Saturday, November 29, 2014

Sat. Misc.

#148 at the gate. Left click on photo to enlarge and get idea of imposing size of this dude.  17'1" is big.  17'2" another dimension.  Good natured, happy go lucky horse. Luckily.

Catch up post after unexpectedly very busy Thanksgiving week in office.  Lot's of trouble finding time to get truck and trailer ready for travel.  Finally though enough $$$ to modify trailer to fit #148.  Hopefully will get that done in next two weeks.
Training wise it's been mostly riderless work.  Good work, mostly fast.  Having heck of a time getting a vid of this that is viewable.  One of these days.
Aim right now is get 'em to track.  Will worry more about tack work at that time, although Mr. Nob has been back up last couple of days as the weather turned more pleasant.

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Sat. Misc.

Weather turned better this week.  Riderless and tack work.  Couple of the riderless works this week ended with in all out sprints across the 400 acre field.  Both horses can flat out fly.  Hope to get these fast sprints on vid one of these days.  Need to get to a race track.  Working on it.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Tues. Misc.

Our latest vid taken right after riderless work on Saturday.  Older horse still running.  Temps 20-24 degrees at game time last few days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgYkBif2Mcs&feature=em-upload_owner

Thursday, November 13, 2014

#148 Hits 17"2"

#148 standing 17'1" about Jan. 2014 hits 17'2".  Looking to be new dimension. Here's 17'1" shot from earlier this summer, and notice by the eyes how much this dude enjoyed tack work at the time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQvOaslXCZY

For last two weeks I'd looked at the horse and he seemed more massive and visually dominant somehow, prompting another measurement, and, indeed 17'2".  Hard to describe a horse this big.  Goes from big to giant.  Nob says ground looks even farther down, if that is possible. We finally got the horse comfortably in the trailer.  At 17'1" there was Q if trailer tall enough. Now, from last eve, no way.  We'll need an expensive mod job including cutting hole in roof.

Till the new memory card arrives the Kodak Playful has on board memory for about 4 stills.  Here are two of #148 taken couple of days ago.



To convey size--the top of my head is even with top of those withers, and I am 6'1.5".

Mr. Nob declines tack work last two days in 24 degree weather.  Forgot these temps as being this cold.  Brrrr..  Nob will give it a try today at same temps. Riderless speed work last eve. #148 puts in possibly the fastest 300 yds I've seen at my farm.  It was a wow move.

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Ideal Body Armor?

The 5th Kodak Playful has arrived and so some vids soon.  Over-under on how long before we lose #5?  3 inch x 1.25 inch--slippery little things that take nice vids.



These arrived with the Cam Corder:

Notice the nice coverage of vulnerable areas at a cheap price of $49.00.  Triple 8 T8 Bum Savers featuring EVA foam pads.

Since I'd purchased the below $99.00 POC shorts
why the Triple 8s?

 POC also  has nice coverage of the point of hip area-- padding featuring a Visco Elastic Polymer dough

offering state of the art extreme impact absorption/shock absorption. POC's material works against impact, and so why bother with anything else?

Interesting history to my thought process. Take a look at those POC pads.  Look kind of thin, eh?  And, they are thin.  Do they scatter impact--definitely However, there's more, as it turns out by trial and error--to injury prevention then mere shock absorption.

What, you say?  Picture a 160 lbs man wearing POC padding falling off a 17'2" hand animal onto hard ground onto the point of his hip.  Visco Elastic Polymer dough mostly scatters/absorbs the impact. However, besides impact there's one more injury causing factor,  and that is the rider's own body weight.  The thin POC pads do little to nothing to CUSHION the bones at point of hip from rider's own considerable weight which has been accelerated through space by the length of the fall.

Enter the cushiony foam/sponge/springy material of the T8 shorts.  This material provides some cushion between the body and the point of impact.

Ideal body armor?  Yet to find it commercially..  Likely a hard POC outer shell with significant foam or spongy padding underneath.  Mr. Nob will wear the POCs over the Triple 8s to get the effect. More weight on the horse unfortunately.

Relevance for riding on sand at the race track?  Guessing just the POCs would work with sand providing enough of a cushion.

Training-- one more spring day here in KC yesterday and today---yikes.  The last week we've continued the regular riderless work.  New vids likely will show fit horses.

Tack work was a little less progress than we'd hoped, although last week was significant progress with both horses. #148 under control!

Tack work was slowed down by reluctance to do too much after the strenuous riderless workouts. Will need to start dialing those back to leave some horse for tack work.

Thursday, November 06, 2014

Thurs. Misc.

Today was hard riderless day. Nice work. #148 flashing true speed.  Nob then gets on #148 still steaming.  Horse commences bucking right off the mounting stand.  Mr. Nob with horse's nose on the ground survives one fairly significant buck and somehow manages to stay in the saddle.  Looking a little pale maybe.  3 min. later the 17'1' horse is under control, and rest of tack work was "cautious".  Seeing and not believing my eyes.  Has this monster grown a little more?  Giving appearance with his dark fall coat off being bigger still, somehow.

Tuesday, November 04, 2014

Tues. Misc.

The big day referred to last post turned into 30 mph winds at tack time. Nob declined getting on. Good progress under tack on Mon., and have feeling, once again,  by weekend with the good weather we should be in significant progress.  Horses continue riderless work in new paddock and that is going very well--Preston Burch pattern--fast every three days and one of the other days light riderless or tack work.

Sunday, November 02, 2014

Breeder's Cup

Very enjoyable BC.  Did watch all the races although it's quite hard to pay attention to other people's horses when training one's own.  $17,000 horse beats $1,600,000 horse.  $1000 purchase finishes third.  Lessons?  At the moment still a democratic game.  The strength of horse racing imo.  Let's keep it that way!--which means rejecting those that would shrink and NASCAR the sport.

Around KCMO, USA looking like decent weather through mid December.  Big day today as hopefully on edge of an under tack break through with #148.