August 31 Farm Report
The last report was August 3 the day that Art came up limping from his hoof bruise and the post speculated whether this might be a 1 day or 1 week thing. It took a full two weeks to heal the bruise and had me cursing those thin bladed Capwell brand shoe nails that American Breeders Supply (Lexington, KY) kept sending us, although we'd requested the normal size.
As it turns out Capewell Race Nails in size 4 1/2 lack a normal size blade and come only in the thin size, and so the folks at American Breeders were unable to send what we'd requested.
Capewell sizes 3.5, 4 and 5 come in normal size blades. 4.5 only thin. Of course, 4.5 is what we need at the farm to keep on the hoofs through the mud. Ridiculous. We are doing with the size 5 Capewells now, a too long nail that is difficult to drive. Why the 4.5 thin blades--they look smart in the finishing process; nice good looking job for the farrier never mind they barely hold the shoe on. They used to import Australian nicely balanced, perfectly bladed, easily driven, tight holding Australian nails. The Aussies figured it. American made Capewell--out to lunch.
But, I digress. Two weeks into Art's hoof problems he was OK when the 8 days of rain started. 13 of the 31 August days were too muddy to gallop at the farm with 8 days beginning about 8/18 so wet we were unable to do anything. That was the period of our 7 inches of rain. We're still drying out from that one.
Art thus was off 3 weeks, and two days ago suffers his latest calamity. Art has been prone to this from day #1--we just get going with him, and, something happens--typically precocious animal. This time he gets severely kicked in the middle of a rear cannon. Decide he's OK and continue the w/o. Next night we are about to trot him under tack right before dark and he has sprung a shoe on the same rear leg that was kicked. We went ahead with the trot, but in reapplying the shoe noticed Art avoided resting his weight on that leg. Was it a bruise from the sprung shoe or a problem from the kick the night before?
Next evening during the riderless warm up to the w/o there is a barely perceptible hitch at the trot in the same rear leg. Again--sole bruise or bone problem from kick? Of course these two problems would happen with same leg. We decide its a sole bruise--minor thing, and go riderless and miss another day of tack with Art.
So, were are we on Sept. 1? Rod the 3 year old made nice progress all through August despite the weather. He is about were I'd supposed all along at this time. Unlike his compadre Art Rod has missed all of 3 days training in two years due to non-weather problems. Rod is on the verge of big race prep workouts, and we'll see these, weather willing in Sept. Art is playing catch up. We'd expect to have him back in fettle by Oct. 1.
The weather and Art's problems have slowed us in August. We're expecting winter around here by early Oct. and we're about to hit the typically wet months of Sept. and Oct. With us starting to get ready just as racing season ends, the resolve weakens a bit. But, we are now galloping fast at full weight of 155 lbs. rider. That's encouraging and much farther then we've been with these two. Sept. will be a transitional month hopefully toward the race track. We'll see how it goes!
Training:
Fri. 8/28: Too muddy for tack work. We decide on a fully speed riderless workout leaving a little to continue tack tomorrow. 4 x 3f full speed as fast as they could go.
Sat. 8/29:
Art: Trot 1.2 miles with a sprung left rear shoe.
Rod: Trot gallop 1.2 miles slow, about 1/2 each.
Sun. 8/30:
Art: 2 miles riderless in :16s. Concern over condition of rear leg scotches tack work. Minor problem, I think!
Rod: Graduates from size 6 Thoro'bred Level Grips to size 7 which have significantly more mass and depth of fullering than the size 6. The 7s give a big horse such as Rod much more gripping power. This night however we have applied only 1 of 4 as we hit the track. We have 3 long toes, 1 short one and different size shoes, lol. We decided to let the horse dictate the workout with this mess on his hoofs. 1.7 miles total volume--Rod decides on about 1/2 trot, 1/2 gallop in :19s.
As it turns out Capewell Race Nails in size 4 1/2 lack a normal size blade and come only in the thin size, and so the folks at American Breeders were unable to send what we'd requested.
Capewell sizes 3.5, 4 and 5 come in normal size blades. 4.5 only thin. Of course, 4.5 is what we need at the farm to keep on the hoofs through the mud. Ridiculous. We are doing with the size 5 Capewells now, a too long nail that is difficult to drive. Why the 4.5 thin blades--they look smart in the finishing process; nice good looking job for the farrier never mind they barely hold the shoe on. They used to import Australian nicely balanced, perfectly bladed, easily driven, tight holding Australian nails. The Aussies figured it. American made Capewell--out to lunch.
But, I digress. Two weeks into Art's hoof problems he was OK when the 8 days of rain started. 13 of the 31 August days were too muddy to gallop at the farm with 8 days beginning about 8/18 so wet we were unable to do anything. That was the period of our 7 inches of rain. We're still drying out from that one.
Art thus was off 3 weeks, and two days ago suffers his latest calamity. Art has been prone to this from day #1--we just get going with him, and, something happens--typically precocious animal. This time he gets severely kicked in the middle of a rear cannon. Decide he's OK and continue the w/o. Next night we are about to trot him under tack right before dark and he has sprung a shoe on the same rear leg that was kicked. We went ahead with the trot, but in reapplying the shoe noticed Art avoided resting his weight on that leg. Was it a bruise from the sprung shoe or a problem from the kick the night before?
Next evening during the riderless warm up to the w/o there is a barely perceptible hitch at the trot in the same rear leg. Again--sole bruise or bone problem from kick? Of course these two problems would happen with same leg. We decide its a sole bruise--minor thing, and go riderless and miss another day of tack with Art.
So, were are we on Sept. 1? Rod the 3 year old made nice progress all through August despite the weather. He is about were I'd supposed all along at this time. Unlike his compadre Art Rod has missed all of 3 days training in two years due to non-weather problems. Rod is on the verge of big race prep workouts, and we'll see these, weather willing in Sept. Art is playing catch up. We'd expect to have him back in fettle by Oct. 1.
The weather and Art's problems have slowed us in August. We're expecting winter around here by early Oct. and we're about to hit the typically wet months of Sept. and Oct. With us starting to get ready just as racing season ends, the resolve weakens a bit. But, we are now galloping fast at full weight of 155 lbs. rider. That's encouraging and much farther then we've been with these two. Sept. will be a transitional month hopefully toward the race track. We'll see how it goes!
Training:
Fri. 8/28: Too muddy for tack work. We decide on a fully speed riderless workout leaving a little to continue tack tomorrow. 4 x 3f full speed as fast as they could go.
Sat. 8/29:
Art: Trot 1.2 miles with a sprung left rear shoe.
Rod: Trot gallop 1.2 miles slow, about 1/2 each.
Sun. 8/30:
Art: 2 miles riderless in :16s. Concern over condition of rear leg scotches tack work. Minor problem, I think!
Rod: Graduates from size 6 Thoro'bred Level Grips to size 7 which have significantly more mass and depth of fullering than the size 6. The 7s give a big horse such as Rod much more gripping power. This night however we have applied only 1 of 4 as we hit the track. We have 3 long toes, 1 short one and different size shoes, lol. We decided to let the horse dictate the workout with this mess on his hoofs. 1.7 miles total volume--Rod decides on about 1/2 trot, 1/2 gallop in :19s.
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