Paul Webber Racing

CROPREDY LAWN, 8th JAN 2010

Pictures showing that it is nearly 'business as usual' at Cropredy Lawn!!

Two extremely important and vital people pictured here, Head Man Trevor Heath (with his favoured gloves) and Everything Man Martin Archer who is battling to keep everything unfrozen, safe and warm.





We had about 9 inches of snow during tuesday night, so wednesday was spent salting and making the yards safe for man and beasts to move around. For that day only, we were confined to trotting exercise in the indoor school and so completed four lots in there. Remarkably, despite the roads being virtually impassable about 85% of our remarkable team, somehow got into work. Danny Pebody accompanied by his trusty dog, Frank ran from Lighthorne which is just the ten miles away. Small wonder this fantastic lad has qualified for the World Cross Country Championships in Hungary later in the year. Al Stewart, Danny Hannig and Becky Cupit walked from Cropredy, while others bravely skidded their way here. First in was John Gregory, who having fed his cows at 3.30am comes in feed our horses at 4.30am; he did admit to being five minutes late!
We have so far left our all-weather gallop all cosy under its duvet of snow rather than disturb the surface and harrow the snow into it, as that only helps to it freeze solid. We have plenty of 'White Grass' to canter on and this will maintain the horses' fitness for quite a few days. We will keep them ticking over in this manner until there are signs of a thaw, when we can step up their work.
The Racing Authorities are doing a great job of re-scheduling meetings and also laying on some new ones. It looks a great idea to plan an 'All-Weather - All Bumper' card at Southwell next wednesday and we will certainly be hoping to send runners there. We have also entered some of our dual-purpose horses on the all-weather at Kempton and Lingfield next week. The main problem may be finding flat-jockeys to ride them, as most have migrated to either sunnier or even snowier climes right now!
Hope you'll enjoy these scenic photos of the horses exercising and i know that you will appreciate the hardships and hardwork that goes into keeping the yard going and the horses' every need attended to, in these challenging conditions.