Yes Chef starts the year off with a win!
Coombeshead Racing Partnership, the horseracing arm of Percy's Country Hotel started the New Year with a win at Kempton Park last week. His rating is currently 72 and, all being well, he should be running again on 24th February at Kempton again. We shall let you know his chances
nearer the time.
When he arrived at the yard last October, Yes Chef was quite difficult to deal with, sweating profusely at the mere thought of exercise and was an extremely difficult ride to boot. The decision was made to geld him and turn him away for six weeks. James and Rod Millman have been very quiet with Yes Chef since he resumed training, increasing the paces gradually and letting him tell them what he wanted to do and he has calmed down substantially as a result. As he had previously been very highly strung, the plan was for his furst run for the Millman yard to be an enjoyable one and, luckily, everything went to plan. Tracking the early leader, he moved upsides two out and while he took a while to go past, James said he always felt like he was going to come out on top just using hands and heels in the final furlong. As soon as the runner-iup joined him after the line, he picked up again and gave the indication that there was still plenty left in the tank. This confidence boost should help him progress further and whilst it may take a while to get the best out of him, we should all be able to have plenty of fun with him this season. It was great for both of us (Tina & Tony) as it was our first flat winner sporting the Coombeshead Racing colours and also our first runner with Rod Millman.
Pedigree Large Black Sows have piglets
Two of our pedigree sows gave birth on Jan 21st and 23rd. The piglets are delightful and growing very fast. We shall have weaners (birth notified) for sale from March 4th. 
Boys are £45 and girls are £55.
Do phone if you wish us to reserve one or two for you.
Ewes scanned
Our older very pregnant ewes have been scanned - we are expecting 87 ewes to lamb between 145 and 150 lambs. We have had such success with our sheepskins that we have repeated alot of the pairing in the breeding to get long, beautiful soft wool. We have several rams - Jacob, Grey Faced Dartmoor, Blue Texel x and this year we bought in a Suffolk shearling ram.
The suffolk was put in with 22 of the larger ewe lambs from last year but was not satisfied with that and decided to jump the fence into the next field where 70 more ewe lambs were fattening. We could not remove him immediately as this happened in the midst of heavy snow fall and very icy conditions, so we are now faced with scanning the younger ewes to see how many he managed to 'catch'. I suspect that we shall be having two lambings this year - the first ewes are due to lamb from March 4th onwards.
Lambing Live
Ever wanted to help at lambing time? I shall be needing a helper or two from the beginning of March probably through to June. If you have experience lambing and would like to help, we can accommodate (mobile home) you and feed you!
If you would just like a snippet of lambing involvement then do call and book one of our spring breaks, bring waterproofs and warm clothes and you can 'muck in' for an hour or two or a day or two!
Three new additions to the Percy family
Alfie, Hughie and Sammy have come to live with their auntie Annie (and of course Sophie as well). These energetic labs are full of character and search endlessly for something to chew. They love to sit on the step outside the kitchen and keep themselves amused by disconnecting the waste pipe from the kitchen sink which they find very exciting to chew!
They are well behaved, love affection and should be ready to accompany residents for walks around the Estate very soon.
New Dishes for the Mail Order range
We now have on offer (as well as our delicious Moroccan Lamb Tagine and Hungarian Goulasch) a very tasty slightly piquant Chilli Con Carne and also the much commented on Split Pea and Ham Soup. Do have a peep at the Mail Order List for a current update.
