We were all very busy on Friday putting the finishing touches to the yard before the weekend. Even Rose was out pulling manes for all of her lunch break! I have to say it was a pretty nerve wracking day for us all not knowing what to expect with our first public open day looming the following day.
On Saturday we pulled out 1st lot at 6am, we rode out 3 lots straight away, Lawrie Gill and Emily Scott came in to ride a couple each helping to get all the horses ridden by 10am. The lads did a super job and didn't not stop all morning. I rode 1st lot myself before having breakfast with our two Red Letter Day guests Dawn and Andy and Mr & Mrs Kimber who came to see our horses for sale. It was their second trip to Neardown and after a trip up the gallops they decided to purchase the remaining 50% share in Royal Redemption. It is great to have them on board in such a lovely horse. When we arrived back from the gallops I found out that the people coming in to do the catering for the Open Day had suddenly let us down. It was all hands on deck and amazingly it turned out that Andy was a whizz with the BBQ and whipped up our guests some hot food all day. I owe Dawn, Andy and Roses mother Jackie a massive thank you for their hard work and humour that kept us all going.
The open day was a great success, we had about 200 new faces through the gates during the day. The horses were all paraded and behaved impeccably and looked extremely well. Mr Big also had a bit of school with Gavin Sheehan showing everyone how its done. The Morris Dancers then took over for the afternoon and once again I showed them how it was done-I believe there are a few videos of me going around! It was great to meet so many racing enthusiasts and show them 'behind the scenes'. I hope that everyone had an enjoyable and insightful day and didn't noticed our small hitch!
The day didn't stop there as following on from the open day Katya and I had our engagement party up at the house. A copious amount of champagne was drunk in a short space of time and we all let our hair down a little but handily it meant that it wasn't a very late night as we had to be up early on Sunday for our owners lunch. No rest for the wicked!
Everyone was in to set up for the owners lunch at 10am on Sunday, there were a few sore heads amongst us all but we all knuckled down and got the show back on the road. With amazing fate we had a glorious day and laid a lovely long table down the centre of our court yard. The contingency plan was to lay the table down the middle of the horse barn if rain struck but luckily for the second year running we were bathed in sun for most of the day. With great thinking from the more sober people on Saturday night a couple of cases of Champagne were hidden to provide the owners with Champagne reception to toast the coming of the new season.
We ate fillet of beef and dauphinoise potatoes with some lovely fresh beans. Cheese and chocolates followed as did more wine! It was a brilliant day and I thoroughly enjoyed spending some time with lovely owners and hope they enjoyed the day as much as we all did. It could not have been done better by our team of merry helpers, Rose and Jackie, the sunday chef Avery Ffrench Davis, and the wonderful duo Helen Whitfield and Emma Frampton and the children William and Charlotte who all worked tirelessly all weekend.
Today has been a struggle for the humans at Neardown but the horses seem as well as ever!
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