Saturday work morning at Dodlands Steading

Lots of work riders were down at Dodlands on Saturday morning, with the bulk of the gallop duties completed just after 10 am. Surely a record!
After breakfast, that just left 'Hope' (Callum) and Paper Roses (Leah) to pop across the road for a steady canter 'Up-the-Middle'.
Former amateur rider and team member Ryan Nicholl popped down to say hello so he rode a couple of lots as well.

But, let's start at the crack of dawn though and half a dozen horses were exercised in 2 steady canters on the gallop. We're delighted with each of them as their level of their fitness comes along. Not quite ready to undertake some 'work' (Wednesdays and Saturdays are workdays), probably a couple are 2-3 weeks away.

• Danced Every Dance (Laura)
• Lucarno Dancer (Kingy)
• 'Adam' (Pinky)
• 'Jean' (Rebecca)
• The Boo Box (Ryan)
• 'Henry' (Callum)

The morning was grey and dull, although quite warm for the time of year. By the time lots 2 and 3 were on the gallops, 'Mouse' Young (Buyers Club) and Al Duncan were positioned on the hill to oversee the horses undertake work, quite different in nature. And so was the gallop routine between the two lots.
Yeah, a bit grey but we've published photos and videos nonetheless with apologies in advance for the quality.

So, 4 horses in Lot 2 who completed 3 medium paced canters Up-the-Middle. We would use this type of work (3 times up) for our staying (2m 4f plus) horses nearing fitness.

• Keyboard Gangster (Pinky)
• Big Bad Dream (Callum)
• Side of the Road (Kingy)
• Paper Promise (Ryan)

All the riders came back with positive reports on their mounts. You can view this exercise for yourself (2nd time up out of 3) here :

Side of the Road and Big Bad Dream lead Paper Promise and Keyboard Gangster

After a steady canter, Lot 3 did a faster gallop second time up.

• Baby Ticker (Rebecca)
• Eternally Yours (Callum)
• Dali Mail (Kingy)
• Stainsby Girl (Ryan)

Baby Ticker, Dali Mail (partially hidden), Stainsby Girl and Eternally Yours

These horses worked in pairs in the faster gallop second time up, with the more forward Eternally Yours & Baby Ticker going at a nice pace. As you can see from the video below, Eternally Yours just failed to give Baby Ticker 5 st.
Kingy and Ryan were very pleased with their horses, going at a reasonably quick pace and running right to the top of the gallop.

See more of this gallop here :

A nice introduction by See My Baby Jive

Our 2 year old Coach House filly See My Baby Jive made her racecourse debut at Newcastle during the week. After showing nice speed for about 4f, she weakened a touch to finish in mid division beaten 8 lengths over the 6f trip.
Closer inspection of her pedigree shows that none of her close up relatives won as a 2 year old, but we wanted to give our filly a taste of racing for experience.
She's now been roughed off and will spend the late autumn and winter months away from the yard, before returning in the spring.

See My Baby Jive