5th March 2018

Alberto’s Dream win at Lingfield this afternoon was just what the doctor ordered. All being well he will now head to Leicester on Friday. I hope he doesn't get the chance again to roll in snow for a very very long time.

As we all know it has been a challenging few days for anyone with livestock. Yesterday, 4 of us put in a 13-hour shift cleaning all the snow soaked bedding out of the stables, fogging the stables and barns before battling with all sort of burst water pipes once the thaw arrived. On top of all of that I rode out and cleared some of the lane to the main road. By the close of play I felt a little jaded around the edges, thankfully, so did the 3 boys who declined the offer of supper in the pub.

A plumber has been here all day and we haven’t really scratched the surface, our time was spent trying to get the pumps that circulate the water working. By 4 p.m. we decided the pumps are knackered and will need to be replaced. We have a back up supply and managed to connect pipes into the system this afternoon.

All the lads managed to get here this morning and every horse had their typical Monday morning canters up the woodchip. The sand is water logged for a day or 2 yet.

To maintain some sort of metal stability in my life I make myself find at least one positive in everything. The positive within the carnage the weather created is that it has but a vast amount of moisture into the new woodchip and will help it to bed in so much quicker. This evening I have harrowed and rolled it.