The Booby and Grouse Meet Gavin & Smithy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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......