A New Day in NewMarket

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Another early day for this group of adventurers. A good portion of the group was in a bit of a grumpy mood after staying our first night in the London hostel and having to deal with our 'lovely' bus driver, Tony, for another day. The day was crammed pack of things to do so everyone had to perk up fast to enjoy what it had to offer.



Our first stop was to pick up our tour guide, John, and then to the tracks to see some of the horses training. We weren't there for long but it was still neat to see the horses training. We then traveled back to the British National Horse Racing Museum. Much of the group had a quick lunch at the cafe in the museum before exploring and wondering through the exhibits. The museum was small but still offered a lot of information to offer. The part that seemed to catch everyone's attention was the robotic race horse you could test your riding skills with. It was quite entertaining to say the least.



By 2 pm we were all done at the museum, only to meet up with John again and head over to the National Stud. After playing musical buses for a bit everyone had gotten more frustrated before we finally settled into one of the facility's buses, driven by one of their guides. The lady was quite entertaining and she, along with getting to see some babies again, seemed to put a smile on everyone, as well as a good vibe throughout the group. We received a quick tour of the facility. In comparison, it wasn't much different than the stuff we had seen in Ireland from a managerial point of view. We did though get to see the horse Amberleigh House, now retired but was a Grand National Winner. This was very neat since we were just at the Aintree, the Grand National Race Course, a few days prior.



From the stud we traveled to Tatterstalls where we got a quick tour and saw the sales barn where many horses are sold each year. It was interesting how intense the guide made the place seem when sales are going on. If only we could have been there on one of these days. She explained how the cameras were all around in case someone denied binding or had a little buyer's remorse. Then they could play the video and prove whether or not they did indeed bid or not. The horses are also vet checked and may have blood drawn afterwards to test for drugs. If there are any issues detected after a sale, it may be canceled to protect the buyer from getting fooled. All sales are made using the currency Guineas. Tattersalls is one of the only sales barns that still uses Guineas but it is more beneficial because one Guinea is 1.05 pounds so for each sale the seller gets 1 pound and Tattersalls gets the 5 pence per Guinea. After the sales barn we saw the stables briefly before heading out.



Our next stop was a tour of the vet clinic at the Animal Health Trust where we saw their equine portion of the clinic as they showed off all their 'toys' such as the x-ray and NMR machines. I can't imagine the difficulty of taking an NMR of an antsy horse. Our final stop was then at a training yard where we were introduced to all the horses there and got a quick overview if the nutrition plan. I'm quite sure the horses there eat better than me with their five feelings a day, with many feeds, imported honey, and lots of carrots. Even the dog, a fat Jack Russell someone from the group named 'Football', looked like he was eating just well. Overall the place was not as prime and pristine as many of the other places we visited. But it was very practical and the horse were cared for very well and that is all that matters.



Then we headed back to the bus, this is when John left us. On our way back to London we stopped for a bit at a place to grab a bite to eat. Once again it took much longer than we wanted to get back to London due to traffic. Once there we were happy to see Tony leave and having it be the last time we see him. After that the group quickly scattered in various ways to do as they wish for the evening.



~Amber P.

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