Yard update:
The last few runners were scoped
after they ran and there was the presence of mucus in their lungs and they didn't perform as I know they can. We
did some analysing of everything that they are in contact with – haylage and
bedding - and we found that it was down to the straw. So after disinfecting the whole yard we have changed the bedding
to a flax product called Flaxcore, which is the chopped up stem of the linseed
plant. They have been on it a couple of
weeks and we like it so far.
The trouble with straw is that
it only needs to be rained on when harvesting and before being covered and then
you get moulds and dust appearing later on.
The batch of straw that we had since Spring time looked perfectly ok, didn't appear to have any mould on it at all but once analysed there was the
presence of mould and fungal spores as well as dust mites. All of this caused an inflammation in the
airways of the horses’ lungs so a kind of allergic reaction to the straw. Luckily this is now behind us and the horses
have all been nebulised.
Clean, power-hosed yard!
Cheltenham sales & Money Maid:
I went to the select Brightwells sale at Cheltenham with John Powell and Tracey Sloan of EPDS Racing with an aim to purchase something a little special. There were a lot of fantastic horses for sale – plenty of 4 yr old Irish Point to Point winners going for a lot of money.
Most of the horses were from yards where they buy the horses young and perhaps unbroken and their business is then getting them to win a point to point and sending them to the sales making a profit. A lot of them looked as if they had been trained hard and maybe too early – they were lacking top line muscle and were sore over their hocks, sacroiliac and pelvis. I cannot say I particularly enjoyed feeling around them and noticing how sore they were. It is all about turnover for the vendors and getting them in, winning and sold as soon as possible. There were lovely, late maturing horses that I felt were just asked to do too much too soon; mind you the horses in training sale at the end of the flat season is even worse – our vet must be failing towards 50%.
It certainly is better to be an event horse rather than a racing horse because event horses cannot be competed until they are 5 and they are ridden properly throughout their training. This is why we have taken our time with our 4 yr old and he probably won’t run until he is 5, and hopefully without shoes. He has been barefoot since birth, and he was foaled in the racing yard and for the past 4 years has been turned out maturing in lovely parkland. He recently came back to the yard to be broken in.
Our youngster, Water Rail (centre) with Headly's Bridge (left) and Get Back To Me (right)
EPDS Racing did manage to buy a really nice 5 yr old mare called Money Maid who won her point to point in Ireland by an impressive 25 lengths. She didn't feel over trained at all for her age and she had plenty of condition and muscle through her back and hindquarters. She has a very good, honest look about her and is by the same sire as our successful Red Not Blue – Blueprint. Her grandmother was a very good mare, Maid of Money, winning the Irish National and numerous Listed races. The dam line is very strong and goes back to Ten of Spades who was a very good chaser trained by Fulke Walwyn. Money Maid (or Rosie as she is known on the yard) won her point to point in very soft ground. I was impressed by her when the jockey asked her long at the last and she took no notice and fiddled it on her own accord, so she has a brain and in fact if she had taken off when asked I think she would have fallen as it was very deep ground. She will be turned out for a bit of grass and have a winter season and we aim to hopefully run and train her without shoes. There are shares available in this exciting prospect so please contact John Powell at EPDS Racing – www.epds-racing.co.uk tel: 07812 342192.
The impressive Money Maid on her arrival at the yard
Twitter:
Just to let you know for those that don’t, that I am now on Twitter and slowly joining the 21st Century! I often post up photos of the horses so if you want to follow me, please do: @simonearle2. Below are a few photographs that I posted on Twitter for those that don’t hold Twitter accounts.
Owner John Powell with Homer Run and Natalie Charles with Benozzo Gozzoli visiting their horses on a sunny, Saturday morning
Homer Run (left) and Benozzo Gozzoli (right) enjoying a lie-in before working up the all-weather later. Both are currently being trained from the field
Horses in training enjoying a Sunday off - day of rest!
