Racehorse Things

 I'm still keeping track of the racehorses I knew when I worked at the race barn. Right after I posted my last entry, Flame and Percy were entered in the same race at Monmouth... and they ended up coming in first and second! You can watch the replay here:

Flame's win photo, by Bill Denver/Equiphoto.

Racehorse News

Everyone seemed to enjoy my last update about the racehorses so I figured I'd throw another one in here. The race barn had two more winners in July. The two gray girls, Richie and Maddie, won their races at Monmouth and Penn National respectively.

Photo by Bill Denver, EQUIPHOTO

Herbie's First Race Back

For those of you who are confused, I'm talking about Herbie the horse. I don't work at the racehorse barn any more, but I still keep tabs on the horses who were there when I was. One of them, a gelding named Umbrage, just had his first race back. His barn name was Herbie (because his owner's name is Herbert). For obvious reasons, that made him a favorite of mine! He was also a really good boy (if he'd been there when I started riding racehorses, I might have stuck with it!) Spoiler alert: Herbie won his race! Check it out below (and make sure you look at the masks in the winner's circle... what a time to be alive!) There are a lot of things I don't like about horse racing, but I still get really excited whenever I see one I know win a race.

Photo by Bill Denver (Equiphoto), used with purchase.

Helmet Awareness Post

This is going to be one of those posts. I am probably preaching to the choir on this one, but since helmet awareness day just passed, the timing seems appropriate.

Camera Clearing

More July photos. There were too many to just tuck into the cell phone photo dump. Also, I forgot to mention that Flower won her race the other week.

These photos fall into two categories:

1. Work photos

2. Show photos

Racehorse Photos

Let me know when you get sick of these massive photo dumps of horses galloping in fields. I won't stop posting them, but I want to know :-P

Marshall has grown into such a handsome, well put together colt. He is also super professional, which is impressive in a two year old.All I'm saying is that I wouldn't kick him out of my barn.

Desperado Breezing

I have a whole slew of photo posts and a ride recap coming up, but I have a lesson in half an hour so I'll just leave you with some pictures of Desperado breezing on The Hill this morning. The track just opened for training last weekend and some of the horses headed down to live there, so the barn is pretty quiet. Racing opens in a couple weeks and the bosses are already planning who is going in what race and when.

Juli is my hero.

Snow Day Photos

After a pretty miserable winter that has involved a lot of alternating ice and mud, we finally got the first real snow of the season on Sunday night. I brought my camera to work on Monday morning to capture some of the fluffy white stuff. I am now officially ready for spring!

Desperado heading up to the Hill to gallop. This is so beautiful until you have to hike up it more than once. Got quite a work out on Monday.

Work Photos

I have this photo folder sitting on my computer. It has random photos from the race barn sitting in it. Today I realized that some of them date all the way back to May!! It's high time to clear the folder. Besides, who doesn't want to see some greenery and warmer weather for a change?

Percy and Desperado on the hill.

Sam Breaks His Maiden

My large chestnut friend from last summer, Sam, broke his maiden this afternoon at Parx. Sadly, I didn't watch the live video and they don't seem to do replays, but I'm still super proud and bought the win photo. Mostly I'm still terrified to actually go fast on these horses, but it's pretty cool that I've gotten to gallop a few winners now :)

Photo by Bill Denver/Equi-Photo.

Introducing Kyle and Marshall

We (finally) got the two new babies (yearlings) in at work.

The one on the left is Supply Sider. He is Patrick's half brother (same dam). He is by Marsh Side so we are calling him Marshall (because, really, what the heck do you do with a name like Supply Sider?) When he's bad, we can call him Swampy or Bog Beast.

The one on the right is Fatima's Blessing, a colt out of Pebbles' sister, Kylie. So we're calling him Kyle. We debated calling him "Fatty" or "Duke" (because we go to Duke's to get fat).

Both boys came from a farm in New York where they've been turned out together in a herd. They belong to the same client of ours. Marshall will be started under saddle this fall, if all goes according to plan, then have the winter off before starting training in the spring. Kyle, on the other hand, was a June 2017 baby, so he's barely a yearling. He'll get turned out with Tony (who got weaned on Monday) and get some time to grow and mature. His entire bloodline consists of late bloomers so we're not worried about what (if anything) he does as a two year old.

While these colts have been handled somewhat (are halter broke and have had their feet done), they're not nearly as social and friendly as our homebreds. (Tony is already a pro at getting groomed, sprayed, having his feet handled, leading, riding in the trailer, living in a stall, etc.) For now we're just focusing on getting them into a daily routine where they get handled, turned out, turned back in, etc. While they're a little skittish, especially about being handled on the right, they are clearly bright pupils and are picking things up quickly, with plenty of try to go around.

Working with youngsters always gets me excited, no matter how many times I do it. Since my racehorse posts seem to be pretty popular (yay or nay?) I'll try to chronicle these boys' progress a little more thoroughly than I did with Patrick and Percy.

I'll start with photos of Kyle and Marshall turned out together this week. (Plus, this way you can all get a good look at Marshall's beautiful silver tail. He inherited a Gulastra's Plume, just like his brother, Patrick. I guess that means they get that particular trait from mom!)

Life Lessons from Riding Racehorses

Last week, after over a year of pretending to be an exercise rider, I came off one of the racehorses. Since I started doing this, the girls and I have been talking about how taking a no-big-deal tumble off of one of these things might actually be the best thing for me.

Not me, obviously.

Galloping Photos

Here's a random assortment of pictures I took in July with Christine's camera. Just daily gallops on the hill :)

This one of Desperado is by far my favorite. He scares me half to death, but he is gorgeous!

Introducing (and Galloping) Sam

This post is long overdue (what else is new?)

A few months ago, this gigantic 17hh three year-old chestnut colt moved into the barn. His (terrible) name is Sam's Last Ghasp and we briefly debated calling him Wheezy before settling on the much more obvious Sam as his barn name. He's just too good of a boy to be called Wheezy.

The name comes from his sire, Heavy Breathing. Those of you who are really stalking these things will notice that means he's by the same stallion as my beloved Harry. Well, I don't know if it's the sire line or what, but Sam shares all of Harry's good qualities despite the two of them not looking anything alike.

Sam came to us for rehab and came sound quickly. Juli hopped on him first and after some very minor propping, he was a perfect gentleman under saddle.

I have been riding Sam since! We started off just jogging a mile inside, which is where we got to know each other. Sam is on the lazy side, which I love. His only "bad" habit is that he calls to the other horses sometimes. Other than that and the fact that he's a little mouthy on the ground, you'd never know he wasn't a gelding!

Once we'd worked up to a mile and a half jogging, I took Sam out on the turf course. He did get a little distracted by the other horses, but wasn't the least bit spooky or strong. He did think about running off once when a motorcycle passed behind him, but I never lost brakes and was able to pull him up in just a few strides.

Next, I took Sam out in the orchard field to do our first gallops. He was like a big hunter pony, loping around on a loopy rein, so I took him up on the hill. Sam has been great for my fitness and confidence. He's big enough and takes enough of a hold that I build cardio and muscle by riding him, but he's so saintly that I'm finding myself being really brave on him. I've ridden him the fastest out of all the horses I've gotten on in the last almost-year. In fact, I'd do just about anything with him by ourselves!

Sam has also started going in company again. The first time I took him in company with Juli, I thought my arms were going to get pulled out of their sockets. Sam wasn't running away with me, but he was leaning on me (politely, but with a head that feels like it's three hundred pounds!) I only got through three laps around the Hill before I had to pull up because I was out of breath!

Since then, we've graduated to the alfalfa field, which is a half-mile mowed gallop where we can work in the correct direction and incorporate lead changes like they do at the track. Juli was out the week that we started using the "west gallop", as Doc calls it.  I put on my big girl pants and went out with Christine and Bam Bam. This was the first time that we went fast and instead of fighting to maintain control, I let the reins go and got out of Sam's way while he did his job. In fact, we ended up leaving Bam Bam in our dust at one point and Christine actually had to send him to come catch us!!!

The heat is definitely putting a damper on my fitness and riding. I struggle in the heat in general, preferring winter to summer. I get winded and shaky very quickly, and wearing a hot vest doesn't help. Still, I'm trying to keep it up! I did miss two weeks due to my sun poisoning so it'll be interesting to see where I'm at on Monday when I get back on Sam again.

Still, Sam is the type of horse I could see myself actually breezing on. We already went "two minute lick" pace. Christine breezed Sam on Wednesday, for the first time since he's been with us. He did have a few timed works at the track previously, and they were unimpressive at best, so it was no surprise when Sam breezing by himself was best described as uninspired. I'm not sure he actually went any faster than he did when I rode him with Bam Bam!

As always, I half hope Sam will flunk out of racing so he can making someone a very nice riding horse (I'll keep you all posted if he does!) In the mean time, I hope he stays at the farm long enough for me to learn more from him.  I suspect he'll be leaving soon since he's doing so well, though.

As you can probably tell from my gigantic grin, I'm really enjoying this big red horse for now:

Photo by Christine (almost all the ones in this post are).

Tony Photos

We only have one foal at work this year. His sire's name is Danza, so naturally the baby's barn name is Tony. His registered name is going to be Whose the Boss (grammar mistake necessary to be JC legal). There's not much to report about Tony. He's currently at the bosses' house, separate from the main farm, growing and getting to just be a foal. I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot more of him once he's weaned. He is already halter broke, picks up his feet, and has been on a trailer ride, so he's off to a good start in that department. In the mean time, I figure everybody loves foal photos, so I'm going to dump a bunch of them on you guys now and get one more topic checked off my blog list.

If only they stayed this size. I have missed baby horses <3

Percy Photos

I keep touching on everything with Percy without going into too much detail. Before he started rearing regularly again and earned himself a snip-snip, I really managed to build my confidence on him. We were going up on the hill regularly with Juli on Patrick and I was actually getting comfortable going "fast". We broke 25mph, which is bordering on a two minute lick (one step below breezing). After Doc came up and physically pulled my reins out of my hands (longer rein, faster), I really got better with my position, steering, etc. Juli and I were regularly clanking stirrups and I was getting ready to breeze.

Even when Percy started to rear again (and these are the Hi Ho Silver variety rears where you see front legs up above your head), I was getting braver about handling it and smacking him forward. I still didn't love it, but I wasn't immediately dismounting and freaking out for six days after the fact.

It's funny, now that I'm riding some of the other horses (Bam Bam, Sam, and Patrick) and am learning how these guys are supposed to feel, I'm realizing just how tough of a horse Percy is (at all, but especially to learn on!) He's got an exhausting way of moving, is huge and gangly, is liable to trip, and likes to throw tantrums. I feel less like a failure now. (Oh, and I've realized that Harry really didn't have brakes or steering!!) Still, I miss the big guy (he's 16.1hh at the withers and 16.3hh at the croup and he's only two!) Hopefully, he'll come back from the track in a few weeks with a little more education and I'll be able to get back to riding him.

In the mean time, I'm finally getting around to sharing some photos Christine took of us on the hill at the end of May. Also, have this awesome slow-motion video her friend, Heather, got for us that day!

The Babies Take a Field Trip

It has been over a month since these photos were taken, and a lot has changed since then. In fact, Patrick and Percy moved to the track until further notice yesterday. In the mean time, Darby and Flame had their first race (I have an entry coming up about that too!) and poor Pebbles came home lame, grew lamer, and finally formally retired from race training.

As an aside, Pebbles had a ruptured bladder at birth and had to undergo lifesaving and very expensive surgery to save her. Some people might argue that she never should have been declared a live foal. She was started at the farm and has lived at the track on and off for the last few years. She never made a start, and had a lingering mystery lameness up front. She also had a pretty crooked pelvis. Over the years, she has been seen by multiple professionals (remember, our boss is a vet!) She even had extensive chiropractic and massage done at home before the last time she moved to the track. Nobody could ever pinpoint what was wrong with her, but she did lose her mind and crash through a fence last summer (with Shelby on her!) and she flipped over a lot as a baby (not during training, but as a foal) so that may have contributed to it. At the time these photos were taken, Pebbles was four and still hadn't made a start. She was going the best she's ever gone and there was talk of possibly finally starting her racing career this year. She was relaxed, sound, and happier than she's ever been. Unfortunately, it didn't last and she came up NQR behind. We brought her home to rest, and the atrophy in her hind end got worse and worse. After trying one last round of treatment, her owners decided to pull the plug. She got her shoes taken off and got turned out with two of our senior citizens, Tristan and Wednesday. She is currently out in a big, huge grassy pasture. She is queen of her little herd, and looks happy and sound. She just did not want to be a racehorse. We'll see what she looks like in a few months, at which point maybe she'll get a shot at some other riding career. I want to emphasize that both our bosses and Pebbles' owners did everything in their power to give this filly a chance at racing, and then made the right decision and let her have the retirement she deserves when it didn't work out. Lest anybody think there's any kind of negative connotation to "retired from racing".

Abused, clearly.

Last of Harry Photos

Harry left for the track when it re-opened. I was just starting to get brave with him and I miss him terribly. I took some pictures of him in the roller coaster field with Juli before he left, but never got around to posting them. So here you go ;)

He's in a leather prong bit, which is mild, but helps them steer by putting pressure on the cheeks instead of just the bars of the mouth. Harry loved the bit and it seemed to fix all his issues. I learn something new every day!

Racehorse Photos

Getting tired of these yet?

The track opened last week, so some of the horses have moved down there for the time being. Darby, Pebbles, and Flame are living at the track full time. Deseperado went in to work today. Bam Bam and Flower have also been going in to breeze. Flower was supposed to move in, but decided she didn't want to and tried to cut one of her legs off in the turn out, so she's on stall rest at home for the time being. The babies are staying home for now, and I get to keep Harry for a bit longer. Supposedly, we're getting two new youngsters in to break soon. We also have a brandy new foal on the ground (maybe I'll take pictures of him at some point too).

Here's a photo dump from recent weeks (hooray, no more snow!)

We opened up a new field for galloping. This means riding through an active construction site at the far end of the turf course. The horses don't seem to mind. Those darn spooky thoroughbreds. *eye roll* The upside of the new field is that it's relatively flat (no end-of-the-earth drop off) and is completely enclosed. Circling is an option if things get out of hand. The down side is that we call it the "roller coaster field" because there are some pretty significant whoop-dee-dos, and a "ditch". It's fine. It is actually making me braver, which is good. It also means we don't churn up the hill as badly.

Speaking of the hill, have some video of Flame and Desperado breezing the other day:

The girls hit 45mph on this one. I think the fastest I've clocked myself going on a horse was 28mph, and that felt like flying. So, no, galloping your OTTB in an open field is not the same as breezing racehorses. I'm not sure I'll ever have the guts to go this fast.

Here's a preview of other photos in this post:

Bam Bam and Desperado working in unison in the new field.

Turns out that Harry bolting on the hill was not a me issue. He took off with Juli both in company and alone. I continued to ride him inside while Juli worked through his issues. We joked about the fact that gelding Harry and doing his teeth made him worse instead of better. Mostly, it's passing other horses that triggers him. We passed Bam Bam in the indoor the other week and it was another three laps before I had any kind of steering or brakes. Whoops. These days, Harry is galloping solo in the leather prong bit, which he seems to love. It makes him turn, but is mild so he has nothing to get angry about. We've also switched him to a regular running martingale instead of a triangle, so he doesn't hit anything if he puts his head up. I've actually gone back to riding him out there myself (go me!) but in the mean time, I got some photos of Christine riding him.

I've also been galloping Percy out there. He has been really good, and despite the fact that I still get nervous before I climb on board some days, he's been building my confidence with each ride. He's 15.3hh already (his second birthday was Tuesday). He's gangly and can't figure out exactly how many legs he has (somewhere between four and nine, we think). He's still figuring out how to steer. He's pretty slow and keeping up with the lighter, nimbler Patrick is hard for him. But he's been trying. On rare occasions I remember to steer and try to stay with Juli instead of trailing sadly behind her. It's a lot of work to ride Percy because I have to hold him together the whole time, while simultaneously trying to send him forward and not hold him back. 

Over all, riding the racehorses continues to be an pleasant challenge. I love the exercise saddles and the fat reins and the stability of a short stirrup and bridged reins. While I think I'm developing some rotten eq habits, my leg has never been better, stronger, or steadier. Plus, I realized that I am getting braver, even though I often feel like I'm old and chicken. I got on Eclipse on Thursday. She's the warmblood jumper mare who hasn't been sat on in a year. She was being a bit of a hot head, but we chose not to give her any TQ before I hopped on. Not only was I perfectly happy to be the first one on her, but I didn't get the least bit worried when she played up or acted like she was going to explode. So maybe I'm not breezing horses yet, but I can still handle the rest of them, even on a bad day. That's something.

Now, have a million photos.

Snow Galloping

It has been a strange winter, weather-wise. We've alternated between temperatures below zero and in the 70's. We've gotten snow a handful of times, but never more than a few inches, and not lasting more than a few days between warm spells. You know that meme floating around about owning a mud farm? Yeah. That's my reality.

Then, last week, just as it seemed that spring was just around the corner, we got hit by a Nor'easter that dumped nearly two feet of snow on us.

While the rest of the world groaned about this latest winter development, I was secretly excited. You see, this snow was the perfect depth and consistency to do something that I've been dying to try all winter: galloping racehorses in the snow!! I've been legging up all winter to get fit enough to ride outside, and after a series of good gallops, I was feeling brave enough to try it if the opportunity came up. Just as I'd thrown in the towel on it happening this year, the world gifted us with the white stuff.

On Thursday, Juli and Christine got to be the guinea pigs to test out the turf course. They took Flame and Desperado out together, and our boss told them, "If you don't like the footing, pull up!"

The boys were thrilled to be outside, and the footing appeared to be perfect. I snapped some photos as the girls galloped down and back twice.

One horse?