Sunday 18 August

The middle of August and it really feels like things are on the move now. The main bulk of the horses started to come back in from their summer quarters in early July, and so, after a month of walking and trotting they are now all getting a wriggle on and doing 2 canters. At the moment it is gentle stuff, and they are not going the full length of the gallop, but over the course of the next 2 weeks they will gradually extend the length of the canters until they are doing 2 full bits of exercise right form the bottom. First lot yesterday, in beautiful sunshine saw Genny Wren lead San Telm and Smart Exit in 2 canters. It was good to see ST and SE stride on and they both look ion fantastic order. The first clip has San Telm in isolation. This second clip shows Smart Exit in isolation. After breakfast we were joined by Mark - who brought his mother to have a look at his lateset interests - Omaruru and Guest Of Honour. More of these later, but first they got to watch second lot that saw Colebrooke do his 2 canters on his own, then we saw Ogee and benefit cut do a nice canter before just quickening things up a bit second time. They trapped on nicely, with BC looking like he has lost non of the speed that saw him run one of the fastest time run around Kempton on Good to Softy ground in the last 2 years! Below is Colebrooke with Emma. It was back up the hill for third lot - and Mark and his mother got to see both his boys do a canter. It was great to see Omaruru back, and he moved very well. Guest Of Honour took a fair grip going up second time and he looked in great form - he was obviously saving his energy earlier in the morning (see Photo above right). Omar and GOH are very similar and it was nice to see them lead the group down the gallop between canters. (See photo below right - Omaruru far side, Guest Of Honour near side). From tomorrow - the news will appear in the evenings as I de-camp to my tractor cab for a few weeks!