Back in the saddle...?

Thursday 7^th March

So tonight I may have volunteered to do something a bit stupid. Upon my arrival, The Boss informed me that he had ‘had the saddle on Jumbo’ (Big Mac).

Two things need to be pointed out here:

1. Big Mac has never been broken to saddle;
2. When he said ‘had the saddle on’, that is literally all that he did.

It turns out we don’t have a girth big enough for the large one. So the saddle has been ‘on’ Big Mac, but it has not been done up. And nobody has sat on him, yet. The first stupid thing I did was offer to root around at home for the longer of my two girths, to see if that would fit him. The second stupid thing I did was offer to ride him.

I’ve had a bit of difficulty in the last six months with confidence issues whilst riding. Fortunately my ex-racehorse is a plod-along so I’m slowly getting it back, and my racing friends Emma and Rachel, who I visited last week to ride with, are quick to offer me horses to ride. The more I ride, and the more horses I ride, the more confident I’ll become. This was part of my thinking when I volunteered to ride Big Mac. I also have a sneaking suspicion that The Boss has some fancy notion that I’m going to take part in the saddle races which have been reintroduced under British Harness rules. For the record, and I know he’ll be reading this, I AM NOT! As I have already explained to him, I am not the right build – I’m more second row forward than jockey-type. Even if he provides me with a whomping 17-hander to do it on!

* The British Harness Racing Club (BHRC) is the main governing body for harness racing in the UK. It acts as an umbrella committee, overseeing the work done by the regional racing committees. The BHRC has established a set of rules which must be adhered to by all licensed owners, trainers and drivers. There are other racing bodies, such as the Irish Harness Racing Club and Wales and Border Counties Racing Association, however we race under BHRC rules.

** Saddle racing has been reintroduced in 2013, with the meeting at Appleby at the start of June holding the first saddle race for a number of years. A licence separate to that of a driving licence is required, and anyone who has not held one in the last five years must perform a saddle test on a track in front of an official steward (from the BHRC). There’s a minimum weight of ten stone, including saddle, numnahs and crupper, but excluding helmet and body protector, and there is no upper weight limit. This coming year, saddle licences will be issued for free, subject to completing the test.

As a team we are agreed that training at least partly under saddle is nothing but beneficial to the horses. Aside from using and developing different muscles, it keeps the horse active mentally. One thing we all want to avoid is making the horses ‘stale’ and fed up of training and racing. The benefit with Big Mac will be a way of getting him fit and pacing without hopples, as the 63 inch ones he’s been wearing are still a little on the tight side! Who knows, if things all go well with Mac, perhaps we’ll have Maverick in the saddle as well?!

Monday 11^th March

The girth fits Big Mac. This means riding him is imminent. I must admit, I’m more looking forward to it than worrying about it now. After all, he’s just a horse, and a pretty laid back one at that. The nights are getting longer, so I’m sure the opportunity will present itself sooner rather than later.

In other news, I took the big step of posting this blog on the STAGBI Facebook page. STAGBI is the breed society that administers passports for Standardbreds in the UK and Ireland. I was a bit concerned that ‘trotting’ folk would read it and think I was a bit of a div, because I don’t actually know that much about training or racing. I wasn’t born into the sport, I just accidentally fell into it after I was bought an ex-racehorse who was a bit…loopy, for want of a better word. I persevered with her in Pony Club and out hunting and The Boss must have thought seeing as I was mad enough to ride her, I’d be mad enough to work for him. He was right! I was bought my first pacer when I was 13; ten years later and I work at a racing yard, my family breeds and races their own Standardbreds, I met my ‘significant other’ through racing, as well as two of my best friends Emma and Rachel. With harness racing, it doesn’t seem to matter that you’re an outsider, because you don’t stay an outsider for long. It’s like one huge travelling circus. Of course there are people who don’t like each other, and I’m sure there are long –running feuds between various people, but generally everyone sort of gets along. Once people have spotted you racing once, they’ll be saying ‘hello’ to you every time they see you after!

Anyway, the whole point of this blog was to show people who haven’t ever been harness racing what it’s actually like, from within the sport itself. So I’ll try to explain everything as best I can, but if you’re a racing person reading this and you think ‘oh what is she talking about?!’, then stop me at the races and correct me! After all, I’m still learning!

So back to the horses; we’re still awaiting the arrival of the racehorses. Maverick and Big Mac are only ‘qualifiers’ at the moment. They are required to run in qualifying races, whereby they must complete the race within a certain time (dependant on the type of track and the conditions, i.e. hard tracks I believe the qualifying time is 2.14, whereas grass tracks are 2.18, or slower if the conditions are slow). The horses must also complete the races without making any mistakes, such as breaking stride and galloping. If the horse completes the race without mistake and within the required time, they are not automatically qualified to race. In some circumstances the driver or trainer may feel that the horse needs to gain more experience before entering a maiden race, particularly if the horse is young or hasn’t shown the driver/trainer that they are ready. Safety is of course paramount, and these qualifying races are a great opportunity to teach the horses important lessons that they will carry through into their (hopefully successful) racing careers.

Oh, before I sign off, The Boss and Mrs B have read the blog. The fame is clearly going to The Boss’ head, as he has now started referring to himself in the third person as ‘The Boss’, i.e. “The Boss would like you to get some more straw Sarah”. It just confuses me, because now I don’t know if he means he wants me to get the straw, or if he’s saying that in fact Mrs B wants me to. It’s almost too much for me to cope with; we’re in danger of having too many chiefs and not enough indians. I think to clear up matters from this day forth I shall be the boss!

Friday 15^th March

Things are all change around here…Jingo is hopefully returning on the weekend, so we had to move horses around to make room for him. We shifted Mama from the top shed and tied her down the bottom while we cleared that out. My amazing sweeping skills did not go unnoticed, as The Boss said if I carry on working so well I’ll get a promotion to Head Girl. I know that sounds good, but seeing as I’m his only employee, I kind of figured I was Head Girl already?! If that wasn’t the case, then I am just ‘Girl’. Hmmm. What he doesn’t know, but will once he’s read this, is that I’ve already self-promoted myself to ‘Stable Manager’ (according to my CV anyway…). So I see your ‘Head Girl’, and I raise you ‘Stable Manager’!

Once the top shed was filled with straw, Eryn and Olympic were put up there together. Laddie is staying down the bottom with the racehorses, so his opinion of himself will no doubt shoot through the roof. He doesn’t seem to care one bit that he’s quite small; the way he struts around his stable he must think he’s as big as Big Mac!

The Boss cleared the yearlings’ stables out with the Bobcat then disinfected them both. I only had time to bed down the one, into which I moved Bucky from the foaling pen. Mama is now down there until her baby appears, although I’ll clear her out properly before that happens.

The Boss informed me that Big Mac’s owners popped over to see him last night, and despite the fact he’s been pacing all week with no mistakes at all, he thought when they were there to watch that he’d just throw in a few breaks to keep The Boss on his toes. Bucky has been improving quietly too, and Derek has just been carrying on being a bit of a dude and getting on with things. Maverick is coming back into work next week as he appears to be 100% sound now, so we shall see how that goes.

As I said, Jingo is hopefully going to be there the next time I go over. The Boss was going to fill the stable between Bucky and Maverick with straw and then fetch him on Sunday. I’ll tell you more about lovely Jingo once he’s arrived :)

Even though I was short on time this evening, I managed to find a few minutes to mess about with Mr Fussy Knickers, Maverick. I’ve never seen so much jumping and prancing around in a stable, he must think he’s taking part in Strictly Come Dancing with all the spins and turns he does in there. All he’s ever after is a bit of fuss. I’m quite happy to oblige him, because even though he’s a total show off, he’s actually a real softie underneath.

Over and out,

Sarah (#1 Groom)