Winning Post

Trials and frustrations

The trials and frustrations of training a pointer are hitting home! We have been very lucky as Storm has always been very easy to train but he has not been his usual self this season. Although he was third at Great Trethew last time out it was a poor third and jockey Richard Woollacott was very disappointed. We have since had him blood tested and had his back looked at and it would seem that there has been a bit of a problem in his wither area, which in turn affected his white blood cells. Anyway hopefully it is all sorted now and he seems in fine fettle - we won't know more til he runs again and hopefully he will appreciate better ground - I am now dithering over where that will be. I just wish Storm could talk, it would be much easier.
Anyway Pippa and I made the most of the good weather to clear a track up through the woods which we used last season to canter up and it was great going up there again on Monday before having a spin up the gallop.
Ponies are no less complicated! Ted was off his feed after racing at Buckfastleigh so we have been tempting him to eat by adding bruised oats to his food - amazingly he can pick them out and leave the cubes! He had a few days off out in the field afterwards and we picked up his work again this weekend with Upcott Cross on the horizon. It is a shame there isn't a D and C pony race fixture this weekend, as it is a long time for the children to keep riding every day when the next race seems so far away.
 Champagne Charlie has been sold and is now schoolmastering a nine year old boy called Daniel in all things Pony Club and we hope they have a very successful time together. The bad news for Ted is that, apart from missing Charlie out in the field, he will now have to have a bash at polocrosse! Should be fun to watch.