Farm News

The photo at left taken sometime in early May exemplifies our training situation. Left click to see the city.

There's been a constant dome of wet weather over KC extending all the way back to March 1 where system after system came through here, seemingly each one worse than the last for our training.

Over the last two weeks of April we had about a foot of rain at the farm. In early May at one point we had some rain 7 out of 8 straight days.

On the blog I simply got tired of posting our constant weather related attempts to catch up or keep up with our training. There's plenty of posts on that, and after 2.5 years of this stuff it started to get silly to make the same weather dodging training posts day after day.

In April in addition to the weather we had, unbelievably, hoof sole problems with both horses.
Rodney's shows at left with spray bandage over the exposed laminae. We just needed two days of dry to get it to kerantinze. Never happened, and we dealt with this for a month.

But, with happy local frogs and lush vegetation, it's now the month of May. Since May 3 we've been able to get out there on a consistent basis, and May 15 we actually got our track back(due to mud) for the first time since mid February.

How are the horses doing? In mid-April I posted they were going backwards due to weather, and through the end of April from there it was so wet we were unable to do anything at all.

Thus, in terms of race preparation, as of May 3 when we were able to start again, the horses are nowwhere. We will be in catch up work through the middle of June, and then, hopefully, be ready for a race prep. But, we have a nice track now with a soft carpet of grass, and the horses have been training. Photos below from 5/22, and a report for posterity on each horse:

The above is our three year old, Rollin' Rodney. He's nearly 16'1" now, and although Nob has been giving rave gallop reviews, this horse has some problems that make him a problematic race horse at best. Rodney has an odd breathing problem that causes him a lot of trouble at the trot and slow gallop. The good part is that once he gets going, he seems to have superior air intake. But, Rod has trouble breathing at the trot. He has to elevate his head, and in the first 5 or 6 strides taking off into the gallop, often he's unable to breathe at all. His problem seems to be that he is a "heaver" in that he has problems with breathing "out". We've yet to do enough galloping with him to see how this will work out, and Rod is making some adjustments to his problem as he goes. This all explains what we had at one time perceived as laziness. I've yet to see any horse with the slightest air problem as a competitive runner. They protect themselves and other than jousting with their buddies really are without the natural desire to run that most horses have. Since Rod seems to be able to breathe normally at the fast gallop we'll continue to work with him. He luckily likes tack work. Nob says the early gallops show an effortless powerful weight carrier who seems to have a little speed.

Amart, age 4, is pictured on 5/22 below:
Art some how has shrunk from 15' 3.25" back down to 15' 3". Big difference in scope. He's a little fellow with some speed and athleticism and superior breathing that should make him competitive at some level. Art likes to run, and so is a pleasure to train. Below is a photo that shows part of our track cut out of our pasture with the tractor in the middle, out of gas.