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation and re-homing of abused and abandoned greyhounds and lurchers, and re-home around 800 dogs a year. Our work with rescued ex-racehorses is so similar that we decided to join forces on a few occasions to help each other raise awareness and funds.
We have a covered barn, used for exercising the horses in winter, and following a visit from Michelle to make sure that it was safe and suitable for the greyhounds, we were pleased to welcome them here on Saturday morning.
I had thought that the sudden influx of people, all with dogs on leads, sporting wide varieties of brightly coloured coats would put the horses in a bit of a twitch. Montendre is directly opposite the school and I was prepared to see his anxious, unhappy twisting face if he becomes upset by anything. Nothing could have been further from the truth; the horses all looked over their doors and continued munching on their hay. It was a great morning, and the covered barn worked really well for the dogs, some belted about and some just stood around, hoping that they could return to their warm beds! We are hoping that some of the rescued racehorses will return to parade on our Open Day! Don't forget - June 5th - it is our big one again this year and all being well and fingers crossed for the remainder of the season, Menorah and Khyber Kim will come and join our well loved parade of racehorses.

Ravastree at Newbury

2011-01-21T14:36:00.000Z

Ravastree's First Run

2011-01-20T14:31:00.002Z

Michael and I had a meeting at Oaksey House before we went off to Newbury. It is the first time that I have been inside and it is absolutely wonderful. We were shown the gyms and all the facilities and it was extremely impressive. The design is particularly interesting in that it does not carry the feeling of an 'institution'
Well done all at IJF!
We met up with Chris, Friend of Greatwood who bought Ravastree, there was something really exciting to see Ravastree in the parade ring in all our purple, he's not a particularly big horse and was a little overshadowed by Alan's other runner Pride in Battle who is big scopy chap (and won). Ravastree ran a good race and although he looked as if he was going backwards half way, he held on and despite a mistake at the 7th he came in 4th. We were all really thrilled, I did manage to have a word with Gavin James (official photographer for Newbury) who is an absolute star because he said he would send us a couple of pictures at some stage.

AT LAST!

2011-01-18T15:34:00.002Z

Due to the vagaries of the publishing world, it just seems to have taken forever to reach this point, but I am delighted to report that all being well 'the book' will go to print on March 3rd. So I am now in a position to start popping little bits and pieces into the blog.
Some time ago, a friend of Greatwood arrived in the office, dropped an extremely welcome and generous cheque on the desk and announced he had a plan and 'would we like it?'. It turned out that he'd nursed a long time ambition to own a racehorse in training. We happened to have been invited to Alan King's Owners Day and asked if Chris could come along. Alan and he went to the sales in the evening at Cheltenham during the Open and with that he bought a now 5 yr old gelding called Ravastree and is running him as a Greatwood horse, in my old colours ( which are, of course, purple)
Alan has entered him into quite a hot race at Newbury tomorrow, look out for him in the 2.05... Michael and I are going, I'm hoping that Robbie will come along as well, and I'll let you know how he gets on!

Greatwood - The Book

2009-10-17T07:55:00.002+01:00

There has been a bit of a silence from this end, to say the least.

I have been flying around, but the main reason for the lack of news is because I have been asked by Harper Collins Non Fiction to write a book about Greatwood.
This is great news but the writing of the book is going to take a huge amount of time. The deadline is at the beginning of March, which in itself poses a problem because of all the work over the winter when the horses have to come in. But hey ho.
It is exciting to have been asked and I hope I do it justice.
This brings me to another point, having to write 75,000 words by March will probably mean that I will have precious little time to write the blog. Therefore, we have decided to wind up the blog, but we will continue to keep you up to date with news on the main site.
Just before I sign off (for the time being anyway), I have to ask something.
Does anyone in Wiltshire have a good tempered,and good Jack Russell dog? I don't care if he isn't the prettiest....
Mabel, (see on website under 'About Us') is my sweet Jack Russell. We have kept the same family for something like 60 or 70 years. She is the last in the line and I can't find a dog that has long enough legs....!!
If you do know of anybody it would be great, I would really appreciate it.
Anyway, all from me for a bit, I will still write the newsletter.....
Thanks for reading this over the last few months.
Best, Helen

The Arrival of New Horses

2009-09-24T11:34:00.002+01:00

We have had such a lot to do prior to the visit of HRH, The Princess Royal, I haven't been able to get round to writing about the arrival of three more horses.
The first to arrive was: Red Beaufighter by Sheikh Albadou out of Tart and a Half
(the dam also the dam of the talented Assertive)
Red Beaufighter is 9 years old and the poor chap had a decidedly uninspiring racing career. We were asked to take him because his previous owner didn't have suitable facilities to care for him properly. He had escaped from his field and had been hit by a car, so she would have had to keep him in his stable pretty much forever.
Hard on his heels, Craig Hill Cracker arrived, by Michelozzo out of Tuftarney, a 10 year old gelding with an equally uninspiring career. We had been asked to take this chap in because of lack of facilities and his future looked uncertain. He seems a nice little fellow albeit with the worst ear plaque that I think I have ever seen. This condition has made him extraordinarily headshy and I think we will have a bit of a battle to try and help ease the situation.
Then we had the return of Quixotry, who is now 18. He came back to us because his elderly companion had to be put to sleep and he would have been on his own.
Quix made us chuckle a little. He jumped down from his box with alacrity, had a quick look round (obviously remembering his old home,) strode into his stable and proceeded to munch hay.
His neighbours however, nearly died of a heart attack. Quix is now almost white and as he came into the yard, they all jumped and hurtled about with their eyes popping out of their heads. It all settled down after a bit, but we have a job with integrating very light grays into the herd, they always seem to get bullied. Horse racism!
Anyway, despite worrying that his new companions may plague him when we turned them all out into the field, it was fine. Although, Quix clearly remembered that when he was with us last, he had been out in the fields with the mares. He proceeded to spend quite alot of time gazing longingly over the fence at the 'girls', they didn't help the situation by flirting on the other side.
We have new stables being built at the moment...pictures to follow.

2009-09-24T07:37:00.002+01:00

Transpique bowing for the occasion. The Princess Royal was highly entertained by his performance, although after it was all over Coudy was shaking like a leaf.

The Wooden Spoon Unsaddling Enclosure & Willie Carson

2009-09-22T11:18:00.003+01:00

I've been hanging on a little to try and get some good photographs of our Royal visit yesterday, but they are proving a little slow in coming so I thought I would write a bit about it and then post some pictures later on. (I have to say that I am hugely impressed that Kim Bailey, our Patron, has already some pictures of The Princess Royal and Transpique on his website: www.kimbaileyracing.com). Anyway, after weeks of preparation, finally the day of reckoning arrived....The Royal Visit to Greatwood. Practically all of us had difficulty sleeping the night before, and if we did sleep we all had nightmares about what could go wrong. We took one nightmare scenario out of the equation by removing Whiskey, Georgina and Marshall out of the stables adjacent to the marquee just in case the close proximity of the microphone sent them barmy (it would have been difficult to get them out because there was a huge tea urn in the way). We had pretty much thought of everything, even putting signs on the tiniest little steps to prevent headlong falls.
Covered Occasions of Marlborough had expertly erected the most splendig marquee actually on the yard.
Dr Willie Carson OBE kicked off the day by kindly agreeing to present certificates to those children that had successfully completed the Open College Network accredited Greatwood Horse Power Course. He was very encouraging to the children and told them that everyone has a particular gift, and that they should make sure to find theirs....his gift was being small. He rode 4,000 winners worldwide and was champion jockey five times.

All was spick and span, there was a bit of a red alert when it looked as if HRH was running early but it all went to plan. The Princess Royal was cheered by the children that took part in Greatwood Horse Power and they waved flags. Laura, was presented to the Princess Royal and she talked to her about her work with the children. The Princess Royal had a chance to see some of the work by the children as she passed through the classroom to see the Wooden Spoon Unsaddling Enclosure. The Princess Royal is Patron of The Wooden Spoon.
We are thrilled with this additional facility at Greatwood which was funded entirely by The Wooden Spoon, it comprises of a further loo, and washhand basins, a quiet room, and a kitchen....luxury indeed.
Her Royal Highness returned to the marquee to unveil the plaque, and before her departure she was amused because we had arranged for Transpique to take a bow.
We were complimented by the Royal Party because it had all gone like clockwork...all the rehearsals and hard work was worth it!

Almost Injury Free

2009-09-07T14:23:00.003+01:00

The week without Robbie and Sue has been fine, although Lara their dog has been a bit worried without them. We had a slight deluge of injuries for a few days....BT's gash, followed by Whiskey and then Sunshine Boy.
Whiskey came in with a huge left foreleg, he just had the tiniest mark below the knee, and I think that he had been fooling about and maybe got his leg caught somewhere which then got inflamed. He came in for a few days with Marshall and George(ina) and then was joined by Sunshine Boy, who came in with an equally massive leg.
Sunshine had suffered from lymphangitis a few weeks ago and it had obviously reoccurred. He looked perfectly alright but nevertheless we took his temperature and it was 39.2. I doubted this and thought that maybe the thermometer had broken, we tested it on Warren but it was ok...unlike poor Sunshine. Anyway, a cocktail of various drugs sorted him out and he was back to normal in a few days.
It has been a relatively quiet few days really, the yard are all out and about undertaking a quad bike training course, and we have moved Deano's from one field to another. Deano's, being a creature of habit, was highly indignant about the whole affair. We took his breakfast out to him and he was so busy hurtling about that he had overlooked the fact that Paul had taken advantage of the situation and scoffed his breakfast as well as his own. When Deano's realised this, his indignation knew no bounds.

Her Royal Highness, The Princess Royal

2009-08-26T08:30:00.002+01:00

We have just received confirmation that HRH The Princess Royal is coming to Greatwood on the 21st September. We have been very fortunate in that The Wooden Spoon Trust granted us a sizeable chunk of money to create a cloakroom, additional loo facilities and a time out room for the special needs children.
As you can imagine, this has thrown us into a bit of a spin, and we are already targeting areas which need sorting out, licks of paint etc. Nevertheless, we are absolutely thrilled, it will be a great honour to receive her at Greatwood.

Sue is running around like a startled gazelle this morning. She, and her fiance Robbie are off to Egypt tomorrow and she is desperately trying to get everything done before she leaves. I am really excited for them that they have finally got something together to go on holiday, but a little nervous that my two key people in the yard aren't going to be here! especially in the light of what happened on Monday when Robbie had taken a long weekend to fulfill a long wished for ambition to take his bike around the Nurbergring, and it was Sue's day off!
Mikey arrived to work in bad order, I took pity on him and sent him home after breakfast, and that left Coudy, Dan, Lucie and me in the yard. Richard our vet was due to come in with Polly, our physio, to work on Bunkhouse and Insheen. All would have been well if it hadn't been for a number of injuries throughout the day culminating in poor old Richard having to return to Greatwood at 6.30pm to try and attempt to stitch a gash on....Broughton's Turmoil. When Dan told me at evening stables that there was yet another injury, this time in the old boys field, I hoped upon hope that out of all the horses it wouldn't be BT. My hopes were dashed. BT is a dreadful patient, he fidgets, hates injections and has a keen left or right hook if things get a little personal. He even managed to aim a well directed jab at Richard's hand as he was trying to clean him, even though he was sedated.
Anyway, it was managed in the end without all of BT's toys being thrown out of the pram, and we turned him out again into the field later on. I led by torchlight, followed by Dan with BT and Coudy with Mikko. It would have been hopeless trying to keep BT in for the night because unless everyone in the old boys field comes in he acts like a complete nitwit.
Let's hope Monday isn't an example of what will happen over the next ten days!

New Seeker

2009-08-17T10:32:00.002+01:00

I have had to hang on for a few days before writing this particularly sad bit of news until such time that Elite Racing Club and Axom could contact their members.
New Seeker died here at Greatwood on August 12th.
Robbie and Mikey had just about finished field checks but when they looked over New Seeker it was apparent that all was not well. The vet was called, he treated New Seeker and I kept an eye on him overnight. He appeared to be alot better the following day, was a little stiff, but wasn't in any pain, he was eating up well and was bright and alert. He deterioriated the following morning and it was our vet's opinion that euthanasia was the only option in order to relieve his suffering.
New Seeker had ongoing unresolvable issues with both his knees and hock and he had clearly had an acute episode resulting in spine/pelvic trauma.
New Seeker came to us in October 2008, and despite the fact that he was quite high maintenance we are all nevertheless very sad that he won't be able to enjoy the long and happy retirement that we had envisaged.
RIP New Seeker

What a Day

2009-08-10T00:25:00.003+01:00

I am on night duty tonight, because we have had just one of those days, fortunately at the moment it hasn't ended in a tragedy. I try and grab Sunday's off, which usually works but nevertheless I remain on call. Sue got hold of me this morning to say that Warren Knight was completely immobile in the field. Some of the horses in one particular field were being bothered by the flies and there had obviously been some sort of fracas resulting in a few injuries.
Having looked at Warren, it was clear that we needed a vet. Warren was in extreme pain and unable to bear weight on his right hind leg. We treated Warren for his pain whilst we waited for the vet to arrive. Our vet, was already out on another call, so poor Lucy stood with Warren for an age to keep the rest of the horses away from him, and Coudy, Dan and Sue dashed around with fly sheets and fly spray for the rest of the horses until such time the vet arrived.
One look at Warren confirmed our worst fears; there was no way that we could get him into the yard without some sort of transport...which we don't have. I telephoned Nickie at Marlborough Horse Transport and she kindly agreed to come over to try and get Warren down to the yard, but she was at a show with her son and it would take a bit of a while to get to us. We then waited for Nickie, and greeted her with relief when she arrived. Warren was still uncomfortable but his pain was being managed. I hopped in the lorry and up we went to the field. I suggested to Nickie that it would be best to turn the lorry in an entrance so that we could try and load Warren facing the right way to the yard so that it would be the least possible movement for him.
Blow me down, the lorry got stuck in a rut, and we had to ask our neighbouring farmer to come out and tow the lorry out. We then had to wait for Gerald to come. In the meantime, Lucy was still holding Warren...this whole excercise took up about three hours.
One of worst fears when eventually the lorry was finally in a position to load Warren, was the very real possibility that he would be too unsound to manage the ramp, however with another load of painkiller we managed to load him without too much trouble and then we set about x-raying him.
It had been our initial fear that following an x-ray it would be clear that Warren had fractured his hock, but despite many pictures, and that Mike had managed to send over the pictures for a second opinion this could not be confirmed.
Warren is now in for the night, he is comfortable, and it does look now as if he will recover.
Sadly, I missed a day with the family to celebrate Michael's birthday; what with one thing and another we were waiting around for about six hours, but hey ho that's horse's for you!
I have just come in again from looking at him, thankfully he appears to be alot better and is dozing....lucky old him.

The Weather

2009-08-03T11:52:00.002+01:00

I hadn't realised until I started writing this blog quite regularly, how pretty much everything revolves around the weather! So....I shall begin by writing about it once again.
As feared, the weather last week was horrendous, we did manage to unearth enough rugs to keep all the horses dry, but even so, we kept the old horses in for a couple of nights because it was so ghastly. We are on top of a hill so I do think that we get the worst of it. The days were dark with the wind and the rain driving across the fields. Monty, Eddy and Runner were particularly thrilled to come in out of it all, and there was a general feeling of contentment in the sanctuary barn as they gazed out at the pouring rain.
Anyway, we have taken the bull by the horns this morning and dared the rain to continue by removing the rugs. Apparently, it is going to be much better this week, which wouldn't be hard......
Richard came along to do a vetting for some of the newer horses, it was jolly good for our work experience girls because he very patiently went through the things to look for in general conformation, which will, no doubt, be useful for them when they go back to college.

Bad Backs (continued)

2009-07-28T01:17:00.003+01:00

Following on from our vet's visit last week, Richard had arranged to meet Polly, a chartered physio at Greatwood yesterday morning. He had decided to sedate Bunkhouse and Insheen to relax them sufficiently in order that Polly could work on them to try and release areas which had seized up. Polly spent a particularly long time on Bunkhouse, he was pretty sore all over, particularly through his neck and poll area. It was Sue's holiday and Becky's day off, but they were both sufficiently interested in the procedure to tip up for the morning. After Polly had manipulated them, Richard then injected cortisone into Bunkhouse's poll and sacroiliac, he also injected along Insheen's back. Hopefully, this treatment will help them. They are both on box rest for a couple of days and then they will have a few weeks off before we bring them into work again.
We had been a little anxious about Mighty Minnie, she had been going on and off lame but we also wanted an update about her eyes. We had looked at her eyes six or so months ago and had detected a cataract upon her right eye, and a little cloudiness on her left eye, however subject to regular check ups this shouldn't have affected the ability to rehome her. We were, therefore, staggered when Richard's examination of her right eye confirmed our worst fears. Her sight had deterioriated to such an extent that she has very limited vision. We are all pretty devastated, not least because she is such a sweet good mare.
I am off later on this morning to go and have a look at a couple of yards which may suit as satellite yards, but my first quest is to see if we have rugs for those horses which feel the cold (we have sent a load off to be mended), so I hope that we will find enough. Apparently, the next few days are going to be pretty dreadful, the horses have been ok so far, but certainly the old boys will need them, and we will need to get New Seeker, Titch and Chewie in out of the storm. New Seeker hates wet weather and just hangs about feeling cold and miserable and none of see much point in letting that happen.

Bad Backs & Dreary Weather

2009-07-21T14:25:00.003+01:00

I have been with Richard our vet this morning. We had had some concerns over a few horses and our worst worries were confirmed, yet more cases of kissing spine....we did talk about it and it may be that owing to mobile x-ray units we are capable of diagnosing the problem easier. Anyway, sadly poor old Warren Knight has it so badly that it is untreatable, so now he will be off to the sanctuary. It is a shame because he had been going so well until the work made him sore. Insheen has a milder case and we will inject his back with cortisone, we never got round to properly x-raying Red Willie because we spotted a bit of shading in his eye, we looked at it further and realised that he has a fairly sizeable cataract on the eye (3/5) which has appeared within the last 6 months.......making it very probable that it will continue to deteriorate. Better news for Bunkhouse, we x-rayed his neck and poll and could see a small amount of damage which we can then treat, and he too has bones along his back which are touching and painful, but again, he can be treated with cortisone.
So a bit depressing really, the weather doesn't help, Laura, Head of Special Needs had organised a number of groups of children to visit, I am sure her life would have been alot easier if she had been able to go out into the sunshine instead of these continual heavy downpours!

Jodie Kidd Gala Evening

2009-07-19T04:13:00.002+01:00

We consider ourselves to be very fortunate that Jodie Kidd nominated Greatwood as one of her four chosen charities to benefit from The Jodie Kidd Foundation. To this end, Janet and I whizzed down to Goodwood to attend the Jodie Kidd Foundation Gala Evening. For the last couple of years, Jodie has organised a celebrity golf day followed by dinner and auction. It was a splendid evening, and although the auctioneer had to work quite hard to achieve the bids, I think that it raised quite alot of money and everyone enjoyed themselves. It is very good of Jodie to put so much time and effort into raising money for 'her' charities, and it certainly makes an immeasurable difference to us. Thank you Jodie.
It has been a bit of a hectic time all round. We went to Nigel and Penny Bunter's Barbury Castle Horse Trials the day before, and took a table for lunch. This is always a splendid event, well organised and well attended with an incredible line up of top event horses taking part. It was great to catch up with so many locals who wish to support Nigel and Penny and enjoy the terrific spectacle.
Michael and I were approached recently by Harper Collins who wish to publish a book about Greatwood and how it all started. We have spent quite a while going through alot of archive material, (that in itself was a bit of a mammoth task, involving delving through loads of boxes which were housed in a pretty grotty shed). Anyway, miraculously we appear to have pretty much located everything we need. This is a bit of a miracle because we once employed someone to help us file everything, and to our consternation realised that her filing involved lots of black rubbish bags, all of which were aimed for the bin.
Other than this, everything has been fairly quiet, although we are rather hoping that our work with the horses and special needs children will be featured in the Sunday Times today. The horses themselves have been doddling along. We have several in work which we hope will be rehomed before too long, and as for the rest, they are enjoying a peaceful and restful time in the fields. I think that they are a bit relieved that it isn't quite so hot but we could do with a bit more sun now.

Memories of Devon

2009-06-29T11:43:00.002+01:00

Michael and I have just returned from a trip to Devon and Cornwall, part business and part the sad business of the funeral of a dear old friend. We had a bit of time to spare when we were in Devon and went to have a look at the place where the charity more or less began.......now so many years ago.
Our old house is almost unrecognisable; the wing that was semi-derelict has now been done up, and all the old barns where I used to squeeze in any number of horses have now been converted into holiday cottages. We met an erstwhile neighbour after the funeral and she reminded me of her horror when she used to have to drive past our house. The narrow Devon road used to be full of goats, sheep, and hens...........
It did seem funny to remember those days, when horses used to copy the goats and clamber up the Devon banks to nibble on the ripe blackberries, and we used to herd the horses up the roads to get into the fields.
Our horses are doing well and now are covered in not only fly sheets but also Sue's unique fly spray concoction (which smells disgusting). The A&E wing is getting horribly full, Whiskey had a swelling on his hock and had to be brought in for box rest (which means that we had to bring in Georgina and Marshall) and then Seek the Faith tweaked his hock following a fit of exuberance after a shower of rain.
We took in a new horse Tua, he is a good sort, but has been lame so Richard our vet is coming in tomorrow to have a good look at him.

Greatwood Open Day

2009-06-19T09:53:00.002+01:00

It's over!! and more or less without a hitch.
Dan & Coudy with TP and Forgery were remarkable, everyone really enjoyed their show, Dan as the wicked Knight Mordred was booed and there were great cheers when Coudy as Sir Galahad won the fight.
It was a bit nerve wracking at one stage because Forgery nearly boiled over and I was watching Robbie (Gaylord) to see if he was going to pull Forgery out, Dan did really well to sit on him particularly because it was such a hot day and the armour was so heavy. Mikey as Mincealot fought Mordred with great aplomb and all in all it was a raging success. It has been suggested that we should do something at Lambourn Open Day next year..........we'll see.
Bob Hogg was terrific with his dogs, although, sadly, I didn't get much of a chance to watch his show and the finale with our neighbour Graham just finished it all off brilliantly.
We were a bit fed up that perhaps it was not quite so busy as we had hoped, and I think it has made us all certain that we should have an Open Day every three years as opposed to every year. It is such alot of work and is totally exhausting! We loved seeing some of the old champions again, it was good of their owners to give up their time. Strong Flow won the Best Turned Out.
Ian, the carer of Beacon Flight came along to deliver the Best Turned out Prize and whilst he was here he remarked that he would really love another big horse, he spotted Maharbal and it was love at first sight.
Ian is just the most lovely man, and although Sue shed a tear when Marble left us on Monday, this lovely kind horse couldn't have a better home.
We have another horse coming in to day..........will write about him in the next post.

Beer and Brooms

2009-06-13T07:12:00.002+01:00

We are just entering the last day before the big day.....everything that has been stationary has been painted, every little crook and cranny has been cleaned, hairdressing has been in for the horses, and so we are nearly ready.
We did a semi rehearsal of the tournament yesterday and the full blown one will take place this morning.
This will be an interesting exercise, Dan and Coudy will be wearing their Knight's armour for the first time, Janet is bringing in a couple of hessian dresses for Robbie and Mike, and Conan the Barbarian music will be blasting out, and I have got to try and remember my lines!
So far, the horses have taken all the activities in good heart, we have been practising with the megaphone all week so that the horses that are remaining out in the fields don't have a blue fit. Deano's and Paul are now so unenthusiastic about the whole affair that they were flat out snoring in the adjacent field.

Maddy has been dashing around dicing with certain death putting signs on the side of the road. Laura and Harriet scrubbed out Red's barn, which was a relief, John has completed erecting the poly tunnel, Robbie has weeded for England, Mikey has driven in enough posts to rope off areas, that he is just beginning to suspect that this is all life is about, Becky, Hettie and Sue have made up straw beds until they are seeing double and Coudy and Dan are rehearsing every waking hour. Danny has helped with the commentary and Janet is busy advertising the Open Day in just about everything.
We spent hours yesterday scrubbing all our acres of concrete, and at the end we rested our brooms and opened welcome bottles of beer.....the next time we reach for the opener will be after it is all over!

Making Hay While the Sun Shines

2009-06-03T13:55:00.002+01:00

We have just finished hay making. The haylage bales are wrapped and the hay has been baled and is now safely under cover. What a relief!
It has been an uphill battle for the last couple of years to make enough good forage to last us for the winters because the weather has been so wet, so we are delighted that we don't have this particular headache.
We are all working hard towards the Open Day, Sue has taken off her Welfare Manager hat for the time being and is now sporting her Gardening Manager hat. The tubs are being transformed into artistic delights and even Mikey has become enthusiastic.
Last seen he had drilled a few holes in an unused water trough, filled it with compost and it is now overflowing with bedding plants.
Maddy has waited for years for a bit of software which will make her life easier when she needs to design programmes and leaflets, it has now arrived and now this year's Open Day programme will be her particular work of art.
Janet is working on the PR and contacting people to advertise the Open Day as widely as possible...do come if you can, if you are a friend you can come for a private viewing, and the public can arrive at noon.

Cabinets at the V&A

2009-05-02T08:41:00.002+01:00

Kim Bailey came up to me at our recent fundraising race meeting, pressed a note into my hand and suggested that I follow it up. With all the various things that you have to do following a fundraising event...(lots of thank you's!)...It took a few days for me to step up to the mark. Following a very interesting 'phone call, Michael and I were invited for lunch with the most generous couple, who had inherited a couple of cabinets which were currently being stored at the V&A. Their wish was to donate the proceeds of the sale of the cabinets to Greatwood and to Hearing Dogs for Deaf People.
Following a delicious lunch we were shown the photographs of the cabinets. They are beautiful Spanish HUGE pieces, inlaid with ebony, ivory and tortoiseshell. We met Jonty over lunch (incidentally, Jonty told me that he was the auctioneer when John and Jenny McCririck raised money for us in Celebrity Cash in the Attic), and he told us that the cabinets were valuable and collectable and that they will be offered up for sale in November. I'll try and post some pictures of them because they are stunning, and I'll let you know how the sale goes on. It is with great thanks that we acknowledge this extraordinary piece of generosity and are grateful to Kim for the introduction.
The small animals have a number of additions, a couple of chicks which two hens are squabbling and squawking over and to date a couple of goslings.
We waited until the weather became a little more settled and then turned out the rescued 2 year old colt (Whiskey, or more appropriately Windy because he is scared of his own shadow). We had stabled George next to him, George had been really kind to the colt when they were in but I wasn't quite expecting what happened when we turned them out together. I have ever seen anything like it.
Marshall, George and Windy went out into the strip next to the old boys. We were prepared for Windy to panic in a large strange area. George circled around Windy, flatly refusing for Windy to have anything to do with the old boys who wanted to sniff and squeal at the newcomers. George behaved exactly like a mare with a foal......Windy was a little nervous when the marauding crowd of old boys came over and he actually looked under George's belly as if there might be a miraculous supply of comfort milk on tap. George continues to 'mother' Windy, moves him along if he gets too near to the fence, and trots after him if Windy strays too far away.
George has become Georgina.

Latest on Greatwood

2009-04-17T08:25:00.004+01:00

Despite our concern about Deano's, the old fella travelled really well. He arrived at Lambourn as cool as a cucumber, and stood in the lorry for at least half an hour whilst we were waiting to be called for the Parade. He just looked out of the window patiently even when kids on ponies whizzed by. We have decided that he has a signature walk when he is on show, he sticks his nose out in a very determined and individual fashion. Nothing fazed him at all, even when some Shire horses came up close. He strutted his stuff, took everything in, got back in the lorry as good as gold and came back here as cool as he had arrived at Lambourn.
This is good news, we haven't paraded him for two years because he travelled so badly last time, it now means that we can take him elsewhere without too many qualms.
It is always interesting for us to realise how greatly he is still held in people's affection. Countless folk came up to us to admire him, and reminisce about his victories on the racecourse and his occasional bouts of stubborness.
Eddy is now alot better, he has been on quite alot of medication which seems to be clearing up the abcess on his back and he is no longer so uncomfortable. He is much happier out in the field with his pals now but we can't get a rug on him as yet, so we are keeping a close eye on him to make sure that this current deluge of rain doesn't make him too cold.
It is half term, (the children come back next week). We took advantage of the unused classroom to welcome Andrew Poynton, our consultant farrier here, to hold his Imprint Sport Shoe Advanced Farriery Techniques Training Course. We brought in Proprius, Seigneur de Paus, Just Jim and Double Rainbow for Andrew and his trainees to work on. Proprius, was the only horse that slightly blotted his copy book by behaving a little badly, but other than that I gather the day was a success.
The new cloakroom is of great benefit to us for all kinds of reasons, it is great to be able to hold these kinds of days here and to be able to provide the proper facilities.
Robbie gave up a couple of days of his holiday to try and sort out the ruts on the track that the tractors made when they were clearing out the slurry lagoon. Mikey got some grass seed and with luck the place may look a little smarter in time for our Open Day.

Cool Dudes

2009-04-09T10:45:00.003+01:00

Sue and I had worried all night about turning out New Seeker and Fairfield Lodge. Both horses had been on box rest for months....and although we ask our vet to sedate them to make it safer, it can still be pretty hairy when they come round and realise that they are in a big open space....
We wasted our time worrying. Both horses immediately started grazing and haven't lifted their heads since (even when Park Lane Princess and Minnie galloped up and down the fence line, which wasn't particularly helpful)
We have found out what is wrong with Eddy, he has an abcess along his back, poor chap it is clearly really painful and the trouble is that it is a horrid place to try and drain.
We decided to let them out to graze for a couple of hours. Monty, Runner and Eddy pulled like trains with Eddy bucking on the spot like a two year old, making us realise that there is life in the old chap yet.
Sue is getting Deano's wardrobe ready for him to parade at Lambourn tomorrow, and is already dreading travelling him. Deano's is notoriously bad in the lorry...

The Big Clear Up

2009-04-07T12:30:00.002+01:00

We have been dreading it..but it has been so dry we just knew we had to go ahead.
The enormous muck heap in the slurry lagoon has been cleared. James,Gerald and Barry along with 2 huge tractors and JCB started work on it at 9am and didn't finish until late afternoon yesterday. The trouble with this procedure is that the tractors and trailers have to drive through the yard and around the buildings leaving the inevitable trail of detritus in their path, which we then have to clear up by hand. Oh joy of joys...especially when Becky, Robbie, Hettie, Coudy and Lucie were on holiday.
We had to bring in BT and Al, although BT has been entirely used to tractors throughout his life, on this occasion this whole situation was just too dreadful and simply would not be borne. I then had to juggle him around to try and make sure that he was out of earshot (impossible) and certainly put him somewhere where he couldn't see what on earth was making all that clatter. I've always said that whoever named him Broughton's Turmoil got his character on the nose. Oh well.
Matt Day Robinson finished the fencing in the orchard at the weekend. It looks really splendid and will make such a difference to Laura because the children can now be in a safe area. It's just a bit of a shame that we have had to put the contents of the slurry lagoon adjacent to this wonderful bit of fencing, and it's just a bit of luck that Matt DR is not around now to see it.
Talking about the children, Matt overheard one little girl ask if all those animals in the fields were buffalos............
We have spent all morning clearing up the yard but at least that is one less thing to do before the Open Day.
Steady Eddy isn't so good. He is thirty and although he has been exceptionally well all over the winter, we had to get Andrew our vet to come over and have a look at him on Sunday. I couldn't quite work out what was wrong because he couldn't put his head to the ground and was inexplicably sensitive pretty much all over. After a bit of head scratching the only thing that we could come up with was that he had taken a fall in the field. He is now in with Runner and Monty (which Monty is a bit fed up about)but you can't separate these old timers. I'm hoping that a few days of painkillers and enforced rest will see him feel a bit better. It's always worrying when elderly horses 'go down' with any ailment because it can very well lead to something more serious.
Anyway, we will have to wait and hope he is ok. Sue has just come in to tell me that he can now put his head on the ground to eat but is still uncomfortable, so, sadly for Monty they will still be confined to barracks.
We have just done field checks only to see Sam and Forgery have quite a serious squabble over the possession of a bit of wood that one of them had found.
We have nearly all the horses out now, and are hoping that New Seeker and Fairfield Lodge will go out tomorrow, this is great news for them both but because they have been on box rest for so long, extremely nerve wracking for us!

At Last!

2009-04-03T15:06:00.002+01:00

The majority of the horses are finally out to grass. It has taken us about a week to sort them all out into the fields. We use the school in the winter so that the horses can still have a play, a buck and a roll..this saves the fields for the summer but it does mean that it can be a bit of a hairy exercise turning them out for the first time. Our vet appeared to visibly blanche when she saw nineteen horses take off at full tilt and then launch into the pond....
The old boys rather surprisingly went off at a more sedate pace and haven't lifted their heads since.
BT continues to go through a bit of a tough time because he was so under par when he came back. He has developed an abcess on one of his legs and is on heavy medication, but he is going out on good grass with his pal Al and it is to be hoped that he will pick up before too long.

Growling at Greatwood

2009-03-27T06:35:00.002Z

This title seems a little more apt than Sleepless in Seattle, because although we are sleepless (but clearly not in Seattle) we are a bit growly. We were all set yesterday to turn twenty two of the horses out. Following days of sunshine, the heavens opened and although Greg our vet was all set to go, we couldn't, in the end, get the horses out into the fields. We had really hung onto this, everyone here is very tired, Becky can't wait until she has enough time to get to a chiropractor (mucking out fifty odd stables each morning takes its toll upon the most stalwart).
So, we will have to wait until the weather clears up a bit.
We could, of course, have taken the opportunity earlier, if we hadn't just fertilised the land and had our time taken up with organising and running the race day at Newbury.
Talking about the raceday: It was the most beautiful weather and it was great that the guests could enjoy their drinks in the early spring sunshine prior to the lunch and the auction. We are immensely grateful to Ladbrokes for their sponsorship and of course Blue Square, without their support we would have had great difficulty in making the day such a success.
Alice Plunkett was terific in taking up the cudgel as MC as well as Chair of the committee. The committee were extremely pro-active in organising and achieving not only guests but also fabulous auction lots. Mick Fitzgerald gave us an informed run down of the racecard, and Kim Bailey and Henry Hannon entertained everyone with their version of Heads and Tails....their version being the opposite of the usual, resulting in a certain amount of bafflement. It was funny, and kicked off the day brilliantly. Luke Harvey ran the auction quickly, efficiently and with his usual great humour, so all in all it was a really fabulous day, achieving a spectacular sum which given the current clime was no mean feat.
Dantari won the Blue Square Supports Greatwood Juvenile Novices Handicap, trained by Evan Williams and ridden by Paul Moloney (also one of Mick's tips). Despite Dantari being penalised for winning at Fontwell six days earlier it was only he and Rory Boy who fought it out at the last.
The Ladbrokes supporting Greatwood race was won by Oliver Sherwood's Lyes Green with Dominic Elsworth on board...Oliver won this race last year, so it will be interesting to see if he can make it a hat trick next year.
It has been, as usual, busy at Greatwood, counting and banking the money was time consuming (but rewarding), the thank you letters seem to be taking an age to complete and meanwhile I have to write the quarterly newsletter to our friends to get out in time for Easter.
The only one blot is perhaps the plight of the new rescued colt, we are having a real job getting him up to speed after his preivous malnourishment. Let's hope Doctor Green will make a difference.

Fabulous Fundraising at Newbury!

2009-03-23T14:58:00.004Z

We have just spent all day counting the money we raised on Saturday for our Newbury Raceday! Unbelievably, we have raised more than last year.....Over 40k!
More news to follow.

The End is Nigh

2009-03-14T07:41:00.002Z

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!

Greatwood To The Rescue

2009-03-02T07:11:00.002Z

I am aware that there has been a bit of a silence from this end. Last week was HECTIC. It began all very well with a successful meeting at Newbury Racecourse. We finalised the details for our Charity Raceday on March 21st. All seems to be going according to plan, with tickets sold out...all is sponsored apart from the champagne, so we have been supported really well. We then had a busy time preparing for the children to receive their certificates for the Greatwood Horse Power OCN accredited course. Everyone, as usual, applied their hand to get everything ready.
The classroom was cleared, seats were found and cleaned, and everything was tidied.
Luckily, we were able to squeeze everyone in the classroom (parents, teachers and children). Mick Fitzgerald gave up his time to present the certificates, the children were delighted to meet him and were fascinated when he explained that he had risen to jockey stardom despite not coming from a horsey background. It was then a dash off to look at some horses that had been reported to us by another horse welfare charity.
The plight of these horses has resulted from the current economic clime. The horses were greatly loved but financial constraints had put their welfare at risk. We decided that we had no alternative but to try and help as much as we could. We arranged to pick up a couple that week but we will have to try and sort out the remaining ten.......oh dear... and we are choccabloc. Sadly, there is no-one else to help, not only the horses, but the poor people who are at their wits end.
Our team here rushed around to build a couple more boxes...(out of straw), and Sue, Robbie and I went to pick them up. We arranged to meet the horse box and our vet at the yard. We sedated them for travelling. One little fellow was in quite a sorry state, and Sue and I are still suffering having practically carried him into the lorry. Robbie stayed with them for the journey in case there was any mishap.
Both horses breathed a sigh of relief when they got to Greatwood, took one look at their deep warm bed, and settled down to tuck into the haylage.
The poorest horse (a two year old colt) has then spent the last few days either sleeping or eating.
A hurried visit to London and more meetings saw the week out...hopefully this week will be a little saner. Watch this space to find out how we house the remainder of the horses that need our care.

Filming at Greatwood

2009-02-19T14:02:00.004Z

ITV West Today came to see us yesterday and filmed us for a couple of hours.
Rebecca from ITV is running a feature on what happens to racehorses when their racing days are over. We explained that whilst our work is predominantly rescue, we do, from time to time, help those owners that wish to secure the future of their well loved racehorses by sending them to Greatwood.
We invited Dan from Elite Racing Club to talk about New Seeker. Elite Racing Club are exemplary in their care for their retired club racehorses, amply portrayed by their insistence in paying for the recent and expensive operation on New Seeker.
New Seeker remains on box-rest following his operation but he has begun to be walked in hand. Mikey brought him out of his box and New Seeker hurtled off down the aisle like a bullet....well held by Mikey. New Seeker proceeded to try and kick any horse that had the audacity to become too familiar. He is clearly feeling very well and recovering!
Dan and Forgery (Newbury Spring Cup Winner)demonstrated a couple of training exercises, and Hettie, Robbie and Lucie rode Minnie, Pateley and Proprius in the school. Although it was one of those horribly dull and misty days, I think that the little film will be interesting. We will let you know when it is going to be shown.

Tony McCoy and Deano's Beeno

2009-02-14T10:43:00.002Z

Having just written a few words about Deano's, we have just realised that Deano's has been under our care for five years. He is now seventeen. Tony McCoy, has received great acclaim over the last couple of weeks, not least because he has just achieved his 3000th winner.
It is therefore, a great testimony to Deano's that Tony wrote the following in a recent article in the Daily Mail:
'I've been lucky enough to ride some fantastic horses - Brave Inca, Master Minded and Best Mate to name a few. I've said I thought Gloria Victis was one of the best but, believe it or not, Deano's Beeno was one of my favourites. He was a hurdler many racing fans will probably remember, he ran 57 times in some of the top races and won 13. He was a real character and not often the most co-operative. I was suspended for giving him a crack with the whip before the start but I admired him.
He'd keep going and never give up. If I was a racehorse, I would be like him, a bit tricky but if you encourage me enough, I'd keep going!'
We would like to add that even in retirement, Deano's remains a real character and from time to time, is certainly not the most co-operative.
We are planning to parade Deano's at the annual Lambourn Open Day on April 10th, it is a wonderful day out for all the family and you will be able to witness Deano's in his full glory.

Deano's Beeno

2009-02-14T08:18:00.003Z

As the snow is slowly receding, we decided that it would be a great opportunity to take some pictures of the horses in the snow. The idea being that we could use a good one for our Christmas card this year....as it transpired the horses had a different plan.
Sue plaited up Deano's and out he went. The moment he stepped out of his stable, he clearly expected an audience, on he charged up to the school area, looking all around him, maybe for applause or flashing cameras? who knows what? he then proceeded to become irritated that he had to stand still and pose and did his level best to drag Sue around the district.
We then went on to photograph Transpique, he behaved with decorum, and listened to everything that Cody asked him. He is a really clever little horse, Cody has taught him a few bits and bobs to show on our Open Day, one of his tricks being to lay down, having just had a small tap on the fetlock. He was a bit unsure about all the white stuff, but obliged with great aplomb.
However, Mighty Mini and Pateley proceeded to let the whole show down. We only asked them to step into the post and rail field...just how scary was this? Minnie had a fit of mild hysterics as she stepped onto the snow and then proceeded to unship the intrepid Robbie in some sort of order. Pateley, was a little better behaved, but did treat Mikey to some spectacular twists and turns.
The Chrismas card picture will have to wait for another day. Having said that, none of us are in any rush for more snow.

Nearly Back to Normal

2009-02-10T14:55:00.002Z

James, our neighbour has just come up to shovel the snow off the road with his tractor. We are now in the lucky position that people can actually come and see us without ending up in the front field, or in the bungalow sitting room. The weekend has been pretty horrid, with perhaps the worst blizzard on Friday....but still everyone made it in. I think that tempers may be a little frayed now, especially as it looks as if we may be in for more snow at the end of the week. The horses are in a better frame of mind because they have been able to get out for a kick, a roll and a buck, although we can't exercise yet because the school and the lanes remain under a thick blanket of snow.
We had been alerted to 30 racehorses that perhaps needed our care but thankfully, it appears that they have now been successfully placed in new homes.
We have a full house in the office, and all the yard staff came into the classroom for our Open Day meeting (being held on June 14th), so lots of organising to do.. March 21st Raceday and then of course the Great Sunday Lunch on November 1st. It should be added that Lara the Rhodesian Ridgeback nearly cleared the whole meeting by leaving a rather large calling card in the cloakroom, which then wafted breathily into our meeting. Nevertheless, everyone was terribly polite and didn't point an accusing finger at anyone until the actual perpetrator was found.
Lara left the room to recover, and we were left with the aftermath.
We must remember to take Lara to any meeting when we fear it may go on too long.

ASBO Day

2009-02-05T11:52:00.002Z

Robbie has just walked into the office to announce that as a senior member of staff, it was with great reluctance that he had to declare an ASBO on Hettie....
Anti Snowball Behaviour Order. It seems that everytime he has his back to her, a snowball whizzes past his ear.
He also declared that Leguard Express had been given a verbal warning (for tipping over his water bucket) and also that the likes of Fifi, and Charlie had automatically been given yellow cards for repeated offences..(again tipping over the water buckets).

And More Snow!

2009-02-05T10:33:00.002Z

Three cheers for all our intrepid team! despite the heavy snowfall over the last couple of days everyone has still arrived for work. This is no mean feat when there seems to have been some shortage of gritting and snow ploughs. Maddy abandoned her car yesterday along the drive and she slid to a grinding halt but was aided by Robbie and Mikey armed with grit and brute force. Robbie and Sue have had the worst journey each day, coming from Andover but nevertheless have made it and even full of good cheer. We did have a celebration a couple of days ago, because Sue, our Equine Welfare Manager has been here for two years, that together with Laura's birthday the day before brought a little cheer into all hard work that is needed when the weather is really bad.
After all the yard had been finished, everyone had a snow ball fight, Hettie coming off the worst as she was submerged into the biggest snowdrift in the yard. Nick and Alex (the farriers), joined in and even Greg our vet was treated to a barrage of flying snow.
The geese have been behaving rather strangely, we had to trek over a couple of fields yesterday to retrieve them. I think that they had forgotten where home was due to the blanket of snow.
We haven't been able to get the horses out, and they are becoming a bit grumpy now, but we couldn't possibly get them into the yard because it is about 2 foot deep in snow. We are lucky this morning because at least some of the water drinkers are working, which saves us having to cart loads of buckets of water around.
No-one from the office has made it in today...the schools are closed.

Snow Falls on Greatwood

2009-02-02T13:21:00.004Z

The snow has been steadily falling all morning. For some reason, the snow has drifted into one of the barns, and we have had to use our outside rugs for the horses on one side of the barn. We haven't been able to get the horses out at all, but they are perfectly contented looking out as the snow falls all around them. They are lucky, they are warm and well fed....we aren't so lucky because we have had to fill all the water buckets again from just the one working tap! I wish we could afford to place electric wiring on all the pipes to prevent them from freezing.

Bookies Are Coming Up Trumps

2009-01-27T08:30:00.002Z

We have just received some brilliant news. William Hill have kindly agreed to sponsor our Open Day on June 14th. We are now being helped and supported by Ladbrokes, Blue Square and William Hill. I think that it is tremendous that despite these gloomy and difficult times these bookies think enough of our work to dig deep into their pockets. It is of particular value to us because our donations are down about 40%.
So it is all systems go to arrange an Open Day that William Hill can be proud of, we are already training a few of the racehorses to perform some unusual moves...so watch this space to see what we can come up with......
We had so many visitors yesterday, Honda came up with 8 volunteers to set up the poly tunnel in the orchard. A very generous couple, Mr and Mrs Abrahams kindly supplied the poly tunnel, so that our visiting children may learn how to grow plants and vegetables. We then had a visit for the morning, from Filton College accompanied by Jerry Watkins, Welfare Manager of Horseworld in Bristol. It was an enjoyable visit and it was good to explain about our work to the students, and also to welcome Jerry here for the first time. It is important that we keep in touch with other welfare charities. Interestingly enough, Jerry told me that like us, he was expecting to have to take in alot of welfare cases, so far, the situation has not been as bad as he feared.
Our neighbouring farmer kindly comes over each week to move our large bales of straw and haylage about so that we may get to it easier, unfortunately a bit of an error of judgement resulted in the tractor grab making a gaping hole in the roof...so we then had a visit from a roofing contractor to try and fix it. Andrew Poynton, our consultant farrier came to shoe a couple of horses with difficult feet. The electricians came to sort out some dangerous wiring, we had a number of deliveries, and then finally the monthly visit from our vermin control officer.
A busy day indeed.

Luke Harvey

2009-01-24T11:34:00.002Z

Luke Harvey has kindly agreed to be our auctioneer on the 21st March at Newbury Racecourse. I felt a bit uneasy about asking him to help us again, but he generously accepted. There are still some tickets left so do ring our office should you like to come.

A Good Week And News of New Seeker

2009-01-24T10:34:00.004Z

We have had a good week - Blue Square have jumped in alongside Ladbrokes to cover the race sponsorship for our charity day at Newbury Racecourse on March 21st. The raceday in March is proving to be one of our most successful fundraising occasions, and this year's plans are shaping up well. Kim Bailey is going to run Heads and Tails again at the beginning of the lunch, he is clever and funny and it kicks off the day brilliantly..so with Alice Plunkett acting as MC and Mick Fitz going through the card it looks as if it is going be great fun.
Greg our vet,has just given us more or less the thumbs up for the future of New Seeker. New Seeker came to us in October because Elite Racing Club wished to ensure his future. He had a brilliant race career on the flat winning almost £400,000. He arrived to us in great shape, albeit he had an enlargement of the right hock following a bit of over exuberance in his previous yard. As time went on the swelling did not subside and we decided to x-ray. This revealed a couple of fragments around the joint. Greg recommended surgery, now this is something that we normally would not be able to afford, and so we asked Elite Racing Club if they would pay for the operation. It is typical of Elite Racing Club to so readily agree, they have a terrific sense of responsibility for all their horses. We had to make sure that previous injury to his knee would not break down following anaesthesia, but all was ok. New Seeker went to Dr Sven Kold at Willesley, Sven is one of the leading orthopaedic surgeons in the country. Sven told us that in addition to the fragments of bone which had to be removed there was also a large amount of coagulated blood covering the lining of the joint. It took a total of 40 litres of saline to flush through the joint in order to remove the inflammatory debris.
Anyway, New Seeker came through the operation as right as rain. We have had to dress the wound every four days in addition to using a hock Pressage bandage. He has borne his box rest with fortitude, and is now walking out in hand. He has been sound from the outset and we are now waiting for a culture to come back having drained some of the fluid from the hock. So, depending on that being clear, the fellow is well on the road to recovery. So that is a relief all round. I must say, he is certainly a big chap for a flat horse! Greg thinks that given sufficient time he may recover sufficiently to be ridden.

A Welcome Visit and Water Everywhere.

2009-01-20T11:14:00.003Z

Jeff and Mary Herrington suddenly appeared at the door! We got to know Jeff and Mary when were in Devon, indeed Jeff can remember us right at the beginning just as we were trying to set up Greatwood. Jeff was a mounted policeman and has been a field officer for the then ILPH (now World Horse Welfare). Jeff used to come and see us quite often when he was passing and was a terrific help and support to us, so you can imagine how pleased we were to see him again. He still works tirelessly for the welfare of horses and he has his hands full keeping an eye on the horses and ponies in the South West. He and Mary were delighted to see how Greatwood has changed and progressed since its inception, but were clearly staggered as to the number of horses we have in our care. They looked in one barn and just saw row upon row of horses backs.
Everyone is still pleased that the freezing weather has disappeared, morning stables appears to be a doddle, now that we haven't got to fill one hundred or so buckets from one tap! Meals on wheels for the horses this morning saw Deano's have a nervous breakdown when suddenly a torrential downpour beat down upon his roof, and a blocked drain sent a torrent of water from the cloakroom gushing past his feet. No water one minute and too much the next.
Red and Tish became too exuberant in the school and Tish lost his rag, resulting in a little bit of first aid. While Red's leg was being attended to (the 16.2h horse here being the casualty, not the 22 inch pony) We took Tish to see everyone in the office. He nonchalently strode through the cloakroom, had a peek in the classroom, and a wander in the office. He was mildly interested to munch the remainder of Janet's apple but seemed a little keener on meeting Lucy who was trying to work on her computer at the time.

Exciting News for our Horse Power Programme

2009-01-14T17:36:00.002Z

It has been one of our aims to extend our successful Horse Power programme to Independent schools as part of their charitable enterprise in their local community.
We have just returned from a leading independent school and are thrilled that they seem equally as enthusiastic to replicate our Greatwood Horse Power programme in their local community. Once this has been established it would be very exciting to think that their may be a chain reaction which would result in Horse Power going countrywide in the name of Greatwood.
The journey to the school was of particular interest, Janet was at the wheel, and despite warnings about icy roads, we decided to take a rural route which resulted in a great deal of slithering and sliding on 1 in 4 hills, with advancing cars performing Strictly Come Dancing, with graceful pirouettes and chassis into the ditch.
Sue looked after all the dogs here and told me that she had decided to take Hannah and Mabel for a walk, that all changed as it transpired that Hannah took Mabel and Sue, having spotted a very captivating deer, they probably finished up in a ditch as well.

Greatwood Launches its new blog!

2009-01-12T14:31:00.003Z

Here is a test entry!