Thurs. Misc.

Training:
Mon. 6/27 Off
Tues 6/28: 5 times up and down the hill trot-gallop fastest in :17s.
Wed. 6/29: Another session to get the big fellow to speed up. He's ground flicking instead of converting to sprint stride when asked, and he's a little confused at this point on what is being asked. 5 x gallop up and down the hill, we're approaching 2f in distance. Todays went mostly in :15s with maybe a few strides a tick faster. Tried Vicks Vapor Rub in nostrils regards the failure/inability of this horse to get breath in first few strides. He has to tilt his head in certain exact direction to commence breathing at the gallop. The Vicks helped him a lot at the trot, but failed to see improvement in the galloping. Will try this a couple more times for final conclusion on Vicks.

Wed. Misc.

Training:

6/27: Off.

6/28: 5 times up and down the hill trot-gallop fastest in :17s as horse again fails response to speed up aids. Learning and working on getting his stride. We're on the verge. Still might get a fast one before end of June. Smoother today and speed up response on last heat.

Tues. Misc.

Too busy and foggy headed today. Take note of Bill Pressey comment a few posts back--12 of 20 Derby prospects hurt. My guess, it's higher. 1.5 inches rained us out Monday. Back at it on wet ground tonight.

Horse Racing

Is this horse racing? Sort of. And wow how much stronger my Groovin' Wind looks in that photo in 2007 after a summer of breezing at the farm than his 16 yr. old self today despite that he works every day riderless with the youngster. The camera phone just shot craps so we're absent farm video for a while.

A few thoughts on the sport before continuing on the subject of "performance". Everything churns before us on a daily basis thanks to excellent Paulick report, blogs, a lot of knowledgeable people commenting and so forth. Perpetually problems seem to be posted instead of solutions, and quite daunting it seems to me for someone that wants to get involved in the sport. Something out there, makes things as difficult as possible certainly in the mental sense of visualizing yourself in the sport.

From my farm here in KC its more the bottom up viewpoint literally hanging on to a connection by our fingernails, problems being combos of economics, the expiration of racing in Kansas, and a difficult horse.

If you're a potential owner, or trainer, partner or other sort of participant, why bother? Without giving this Q deep thought, two reasons:

1. Financial--purses are so high if things break right you can transform your status -- pauper to wealthy overnight.

2. Professional athletics--horse racing is the only pro sport that all can get in with a little innovation--and, I might say, let's do everything to keep it that way!

In terms of making money off the sport, let's face it that most owners are in the sport for that reason. I think it's the wrong reason, and that that motivation leads to failure of analysis and hence failure period, a subject on which on might write a book.

We do however have purses at all time high levels. Take note--if u could make money with purses at $100,000/day in the year 2000, how can u possibly fail now days with purses twice that high in many jurisdictions? Begin by noting, as every experienced owner/trainer knows, when you enter that well trained animal this weekend, they don't just give it to you. When the rubber hits the road, and you're there in a race with your horse, you're going against the top stables on the ground, trainers with unlimited horse numbers whose performance strategy is a numbers game. Regardless what a good job you've done with your horse it will be racing against others that are at the top off their game being piloted by the best jocks, etc. etc. Even expert training with a talented horse has a lot going against it in any particular race.

How to get around odds? With purses at these levels I'd think the strategy would be finishing in the money. You can do that with good training, and, if you can keep the horse going, it will win. Easier said than done, I know, but that's where its at. Continue next post.

Training:
Sat. 6/25: Off after Friday speed work. Inevitably, doing too much yesterday my thought is we better rest the horse for a number of reasons, mental and physical. Preston Burch type training, permits this--trainer on off days does what they think best that day.

Sat. Misc.

French apprentice jock Bryan Curatalo fractures clavicle when Vision and Jewels a 2 yr. old filly stumbled and fell during the stretch run of a 5.5f maiden race. And this driving to the farm Friday on the radio, they're conducting a benefit auction for the nice 16 year old girl paralyzed at the rodeo in Bonner Springs last week.

And, here we are on June 24 finally our first fast furlong of the year and I can visualize our big lug motoring down the path losing his front legs on slippery grass, slamming his huge frame right into hard ground at 30 mph with me on him.

Weeeeeeeee!

Courageous to get on a horse or intrinsically dumb?

Training:

Thurs. 6/23 Off.

Fri: 6/24: I'd wanted to be zipping along by end of June and looks as if that's going to happen. 10 min. riderless speed work, nice but our boy was more on cruise control today than all out + 4 times up and down the hill that I was going to go easy because the riderless w/o was tough. The horse sped himself up on his own and the last heat probably got the first sub :15 furlong of the year. Breakthrough. Nob gets off smiling at the power and how easily this horse carries weight.

TC Training Summary

This blog somewhat followed the TC races in terms of training to extent info was available. Seemed there was less coverage this year--the state of horse racing or perhaps continued obliviousness to what matters by many in the sport. The blog followed only a few horses, Animal Kingdom, Mucho Macho Man, Shackelford, to some extent.

The analysis pretty much followed the performances although there were surprises. The first of these--the Animal Kingdom Derby--should have been snarfed out before hand. AK was racing against an under trained field with slightly superior to the field prep in that particular race and as by far the most talented galloper in the field. AKs athleticism and stride fluidity and efficiency in my view ranks right up there with better horses. It was because of that natural ability that AK was able to hang on through the Preakness through truly inexplicable preparation by his connections, and then we saw the probable outcome of lack of intelligent prep come forth in the Belmont, although possibly the bad step was the precipitating factor in AK's injury. I choose to believe the injury resulted from dumb training while of course we never really know.

What we do know is that appropriately trained horses rarely come up with these freak injuries, and this year we could include Nehro in that, Arch Arch Arch and probably half the fields whose injury reports likely will come out eventually(Edit: Dialed In).

A few points of interest:

Eddie Kenneally about May 5 announcing re Santiva "he's fit and ready to go"--as famous last words that are almost 100% of the time a kiss of death for these types of trainers. The correct translation--we're declining to do anything else at all with the horse right into the race.

Uncle Mo as predicted by Bill Pressey many weeks ago failing to make it. Do you really have to withdraw a horse from the Derby that's looking as good as MO was due to a slight infection? My guess is that the whole thing was grossly overblown although unknown. You can speculate for reasons unknown they were looking for an excuse to withdraw, or that things may have been precisely as they said.

Of most interest to me besides the exact track work of AK was Mucho Macho Man with the trainer lady proclaiming before the Preakness, "bring it on, he's ready". Contrast that thought with Eddie Kenneally's. Different concept, and MMM did seemingly train right up to the races, but a little sadly the training was in certain significant respects inappropriate, and if you're skilled reading between the lines this lady lacked the detail orientation to produce a good result. Too bad because with her heart problems, her heart is in the right place. I think possibly you have to have a little more direct involvement with athletics to have full understanding of correct prep. MMM was a missed opportunity. I believe with appropriate speed training, rest in the right place, better shoeing, that horse might have smoked this T.C. field, and again, this is wild guessing.

The single biggest training impact that I saw this year was that "soft is in". Or was. I think this was coincidence and surely there are intelligent young trainers/owners or would bes that snarf out the deficiencies of most of these stables, compare to Nafzger etc., which might explain the mystery of Kelly Breen and Ruler on Ice.

Training:
Wed. 6/22: started out badly as a herd of deer crossed into the tree line where our galloping starts. The horse saw them which for him means severe panic ahead. So, we had to shorten the galloping, but a break through. 5 times trot gallop up and down the hill, and we did get a for the first time a few strides of decently fast. Should be doing speed work by the weekend.
Thurs. June 23: took this day off with view to going 3 straight days starting Fri.

Wed. Misc.

End of our normal KC mid June rains, and we're half way through 2011. Good grief. But, here at the farm some enthusiasm and momentum building up for actually heading to a track. With return of "normal" KC weather this year our good horse is making daily progress albeit half as fast as would a horse without his various problems, and our truck-horse trailer engineering problems resulting from my failing to supervise the young lad that installed the new trailer floor, and also my buying a truck with 18 inch wheel base for a 1975 Homemade trailer built for 17 inch wheels. The floor board problem in that some slats fail to sit snugly on the metal support rods has been easy to fix though a dirty claustrophobic job under the trailer. To level out the trailer due to the 18 inch wheels I'll have to literally cut off the back top off the truck bed. That's next.

Our biggest obstacle to getting to the race track may well turn out to be money. Before 2008 spending an extra $1000/mo. on travel here and there was zero problem. These days I barely make enough to meet expenses, and gas prices being what they are, a trip to Eureka, Lincoln or Des Moines is going to cost $200.00. That's steep.

Our horse is cooperating and were he gate trained--track trained could likely run a race safely in 45 days. As things are, however, with all of this horse's various problems, what will happen once we get on a race track is worrisome. Biggest problem may be studdish behavior that started a few months back. Neighbor brought a horse over last week to ride in company, and Rodney went nuts. Unable to pull it off. We're getting a little closer to the real thing. Plan is to feel this along as it goes.

Training:
Sun: Off. Rain.
Mon. 6/20: 4 times up and down hill. Aborted after 4 heats as horse is acting up. Utterly failed today to react to speed up aids. However, the horse is on the verge of fast stuff under tack, according to Nob.
Tues. 6/21: Nob's calf blows up from non-horse stuff so bad we're unable to ride. Luckily seems to be ok by Wed. We do our normal riderless racing in the paddock. This has become very entertaining older horse after he gets headed has now figured out how to get around the lazy one, who slows down immediately when he gets to the front, by zagging either left or right around the big fellow, and, the second the old horse is in the lead again, the full speed race is on. Good stuff, and very much conditioning exercise.

Training

Back to blogging hopefully tomorrow.
Training:
Thurs. 6/16: 5 times up and down the hill trot-gallop. Horse is taking the speed up aid as signal to buck and play. Nob decides this requires progression of aids instead of whip use for the present. Will try this next ride.
Fri. 6/17: Off. Rain.
Sat. 6/18: Riderless--horse gets best ever 5.5 run. Leading all the way and showing that he knows it. Progress. All out riderless race + 4 times trot gallop up and down the hill at a faster pace.
Sun. 6/19: Off. 1 inch rain.

Training:

Sun: June 13: 5 min easy riderless paddock play + 5 time trot gallop up and down hill.
Mon. June 14: 10 min riderless paddock play with one 2.5 f full speed burst + 4 times trot gallop up and down hill. picked it up a little today. Horse responding to speed up aids!

Belmont As A Training Baseline

Can we owner/trainer types take anything away from the Belmont in terms of performance?

I have one in my backyard that flies through deep mud and a second that struggles. One has small hoofs; the one that struggles has large hoofs. Explanation for Belmont results may be as simple as this--that the horses suited to the conditions quickly galloped to the front, and those unsuited stayed back or eventually faded. And certainly we note that big powerful horses such as Shackelford can power through anything for a while, but there is a cost as with each stride the big hoofed horse picks up a weight of mud that the smaller avoid due to hoof construction. There is also the issue of flat sole vs. concave sole, in that concavity of sole does large hoofed horses little favor on the off track surface.

Ruler On Ice definitely navigated easily through sloggy conditions but he also maintained his forward pace throughout the course of the race which also brings up the question of conditioning. The way that horse was galloping, and given my prior exam of Kelly Breen training, the first thought popping to my mind was steroids. The horse was coming off a layoff, but then it was only about 35 days, so, likely steroids was a non-issue.

The second thing that came to mind were the fractions. A conditioned horse should easily be able to maintain pace when fractions are a half second slow, and in this race there were frequently a full second slow. If you get on a horse there's a huge difference in stride type between :12.45/f and :12s. The first the horse is able to glide along with much less energy expenditure whereas the second is the beginnings of all out sprinting for the animals that I have been on.

Thus with ROI behind S's slow pace the whole way, we may imagine there was some energy left for the finish.

But, this still fails to explain how ROI, based on 3 speed works in 35 days was able to run 1.5 miles even if it was at about :12.5/f. One of the keys to this has to be the "slow day" training. My understanding is that Mr. Breen rides his own, and this gives a big big training advantage. First, the trainer is out there everday observing the horse instead of back at the barn mucking stalls. And second, trainer riding horse is able to pick up all the nuances and easily tell exactly where the horse is in terms of conditioning, breathing, ease of action and how long the horse can maintain it. Riding your own horse allows you to improve your horse every day, appropriately speed things up, through in those impromptu 2 min gallops, etc. etc.

Given the above possibly the lesson of this Belmont might be that these horses are able to perform to the limit of the time of the race as these conventional trainers train these days. Noted last post--they all primarily train the same--and, its an improvement from the 1990s to early 2000s. Now days you see the TC training generally breezing once a week even if they occasionally skip, its generally 5F in slightly slower the :12/f.

While this sort of training is hardly ideal for injury prevention, in terms of performance can we conclude that this sort of training provides a minimum baseline. Breeze the horse 5f in 1:01 on most weeks--i.e. every 7 days, race once a month, and you can get him around Belmont race track in :12.5s or a little faster. What happens if we trainer harder or softer is a different question.

Belmont Miscellaney

What a neat looking horse!

Twice this year trainer Kelly Breen's horses have strongly galloped around the race track right past talented fields. Pants On Fire in Louisiana and now Ruler On Ice. Given my low opinion of Breen training, what gives? --blogger buys DRF Belmont PPs.

Just wasted $2.95.
.
What shows --- Ruler On Ice: 5f in 1:01 at Monmouth on 6/4 and 5f in 1:00 at Monmouth on 5/27. Then you go back to a mile 1/16 race on May 7. This horse did less public speed work than Derby horses.

Now, looking at these PPs, may we observe that none of these horses received an advantage strictly due to training based on published speed work. Sort of hilariously, they all trained, with slight variance here and there, exactly the same, making this Belmont possibly a measure of other performance variables besides their training. Take note as always that the off day training is unknown--although, when you consider--that the nearly identical speed work of these trainers might also translate to near identical slow day work.

What intrigues me about Ruler On Ice is how strongly this horse galloped 1.5 miles and finishing like he could skip on for another mile before tiring--on training this light. Per Kiaren McGlaughlin says: why do more when less will do.

But, then, there's also that nagging fact that Pants On Fire was injured in that La race probably permanently. More on ROI training later. A few Belmont observations below:

Belmont Coverage: There must be a law that prevents Blood Horse.com from providing more than 120 sec./day of video coverage. My Q: why bother to send Lenny Schulman and Stable Boy all the way to NY for a 60 sec./day spot?

Belmont Coverage: Belmont race coverage on Sports Illustrated.com and even Huffington Post but without race videos. Where are you Alex Waldrop?

Ghosts of Fusaichi Pegasus and Saratoga Six in Ruler On Ice. With patience the good ones come to fore in the breeding shed.? Is ROI an advertisement for holding off the gelding?

Shackelford: ROI pressing him all the way around the race track, and, does the lead horse use up more energy when being pressed (?), inefficient head bobbing stride possibly caused by his heavy front end (compare S stride to AK stride!) S gave way in a slow pace. Maybe S is other than a 1.5 mile horse. Maybe training and track conditions did very little for this big hoofed animal.

The list of trainers in this race in the DRF PPs: other than the Kentucky Derby Or Bust training hall of fame.

Master of Hounds: predictably from that short vid of him galloping Friday--completely discombobulated What were they thinking? This is the infamous trainer of George Washington, but, on consideration, probably when John Magnier says "jump" Aiden O'Brien says "how high" (which is the sort of owner-trainer relationship I always advocate.)

Mucho Macho Man done by quarter pole. Would plastic shoes give ideal ground contact with this sort of surface? For that matter, while the concept of cushioning track concussion seems wise at first blush, do horses need that firm "thud" of hard ground contact to efficiently push off. Plastic seems a good idea for a hard surface. Have trouble visualizing its good use on a deep sandy track. More to do with MMM than the shoes, but, leave it alone for now.

Animal Kingdon--after watching the start of the race 4 or 5 times, that stumble looked a whole lot worse than it actually was. I'd guess the jock took it easy on the horse to make sure he was OK after that. In final analysis AK was able to actually run about 2f which by my calculation was right up to his training. A waste of tremendous talent in this particular barn imho.

Was the surprise result typical off track stuff? Or, is ROI that good?

Training:
Fri 6/10: Off
Sat. 6/11: riderless paddock work included 2 x 2f full speed bursts + 3 time trot gallop up and down the hill. When the horse threatened to buck Nob aborted.

Belmont Day

The RR Blog cards stacked today in the Dale Romans bandwagon with my choice of Shackelford-- our wayward fat uncle leading the charge up Hamburger Hill analogy. Justify by pointing out with 10 fat uncles training the Belmont you pick your poison.

The way I read the scuttlebutt coming from various sources Romans has reformed somewhat his former irrational training into a more physical approach, and possibly Romans learned something from training First Dude through the TC races a year or so back. There is some evidence for this respect Shackelford in the horse's appearance and some direct statements that S has engaged some 2 mile gallops and done some 2 min. licking etc. Any vestige of actual serious training catches our eyes around here!

Can Asmussen be ignored in the "pick the best trainer" scenario particularly since I really liked Nehro's Derby performance and appearance. In final analysis have questions that Nehro's immediate Belmont pre-race prep a little overly soft, and also that Shakelford eyeball to eyeball might be the better horse. Can S get the distance? But, that's the same Q for all of these in terms of their prep.

Training:

Fri. June 10: Off. Floods in S. KC but never a drop north at the farm. Drout this summer possibly.

Belmont Picks

Unlike this fellow, Steven Crist, and his 6/9 DRF post, I am interested in picking the winner instead of picking "value". Master of Hounds Blood Horse Minute on 6/10 indicates a poorly trained weak horse. Based on a 1 second video flash, will be amazed to see MOH anywhere near the zip code at the finish.

Doubt I will spend time handicapping this field, and thus my pick is based on a few vids, a post here and there, and some hunches. Based on a wash rack photo of Shakelford of a couple of days ago, that horse looks to me the most conditioned animal of the bunch. S looks strong, reasonably quick, has perfect conformation though other than smooth galloping style. The 1 second vido flash on BH Minute shows a strong horse through the lane on Friday.

On the negative side, doubt Animal Kingdom will last the 1.5 miles due to training instead of lack of talent. Equal training and AK runs away from the field. This leaves Nehro who looked very powerful to me in the Derby. I'd box Nehro and my pick, which is Shakelford, although if I had the dough a superfecta box of S, N, AK and Mucho seems a rare opportunity since this seems a 4 horse race.

Winning The Belmont

With all 12 jocks having good reason to question the fitness of their mounts, can we expect the Belmont pace to be crawling early? And, would such a scenario set up perfectly for the exceptionally talented horse who can wing along with less effort due to efficient stride, fluidity and natural athletic ability. That horse in here of course is Animal Kingdom, and perhaps everyone is getting a sense of that, hence AK as the chalk favorite.

Obviously a crawling pace plays right into the hands of the AK connections, and possibly also of Shakelford. Would we expect some of these trainers or even the smarter jocks to set out to press this year's Belmont pace???

Normal scenario this would be for the fitter Mucho Macho Man, due to superior track work--by all accounts--to sit back, measure the pace and then increase the pace enough so that AK and his fellow pretenders need expend themselves before hitting the 3f pole. Would MMM's trainer figure this?-- and bless her heart I hope she wins, but doubt the lady that trains MMM will use her superior training to advantage, or, she'll do something else silly to compromise the horse such as shoeing two weeks out from the race instead of a week out. Be interesting how those polyflexes work on a deep sandy surface! Mucho is the enigma here with the hot Belmont jock.

Nehro, and, despite several experts picking against him, has the one superior trainer in this field. Will Asmussen press the pace a bit, and does his horse have this trained into him? If so, the final Qs--can AK and Shakelford keep up for 1.5 miles?
Training:
Thurs. June 9: rain coming and after 3 days of tack work we're still trying to keep the big fellow interested, and so, riderless paddock speed work, that went well considering the wet bulb conditions. The horse was into running this day instead of leading likely due to the heat. Several 4f spurts slightly under all out speed. Nice workout. Also first day of working on the horse trailer to solve the mechanical problems.

Fresh Horses

"Fresh" is in it seems. Nehro is the "fresh" horse going into the Belmont. Barry Irwin is nearly giddy at how "fresh" his horse looks after two "tough" races and 2 breezes in 1.25 months. And, in general, we hear various pontifications since this or that horse missed the Preakness it must be a "fresh" horse for the Belmont. The non-training of Brilliant Speed would be your normal typical example of the term "fresh" as used in horse racing parlance.

In terms of "performance" thus we have another training system that we might look at closely in a guinea pig way as we'll know on Saturday how these fresh horses perform.

I'll confess to knowing only bits and pieces of the specific training regimens. Paulick Report has gotten very incomplete in it's Barn Note Belmont reporting. But, in general, we know who the culprits are, and we'll see how they do. Please allow me to set the scene: is a horse "fresh" because he has done very little work, or, is he "fresh" because he has done very hard appropriate work with proper rest intervals and is therefore strong and ready to go?

Training:
Mon. June 6: Off
Tues. June 7: 10 min. of riderless paddock work were we got one full speed effort of about 1.5f.
4 x trot-gallop up and down hill, horse picking it up a bit. Celebrate first day this year where "just as we get going" this time nothing stops us and we're able to get on with it.

Barry Irwin, AK, And The Belmont

Barry Irwin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Irwin
continues almost stupefied--pardon slight exaggeration-- by his horse's great physical appearance.

Irwin quoted in DRF: "He's a lot fitter looking behind the saddle than before". His girth, he's carrying such a great amount of weight for a horse that has had this kind of hard racing, it's hard to believe looking at him."

Would Steve Asmussen be chomping at the bit to race against these sorts? Lol! Yours truly would, certainly. Just what you want for the Belmont, a big fat horse gaining weight. And...looking "fitter", in the degree these connections understand that term.

As may be surmised, I am other than a fan of G. Motion training, neither before the Derby and even less now, for whatever that is worth. But we will see. I am more than willing to eat crow on occasion although still gagging at praising of K. McGlaughlin forced on this blog by success of the horse Invasor. Every once in a while these jump up, rub it all over your face, and win a race.

What's wrong with Irwin's statement? It takes but a word or two to uncover what probably is obliviousness regards athletic performance. First, take note--whenever the connections announce a horse "fitter" than" before", what does this say about the "before" training? Something has changed for them. Why? Second, is Irwin's belief that 4 minutes racing around a race track over a 1.5 month period is "hard racing" where, anybody that understood these things would know that conditioned animals tend to recover within 48 hrs assuming such a race as AK ran both races took anything out of him at all.

From what I can tell on the Paulick report barn notes AK has continued his regimen of daily 1.5 to 1.8 mile gallops in :16s or :17s. Good as far as it goes but I think Asmussen must be smiling.

Training:
Fri. 6/3: Off
Sat. 6/4: 2 miles of riderless play in wet bulb conditions. Our horse was moving but a little less anxious in the weather to get the lead. Tack work: 4 times up and down the hill with some galloping. To prove he's still in form, Rod on the way to the track panicked by the water tub nearly dumping Mr. Nob right into the tub.
Sun. 6/5: 5 times up and down the hill trot-gallop. One minor spook and horse "looking" again the whole work.

Belmont

Horse trainers worth their salt can pretty much tell what a horse has done by looking at the horse. Thus this morning's interesting Nehro vid to evaluate the horse and Asmussen training.
Have yet to look at the field, but likely Asmussen is the trainer to respect for appropriate prep.
Additionally, handling of Nehro has been interesting as Asmussen has been doing a fast breeze two weeks out followed by much lighter prep to the race, something that seems new to Asmussen at least from some former years of his when I was following his training style.
What do we see here, although would have liked a straight on shot from the side?
First, interesting conformation which by my subjective preferences--pasterns ever so slightly more upright than perfect, and a little long in terms of injury prevention, noting there have been plenty of good horses with this conformation. Other than the Big Brown perfecto type pastern conformation in terms of injury prevention.
Nehro today weight wise--is he close to 1.5 mile perfect weight-light but maintaining his flesh? Looks to me conventional type training muscular. You'd see more muscle definition on a more frequently breezed horse although with mine, given well fed/well supplemented, the musculature might appear a little softer. Comparatively, without yet seeing the other animals, but imagining what they look like on the training that's been reported, this may be the horse to beat???????
Training:
Fri 6/3 Off. Intended to go Sat. morning instead. That failed to come off. Busy distracting week finishes next Mon.

Fri. Misc.

News of the week--I guess--trainers of Shackelford and Animal Kingdom "astonished" at how energetic their colts are after 2 "tough" races in a two week span-the knowledge exercise physiology of these sorts being demonstrated. Other than unusual. This sort of thing permeates human athletics also even at the pro level. The NBA and NFL have by and large caught on in their coaching. MLB still mostly in the conditioning dark ages, particularly here in KC.
Why would we expect more of our horse trainers? Opportunity for the rest of us, even if it's painful to watch.

Training:
Busy week compromises us a bit.
Wed.: 6/1 normal day off.
Thurs. 6/2 all we were able to get in was a spirited riderless session with the short bursts of full speed at the chase we get from Rod these days. When he heads the other horse, heat over, generally.

Wed. Misc.

"...and if I could find my ease there crawling,
at alien shades my flesh would rear.
Thorn in my side, encumbrance galling;
Oh, were I far away from here."

--Goethe

Nice bright day quickly tempered. Bob Jones Shoes fails any more to carry the Alan Edmonds dress shoes that I bought there for 30 years and need for my big trial tomorrow. Then, on the way back to the office 4 Senegalese Muslim women in full shawl regalia with their 10 children traipsing through downtown KC like they owned the place.

Oft overlooked in the fear of Mexican illegal immigration are the numbers steaming from other third world venues. You go to an immigration ceremony these days at the Federal Court House that they hold twice a month--95% Carribean or African Black or Muslim with generally one or two Caucasian looking sorts in the bunch. Stands to reason since the entire INS is minority these days. So, do you vote Democrat, the party of these sorts that is promoting third world takeover of the USA? Badly needed imho and greatest present political opportuunity-- a group of intelligent moderate majority sorts to recapture the Republican party from the right wing religio nuts before it's too late for the country.

Training:
Sun. 5/29: Off. Weather.
Mon. 5/30: riderless paddock play much of it at speed + light tack work.
Tue. 5/31 Good news tonight the horse was straight and true without looking around for trouble through 4 x 4f trot under tack in the paddock. Mr. Nob wanted to solidify his foot to horse contact a little more become commencing speed work this week. The horse is so wide that Nob's legs literally spread eagle at the inner thigh cranked apart as far as they'll go giving a feeling similar to being on one of those medieval torture racks where they pry you apart. The horse was much more comfortable than the rider, which is good as far as it goes. Good weather coming and we hope to have our first true speed heats in the next 7 days.