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New facilities and staff
13th May 2008
We had a frustrating week last week with horses being balloted out of races or being injured. The major disappointment was Desert Quest having to bypass the Swinton due to injury after he knocked himself out working. It is always upsetting to miss a big race but as always the welfare of the horse is the main priority and there will be plenty more decent races for Quest (pictured relaxing in his field) to look forward to. We did still have one runner on the Saturday, when Chief Exec headed to Warwick. Unfortunately it proved to be a fruitless trip as the horse didn't get a straightforward run. The Racing Post commented “Chief Exec was closing on the pace when stopped in his run halfway up the straight, and he could never regain momentum after having to be switched”.
I mentioned last week that we were having work done on our Seawalker and, as you can see from the photo below, it is progressing very quickly. The renovation is now complete and the final painting work is just being wrapped up. We have decided to go for a lovely bright blue colour which will emphasize the water clarity and make the whole structure look clean and bright. If you would like any further information about the Seawalker and its many benefits you can check out the Equine Health Centre website.
Another construction area that is rapidly progressing is the building of our new 20 horse barn. The foundations are now complete (see photo) and it should only be a matter of weeks before the main structure is put into place. The new barn will take our stabling capacity up to the 70 mark which is where we would like it to stay. We have said all along that we would like to be a big yard but remain small enough to be able to treat each horse as an individual and we feel that having 70 horses in work will enable us to do this.
I normally use the weekly news to update you on new horses but for the next couple of weeks I'm going to take the opportunity to introduce you to some new people in the Horses First team. First up is Ed Sibbick who has joined us as a work rider with the intention of becoming our apprentice jockey. Ed (pictured below) is all set to take his place on the Apprentice Jockeys' Licence course at the end of July and is counting down the days! He is a huge racing fan and a talented rider, who is a great addition to the team.
