20th September 2016

If he beat me to it I had to settle for the beach. He wasn't moving and when he did I was there. He watched me like a hawk and as soon as I left he was back on it!

We had a fabulous holiday in Sardinia last week, I would highly recommend the island for peace and tranquility. It is stunning with the most beautiful beaches.  My body relaxed, but sadly, my head didn't fair too well. I did manage to read 3 books which helped the head settle a little. Geoffrey Brains memorize were fascinating. My first memories of Geoffrey Brain are very clear. He used to do Captain Radclyffe’s veterinary work, he would tear in a Mercedes convertible sport car dressed in shirt and tie with little equipment over and above a stethoscope. His hands and eyes were sufficient. He is a remarkable man who clearly knew how to fly a plane in the war. One interesting statistic is 6 of the 10 Gold Cup winners were hobdayed between 1960 - 1970. It makes one wonder if we are in fact hobdaying more horses than ever before given numbers in training. 

I also read Rain which is a must read. It gives a very good account of what goes on is Afghanistan and was a real eye opener for me. It made me appreciate what young men do for our and other countries. I was in tears on more than one occasion throughout the book and highly recommend it. 

The third book was called Outrun. It is all about a girl born on the Orkney islands, ends up in trouble in trouble in London due to addiction before returning there. It is beautifully written and paints a fantastic picture of history, scenery and wildlife up there. I feel the urge to visit the islands at some point. 

The team at home have been brilliant in my absence and probably don't need me as much as I might like to think. 

The horses were on tick over while I was away and today we worked a heap of them. All had a good blow given they've had a relatively each week. 

Hag Stone ran a much more satisfying race today finishing 3rd at Warwick. Tommie has done a lot of work on him since his last run and certainly deserved the ride today including a lot of credit for the way he jumped. He hasn't missed a day schooling since his appalling display at jumping at Uttoxeter a fortnight ago. It paid off today and we can build from here. 

I had a good chat with Tim Curtis who has worked tirelessly over the last 18 months as chairman of the Point to Point Committee giving a huge amount of his time. He is doing some seriously good work. We concur that point to pointing, although others will tell you differently is in a healthy state and some very good forward thinking is being digested.

It has been a manic day catching up with everything and racing on top of it. Holidays make me realize how lucky I am. Arriving in Gatwick (Essex) last night was an experience but returning to the beauty of Herefordshire is always a pleasure. I appreciate the number of people travelling through Gatwick is huge but 1 hour to clear passport control is a joke, often this country looks 3^rd world.