Shilpa On The Gallops

We had a great visit to see Shilpa and Maisey yesterday, my friend Ginette had kindly agreed to give both horses a Photon Therapy session which is a bit like acupuncture but it uses red light instead of needles.  Both girls enjoyed their sessions and found them very relaxing which was the aim of the morning.  The girls enjoy their spa sessions and we enjoy spending some quality time with them so it was great all round.


As if the morning couldn't have been better Simon invited us to go and see Shilpa work on the gallops, they were taking two horses up that morning and Shilpa was going to be ridden by Luke Kilgarriff who  is Simon's Apprentice Jockey and a really nice rider.  They boxed over to the gallops and Shilpa loaded and travelled well.  Ginette and I had a bit of gallop envy when we saw the facilities and even I would have loved to have had a good blast up the hill and I am not known for getting out of working canter.  The gallops feature a tower with comfy seats, a heater(!!), binoculars, stop watches and Ginette reckoned a megaphone although I am not sure bellowing out of the tower would have been that constructive seeing as Simon and Luke know what they are doing and we don't.


Shilpa worked really well, Simon and Luke were both very happy at the end of the session and we managed to get some great photos.


Hacking Up To The Bowl


Luke on Shilpa on the right hand side.

The Bowl

Used for warm up by going once round the bowl in walk, trot and canter, the track goes around the edge of the large field, you can just see it behind the far white rail.  Also notice how steep the sides of the bowl are as that leads on to the next photo The Hill!

The Hill

This was taken from the viewing tower looking up the hill, Shilpa went up the hill three times.

Luke and Shilpa going up the hill.

  

The hill again taken from a bit nearer the top, even this photo doesn't show how steep it is.  Shilpa seemed less concerned about it than we were and we drove up (a bit hairy in places!).

Bit nearer to the top again.

Hacking back down the hill, nice to see her relaxed and Luke riding on the buckle.

 Luke walking Shilpa around to cool off before loading up to go home.

We had a great day again and many thanks to all at Simon Earle Racing for their hospitality.  We are really pleased with how the horses are looking and going.