Frodon’s arrival was a tearjerker – but I could be on the next Paul Nicholls superstar this weekend

3 months ago 24

WELL what a roller coaster of emotions this week has been, but the king is safely settled in his new home — and wasting no time making friends.

There is certainly a massive void now that Frodon has left Ditcheat, because he’s such a character who wrote a different story every day.

Frost and Frodon have been reunited after the iconic stayer retired from racing[/caption]

But he is already loving life at Dad’s and has been chatting to every horse and human who’s gone near his box.

If you think I do a lot of talking, you should see Frode!

Dad says he’s never known such a chatty horse, and after many years of being on shavings or paper, is now on straw — which he’s discovered you can eat.

When he arrived on Wednesday there was just enough daylight for me to give him a quick canter, which was brilliant.

To get Dad on him was a real tearjerker for me, and he was like “wow, now I know the view you had going into all those big fences at Cheltenham.”

He’s had a good roll, got introduced to Chubby the cob, so they can go in the field together, and I’m beaming about it.

But I have to say he was totally perplexed when the hens strolled into his box to have a look.

They’ve taken to laying an egg in his hay basket, which means Frode has to stop eating for a few minutes until Dad comes in and takes it away.

And as sad as it is that he’s no longer at Ditcheat, everyone’s so pleased he could go out on his terms, healthy and happy.

He hadn’t fallen out of love with racing, but had too much weight for handicaps and couldn’t keep up with younger legs in graded ones.

I’m already spoiling him and bought matching bridles for him and Black Corton.

And he’s already put on a bit of weight and has a bit of a retirement belly on him.

It was funny but everyone at Dad’s was nervous about his arrival. A couple of staff usually have Wednesdays off, but they were like ‘oh no, it’s OK, we’ll come in.’

They just wanted to come and give him a pat. That’s what it’s like when Frode is in town. Everyone wants to have a look.

While Frodon came to a crossroads, at the other end of the scale I ride a lovely young horse at Doncaster today called Sans Bruit, who has come to Paul’s from David Cottin.

I schooled him outside on grass and really, really liked him. We’ll see what engine he’s got this afternoon.

I’m also on Monmiral, who was a very talented juvenile.

He’s obviously had his spells off the track but looks fantastic in his skin and schooled really well this week.

He’s been in deep waters all of his career, and we’re trying to get him in the position of being a happy horse again.

A flat track like Doncaster could be key and it would be great to find again what we all know is in there.