Plans And Horses
The bone post is now done, and I'll post it tomorrow. I've been focusing quite a while exclusively on injury prevention, but since I interrupted this, thought I'd post today on what my stable is up to for anyone interested.
We have $6000 worth of horse flesh purchased from Fasig Tipton via the Internet. I bid on 'em 10 hours from Lexington sitting in my office chair. I'm happy with them, lucky I suppose, as I might as easily have ended up with two dogs buying them from afar without close inspection. Here's a brief summary:
Art is age 3. He's a Storm Cat grandson out of a Deposit Ticket mare. I'll be posting pictures soon. Art is nicely conformed, looks racy and flashes stuff here at the farm that hopefully will translate to the race track. I'd be surprised if this horse was uncompetitive. Art has a funny way of going probably due to his slightly long pasterns. But, he's reasonably quick and has a quality of tenacity. The main talent here is breathing ability. I've yet to have a horse that breathes this well. You have to do a lot with Art for this reason to get into him. His pop finished second in the Belmont, and I expect Art to be a very tough distance horse with this breathing ability, though he's built more as a miler.
Rod the two year old is a chunk. He looks good, gives an impression of strength, but so far shows absolutely nothing in his training. This is in part because Rod's been very slow to mature particularly in terms of body lengthening. He's still got a very short barrel and thus has yet to have an adult stride. His legs are long but body short and this unbalances him when he runs. The chief concern is the horse is lazy. He's without any desire to compete or keep up, and we generally have to drive him to do his work. His breathing is normal instead of exceptional. I've yet to give up the Derby plans though this horse is a pure sprinter type. He's got gaskins like Popeye the sailor man's form arms. I'll prepare him like his forbears for sprint racing, and then see if we can lengthen him. Rod will start serious prep Sept. 1. Unlike Art at the same age, he's big enough now for our rider.
With the Woodland's closing we're a little up the creek with our plans. I've got such a nice situation here, a farm 12 miles from the down town of a major city with some tracks reasonably close. But, I'd planned to give it all up as I'm recognizing KCMO weather has switched over the last years to constantly wet, making it near impossible to do consistent race training in our pasture track. The farm unfortunately is holding back the racing.
My present thought is, weather permitting, to gallop Art as fast as the farm allows through the first of October. We should have a very fit animal at that point with Rod coming along. We'll then have to go to a track to get to racing, and it'll probably be Eureka initially, and then, depending on how things go, maybe Oaklawn, if we can find some off track stabling. If the horses show little then we'd be looking at Will Rogers in Tulsa in early February with Prairie Meadows or Lincoln a possibility in the spring.
Pulling this off requires a dramatic change of life style, money, and determination. The determination part comes a little bit harder when you hit 60. We'll see.
Training:
Fri. 08/08/08: After three days off Rod did a riderless 5 x 4f with his older buddy who dragged him occasionally into some two minute stuff. I wanted to do some with the weighted Astride saddle, but the girth is now too small. Art is still off. After romping in the pasture he showed some slight swelling last night and again this morning. I've revised my diagnoses again as there's definitely tendon sheath swelling, and so were probably dealing with a bruised tendon sheath. Luckily no heat, no pain, no lameness. I think it's a minor problem whatever was the damned cause, and we'll have him back shortly.
We have $6000 worth of horse flesh purchased from Fasig Tipton via the Internet. I bid on 'em 10 hours from Lexington sitting in my office chair. I'm happy with them, lucky I suppose, as I might as easily have ended up with two dogs buying them from afar without close inspection. Here's a brief summary:
Art is age 3. He's a Storm Cat grandson out of a Deposit Ticket mare. I'll be posting pictures soon. Art is nicely conformed, looks racy and flashes stuff here at the farm that hopefully will translate to the race track. I'd be surprised if this horse was uncompetitive. Art has a funny way of going probably due to his slightly long pasterns. But, he's reasonably quick and has a quality of tenacity. The main talent here is breathing ability. I've yet to have a horse that breathes this well. You have to do a lot with Art for this reason to get into him. His pop finished second in the Belmont, and I expect Art to be a very tough distance horse with this breathing ability, though he's built more as a miler.
Rod the two year old is a chunk. He looks good, gives an impression of strength, but so far shows absolutely nothing in his training. This is in part because Rod's been very slow to mature particularly in terms of body lengthening. He's still got a very short barrel and thus has yet to have an adult stride. His legs are long but body short and this unbalances him when he runs. The chief concern is the horse is lazy. He's without any desire to compete or keep up, and we generally have to drive him to do his work. His breathing is normal instead of exceptional. I've yet to give up the Derby plans though this horse is a pure sprinter type. He's got gaskins like Popeye the sailor man's form arms. I'll prepare him like his forbears for sprint racing, and then see if we can lengthen him. Rod will start serious prep Sept. 1. Unlike Art at the same age, he's big enough now for our rider.
With the Woodland's closing we're a little up the creek with our plans. I've got such a nice situation here, a farm 12 miles from the down town of a major city with some tracks reasonably close. But, I'd planned to give it all up as I'm recognizing KCMO weather has switched over the last years to constantly wet, making it near impossible to do consistent race training in our pasture track. The farm unfortunately is holding back the racing.
My present thought is, weather permitting, to gallop Art as fast as the farm allows through the first of October. We should have a very fit animal at that point with Rod coming along. We'll then have to go to a track to get to racing, and it'll probably be Eureka initially, and then, depending on how things go, maybe Oaklawn, if we can find some off track stabling. If the horses show little then we'd be looking at Will Rogers in Tulsa in early February with Prairie Meadows or Lincoln a possibility in the spring.
Pulling this off requires a dramatic change of life style, money, and determination. The determination part comes a little bit harder when you hit 60. We'll see.
Training:
Fri. 08/08/08: After three days off Rod did a riderless 5 x 4f with his older buddy who dragged him occasionally into some two minute stuff. I wanted to do some with the weighted Astride saddle, but the girth is now too small. Art is still off. After romping in the pasture he showed some slight swelling last night and again this morning. I've revised my diagnoses again as there's definitely tendon sheath swelling, and so were probably dealing with a bruised tendon sheath. Luckily no heat, no pain, no lameness. I think it's a minor problem whatever was the damned cause, and we'll have him back shortly.
posted by rather rapid at
11:50 AM
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