Stable Plans
It's a slow, beautiful October day. For the past five months this blog has been about the training of my older horse Groovin' Wind and our efforts to bring Wind to hand after a long layoff using the training methods of Preston Burch.
While there's mild disappointment at failing to carry everything to completion and get the horse racing, my conception of training Wind late in his 12 year old year was always as an experiment and learning experience, and to some degree a "relearning" experience since it's also been some time since I'd been plugged into the racetrack. From day one I was fine with whatever happened as long as both horse and rider came through it safe and happy.
In concluding the Wind experience since early May, some additional thoughts:
FARM TRAINING: I was quite pleased with what we were able to accomplish at the farm. Terry McGee, my old jock, once visited the farm, saw what we were doing, and contemptuously announced "none of it means diddley squat". The wily old owl McGee of course was right on with his comment since in this sport very little means anything besides your horse finishing first or getting ready to do so. McGee's point was that this happens at the race track, which is something I'm always mindful of when I'm training at the farm.
And yet, I'd say we were able to do a lot at the farm this summer with Burch style training. Consider that Wind went right from the farm to the Woodlands after 3 Eureka trips sporadically spaced and commenced full speed breezing under Nob immediately. The second breeze was a mile with 4f of it timed in 49.6, no injuries, a little shin heat, and we went right on from there without missing a beat!
We did, however, need that month at the track, lesson relearned and consistent with my prior experience. As I think about it I've never ever gotten a horse to the races without at least two months of consistent work "on-track".
In Wind's case, he was ready to go to the track early August. We missed out on this due to weather and lack of motivation to work around the weather. With youngsters we'll have to do better.
The Shore Breeze yearling is en-route from Lexington as I post. Final thoughts on Wind, next post.
While there's mild disappointment at failing to carry everything to completion and get the horse racing, my conception of training Wind late in his 12 year old year was always as an experiment and learning experience, and to some degree a "relearning" experience since it's also been some time since I'd been plugged into the racetrack. From day one I was fine with whatever happened as long as both horse and rider came through it safe and happy.
In concluding the Wind experience since early May, some additional thoughts:
FARM TRAINING: I was quite pleased with what we were able to accomplish at the farm. Terry McGee, my old jock, once visited the farm, saw what we were doing, and contemptuously announced "none of it means diddley squat". The wily old owl McGee of course was right on with his comment since in this sport very little means anything besides your horse finishing first or getting ready to do so. McGee's point was that this happens at the race track, which is something I'm always mindful of when I'm training at the farm.
And yet, I'd say we were able to do a lot at the farm this summer with Burch style training. Consider that Wind went right from the farm to the Woodlands after 3 Eureka trips sporadically spaced and commenced full speed breezing under Nob immediately. The second breeze was a mile with 4f of it timed in 49.6, no injuries, a little shin heat, and we went right on from there without missing a beat!
We did, however, need that month at the track, lesson relearned and consistent with my prior experience. As I think about it I've never ever gotten a horse to the races without at least two months of consistent work "on-track".
In Wind's case, he was ready to go to the track early August. We missed out on this due to weather and lack of motivation to work around the weather. With youngsters we'll have to do better.
The Shore Breeze yearling is en-route from Lexington as I post. Final thoughts on Wind, next post.
posted by rather rapid at
12:39 PM
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