Day 1 to 3

I enjoy many thoroughbred racing blogs, but, i've yet to see one detailing training. On the premise, for those in the business of horse racing, that "its all about the training, stupid", i've decided to share in this blog the training of our new yearling. My interest is race horse training, and so I welcome all constructive comments pro or con as to what we are doing with our horse. I'll diverge to try to tell the story, but the emphasis here is on the nuts and bolts of training. So, without adieu, here goes:

Day 1 (October 26, 2006) the subject in question (hereafter designated "Y" for yearling) arrives from Lexington via Jim Anderson Transportation. Jim missed the cut-off, but made good time. Besides the 45 seconds of sales ring video, I first layed eyes on Y as he walked off the truck. Since my winning bid (Fasig Tipton October Yearling Sale) was $2,600.00, I was afraid to look. He was going to be small, and he was, and Y was also ribby and a bit unthrifty. He had "pasterns" meaning pasterns that were longer than ideal, but the fault is slight, i've seen worse, and the pasterns are in the range "acceptable". Otherwise, conformationally, a perfect little horse--straight leggs, balanced, athletic looking, wide at the jaw, intelligent eyes. I was quite happy. We had just bought the cheapest horse at auction ever by Vision and Verse (Hip 654), and he looks like a race horse. The horse also looked weak as if he's last galloped months before. Suspect he was walked the last 30 days by Ballsinwood, Agent, for sales prep, and before that probably was in pasture with minimal care. Lots of work to be done.

Oct. 27: I arrive at the barn at 8:00 a.m. no horse. zounds. If he jumped off the property, he may be gone for good. Luckily it turned out Y took the other route and jumped into our 5 acres of thickly wooded area where in the morning sunlight i spotted him under a tree peacefully eating grass. He seemed very happy to see me. Later in the day I discovered the reason for the jump when in our first pasture test, one horse did commence a chase of Y to my disgust. After a 3 minute chase in which Y did look very weak galloping, but, nice stride, the chaser slipped and fell in wet grass sliding 10 yards--asshole--giving me just enough time to rescue my yearling. All in all no harm done, and i got some unplanned running in on the very first day.

Oct. 28 This training session is planned. The main buddy so far is a self starter, and i put him and the yearling in the pasture. After a nice warm up consisting of play I entice both to about a 2f strong gallop. Is it my eyes or does he look stronger than yesterday? Nice stride. Afterwards they play f0r more min 10 min. Good strenghtening exercise. Horse already looks stronger and less ribby.

Tomorrow the interesting story of the purchase.