How things can change, the year started so well, we were looking forward to celebrating our 10th Anniversary with plenty of activities planned, but then along came Covid-19 and everything has changed, not just for New Beginnings but for everyone.
We are always looking for new ideas to get people engaged and enhance our educational delivery on racecourses and at local shows. Thanks to some funding, we decided to commission the painting of a full size plastic horse. We made a few enquiries and eventually went with the talented Kirsty Davis. We were hoping to have this ready for our first outing at Middleham Open Stables on Good Friday. Unfortunately as with everything else so far this year, this has been cancelled. I have attached a couple of pictures of how he is starting to look. You will hopefully be able to meet him later in the year when everything gets back to normal and we can all go back to business as usual.
We had a new horse join us in early February who many of you may know, his name is Goldream, the 10 year old who was trained by Robert Cowell. He has had 53 start’s with total earnings of £592,385. His last race was in June 2018. When he retired he went the British Racing School in Newmarket to help teach the next generation of jockey’s. This did not work out so we were approached to see if we would like to have him. Due to his character and standing we decided that he would hopefully be our next ambassador who we could re-train to do ridden parades on racecourses and some local shows. He has settled in to our routine well and seems very relaxed and enjoying his new life.
We have also had two of our horses returned from loaners, these are Nasharra and Cocoa’s Princess, these have both settled back in well. Since his return Nasharra has had none evasive kissing spine surgery and is now going through his re-habilitation. He is looking well and working nicely in long reins.
One of our biggest fund raisers of the year was our Ball on the last Saturday in February. This year it fell on the 29th so made for an extra special night.
We were joined by 275 supporters including Oli Bell one of our Patrons from ITV Racing.
This was a fantastic night and all the feedback that we have had have said that it was our best yet….so the date for next years New Beginnings Charity Ball is 27th February 2021 please put this in your diary.
Oli Bell kindly drew the winning Grange Park Racing raffle, this was one by Sheena Bailey with the winning ticket numbers 01515. Congratulations to Sheena and we hope that you enjoy your racing experience. Our huge thanks go to Alan Crombie and Grange Park Racing for their continued support.
In late February we took on a new member of staff Holly Harrison. Holly joins us with experience of working with former racehorses after working for five years with Racing NSW in Australia.
Following the changes and progression of the Covid-19 virous we decided in early March that we would should go into self isolation with both Holly and Mark living on the yard. Unfortunately it has meant that Katie who is married with responsibilities both human and equine is having to self isolate at home and can no come into work for the foreseeable future.This was to protect our staff and ultimately the 33 horse in our care. We did not / do not think that we could take any risks as the welfare of our horses is paramount.
This has obviously created a huge problem as our income has stopped, but our out goings have not. We have turned horses out that we would not usually have turned out for another four weeks at the earliest. Mark and Holly are working horse from the ground, but following advice from the BHS no horses are been ridden as the last thing that we need is for any of us to end up in the A&E department for obvious reasons.
Fortunately we had re-homed 4 horses before we had to lock down, so we do have some capacity to take in a few vulnerable horses if necessary, if things develop and people can no longer afford to keep them.
In these very uncertain times we are totally relying on our Friends of New Beginnings, our regular givers, our life blood. We understand that this awful virus is affecting everyone, and everyone in different ways. If you are one of our regular givers, please if you possibly can, keep supporting us, we truly appreciate it, possibly more now than now than ever before.
Our best wishes to you all, we hope that you are all well and keeping safe and we look forward to seeing many of you on a racecourse when all this is over.
Take care
Kind regards
Kevin & Pam
