on he has been able to jump at speed around a 60-by-30m school jumping fences up to 1.30m with awe-inspiring accuracy. When we moved to the schooling fences on the gallops and later at nicky henderson’s he was always brilliant and because it was clearly his favourite occupation, we continued to school him at least twice a week. On the racecourse he was just as good but because we knew how much practice it had taken, our wonderful gallop man was asked to make some downhill fences in the build up to Cheltenham. We were all very relieved that we had gone to all the effort when max made his first approach and was clearly rattled by not being able to see his landing clearly. Once again practice made perfect and after a few more attempts he was foot perfect. max is pretty unimpressive on the gallops at home so we keep him entertained by using different connotations of our beautiful downland gallops, and he particularly enjoys the odd trip to Paul Cole’s all-weather at Whatcombe. his long, fragile legs are hosed twice daily, and [physio] Philippa James and [massage therapist] marnie Campbell are regulars in his box. Sara and alfie do almost everything with him and so it has been possible to tailor his workload exactly to how he is feeling that day. the more he bites, the happier we are. the bruises that cover anyone who dares undress him are all forgiven now! n
Sara on Coneygree with Mark holding Carruthers
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