Whoa Big Fellow....

My favorite answering phone message from the phone of Kenny Belt, my farrier way back when, 1980s. What's Kenny up to these days?

And, there's this:

ORC: 325:25-1-11: Age Restrictions: A maiden of any age may be permitted to compete in a race within the paramutual system of racing and in schooling races held in conjunction with a paramutual race meeting....

Looks as if in Oklahoma they allow unraced maidens of all ages. Good rule imo. Helps the small fry. For Rollin' Rodney less pressure to get a 2011 win. Continuing with my horse day by day.

And, there's the little RR clash with Paulick yest. Guess I should avoid terming hall of fame trainers as idiots...or was it mindless idiot. Note to my self, quit public postings on 3 hrs. of sleep.
On with mental stuff and taking the horse around the race track next post.

Training:
Fri and Sat July 29/30: 3/4 mile trot on Fri and 2 short heats walk trot up and down hill Sat. before my leg gave out. Avoiding kick boxing right at present.

Sat. Misc.

Onto other things today. Checking eligibility and trainers test rules in various jurisdictions. Good grief 5 year old maidens are ineligible in neighboring Nebraska unless they raced before age 5. I never get the point of this, or really making any raceable horse ineligible. Why? Illinois rules are a shockingly--for such a large state-- disorganized conglomeration of TB and harness racing rules. Just spent 30 min. trying to find horse eligibility in there. Nowhere to be found.

Getting ahead of ourselves with our Rolling one. Tested the leg last night by getting back on. We're back in business, I believe. As long as big Rod stays on his best behavior as he has been without sudden hijinks, looks as if I've got enough leg strength to stay up. Couple of days reorientation and should be back into speed work end of the week.

Training:
Thurs. 7/28: Off
Fri. 7/29: 3/4 mile trot in mud. Enough riding for me for day #1. Such a tractable horse, normally.

Compliance II

While my own experience has been primarily "ship in" I have also for a full year been stabled at a race track. These two experiences--training horses off a farm and training from the race track produce contrasting results in horse behavior.

For the few of us that do ship in, we can only watch with envy as horses stabled at the race track, one after another, calmly go through their paces. There's the occasional miscreant of course, but in general most of the track work goes off like clock work. The farm horses, and certainly those that are pastured, many of these become conscientious objectors over time. Why the difference in behavior?

The answer is fairly easy to discern. The track horses are so happy to get out of their stalls they look forward to their track work. The farmers in contrast are hardly all that happy having the boss arrive at 5:30 a.m. and interrupt the "grazing". And so, the farm boys and girls are grouchy going in, and when they get to the destination work an unfamiliar routine that to them is chaotic and frightening, at least initially. My experiences have been that it takes about 30 days of shipping in before the protestors settle into the experience. Confide again that as a rider, dealing with a protesting horse is often far from easy. Many riders simply refuse the problem. Occasionally there's the extremely skilled or fearless rider with the patience and knowledge to quickly solve such problems.

Once we get the horse on track the relevant to racing animal training problems begin. The skilled rider, generally a jock if u can get one, takes care of "most" of this for you. It's the rare rider that gets everything right in morning training. If you can get one of those you'll have a better race horse and much less likely to produce an injury.

What are we about here? Been a while since I've been up and going round and round, but in no particular order here are some of the things that come to mind in terms of rider skills:

1. lead changes
2. getting the over-enthusiast under control or stopped after the run.
2a. In contrast, dealing with the lazy horse or refuser.
2b. In general dealing with "antics" particularly when there's a crowd.
3. creating a push button horse on the race track--slowing, speeding up, trotting, galloping.
4. approaching the gate without protest.
5. gate work in general.
6. manipulating the horse in company--often tricky and dangerous.
7. On track turn arounds--e.g. back tracking and keeping horse calm in the turn around that often takes place amid oncoming traffic, getting the desired lead at the start of the gallop.
8. Keeping the horse under control and close to the rail in the trot off.

Many of the above are critical in injury avoidance and important in creating a competitive race horse. Continue next post.

Training:
Thurs. 7/28: will continue tonight 36 hrs. after the last one. Inj. to rider leg healing faster than expected. Will get back on tonight to see if there's enough strength for control.

Compliance

With exception of his frequent panics, our own big Rodney most generally is on his best behavior at the farm, and, quite luckily so. 20-25 horses over the years, have I had one this easy in terms of doing what he's asked? This most excellent demeanor on Rodney's part unfortunately is unlikely to last. Rod is giving every signal of full stallion mode, and likely his first sniff of the girls at the race track and this particular horse may well become uncontrollable.

I've had various problems with horse behavior over the years. It began with my first filly, a very talented horse that was essentially a refuser. I have the Secretariat jock, now deceased Paul Feliciano to thank for that. Feliciano broke her and rode her for a year. He simply refused to use a whip. The horse figured this out, and toward the end of her little run would stop galloping at the 6f pole and a pony would have to come out and get her.

I've had colts later in their career go through all sorts of machinations trying to get them from barn to race track and into a gallop once they got there. For us and the particular horses it was a combo of a ship in problem and the older horse simply getting wise to declining to work. Weirdly, both of those once they got to galloping loved it. Getting them into it from age 8 onward became more and more of a problem.

The big outfits solve most training problems with young horses by doing everything in company. How big an advantage is it e.g. reading Preston Burch's book to see photos of his early yearlings, about 10 of them lined up with 10 riders on a large race track being put their their paces? Good lord I have enough trouble getting one rider to show up in the 4 hr. span of morning training, much less two riders at once. The rider problem has become very serious, and likely is one of the reasons even for the top trainers we see so much basic training negligence. The riders are problems in terms of showing up, and problems once they get up.

Nevertheless, if we're able to pull off the riding in company, that's the easy way to train the horse. With the horse going at it alone things go slower and your method better be spot on or many of them quickly become misbehaviors.

What methods do you use when alone? The best success generally comes from going with the horse. If you can get them thinking what you want done is their idea you're most of the way there. Misbehavior simply put has to be immediately nipped in the bud. I do believe in corporal punishment in two limited incidences, although that's never available in a public setting--1. if the horse in some way is a danger to the rider, and 2. I never let 'em waste my time. As an e.g. of the latter, if I'm loading mine at 5:30 a.m. for the race track needing to be in Court in downtown KCMO at 9:00 a.m. the one protesting the trailer loading is going to get whomped. This little outfit simply puts lacks the luxury being able to permit that sort of misbehavior. When you're by yourself dealing with them in numbers, unless you have unlimited time, certain aspects of the operation require military precision. Luckily acts of such overt misbehavior are rare occurrences if the stable hand otherwise uses common sense.

Another common problem on the farm is the horse refusing to be caught. The Monty Roberts horse whisperer join up method is always successful in this, although I use it only as a last resort. Frankly I'd rather club a horse a couple of times than break their will al la Monty Roberts. They understand the former so much better. When very energetic I've even used the Monty Roberts method on the 15 acres of pasture. You run and run and run, and about 45 min. later they finally stop and let you join up. I did that with Rollin' Rod and have never had a problem since. Again, I dislike the method. It takes a lot more running away than Roberts advertises.

The biggest problem is the danger to rider problem, usually occurring by refusal getting onto the race track or refusal once you get on there. Being myself the rider I always did eventually solve these problems, but only with great difficulty. The best e.g. of a good solution is a scene I witnessed with my Jeckimba Bay at Prairie Meadows in 1990 on the one day (it was the last day), I had the infamous quarter horse idiot Thad Leggett on him. JB was protesting something coming off the track, and the image of Leggett on a rain swept day raising his whip high in the air so it was pointed right at the clouds and smacking this horse on the butt as hard as he was able--I've never seen a horse straighten up faster, and JB never ever gave anybody any more trouble after that one event. Only thing Leggett ever did that impressed me.

Unfortunately, when I get on, I seldom have the courage of this sort of swift response. Correct application of a quick whip strike is more difficult than it looks because you never know exactly what the horse will do--ie. kilter off sideways, rear, flip etc. When I'm on and one is seriously misbehaving--at the farm I can generally pull it off. If the one whip smack is hard enough, the horse will straighten out. Having the courage to apply enough force is the rub. When you're at the track unfortunately I always carry with me that image of the young lady rider part of whose skull was embedded on a concrete barrier just off the shute at the Woodlands when the horse reared on her when she was trying to get it onto the race track. I witnessed that event, and ever since I've been too shy in applying the well timed whip smack.

And so, I've relied on other methods. Without writing a book these involve various methods of cajolery. Changing the route, distracting the horse, riding onto the track glued to another horse's rear etc. These common problems are all solved by training with company, which, if you can pull it off is really the way to create the race horse.

Tues/Wed. July 26/27: 10-15 min. riderless w/os. both days with a couple of 2f spurts both days. My left leg was more stable shoeing a rear this morn. Progress.

Plan B

This morning a decent riderless w/o with a few spurts. A little less gloomy than yesterday's post after reconsidering the situation. The trailer is almost ready for travel. Engineering problem on the truck with its too high wheel base next, and, economics willing, a possible trip to the race track in the next two weeks to begin track training of our horse. I avoid thinking what a round trip to Eureka costs these days at 12 mpg.

I was very glad to avoid getting on this morning. Feeling good in making an intelligent decision. Zero point to risking reinjury or even permanent injury. From past experience I know I can get them pretty close to ready just training riderless, and also that the particular injury, an aggravation of an old sports injury, does tend to heal completely over course of 4 weeks. Being already two weeks into healing it, the smart thing to do is wait it out, and hopefully get the horse to a race track and start the training. Lots of ifs in that in our situation and will continue to feel this along and see how it goes. Try to conclude on mental aspect of racing next post.

Frick And Frack

This fellow at left introduced the term Kafkaesque into English. Consider the "ungluck" or bad luck of citizen Mr. K from Kafka's book "The Trial. Mr. K, completely innocent of any crime, is arrested, but the charge against him is never made clear or even identified. Over 200 pages of the book Mr. K is tried and finally executed without knowing the charges against him. Mr. K in the end convinces himself he must have done something horrific but it is unknown what.

Kafka, emanating from the great Jewish artistic movement in Prague in the early 20th century that included Sigmund Freud died young of tuberculosis. No matter. All three of his sisters were killed at Auschwitz likely without knowing the charges against them similar to Mr. K. To see a horror lacking adjectives to describe look up "Einsatzgruppen" on You Tube.

Well, this is gross over dramatization for the Ungluck came to my mind last night getting off my horse. It went badly and with some other things that have hit all at once Kafka/Kafkaesque came to mind. Avoid detailing the absurdities that have occurred here over the last two weeks except to say the salmons are having trouble getting up the stream.

My left leg is like jelly and really needs immobilization for about a month. Trying to figure what to do with this "racing enterprise" at the moment.

Sat. Sun 7/23 and 24 Horse did light riderless work in paddock with one short speed spurt and was walked under tack in near dark from incoming rain last night. Luckily Rodney decided to behave.

Mental Makeup of Horses

Can human mental characteristics be trained into our racers? Or do horses have some of these traits naturally-- motivation, competitiveness, focus, and so on?

Obviously horses are competitive, pimping and jousting in the pasture like a bunch of human 6th graders. Just got myself soundly kicked getting somehow in the middle of one of these confrontations.

Things I've observed about horses:

1. They enjoy bounding along similar to birds enjoying flying.
2. While bounding they are in mode of:
a. maintaining their proper place within the herd, or
b. seeking to make a pass.
3. Their reactions while running are birdlike, flocklike. Initial spurts give way fairly quickly to a sedate orderliness were most just follow the one immediately up ahead, and being content to maintain position.
4. On occasion when clear opportunity presents itself one behind will spurt past the one just ahead.
5. On rare occasions you see one behind actually intent on getting in front of the whole herd.

Things change a little for the horse when we put rider on board. Discuss this next post.

Training:
Fri. 7/21 Off.
Sat. 7/22: Very light riderless session. Occasionally disastrous training sessions. First, my left leg unable to bear the weight cradling Rodney's rear leg while shoeing. Decline to get on again for fear of reinjury. The riderless session goes caput when the older horse jumps the fence and escapes, and I, mostly due to horribly humid low pressure weather, am unable chase big lunk Rodney, who quickly figures this out and mostly just trots.

Mental Aspects Of Competition II

Does the subject of mental preparation apply to horses. First, what in brief, is being discussed? I'll avoid writing a book. Post what comes to mind. In human competition does this involve the following:

personal motivation and ambition, and priority, determination
the individual quality of competitiveness
mental qualities of focus and concentration
the individual quality of accurate perception
intelligence and learning ability

Allow one e.g. of the last--over the course of 60,000 chess games over the last 10 years, has yours truly improved his game? Answer--somewhat, but I make the same lousy mistakes over an over. Why?

With horses add the following:

compliance
happiness, contentment and security with their situation.

We know also that the horse's physical state will dramatically affect its mental, much more so than humans as the horse lacks our mental coping mechanism to get through any temporary discomfort or distress.

Phew! That's a bundle! And the above likely touches on less than half of it. How does any of this apply when our horse gallops midpack along the back stretch of a mile 70 yd. race? Give it some thought, next post.

Training:
Thurs. 7/20: Off
Fri. 7/21: light riderless w/o in heat for 10 min. despite best efforts, late to bed, late to rise and ridiculous situation--given the leg injury-- of locking myself out of bedroom at 1 a.m. Coil the injured tendons through the window to get in, with a 4 ft. drop on the inside, and slight reinjury to point I declined getting on today. Hopefully tomorrow.

Mental Aspects of Competition

Sports psychology, a developing field as I understand it, applies to our horses (?)...somewhat. Keep in mind, though, on top of those horse ride little humans subject the the whims and foibles.

After that devastating and stupid loss of mine on the Internet chess boards yesterday I am now sporting a 4 game win streak. As your chess rating goes up so does the quality of the competition, and I'm almost fearing that next game since the player on the other end is likely to have more skill.

The Internet chess boards are superb labs for competition related to sports psychology. Over thousands of games you learn to recognize patterns in your own play and how you handle things both over the course of several games and within the games themselves. Successful chess playing requires certain mental qualities that everyone has in degrees. The trick is applying those qualities in each game, and then maintaining them over the course of several games.

Allow one illustration of this. A chess game clocked at 10 minutes is a 20 minute game--10 minutes allowed to each player. There will be about 40 to 50 moves per player to check mate. About each move--a total usually of 80 moves--a complex situation must be considered This requires the mental quality of CONCENTRATION. It is impossible--for me at least--and for most to completely concentrate for 20 minutes. Concentration wavers. You get distracted both within the game itself and by outside factors. A noise will occur, a fly will buzz, something extraneous will appear on the computer screen, and boom, you lose your focus and make a critical error.

Whatever one's mental qualities of imagination and intelligence that one brings to the chess game, it is all irrelevant without CONCENTRATION. Unless you're focused and paying attention you're unable to bring to bear your mental talents. It being physically impossible to maintain complete focus over any lengthy period of time each chess game becomes a personal contest with yourself as to how well and how long you can keep your CONCENTRATION.

I have discovered that in competitive situations there are actually moments of MICRO-SLEEP where the brain is completely withdrawn from the situation and paying attention to nothing. I strongly suspect that many errors in baseball result from this phenomena.

Does this sort of thing apply at all to horses? Will try to be more systematic and reply to this Q over the next posts.

Training:
Thurs. 7/21 Off. Burch training pattern of 3 days works well for Rollin' Rod in terms of maintaining his interest. Additionally, am hesitant to beat on those cannon bones without some rest. The w/os were riderless but significantly more in volume than tack speed work. My injury is improved and normal tack work should commence tomorrow. Trailer will be ready to go by end of week! Progress.

Nice Job, For A While

Just finished a 10 min game of Internet chess against a player rated 100 points above me. Was handing this guy his lunch--going into last 3 min of the game I had a full rook advantage. Opening game worked perfectly, played right into my hands, everything going as planned.

In the final three minutes I completely lost it. Concentration evaporated. One stupid mistake followed by two more and I've lost the game. Opponent was the better player this game. Completely avoidable though. I should have won and won easily, but lost. That is the subject of the mental aspect of race horse training.

I've written two posts now, deleted both as failing to convey. Try again tomorrow.

Training:
Tues. 7/19: riderless only. Got in some track quality speed work--maybe 4f despite the older horse's recalcitrance and intimidation. 10 min.
Wed. 7/20: Back on! Walked him for 1/2 mile. Went other than well. Inside left leg tendon running down thigh very weak, sore. this is going to take a week. plan is to get on every day and push it forward a little. + 10 min riderless slow work with some :14 sec. stuff. Enough that they get a day off tomorrow.

Tues. Misc.

Mind on other things today. More mental aspects of training next post.

Training:
Mon. 1.5 days off transitioning to morning training for cooler weather.
Tues.: Riderless about 10 min. Rodney now has the older horse spooked to the point he refuses to pass and only runs up the other horse's rear or peels out in the opposite direction on urging. Still, got in several decent race like speed bursts. Enough for now I'm try to solve equipment problems to get this horse to the race track. My injury-- day to day. non-kicked leg has two tweaked ligaments including the one attached to the hip. Would get back on the horse were it just pain, but risk of permanent injury, and so declined to get on so far. The sort of thing that were ideally leg would be immobilized a coupled of weeks.

Mental/Horses

My Q had been why and how lazy Rod transformed suddenly to enthusiasm and storming through his w/os. For Rodney- easy answer. First some consideration of mental side of performance.

Attitude, confidence, concentration, mental response to competitive ebb and flow--some of the brain operations of the "athlete". Never having directly studied exercise psychology, and therefore far from the expert, I'll have to rely on personal experience and some guess work in the discussion.

First, differentiate horses from humans. Our equine friends luckily are competitive and display many of the other mental performance factors of humans. Rodney e.g. last evening showed a bad mood. He was just less than happy either during the w/o and even in the post w/o bath the ears we're pinned back.

In addition to human mental qualities as they affect athletic performance, with our good horses we also have what with many of them is an even bigger factor which involves strictly the animal thing of convincing the beasts to do what we want them to do. So with race horses the mental includes by my reckoning:

1. normal variables of sports psychology, and
2. animal training

And, with the "animal training" component we sort it down further by noting training problems specific to the race horse. Egs: getting 'em in the gate, getting 'em to volunteer to go fast when asked, or a problem I've had with some as a shipper--just getting them to go onto the race track without massive acting up.

Some thoughts on this, next few posts.

Training:
Sat: 7/15: riderless with one 4f of decent speed. Hot and older horse refusing to pass. Rod slows himself when he's on the lead and so getting him to do anything was difficult with my leg injuries. By the time I got to the grocery store I was on the mechanized cart. Very low air pressure/high humidity hardly helped the old bones. I'd got on the older horse barely able to spread my legs wide enough. Walked him awhile without any leg control, and declined getting on the fat one. Legs a little better this morn. We'll see about tonight.

Sat. Misc.

What's with the prior post video? The girl does strictly anaerobic sets without rest period getting both an aerobic and anaerobic effect to her workout. You see this more and more done as optimal w/os. It caught my eye after noting Bill Pressey's blog recently dealing with over speed training and then the importance of aerobic work from long galloping--something I might disagree with somewhat, but get to that later. How to accomplish similar training effect with horses as this attractive young lady's w/o?

What's interesting about it is the intensity of the w/o over a short perod. With horses we're limited to extremely short exercise periods compared to humans. Thus the concept of optimizing "intensity" with in race horse w/os would seem significant! Long gallops with accelerations to over speed. I've been doing this riderless and find it extremely effective both in aerobic/anaerobic work and speed up-speed downs for neuro-muscular coordination.

Back at the ranch--we thank B.J. for her kind words, and best of luck with your horse! Two major improvements in the injury--one the first night, and then last night. Almost full range of motion back today, and plan to recommence tack work tonight.

Training:
Tues. 7/12: 2 x 4f all out riderless racing + several other slightly lesser speed heats. Tough w/o.
Wed. 7/13: Off. Rain.
Thurs.: 7/14 Riderless acceleration w/o + 4f as fast as they could go in the mud. Medium intensity type speed w/o.
Fri: 7/15: Off.

Thurs. Misc.

yes, do this w/o with your horses.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bMteFx8LbM&feature=related

Wed. Misc.

Hosing both horses post workout. They're standing motionless side by side radiating so much heat am fearing heat stroke. They stand quietly 5 min. under hose. Trainer gets lazy and tries to thread hose through Rod's back legs--instead of walking all the way around the monster--his rear is backed up into a shrub and to accomplish the feat I stand directly behind him leaning with my chest on his rear and thinking he's calm, won't kick. Lean down into hock area to thread the hose, chest flush against horse's butt. Simultaneously:

Up front a "squeal".
Thought: Horse confrontation. omg.
Second squeal and very loud in response from Rodney
rear legs come off ground and forward
Thought (while plastered against to horse's butt): sometime in these confrontations the kicks are half kicks.
.1 sec later, boom. full force. Glancing blow, luckily. Was too close for solid landing.

Am laying in the mud hyperventilating to prevent fainting and both assholes lower their heads with a puzzled expression on their horse faces "what is he doing laying down there all of the sudden". Last serious kick had been 2001. That one was to the throat and close to being a homicide.

Yesterday was unable to lift my legs to put on socks. Overnight healing, and wound and swelling to the upper right thigh is much improved and the injury far far less serious than I'd thought yesterday.

Coming next on this blog involves my Q as to why my formerly lazy Rollin'Rodney is suddenly totally into his w/os--the mental aspect of race horse training.

Training:
Mon. 7/12: Flat tire to truck makes causes arrival too late to ride. Another WOW riderless w/o. The under tack breeze of two days ago, and the light seems to have come on. Both horses compete with each other through 2 x 4f and quite a bit more work after that. Rodney is all out every inch of the way and showing what looks in the paddock to be impressive speed. Never seen that before from him. Then the post w/o kick.
Tues: Off. Trainer injured.
Wed: Is also going to be off due to 1.5 inches unpredicted rain falling much of the night. Inundated. The 2 days off is less a problem in Preston Burch training, which is why I like that style. Well do more speed work tomorrow. Hopefully will be able to get on.

Tues. Misc.

Blogger injured. Will live. Back soon.

It Begins

Last night as predicted the horse got his :14 and likely a few ticks faster. Interesting that I posted a break through trot w/o the day before--a noticeable change in attitude, and the next day he transitions mostly on his own into faster stride than he's done under tack since that :39 in August of 2008. Such has been our weather we've been unable to get back to that since.

The following conversation with the rider Mr. Nob:

RR: time to start losing weight.

Nob: when?

RR: now!

One fairly fast w/o and we're mentally into race training around here. Another small step to actually get to the track.

Training:
Fri. 7/7: Off.
Sat. 7/8: 4 x up and down hill at trot.
Sun. 7/9: 4 x up and down hill trot gallop: last two heats were quicker reaching :13+++. Aborted after 4th heat as this was so much faster than the horse had done, and at 170 lbs.

Trainer's Test/ Lincoln/Murphy's Law

Two tiny water drops on the keyboard do in the new Dell Laptop. And....... wake up to the 2001 Lincoln LS sporting flat as a pancake front right tire. This Lincoln auto, with its brand new Michelin MXV4 tires, that I was planning to use tomorrow to drive to Lincoln State Fair race track to inquire about taking a trainer's test. MXV4 btw, extraordinary tire!

With these two lovely events both occurring within minutes of each other. Around here am once again considering the Murphy's law aspect of horse racing. I needed that computer when I hit the road to the race track.

But, we count our blessings. The car made it into the driveway before going flat, a sudden fit of $$$ of about $2500 came into the business the last two days, the horse purchase account is up to $1000.00, and our good Rollin' Rodney did another breakthrough w/o yesterday. Surely we will get that :14 sec/f before the weekend is over.

It's difficult to get anyone's attention at the race track to take a trainer's test. I have to retake because the Kansas Racing Commission has expired.

How hard is the trainer's test? I took out my first trainer's license in NE in 1999. Took the written test cold after one read through of NE Racing Commission Rules. This resulted in missing 4 of 100 Qs, which the Steward seemed to think was excellent. One miss involved some ridiculous horse anatomy Q--what is a "brown eye" or purple eye, whatever it was. The other three misses were technical racing rules multiple choice Qs such as--do u have 5, 10, 15 or 20 min. to do this and that after last call. Something along those lines.

I have been successful to date in avoiding a barn test, of which I am terrified because I know first thing they'd do is pull out a wrap and tell me to wrap a leg. Since I never wrap, last having wrapped in 1992 when I had a filly that was running down, could see myself flunking purely for failure at correct wrapping. Luckily in Nebraska they require written test only, and if u know horses, have been through race procedures and read the rules a few times, I found the test surprisingly easy. For anyone aspiring to take a trainer's test, I'd say go and do it, and avoid any worry.
Training
Thurs. July 7. Off 1.5 inches of rain.
Fri. July 8: 4 times up and down the hill limited to trot due to wet ground. However, this was an interesting w/o seeming another little break through for this horse. Unlike his previously skittish self, this day big Rod seemed totally focused on what he was doing, he was enjoying his work instead of his constantly looking around for trouble, and the pace of his trot--which is about 4f for each heat up and down the hill was completely different than it had been. I was encouraged as to what I hope to see today and tomorrow.

Horse(s) Continued

Vids of Groovin' Wind last night, age 16, and below 12 yr. old Wind after a summer of every 3 day multiple breezes prepping for a fall 2007 Woodland's campaign that never happened. Interesting change of color.

The 2007 version shows greater strength than the 16 yr. old version and more hardness of body, as could be expected of breezing under tack compared to riderless sprinting the 16 yr. old has done of late with enthusiasm. Probably showing a little age there also, and note Wind now slightly underweight as the horses of late are mostly dodging flies in the barn instead of grazing.

Rode the old fellow last night for the first time in a year. What a contrast with the difficult Rollin' Rodney. I was shocked by the contrast. Thoughts of--good to get on a normal horse once again, wonderful to have your legs at the walk-trot in normal position instead of propped out as wide as physically possible due to the width of Rollin' Rodney. Absolutely gross relative comparison of rider safety and how pleasant it was to ride a business like enthusiastic horse moving along without looking around to panic and explode at the slightest provocation. The thought process was so strong I was considering why the heck I was continuing on with that other horse.

Continuing with Rod, of course, because he's all we've got, plus enough talent there to maintain your interested. . Noticed last night again riderless, the classic type sprinter stride. Big and wide as Rod is on the front end, he has a stride that's very easy on himself.

A few horse thoughts in terms of performance, next post.
Training:
Tues. June 4: decided to take the whole day off, wisely, after yest. tough w/o.
Wed. June 5: 4 times up and down the hill, trot-gallop. Horse panics again at the start point just as on firecracker night, and, what's this? I hear quacking from a new duck on our small pond. That's probably why he panicked July 4 instead of the fire crackers. Welcome to the new neighbor. This was a refit workout after 4 days of little tack work. Went as poorly as I expected, and so thereafter the horse was put in the paddock for 2 miles of slow riderless work.

Our Horse

Ahhhh, we count our blessings. Our very own Rollin' Rodney with a little bit of talent and a momma by Arch in the back yard right now grazing away and dodging flies in the back 40. Doing his thing!

Long process of getting into a race, and along my theme line of performance, begins with getting "a horse". If you're like us and you already have one or more, then, best of luck, we're blessed by (stuck with) our acquisition(s).

At the sales I've noticed some have an eye for conformation, and what some others buy at ungodly prices, I just shake my head in disbelief. This process of purchase is more sophisticated these days. I'd say eyeballing a prospective horse takes a certain amount of elevated common sense.

One thing we do know, for we small fry, is that buying the progeny of an unraced mare or stallion can be problematical. We're playing the odds right there. Was the unraced horse merely another early injury resulting from training negligence, or did that unraced horse have some sort of problem likely to be passed on?

In this sense, buying from "unraced" stock, you worry most about breathing problems, something I've learned the hard way on several occasions right down to buying our Rollin' Rodney at 2007 Fasig Tipton. In the selection process I'd deleted all the unraced stock from the catalogue, and then after being repeatedly outbid (with my $5000 available), up comes the Rollin' One, unraced broodmare by Arch, Sire double Danzig, and a female family of all champions except his unraced dam. Yours truly gets suckered into loosing all discipline, a buys the horse for $3500.00.

I am fairly confident the dam had the same weird breathing problem as our Rodney--breathes fine in superior manner at the gallop, but unable to breathe well at the trot, and invariably unable to breathe without maneuvering his head into absolutely correct position for the first 4 to 5 strides of gallop. When he finally gets his breath he's fine but in O2 debt from the get go.

The test of this for us will be whether the horse can breathe coming out of the gate. I am hoping so due to the speed. Lungs contracting rapidly to force air out. But, its also possible the horse will be unable to catch breath immediately out of the gate. If that happens, Rod will be retired.

Rodney has two more problems which make him difficult. First, is the constant panicking--see below. He'll have to be galloped at the track in company. Given the scarcity of riders that's easier said than done. Second problem may be the bigger one. This horse as of about February has turned studdish. He's a 5 year old horse. If the recent boondoggle of trying to gallop him in company at the farm where Rodney went nuts with the neighbor's horse is an indication, we might have trouble there, and this would also likely cause his retirement, as we're without time to geld and then come back.

Small outfits work need work around such difficulties as we have with this horse, although Rods are a fairly potent combo of problems. He's all there is around here at the moment, and so will feel our way along and see how it goes.

Training:
Sun. July 3. Off. Rain.
Mon. July 4: Firecracker workout of trying to get a :14 never happened. I'd thought after two days of fireworks Rod would be ok with the noise. The horse was virtually comatose walking to the starting point and then, panic/explode almost losing our good rider. Luckily the panic was forward instead of the usual 90 degree bolt and Nob managed to stay on. That was about enough of that, and we called it. Thereafter though, another "wow" riderless workout as the horses sprinted all out 1/2 mile one way, turn around and 1/2 mile the next. Another 1/2 mile 90% heat and Rodney decided he'd had enough. Galloped him another mile slow and a little trot. Will need 36 hrs rest to the next one.

July, Trainers, Tracks

Time flies in racing. 2011, midpoint! I'm in feel along mode with problematic horse and fairly significant forward steps just ahead.

Next week, hopefully a trip to Lincoln State Fair meet to acquire Nebraska trainer's license, the Kansas Racing Commission being history. And, finish of engineer work to truck and horse trailer that has been on-going--redo of new floor and machinations involving adjusting old trailer built for 17 inch truck to 18 inch wheel base on 2008 Ford F350.

Week after next to a track would be the plan. Rushing it, and will see. Plan is the horse break :14 barrier tonight. He'll get speed easily once he figures out what's going on. Rodney's other problems are the concern. Outline them later.

So for us we have a mini-version of the daunting preliminaries involved in getting one's horse to come out of the gate in an actual race--primarily a large commitment involving a good bit of one's time, energy and money. Deeper pockets can hire all this out, and you sit in your office directing some trainer with your horse, if you've got the dough.

However, and imo, this also involves horse racing's current central problem on the horse side--finding a trainer that will actually train your horse and care for your horse to your standards. Regrettably, my experience has been that my horse in someone else's shed row gets about the equivalent care as my child in some one's day care center. It's both hardly ideal and counter productive since we're in competitive athletics. We're essentially hoping that our day care center is superior to the next person's.

I figured out some time ago for myself that the odds of farming out a horse to someone else and covering expenses, much less avoiding injury to the horse which is another story altogether, are only a gambling proposition very akin to planning to make money going to a track for an afternoon's handicapping. What are the odds of coming out in the black--for a very good handicapper, maybe 25%.

25% chance of avoiding losing your shirt preparing a race horse is hardly an economic proposition for most, and in particular for the huge expenditure of effort that goes along with the money.

Since I am unable to recommend "doing it all yourself" unless you want to spend a quarter of your time in that effort, the question for an owner, given the realities of trainers and the race track, involves--"what do I do with my horse."

If you have just a little more money available than the normal training expense--there is a third way that I have tried in the past. I will put my horse in a race track shedrow but with the proviso to the trainer--I pay my own employee to supervise and care for the horse. This worked for me quite well as solely an "owner" early 1990s at Prairie Meadows.

Training:
Thurs. June 1: Off. Rain.
Fri. July 1: Riderless only--speed work 3 x 4f all out with horses racing each other. Nice work!
Sat. July 2: 3 times up and down the hill--aborted when large insect flies into horse ear and he begins severe head tossing. One heat in sub :15s. Finished with 2 riderless slow miles with Rodney very willing, interesting for lazy Rod.
Sun. July 3: Off. rain