A day in the life of Kevin & Robin Hood

It was the Robin Hood owners official stable visit on Saturday morning and therefore we had the privilege of visiting the yard prior to one of our horses Oscar (De La Hoya) running in the evening at Doncaster.
This provided the RH team with an opportunity to see a glimpse into a day in the life of our trainer Kevin and his staff.
The back story was that the stable visit was arranged weeks in advance and for that reason we didn’t want to cancel however we had reservations regarding going ahead as we know how busy Kevin would be, however when I asked him he just said “Crack on with it although I will have to leave for 11am”
I have used timelines in an attempt to give you a clear history of the day.
Kevin arrived at the yard for the early morning feeds at 6am.
We arrived at the yard at 8.30am to be met by Kevin and his staff and within seconds Jack paraded Oscar in front of us and arranged photos for our enthusiastic owners.
Five minutes later and in military fashion Kath’s Toyboy and Poster Child appear for their warm up prior to their piece of work.
As we walk to the gallops to watch our horses in action I ask Kevin about his thoughts on his runner at Aintree the night before and he tells me that the journey home seemed to take for ever with all of the road closures and that he arrived back in Newark at 12.30am
Kevin not surprisingly looked tired however he soon had to shake of his weariness when one of the horses galloped past us after unshipping his rider
Our trainer reacts quickly, vanishes, and if transported by a time machine meets the horse at the end of the gallops then bravely and calmly waves him down before taking him back to the safety of his stable.
Within minutes he was back with us and gave us some interesting insights into our string as we watched KT and Poster do a nice canter.
9.30am and in between doing entries and declarations Kevin agrees to do an interview for our owners before setting off to Thirsk for his 1st runner of the day telling me that he would be rejoining us for the night meet at Doncaster.
10am and Kevin sets off for Thirsk.
We are now at Doncaster and it’s a glorious summer evening and at 6.20pm we make our way to the pre-parade where we find Kevin and his staff saddling up Oscar.
Oscar was gelded way back in January however would somebody please tell him as he still behaves like a playboy and according to staff has been an absolute pain since he arrived around 4pm.
6.35pm time to move into the paddock, It is only Oscar’s second run and the first time that our Jack the lad has encountered such a big crowd therefore Kevin takes no chances and supports Lauren and Julia as Oscar pulls them around the paddock.
To be fair as soon as David jumps into the saddle Oscar settles down and starts to behave like an old pro.
6.40pm Kevin moves towards us and I cannot help but move towards him to give him a high five embrace.
It is one of those rare mindful moments where I realise how lucky we are to have such a hard working, skilful and dedicated man to look after our horses.
6.50pm and after all the hysterics Oscar decides to light his cigar as he strolls out of the stalls however David Nolan reacts quickly and gives Oscar the hurry up.
6.53pm and David tells us that Oscar is a really nice horse with a great attitude and that we will have some fun with him.
7.00pm Kevin gives brilliant feedback to all of our owners at the course before giving me another interview for those that could not make it.
7.20pm and we are still in deep discussion with our enthusiastic trainer before Amanda intervenes and quite rightly escorts Kevin back to the car.
Unfortunately the words I give you cannot adequately express my gratitude to our trainer and his staff, they do such an amazing job.
Thank you for reading.