Gallops

I have spent the last few months researching various different types of all weather gallops. I'm badly hamstrung at the minute with the hard ground and not being able to get the saplings galloped before taking them to the track. Its fine the last few days with the rain as the ground has eased but that wont last any longer than a week before it becomes too risky to let them off the lead.

There are 3 options that I'm considering.

1. Starmat
If money was no object this would be the first choice every time. Joe Hurley deserves a lot of credit for developing the product at his schooling track in Gulladuff. A very safe surface which requires minimal maintenance and can be used in literally any conditions.

2. Fibresand
There is a great members gallop along side the coursing field in Lifford that uses a similar product, I will post a picture of it on Monday. Fibresand is a product that I wouldn't be overly familiar with but I watched a couple of dogs coming up this gallop during the week and they never missed a stride and seemed to enjoy the surface beneath their feet.

3. Sawdust/Sand
I am swaying towards using this material. It has been used with great success by a lot of trainers and is very much a proven product. I was collecting a bitch at Newpark Stud a while back and was very impressed with theirs, although it was more sawdust than sand. It had been very dry for the previous two weeks but the gallop was not hard and a dog would have got its toe nicely into it. It had a nice "spring" to it which would give something back to the dog as he pushed his stride off it. The only problem with this type of gallop could be the availability of the sawdust. Since wood pellet burners for central heating became the latest fad all supplies of sawdust that sawmills would have had have been diverted to pellet production, so once where you could have got them for nothing and just had to pay haulage you now have to pay for them, and that's if there for sale at all.

I plan to start work on the gallop in early August so I still have a while to make my mind up.