Buffeted by Wind and Weather

Today is Sunday, December 10, 2006. Training is over. I'm sitting here taking stock of where we are with Y. I'm a little upset because I planned Breeze #II for Saturday, and, it never happened. This is where the "bust" in the Blog title comes in. The one thing I've learned is to keep moving forward, which seems to be a principle observed more in violation than observance.

As usual, the culprit is the weather. Today was up to 45 degrees. Beats five below. But, 20 mph wind, the ground is still ice, mud and dry spots, and, of course the paddock running lanes are all deep mud. Lost two shoes there yesterday, reapplied this date, including the front left which I had just put on Y the day before. I pride myself in tacking on shoes that stay on regardless of mud. They never come off, which tells you what the conditions were yesterday when we lost two. There's a solution to all this, the wood chip track we're working on, but, more on the wood chips later.

The olders are only treading water in this weather, but for the rooks just beginning training, any work is a step forward. The little fellow has progressed so much in the 45 days he's been here that you would fail to recognize him as the Y that arrived 10/26 from Fasig Tipton. If only I'd taken pics at the time.

Sun 12/10/06: The Astride, weight about 25 lbs, was placed on Y, and there was about 10 min trot-lope in the pasture. This dead weight seems to affect the horse to almost twice the actual weight. Y looked a lot as if he were carrying a heavy rider. Since weight was increased this date, we went easy. Then some bellying--the first since the ice storm on 11/29. Followed by 10 min riderless around the paddock with the big boys--pretty easy stuff. He was tired by then. But, 20 min total exercise is an increase in volume. Per Ivers, tomorrow we rest.