Training update
We’ve had a lot of rain the last week and the ground has just now gotten dry enough to use the track. Not dry enough to gallop, but good enough to trot.
There is a 50% chance of rain today, so I worked the horses at their first grazing “break”. They eat for a while then come in to hide from the bugs for a while. I started with Zola, putting her on the lunge line to check her energy level. She seemed quiet, so I got on. She was a little balky to start, but not as bad as in the past. All I asked her to do was walk around the track twice. I’ve changed the configuration a little, moved the north turns further toward the road, hopefully making it so we can go faster than last year.
Zola offered a little trot but I really just wanted her to walk. It’s been almost a year since she was last ridden or had a bit in her mouth, so I want to give her a chance to get used to the weight and the bit.
After Zola I decided to ride Chance. Partly to get him fit and partly to get myself fit. I just wanted to walk, to get him used to the new turns and “homestretch”, but there were a couple flies bothering him so I asked him to trot. Went about halfway around at a trot and then he wanted to gallop. It really was too slippery for galloping, so I held him to a trot, but it wasn’t easy. He really wanted to go. This is the first year I’ve started him up and had him be so eager. Normally he’s pretty lazy in the beginning. Could he be trying to tell me something?
Lena stood by the fence watching it all and waiting for her turn, which finally came. I lunged her with the saddle and she was better than last time, but still not 100% relaxed about it.
Gary Stevens’ comeback as a lesson to me
As I said the other day, Chance was wild. Running harder than I had ever seen him during any of his workouts at the Thoroughbred Training Center. What does that have to do with Gary Stevens? Two words. Rehab duration.
When I got Chance in 2009, the plan was to give him time off and then run him. And I did give him time off. But was it enough? We, as humans, make determinations of what we think is enough time off. I really thought he would run well last year (2012) but that was not meant to be. I didn’t even train him in 2011. And this winter I decided to give up.
And then Gary Stevens came out of retirement. I had read his book and learned he has serious knee problems, and clearly enough pain to force him into retirement. Now, after 8 years off, his knees feel good – or so he said in an interview I saw on TV. And I believe him. In eight years his body has healed at least some of the damage.
Perhaps Chance – and any horse – needs a longer rehab than we think. I can only say that when I watched Chance the other day, I didn’t see an “old”, or slow horse. Far from it. He is only 10 – a horse in his prime really. A horse whose body has had time to heal – not that he had any noticeable issues, but maybe he just felt burnt out. Now he seems to feel fresh.
I’m excited to see how he does in training.
Sweet Tea growth . . . confirmed
This evening Zola and Sweet Tea were sharing some hay and were in perfect position for a comparison photo. Amazingly, they stayed that way while I ran in, got my phone, and ran back out. So here is the evidence that Sweet Tea has grown, despite the fact that she was 6 when she arrived last May. In 5 days it will be exactly one year since the top photo was taken. It’s pretty clear that last year Sweet Tea’s butt was smaller than Zola’s and that in general Sweet Tea had a finer frame and was smaller. No longer. I would say her butt is now bigger than Zola’s. And Zola has grown since last year as well. When I first saw Sweet Tea my comment was, “what a little peanut”. She is no longer a little peanut.
Zola and Sweet Tea size comparison April 30, 2013
Click on the image to enlarge it.
My personal opinion is that Sweet Tea was supposed to be at least this size, if not larger, and one of the effects of starting horses in training so young (normally 18 months), racing them at 2, then continuing to race them hard (Sweet Tea had 51 career starts from 2008 to 2011) can prevent them from growing. Certainly that appears to be the case with Sweet Tea.
Wild horses . . . yee haw!
I had to get hay this morning before I turned the horses out. They have to be in the fenced 20 acres when I’m not home, obviously. When I got back and had the hay put away I opened the gate and called the horses. They came running! Part of the way I could only hear thundering hooves, then when they came into view Roxanna was in the lead. As they turned to head toward the gate Chance came from the back and took the lead – way out in front, and running.
Normally they would run out, do a little circle and start grazing, but not today. They were all fired up for some reason and took off across the field at a serious run. Maura and Chance had determination in their faces and I have never seen Chance run so fast. Certainly not during his works at the Training Center in 2010.
It’s amazing how they can all look like a bunch of crossbred pasture pets and then transform into racehorses in the blink of an eye. Chance looked fantastic. I wish I had had my phone with me! I have totally taken back my plan to retire him from racing and will try to get him to Kentucky Downs in September. He must have run at least 6 furlongs altogether. At one point I was standing in the road and he was running the length of the pasture and I yelled out, “Go Chance! Go!” And he actually dug in and went faster. What a thrill. Of course everyone was running, but not as hard. And not all in the same direction! What a video it would have made. They thundered by me several times, into the fenced area and back out. In and out. Across the field – up and down. As they slowed there was rearing and bucking and prancing. I’ve never seen them that wild and I loved it.
Lunged them all a little while ago and they all went well, not too surprisingly, as they had clearly taken the edge off. This was Lena’s first time on the lunge with the saddle since October, and only her third time total. She was good. She did half of a stiff-legged crow hop and that was it. I won’t say she is completely comfortable with the saddle, but she was not afraid.
Zola went around once at a lazy trot and stopped – as if to say, “I worked out this morning.” I asked her for a canter and she gave one without a buck. I sent her the other way and she stopped again and looked at me. Since the whole point of lunging her is to get her to relax and be calm, I made her walk one more round (only so she wouldn’t believe she is in charge) and then quit.
I had lunged Sweet Tea first and she went well. Much more relaxed, but still not sure about whoa. But it’s definite progress.
Quite an enjoyable day.
Sweet Tea growth
This is not a good photo. It was taken from indoors, through a screen, in the evening. Also the angle is misleading, it’s not a straight-on shot, it’s shooting up the fence line. However, I think it’s clear that Sweet Tea, even given the perspective, is at least the same size as Zola, and certainly more substantial than a year ago. The dark color is her winter coat – I’m assuming she’ll lighten up again when she sheds out.
It’s raining today, I’ll try to get a better photo when the weather is better.
Zola (left) and Sweet Tea eating hay – 4/23/13
Training . . . Day 2
The weather was again great. Lunged Zola, who went very nicely, with weak bucks at the canter, and actually had one depart without a buck.
Lena was next and she was very good, relaxed and calm.
Sweet Tea was last and she was more willing to relax, though she was not actually relaxed. She was also much more willing to stop from the walk and it only took two whoa’s. At the trot she would go back to the walk most of the time. At the canter she was too tense to really listen, but did stop much better than yesterday. By the end of her session (no more than 15 minutes) she was listening for whoa, so she could get a treat.
Zola’s withers have come up since last year. She really is a beautiful girl, and those withers go all the way back past the middle of her rib cage.
Lena’s is growing – apparently focus is on her butt at the moment.
I wish I had taken good photos of Sweet Tea when she first arrived. She has definitely grown. When I initially saw her, my first impression was, “what a peanut”. She was tiny and all leg.
Sweet Tea (left) and Zola – May 2012
I’m going to try to get another photo of Zola and Sweet Tea together, as I am sure Sweet Tea is bigger. In the late fall I noticed that her butt was higher than her withers, and now her withers are again higher than her butt. I frequently get her confused with Chance. She was actually quite beautiful on the lunge – looks like a different horse when she’s moving – and is a good mover. It’s easy to see why she was fast. Hopefully, the new bigger, stronger version will be just as fast, if not faster.
Training has begun
I lunged Zola the other day (the 16th). I worked all day on Wed and Thu, then it poured all night Thu. Things dried out nicely yesterday (a miracle) and today I lunged her again. This is not for exercise, just to build a routine of work, work out kinks, and judge mood. Zola was very good, but still in a bucking mood when cantering.
I also lunged Lena, which is still pretty new for her. The last time she was lunged was October so I really felt we might have to start from scratch. She surprised me by being very good. Relaxed and just walked off on a nice circle. When I asked her to trot, she responded very well and with a nice easy trot. Then the unexpected happened. Horses never cease to amaze me. All the other horses came flying across the field at a full gallop, looking as if they’d never seen Lena before. Of course the excitement had an effect on Lena and she started pulling away. I held her but she reared (she is a rearer more than a bucker). She ended up falling down and then stepped on the lunge line, breaking it, and took off. What a bunch of lunatics! They ran around like idiots – acting like Lena was a new horse.
I just followed along and retrieved Lena. I tied my lunge line back together and put her back on the circle where she did very well – again. As I went to switch the line to the other side of the halter she started walking off, right into me, so I pushed her off and she galloped away. Geez. Another long walk to go get her again. Once again, back to the circle and she was fine. So it all went well.
It’s inconvenient training a horse in a huge field, but I do have to say that it sure makes for trained horses. A horse who will behave, be calm, and obey in the middle of a field is doing very well. Often horses who are calm and obedient in an arena are not all that calm or obedient when they leave it.
Finally it was Sweet Tea’s turn. I put her on the lunge line and she walked off nicely. She moved into a trot without being asked, and then into a nice canter. Since I want horses to know the words walk, trot, canter, and whoa, I asked her to whoa. She clearly had never heard that word before and as I started to ask her, with the line, to slow down, she went faster. I kept shortening the line and she really kind of panicked. Just before I finally got her to stop she was galloping around me in a 6 foot circle.
I was wearing my fanny pack with horse treats and gave her one for stopping.
We spent the rest of the time working on walking and stopping. She was very good at walking, but really not sure about stopping, though she did finally get to the point where it only took 4 whoas. For each actual stop she got treats. It’s sad to see that while she is a very good girl, she really has only learned one thing. Go. The confusion and near panic at being asked to slow is especially telling. One also has to wonder if she was rateable, or if her resistance to slowing down is the reason she always went right to the front. I didn’t get the impression that stopping was something she didn’t want to do, but was instead something she didn’t think she was supposed to do.
I think Sweet Tea will return to the track this year as a more mature and confident runner. Not to mention slightly bigger and definitely sounder.
Speaking of Lena . . .
Almost every day I let the horses out of their fenced in area and into the unfenced field. Every time I do, Lena is the last one out of the gate. She is a very independent girl and doesn’t seem to have any drive to be high in the herd.
The photo below shows the horses’ fenced area – everything visible on the same side of the road as the house – plus a lot up the hill behind the house, and to the left out of view. The area on the other side of the road is about 34 acres, of which probably 20 is open field. (Click to enlarge the photo.)
Feeding locations
The white x’s mark the areas where I throw hay. If you look closely to the right of the right-most x, you can see the horses themselves. The x near the horses is where I normally feed. When it’s muddy I feed over to the right of where the horses are (out of view), or at one of the other areas – to avoid mud. Of course the photo is small, but it’s several hundred feet between each of the x’s. To get to the x on the left side of the house, the horses must go all the way up and behind and around the house – all the way to the small pond (yellow arrow). The x in the foreground is further away than it looks.
As I throw feed the horses are usually over on the right as that is where my travel trailer is – and they know I live there. So if I am at any other spot they can see me tossing hay. They have finally learned to go away from what they see, to get to where the hay is. Which is really pretty smart of them.
Today, however, I confused them totally. I put the hay in the unfenced field – and they watched me. Then I had a couple flakes that were a little moldy, so I pulled my feed wagon into the yard and threw the hay in some thorny weeds in the far left corner. At that point, the horses decided I had thrown hay at the x on the left side of the house and ran over there. I went to the gate (red triangle) and called them, but they ran further up to where the x is in the front left. I called them again and they stood at the left side of the house.
I called a few more times and then I heard the horses running – which means they were coming my way. I love it when the horses come galloping! I was surprised to see Lena well out in front of the others, running with true purpose. She flew out the gate over to the hay in the field.
Then came the cool part. Lena was so proud of herself! She reared and bucked and pranced around with her tail in the air for a couple minutes, not interested in the hay but excited at being the one to figure it out and lead the charge. Oh yeah, there’s a girl who understands winning!
For those who have read about Legacy (Gran Judgement). He too was happy to be low man in the herd, but he understood winning – and he liked to win. As a racehorse in the 80′s he earned just under half a million dollars. Lena seems cut from the same cloth.
Meanwhile . . . I have 3 racehorses and will they race?
In all honesty, I don’t know.
The weather has certainly not cooperated! Rain, rain, rain, rain, snow, rain. Every time it gets nice enough to dry out and I plan on working with someone, the very next day it will rain again. It’s raining at this very moment.
I have retired Chance. He was an experiment only, and now that he’s 10, there seems little point in running him. He did prove to me that barefoot is better. I have never seen a horse come back from a race so fresh – and I mean while he was walking back from his race. He wasn’t winded. He wasn’t exhausted. He wasn’t unhappy. He was happy to go to the post as well. And he was sharp enough, despite living out 24/7, to break out of the gate first. He ran no worse than he had been running, and in fact he ran better if you take into consideration the following:
Turfway fall meet vs Suffolk Downs
$7500 claiming race vs $5000 race
And not fit – the race was to be a workout.
I really do feel he improved and if the meet hadn’t closed, with a few more races would have been competitive. But it seems fate had other plans for Chance.
Zola on the other hand, I feel, has the chance to be a successful racehorse. She is unstarted and totally sound, physically and mentally. She is mature, tough, and smart.
Lena is in the same condition. Sweet Tea, who also may run this year, is probably sounder than she’s ever been in her life, and she was blazing fast on the track – with a chip in her ankle and fractured sesamoids. It would be great to see what she can do when she’s at her best.
Still, the weather and finances will dictate if they make it to the track or not. Only time will tell.
Update Nov. 19th
Yes, it’s been quiet here at the Racehorse Experiment.
I confess that money comes first when you have 11 horses to support. I have been busy building my trimming business, and also finishing another book. This one is not on hoof trimming, but is about my life with horses and all the amazing things horses have done over the years – and all they’ve taught me. Finished it yesterday! Now it just needs another review before the galley print and the (hopefully) final review.
Now that the book is out of the way, it’s back to the horses. There will be no racing this year – again. Which is very disappointing, but it does seem the Universe itself is working against me there. Chance was so close to racing in July, only weeks away. Then it was too much time off, and too stiff competition at Churchill.
Time this winter will be spent on getting Zola galloping. Since she won’t have to go fast it should be possible to ride a good part of the winter. It will also be a good time to start Lena under saddle. As for Chance, once hunting season is over, we will be hitting the trails. There are some good big hills down the power lines which will be good for building up his wind and the muscles in his hindquarters.
I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!
- It’s Another New Year! January 5, 2013
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