Having visited Hong Kong a few years ago and stayed near its racecourse, I was surprised to learn that there had been no horse racing in China for 60 years. Apparently no race meetings have been held since the republic formed in 1949.

The first race meeting took place in Wuhan, which was a racing centre previously, at the end of November.

The King George Steeplechase is a favourite race of mine as it’s held on Boxing Day each year.  I usually get to see it but I was in the US this year for Xmas so missed seeing the race live. However I was pleased to see that one of the current steeplechase stars, Kauto Star won for the third time in succession which is a big achievement.

This was last done by another favourite horse and steeplechase legend Desert Orchid. I hope that Kauto Star goes on to win well at Cheltenham in the spring to continue to build his growing reputation.

A new type of eventing called Express Eventing held its inaugural event at the end of November in the UK.  It was described as being condensed into one day and where all of the event can be viewed from one seat. The freestyle dressage is held to music and is mainly on artistic impression rather than technical ability. I then think the showjumping carried straight on from the dressage with a short break to change tack before the cross-country. I’m not sure how all of the cross-country can be viewed from one seat unless there is either a very big stadium to contain all three stages or the cross-country is viewed via a big screen in the stadium.

I believe this was shown on TV in the UK. Did anyone see this? What did you think of this new type of event?

Last night on TV for the first time I saw quarterhorses racing. I have seen plenty of thoroughbred racing and even some Arab horses racing, but I was still surprised by how fast the quarterhorses were.

If I heard correctly, one race over a distance of a quarter of a mile was run in just over 15 seconds. Can that be right? - 1 mile in a minute which is 60 miles per hour. I will have to read up on and find out more about quarterhorses in the coming weeks.

Horses are very expensive animals to keep and therefore in difficult economic times I am often concerned that horse welfare will be negatively affected.

At least in the summer, horses can be kept relatively cheaply if turned out to grass. Winter is the most expensive time of year with additional bedding, stabling and feed costs, and therefore when horses at most risk.

In the UK, some animal welfare groups have already seen a significant increase in people asking for assistance with their horses.  But they too have limited budgets and are subject to the same increasing costs.

I hope the weather is kind this winter and the economy picks up soon.