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Going off at a tangent, but on the same theme, I saw a programme last night about Mackintosh, and they said that at one point the whole of Glasgow was going to be redeveloped and that most, if not all of Mackintosh’s buildings would have been destroyed. This follows on from a programme last week about the fight to save Covent Garden from being turned into a car park.
We reached the gallops at 6.30 just as the dawn was breaking, immediately realising that much warmer clothing is essential, not only because of the autumn nip in the air but those wide open spaces tend to generate a low-lying cold dampness. As we’d approached Warren Hill we saw the first group of horses milling around quickly followed by team after team after team. In total we must have observed at least a couple of hundred horses over the next hour and a half.
As each team of horses and riders passed it was quite easy to identify most of the stables by the embroidered initials on each of the saddle cloths. What surprised me most was the large number of foreign accents amongst the riders, the majority seeming to be of Indian origin. That has since been explained to me as due to the larger availability of light-weight riders from the Indian sub-continent compared to this Country.
Particularly satisfying was the number of riders who, on passing, said "Good Morning", yet strangely some teams were far more subdued than others. One or two riders even managed a joke about us having hot drinks. They sounded really nice guys and girls who must be lots of fun to have working in the yard.
For the pleasant interaction alone, I’m sure I’ll visit more often, though there always has to be someone shouting the odds – I’ll say no more but to thank him for his unnecessary and vocal safety lesson!
If any of the riders read this please pass on my thanks and admiration for getting up at that time in the morning in all weathers. You’re a real hardy bunch.
KenJust wondering, since yesterday’s visit – I noticed that from time to time as each team of four or six horses were galloping up the hill, whilst many of the horses could be heard breathing quite hard, there was the odd one here and there from whom you couldn’t hear any sign of noisy breathing. Would that be an indication of the horse being extremely fit or is it just that some make a noise when breathing and some don’t?
Just thought I might be on to a good thing here and if I could just identify the name of the horse maybe my fortune is made!
When reading about ‘Newmarket Watchers’ what are the kinds of things they are looking for when seeing horses working-out?
Cheers
KenVery interesting informative post full of useful information.
Well done to Adrian and the others who contributed.Ken,
A horse which is breathing very noisly is not a good sign. However ones which are breathing normally could either be clean winded or not over exerting themselves.
Work watchers these days tend to work in conjunction with the trainers. They find out what horses are working with what and then make a judgement on the way they all go. Of course you have to factor in the distance travelled and the size of the lads as well as the amount of effort the lads are making.
Often trainers will use jockeys on their work mornings whilst others prefer to trust the judgement of seasoned "work riders" who know how the trainers like things done. Often jockeys are considered to be to forceful on horses they are testing out for their future potential.
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