Thames Valley Countryfile

The Thames Valley.

A green and pleasant land running alongside our most historic river.

I'm in the pretty riverside town of Henley-on-Thames,

a place that is intrinsically linked to the river.

This is the spiritual home of rowing

and its roots can be traced back to the early 1800s when the first

University Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge was held here.

Every summer, for one week,

Henley holds its world-famous Regatta, transforming this

tranquil part of the Thames

into one of our most-loved sporting events.

But what makes this place the cradle of rowing?

Well, to find out, I am taking to the water with a man who

knows this stretch more than most. Sir Matthew Pinsent, good morning.

Sir Matthew Pinsent is one of our most successful Olympians.

He has won four gold medals at successive Olympic Games,

along with 16 wins here at Henley Royal Regatta.

And most of his training was done on this stretch of water.

So, Matthew, this is a place that you know very, very well.

Yes, it's probably the bit of river I spent most of my life on.

This is the Regatta course.

The finish line is just here

and the start line is way, way down in the distance.

You can see what we call the Temple. That's the start down there.

And you'll see, just as we sweep around, one of the few places on

the whole of the stretch of the Thames where it runs straight

as far as the eye can see. Which is why the Regatta is here.

175 years ago, when the Regatta first started, to have an

almost dead-straight course on a natural river was a rarity.

It provided the perfect setting for racing and spectating

and it still does today.

People will come down with their boats

and moor up on the booms here.

So, just here, you will get a real atmosphere which, actually,

-even an Olympics won't match. Because...

-Really?

Well, they're there. At an Olympics, the crowd is 100 metres away.

How does the competition kind of play out, then, over the week?

-Who is here?

-You will have some of the best rowers, men and women,

in the world come to the Regatta.

I remember coming here as a schoolboy. We sort of started a race

and the race ahead of us was the Olympic champions.

And you think, "Look at them.

"That is so-and-so." And, you know, that's magical.

People have been racing for the trophy that you want to win

at Henley for 175 years.

Even the Olympics doesn't have the history that this place does.

So it is very, very unique.

Preparations for the July Regatta are already underway.

Today it is a slick-run event but, as chairman Mike Sweeney knows,

that wasn't always the case.

In the early days, when it started,

the river was absolutely covered in boats - punts, gigs, any sort.

You could literally walk from one side to the other.

And at the start they fired a cannon.

And the theory was that everybody moved out of the way to allow

the racing crews to come through.

Well, it didn't always actually happen 100%, so occasionally

collisions between punts and racing boats was the order of the day.

-So, Mike, when was the first Henley Regatta?

-1839.

It was ten years after the first Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race

and it was that race that had given the townspeople the idea,

"Actually, this is good for the town.

"It brings business, it brings people."

It was one day, and the winners were First Trinity Cambridge.

And then the next year it got, what, more days and more days?

Yeah, it's now five days and has been for the last 30 years.

So, apart from offering young rowers like we have got here

the opportunity to row alongside Olympians,

what other support do your offer your rowers?

Well, in 1988, we started the Charitable Trust

and since then we have given away over £3 million to

junior development, youth development,

getting kids out in boats all over the country

-and it has been very, very successful.

-I'll bet.

There could be well over a million horses in the UK.

No-one knows the exact figure, and until recently there has been

no national project to keep check on their general health.

But the Blue Cross animal charity is changing that.

It's launched a one-week long, UK-wide annual survey to try to

paint a picture of just how fit or unfit the nation's horses really are.

Blue Cross came to prominence during the First World War,

caring for horses and working dogs injured on the battlefields.

The "blue" distinguished it from the Red Cross which, of course,

cared for wounded soldiers.

Today, it still has the health of horses at its very core.

This is the fifth equine survey it has carried out

and it is by far the biggest.

So, what do you already know about Britain's horses?

What we have found out is really important.

Three quarters of all horses have something wrong with them

and so we want to get a much bigger picture of that

and drill down into those figures

and find out what actually is affecting the horses in Britain.

That is a staggering fact, isn't it,

that three-quarters of all horses have something wrong?

What kind of things?

Well, the commonest things we have found

are about 15% have skin conditions, about 13% are lame.

So, that sort of information, if we can find out more about it,

will then help to inform vets and farriers and

pharmaceutical companies, really, and charities like the Blue Cross

about what advice they say should be giving to horse owners.

Students at the Berkshire College of Agriculture are carrying out

the horse survey as part of their course in equine health.

So, tell me, Sarah, what exactly are you having to do?

So, we will start on the head,

look at their teeth, make sure they're in good condition

then we will look at their nose.

So they have got a nice, clean nose, bright, shiny eyes,

nice and alert ears.

Then we will move down to look at their feet and their hooves,

make sure there is no lameness or anything.

-Well, this mare looks in perfect condition to me.

-She is.

However, when we were grooming her, we found some lumps on her skin

that you can just feel up here, which aren't normal.

There are lumps all over her, aren't there?

So, what are you going to do about that?

We'll report it to a skin specialist and have them

come out and have a look at her.

-Hopefully it's not serious.

-Hopefully.

Though it's largely a countryside survey,

you have to head into the capital to discover why a great

British institution is taking part for the first time.

These are just some of the horses of the Household Cavalry, returning from

ceremonial duties to the regiment's barracks here in Central London.

At the moment, there are 240 horses here

and the regiment itself is the most senior in the British Army.

It has played a key role

in Britain's state and military heritage,

always on duty at great occasions

and one of the top tourist attractions of London.

The wellbeing of its fine horses is crucial

and Blue Cross is here to help with the survey.

Andy, your horse is getting the once-over now from the Blue Cross.

-What sort of a horse is he?

-He's a three-quarter Irish Draught.

The reason we get the Irish Draught horses is

because we need the right temperament for the horses

within London and also the size and the weight he has to carry.

He is carrying about four stone of equipment on him,

also possibly 16 or 17 stone of soldier as well.

-So he needs to be big and strong.

-That's right, John, yes, he does.

The last 12 months or so have been very busy, haven't they,

with, you know, the Jubilee, the Olympics and everything else?

That's right. Really busy.

So it's vital that all the horses here are fit all the time.

Fit, healthy and well looked after.

And they couldn't be in better hands.

Regimental vet Major Ann O'Flynn keeps a close eye on them.

-We've got a casualty here, then, Ann.

-Yes, this is Vainglory.

Unfortunately he slipped over this morning in rehearsals.

That's a nasty gash on his knee.

Yeah. I am just going to give it a quick cleanup.

Is this quite a common occurrence?

Well, this is pretty run-of-the-mill for us.

Horses that are going out in groups of anything from 10 to 200,

we see a few cuts, kicks, grazes, bumps and that sort of thing.

So, when will he be back on parade, then?

We're hoping back on the next parade we do.

And with so many horses here, your big worry must be

if some infection or disease gets in and sweeps through.

Yes, that's right, we've got a herd of 550 horses in the Army

so we have horses living in such close proximity to each other

and so many in one place that, yeah,

things that can spread from horse to horse are a key concern for us.

These aren't ordinary horses, are they? If anything happened,

it would, you know, be a long time before they could be replaced.

Yes, there is a training pipeline.

These horses will spend 18 months to two years in training,

so if we do lose one through injury or sickness,

we have got to look quite hard for a replacement.

'With the survey nearly complete, how has the regiment fared?'

-So, just about the last one now, Gemma.

-Yes.

-How has it gone?

-It's gone really well, yes.

-Are they fit?

They are in really tiptop condition.

'Good news for the Household Cavalry.'

And the full results of the national survey

will be published later this year.