December Darragh
Storm Darragh nearly blew us away. The rain wasn’t too bad but the wind was ferocious, whipping branches from trees and shaking the last of the leaves to the ground. Near Bourton-on-the-Water, toppled pointed firs blocked the main roads for more than a week. At Jackdaws Castle, we faired a little better, but Darragh still thundered, wailed and bashed through the boundary woods, the snap and crash of broken branches drowning out the usual yipping shrieks of foxes.
Down at the pens, the wind felt worse than up at the main yard, which nestles in a dip once made by a stone quarry that was there long before a racing yard. It made yowling noises through the metal gates like strange instruments, thudded the tin roofs and rattled the wooden sheds. The horses, warm under their cosy rugs, huddled together and turned their tails to the onslaught, heads down and wet forelocks daubed to their faces. They all happily came in from the field, despite my expectation that the wind would have wound them up and made them impossible to catch.
By Sunday morning, the roof of the shed in the new pen had rolled back like the lid of a sardine tin. A couple of the white wings on the schooling ground and a tree near the gallop were flattened but there was no major damage.
Early Starts
Usually when I start at 4:45, the yard is quiet, with the exception of head lad Johnny Kavanaugh feeding the first yard. The metallic clash of the kick bolts, squeak of the feed trolley and the rattle of feed signal where he has started his first task of the day. Yet, on Saturday 7th December, the Aintree runners were being loaded in a commotion of staff, hooves clattering up the ramp, lights shining and voices calling out.
The early start was to no avail. Aintree and Chepstow were called off – the Aintree staff were half way there when they found out. Yet, as a consolation, Bill Joyce (William) won a Grade 2 hurdle at Sandown, where Collectors Item (Colin) finished second in the London Grand National, and R U Wise To That was second at Wetherby.
Abandoned Race Days
At this time of the year, due to the early race times, the lorries have usually left before the abandonments are aired, especially at the further away tracks. So, it’s always a case of loading up, hitting the road, receiving the phone call and turning round at the next opportunity or the next junction – with, hopefully, a stop off at the service station for breakfast or snacks. On arriving home again, after everything is unloaded and put away, the horses are then ridden out as later lots by the staff that should have been leading them up, and the non-riders slot back into their usual duties of sweeping, swimming…
Other times, we receive the phone call at the races or the BHA inform us – normally when your horse is beautifully plaited, groomed and dressed in paddock sheets, leaving a deep feeling of being all dressed up and nowhere to go. It’s a case of pulling off the sheet and bridle, rugging up again and taking out the plaits, which leave the hair curly as a perm. Then, it’s just a case of remembering the colour bag and grabbing a snack before making our way home.
All In The Scoop
One aspect I love about working with racehorses is the feeding. Scooping up the nuts out of the bin and the scuttle of them landing in the bucket, or the sweet smell of the mix, adding the smaller pellets of the Define And Shine balancer, or extras for this and that, plus carrots. Often I imagine I am a witch above her bubbling brew. In the past, we’ve experimented with lots of different additives that eventually disappear like fads – one was the colour and consistency of egg yolk, another was a blue menthol goo called Vent. They are all a bit voodoo but designed to help the horses’ health and get the best out of them. At the pens, I don’t give the horses Alfa-A, because they get roughage from grass and hay, but the ones stabled at the yard are all given handfuls of the dried grass to increase the fibre in their diet.
I always stress to give them heaped scoops – five scoops a day is about twenty-two pounds split into three meals, but I feed more when I can. After a relaxing weekend off, the horses always eat loads, but this tapers off towards the end of the week – the more they work, gallop or school, the less they are interested in food. Yet, daily turn out helps this an awful lot and keeps them eating, as does adding mix into feeds, which is like a molassed muesli, and lots of carrots. The horses always crunch these down first, nosing through the feed to find the ones hidden at the bottom.
Festive Friendships
As well as turning out on grass and feeding big scoops, at the pens, I try to buddy the horses up so they form friendships. It does take some swapping horses about the pens to get this right. I don’t put a soft horse and a bully together, because the soft one always comes off worse. I avoid putting two fussy eaters together because then neither eat, whereas a good eater will encourage another one to eat. But, then a greedy one can’t go with a fussy one, because then Mr Greedy will eat too much and Mr Fussy will go hungry! In the big field, where there can be up to five or six horses turned out, they all live together happily and will often pair up themselves within the little herd.
Colin and Minty
I was heartened to see Collectors Item (Colin) pair up with an unlikely friend for a week. The final remaining Don’t Push It Jacob sheep (the other five have died in the years since the 2010 Grand National victory) lives near the pens. She is aged and gnarly
but loves the racehorse feed we throw to her. It was heartwarming when, at the end of the summer, a lamb escaped from the farmer’s flock and found the old sheep. I nicknamed the lamb Minty, after mint sauce. When moving the old ewe into the
orchard, the lamb escaped again, this time into the paddock with Colin. For the next few days, it followed Colin everywhere, grazed upsides him, lay down in the pen near him and they both were fed at the same time. It was only when Johnnywho, who is a bit of a bully, returned to that pen, that the sheep was chased away and exiled, so the farmer put her back with the ewe in the other paddock.
Christmas Winners
The festive period was an amazing one for winners, especially for the pens. Earlier on in the month, Richie won on Hasthing at the first jump meeting at Windsor since the mid-noughties and we had a double at Carlisle with Wellington Arch (Welly) and King Of Tara. Then the pens sent out its first ever double on Boxing day at with Red Dirt Road and Fortunate Man winning at Aintree, whilst Beachcomber won the next day at Kempton. Then, Peso – a character who lives in the new pen and is very cheeky – tallied up fifteen winners so far this season for the pens, equalising our previous best season of three years ago. He’s a handsome dappled grey, who groom Kayanna Pilgrim shampooed and plaited up beautifully so he won the best-turned-out as well as the race, and then Jipcot won
well for the second yard and his groom John Dina. I can’t not mention that Bill Joyce was then third in the Challow – so all in all it’s been an amazing time, and not all gifts fit under the Christmas tree!
Wishing all my readers a very happy New Year.
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