We arrived in good time, despite the holiday traffic on the A303 - for anyone that regularly drives that route I can recommend turning right at Stonehenge and driving through Shrewton, if for no other reason than you get to see men in uniform, plus the odd tank.
A quick restorative hot drink and some cookies warmed us up and we said hello to all the horses whilst the team were tacking up, three horses were working that session, two of ours, Shilpa and Poppy, and Headly's Bridge owned by Mrs P Bridel who was also there to see her horse work. All three horses are fully barefoot, Poppy and Headly hacked up to the yard on the roads which takes 10-15 minutes, and Shilpa was popped in the lorry and driven up by Simon and Luke.
It was a beautiful day to be at Horses First, the whole area seems to be designed with the training of racehorses in mind, fantastic hills to work up and a natural bowl that has been turned in to a circular mile of all weather surface perfect to warm up on. When you get there you can park right at the start of the gallop.
You then ride part way up the gallop and can drop in to the bowl on the left hand side. Cars can get right up alongside the gallop up to the top, although I have to say we wouldn't have wanted the ground much wetter to have got three cars up to the very top (John - buy a 4x4!!).
Shilpa warmed up around the bowl and waited for the other two horses to join her. The plan was for them each to do one steady up the hill and then a second gallop slightly faster. Simon hopped on to Headly for his second gallop, Shilpa was ridden by Luke and Poppy by Sam.
The picture above is their first gallop, Shilpa in front and Poppy behind, you can really see the gradient of the hill in this picture and from where I was standing it continues to climb.
Then they hack back down the gallop again to the bottom ready to come up for the second time. Here I think Sam is admiring Luke's new riding gear, he has recently been sponsored by Ray Thomas Limited and was immaculately turned out. Once back to the bottom it was time to come up again, this time a bit faster.
Here we have Poppy nearest the camera and Shilpa on the far side. Shilpa will always be my special girl but I have to say I am getting quite excited about Poppy, she is maturing all the time, really loves working and I think is going to be pretty quick. Once they were all at the top then they hacked back down again on a long rein to give them a chance to get their breath back and cool off.
Poppy and Headly hacked back to the yard and Shilpa popped back on to the lorry to be driven home. Once back at the yard she was showered off and then had a wicking sweat rug put on her and was put back in the stable to dry off. She decided to help this process by getting down on her nice clean straw bed and having a good roll.
Poppy was untacked and also showered off, she doesn't like the 'dragged through a hedge backwards' look quite as much as Shilpa though.
The other horses were all in good spirits, Benni had forgiven John for his recent visit to the vets and enjoyed getting some fuss from him and Elli.
And surrogate son Homer Run also got in on the act as well.
Onedin Line was out in the paddock looking very happy and nice and muddy, we have been having conversations about how to pronounce his name, it should be pronounced Oh-knee-din Line, after the 70's TV show, his stable name is Odin (after the Norse god). Simon then had to confess that he has been pronouncing it Wan-din Line, so his stable name has become Wanda (after the goldfish), he's a big butch chestnut, probably going to fill out to about 17hh's, with a girls name, he's probably the laughing stock of the paddock.
Maisey has been moved to her new ancestral home of Heytesbury Park, this is fantastic land, all old turf rolling parkland and very Capability Brown, she's not going to want to come back home once the foal is born.
We then retired to the Angel Inn in Heytesbury for an excellent lunch and a warm up in front of their wood burning stove.
Plans will be made for the theme of our next yard visit and we look forward to seeing everyone on a racecourse in November/December when hopefully we will have three horses running, think the New Year will be very busy, lets hope we have better weather than last year!
Many thanks to Simon, Katie and all the staff at Simon Earle Racing for their excellent hospitality and time, we are always made to feel very welcome at the yard and it is lovely to see how happy and chilled out all our horses are.
Tracey
