When we arrived home from the gallops last Friday, I went into the long shed to check the horses who had been left at home.

As soon as he saw me, Kin picked up his empty water bucket, - using the handle - and dropped it in front of me. I picked it up, filled it, and put it back in his box.

He almost smiled at me. I could hear him thinking:

"You know, you're not as daft as Uncle Quixall says. I'm sure I could get you trained quite easily."

The Boss reckons that Kin has been on Earth as a racehorse in a previous life.

I just hope he was Arkle!!

THE CASE OF THE MISSING STIRRUP

We took three horses to Mr. Beaumont's gallops yesterday: Quixall, Supreme and Swiss.

Joy rode Quixall first. My brief was then to walk him for a half circuit, then hack on round, and pull up at the top of the rise, just passed where the wagon was parked. This was a training exercise for my riding, before embarking on proper work on proper gallops.

Well, the first part went reasonably well. He was on his toes as he is race fit, and the Boss has been pushing the protein into him. We went on into a trot, then a hack canter. I had a fair hold on his head. Now, the one thing Quixall likes to do at great speed is to corner. Approaching the bend at the end of the back straight, he quickened. "OK," I thought. "No problem." It was my first ride at Mr. Beaumont's, and I didn't remember that it is a VERY short straight bit before another bend onto the other straight. He saw the other bend, and quickened again. This is quite a tight bend......

I got round the first two thirds of the bend with him, but then, unfortunately, I seemed to run out of talent. I knew I was a bit up his neck, as my face was between his ears. "Not too big a problem," I thought, "as I've still got my weight equally balanced in each stirrup." The next thing I knew was when the back of my head hit the wood-chip gallop. Luckily, the rest of my body seemed to have got there first, which lessened the impact slightly. I did, however, see stars not described in my astronomy course.

Of course, all of this took place right in front of Ted, Joy and Mr. Beaumont's son Stuart.

"What the hell happened then?", shouted the Boss.

"I don't really know. I've only just got here myself!", I replied, picking bits of wood-chip from all my important little places, and set off in pursuit of Quixall. Sensible horse that he is, he went to the top of the rise, turned round, and came to me to let me catch him. He had that "stupid humans" look in his eye again.

"I thought I told you to hack him back", said Ted. "I've never ever seen him go that fast."

"I was impressed too, for a while," I said weakly.

I handed Quixall over to Ted, while I got my breath back. Joy rode Supreme and Swiss uneventfully. I knew I was in for a "bumpy" ride home in the wagon, so I asked to travel in the back with the horses. Request denied. We all laughed until it hurt, all the way home.

When we got back, having seen to the horses, Joy checked the answerphone. There was a message from Scarborough to say that Karen had given birth to twins on Tuesday of this week, but that they had been unable to get through on the phone on Wednesday to let Ted and Joy know. I offered the use of my car to go and visit her. Joy went, and Ted stayed with me to do the evening stables. Joy had asked if it would be OK to keep the car until the following day, so that she could visit, and stay over, with friends after she had visited the hospital. I said OK.

That left me, on my own, with Ted, to be constantly reminded of the events of the afternoon. I was really glad when he fell asleep, watching the news. My neck was a bit stiff, and I had a bit of a headache!! They were reminder enough for me!!

Eventually, he went to bed, and I fell asleep on the settee.

05-30am, the phone rang. A London number, but nobody at the other end. Settled down for another hour's kip.

05-40am, Kin had a roll in his box, and kicked the partition. We both shot out to check he was OK.

That was it. We might as well stay up now.

Tea and toast.

08-15am. Saddled up Quixall for road work. Hang on? One of my stirrup leathers, complete with iron, was missing! Checked everywhere. Gone!! I had to borrow one of Ted's. Rode out. Back 09-45am. No problems. Joy returned 10-15am.

Now, dear reader, there are two schools of thought as to what had happened. Both agree that the missing item is at Mr. Beaumont's gallops, near the spot where my head had hit them. The difference of opinion comes as to how it became detached.

One school of thought says that I must have dislodged it when I fell off. Hmm. Hmm.

The other says that I fell off because the leather separated from the saddle.  Hmm.

Perhaps the position of the stirrup would shed some light on the subject.

We returned to the gallops today with Clavering, Rosie, and Sally. Having set Joy away on Clavering, the search party set out. The stirrup, complete, was found about six feet away from the wood-chip gallop, on the INSIDE of the track. Now the stirrup had been the outside one on that corner, and it was found on the opposite side of the track to that on which I had come to grief!!

"I bet you couldn't do that!!" I said.

"Wouldn't bloody want to," was the reply.

Just after all of this merriment, one of Mr.Beaumont's riders arrived on one of his horses. She too set off around the track in the anti-clockwise direction.

After a couple of times around in company with Clavering, she departed back to the stables. Ted replaced the tapes across the exit into the car park. Joy turned Clavering to do a couple of circuits in the opposite direction. He was looking about a bit as he passed us for the first time in this direction.

The second time past, he realised this was where his transport was, and, as the other horse had finished, thought he should too. He was just past the exit when he slammed on all the brakes, throwing Joy at a pile of stones in the car park. He tried to jump the tapes, but only succeeded in snapping a fence post, pulling out the guard tapes, and ran up and over the huge pile of stones towards me. My first reaction was to run to Joy, whom I imagined in a million pieces behind the stones. Ted was already on his way to her, so I grabbed Clavering.

Immediately behind him, Joy appeared galloping up and over the same stones.

"You blxxdy plonker!! Put me back up!! Put me back up!!" she shouted, (and normally she never swears).

I didn't dare disobey, so I did as she asked.

She had come off on the same bend as I had done the previous day, and Stuart was just arriving in his tractor. He must think we are a right shower!!

Luckily, the rest of the session was uneventful.

The only injuries were very slight. Clavering had grazed his shoulder and the inside of his near fore on the post. I treated them as soon as we got home. He will be a bit stiff tomorrow, but there is no lasting damage. Stuart pushed the post back into the ground with the tractor.

Then back home to High Crossett. High drama!! Yet again!!

And it all starts again tomorrow!!!!!

We were at Mr. Beaumont's gallops with a couple of the horses today. We had just arrived, and were preparing to set off, when Mr. Beaumont's gallops man pulled up in his tractor.

"Are you going to use the gallop?", he asked.

"Yes," said Ted.

"Well, do you want me to run round in front of you?", asked the tractor driver.

I nearly fell over giggling at the thoughts of the middle-aged chap, running round the all-weather, trying to stay ahead of a hard-held Trio!!

Instead, however, he drove round in the tractor, and harrowed the surface before we used it.

Anecdote from Boxing Day:

Although Trio beat Quixall a distance on the track, Quixall won £3-50 off Trio at poker in the back of the wagon on the way home.  Honours even!!!!

Salty Towers.

I was riding Quixall today. It was very cold. I don't think the temperature in my riding boots ever got above freezing.

All of a sudden, Quixall started to giggle and began to sing,

"Good King Wenceslas last looked out......."

"What's got into you?" I asked him.

He looked over to the other side of the field, where the Boss had sawn down some fresh gorse and was dragging a huge bunch of it to re-cover the schooling jumps for use tomorrow.

"Hmmm....? I still don't get it."   So Quixall finished off:

"When a poor man came in sight,

If you look at the picture of Monny in his box, on the "Quixall in Photos" page, you can see that some of our boxes (in the long shed) are open-fronted.

On Monday, the Boss asked me to attend to Supreme Comfort in one of these boxes. Rather than open the door, I hopped over the front of the box, completed my allotted task, and jumped back out over the front of the box.

"Crikey!!" said Ted. "I'll have to cut back on what I'm feeding you. I've got you fitter than I thought!!"

After the Tommy Whittle Chase 1998, Haydock Park:

Graham Bradley (won on Suny Bay, who had made a bad mistake in the back straight) to Gary Lyons (5th on Quixall Crossett):

 Graham B. :"Did you get the old so-and-so round?"

Clavering was re-shod and clipped out 11/12/2000, and Joy was the first to ride him at home. As they walked out of the yard:

Ted:  "By 'eck, he's put some tummy on. Even Geoff couldn't fall off him now!!"

I ran the old chap there a couple of years ago, and he hated the bit of the track where the all-weather exit from the parade ring crosses the turf track. I think he must be a traditionalist, and doesn't like the dirt. He ran a stinker there. He should have been 4th, but downed tools altogether. Trio had been 3rd/10 the previous day at Stratford. We stayed on to go to Worcester two days later. (Just the Boss and me. Joy stayed at home). The night in between Wolverhampton and Worcester we also stayed in the Wolverhampton stable staff accomodation. Of course the canteen was closed, so we went out looking for a chip shop on the evening. The only advice we could get from the track was; be back well before it starts going dark!!

Well, we passed Indian, Chinese, Thai, you-name-it take aways, but Ted insisted it had to be fish and chips. We walked for bloody miles, but eventually found one. "Great," I thought. We went in only to find it was run by Chinese people! We ate our fish and chips sitting on the wall outside, but by the time we found our way back to the track, we were both hungry again, and it was nearly dark. 

Geoff is leading Triona's Hope and jockey Gary Lyons out onto the track for the race.

Gary:  "Don't worry, Geoff. I will."

Geoff:  "Do you mind? I was talking to the horse!"