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.