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NTF 'Holiday' Report - Somerset to Yorkshire


I'm back! Well I was never really too far away but it's always good to have a break (or so Mrs NTF tells me!).

The NTF crew (myself, Mrs NTF and the 3 NTF greyhounds) took ourselves off for a little break down to Somerset and spend a week in a lovely quiet cottage in Ashton (even mental Minnie enjoyed the peace and tranquillity!). Whilst we were down in that neck of the woods we took the opportunity to visit the boy Trending (or #twitterhorse as some of you may know him) at the Horses First Racing yard in Sutton Veny....

Horses First Racing

Simply a magnificent set-up! As soon as we walked into the yard I was struck by the slickness and professionalism of the operation. Warm and welcoming from the moment you drive through the front gates with a plethora of equine facilities to assist Trainer Jeremy Gask and staff; treadmill's, uphill gallop, oval and straight flat gallops, sea walker, outdoor soft walker, indoor walker, wash-bays....and much much more. It's all there, including my own personal favourite the observation tower! The tower is situated so that you can see all of the gallops and have a clear view of the horses whilst undertaking their daily work.

In trainer Jeremy Gask they look to have the ideal man for the job. Friendly, knowledgeable, easy to talk to and clearly enjoys what he is doing. I could have picked Jeremy's brains for hours but unfortunately Mrs NTF and I had to shoot off and visit some big rocks in a field in Wiltshire! 

*Mrs NTF's comment after we had been to see Stonehenge was "Today we viewed 2 large grey things standing about in fields. I'll tell you now, watching Trending sleeping and yawning was a million times more interesting than these grey stones!!" You gotta love her!

Now as you know from my visits to Lucinda Russell's yard I'm one for taking plenty of video footage and pictures of the day to share with you guys. So you would think that when I go visit my own horse I would come back armed with millions and millions of footage that I could share with you guys, right? Eh....well.....we kinda forgot! In fairness we were on holiday! I do have some video footage (OK we took 1 video!) but the best place to see footage of our day there is by visiting #Twitterhorse TV. Eamonn Wilmott (founder of Horses First Racing) and his wife Oriana do a wonderful job of keeping all syndicate members up to date with the progress of Trending so make sure you check out their site. I will be posting links on here on a regular basis so you will be able to keep up to date with the most chilled horse in training (that's Trending by the way!).

As I mentioned we did remember to snap a few pics of the boy (thankfully!) and here are a couple of exclusive snaps you won't see anywhere else -

*ps ignore the date on the pics as it's obviously wrong! It's not our normal camera and there is a 'funny' story regarding greyhounds and a battery charger that I can't be bothered going into! (I will say that Minnie has had her pocket money docked until she has paid for the damage!)

Trending in his normal exuberant mid-morning mood!

Trending rising from his mid-morning slumber.

"I'm awake!"
Stretching out on the uphill gallop.
We had a thoroughly enjoyable day at the yard and future plans for our boy is to let him tell us when he is ready to strut his stuff on the racetrack. Jeremy is very much one for giving the youngsters plenty of time and that can only benefit the horse in the long term. Trending won't be rushed and I'm confident he is in the best hands. If he is good enough then Mr Gask will have him fit enough; lets hope for exciting times ahead :)

...on to Yorkshire

After we had comprehensively explored Somerset we made our way up to Yorkshire for a weekend stay in another quiet cottage in a place called Old Byeland on the edge of the Yorkshire Moors. On our way to the cottage (about 2 miles away) we passed through what was obviously all-weather horse gallops. On arrival at our cottage I asked the landlady if she knew if there were any racing yards in the area as I had noticed the gallops on the way to the cottage. She cheerfully told me that Kevin Ryan and Bryan Smart were both located close by. Excellent I thought! Since we are here I may as well chance my hand at trying to get some footage and maybe some info for the Blog. Our internet/phone coverage was pretty limited but we knew the yards were close so as we do we planned to go exploring on the Sunday.

On Sunday we somehow stumbled upon Kevin Ryan's yard and the first sign you see on approaching the yard is 'visits by appointment ONLY'. Fair enough I thought but as we were only in the area for a few days we went ahead and entered the yard. To get into the yard there are large wooden gates that are less than welcoming. Again, fair enough I thought, there is xxx amount of equine talent in the yard and you maybe don't want any jack the lad wandering in. Once through the gates one of the lads pointed me in the direction of the Ryan house where I did actually manage to speak to Kevin Ryan himself. It was clear from the moment he saw me he had decided he either didn't like me or didn't trust me! I explained who I was and that all I was looking for was maybe a few pics of the yard or a few pics of some horses on the gallops and possibly a line or 2 about some of their exciting 2yo's or hopes for some of their older horses. Essentially it's free promotion for his yard and my readers get a little snippet of how one of the larger flat operations works and maybe a line or 2 about a couple of the many horses in the yard. I was told to come back at 8am the next day where I would be allowed to photograph ONE string on the gallops, "speak to my head lad when you turn up and he will deal with you"!

Basically he wasn't making it easy for me and the pictures I did get are pointless as I have no idea what horses they are!! I did try and speak to the head lad but he was on top of a horse at the time! To be fair I did turn up uninvited on the Sunday (not on the Monday though!) and he is obviously a busy man but I can't help but wonder if I should have went looking for Bryan Smart's yard instead.....

Ben (NTF)


This post first appeared on Narrowing The Field The, please read the originial post: here

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NTF 'Holiday' Report - Somerset to Yorkshire

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