This is Hateya, looking anxious and distrustful as usual.

More About Hateya

I have just finished reading a book called “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell, a writer for The New Yorker. It’s a very simple, easily read study about our extraordinary mental faculty of “thin slicing” or “–filtering the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables.”

Before I get complicated here, what I am planning on doing is making an observation about Hateya. This observation refers to the psychological detriment inherent in autism

Gladwell describes the phenomenon of human autism as, in part, a

“difficulty interpreting nonverbal cues, such as gestures and facial expressions, or putting themselves inside someone else’s head or drawing understanding from anything but the literal meaning of words.”

A person with autism, for example, cannot tell which one of three paintings another person is pointing at, because to do so, they would have to understand the intention behind the gesture; in other words, the simple mind- reading faculty is not there.

This detriment has to do with an area of the brain that is non- functional in autistic people. One that can distinguish between thousands of faces over a lifetime and recognize one out of a crowd or over a space of a generation as belonging to an individual. Instead, autistic people must rely on a much less sophisticated area of the brain that identifies objects such as chairs or suitcases, to do work that cannot match the accuracy and sensitivity of the more sophisticated part.

My guess is that Hateya is somehow similarly affected. I remember attending Fieldston Summer Camp with a boy named George, who was autistic. He would push your head under water or hit you, showing no emotion at all. He wasn’t expressing anger or meanness. One never knew if it was going to happen or not. But apparently, our heads were simply objects to him, to be dunked under water, our bodies objects to be punched or palpated in his rude way. Hateya behaves in the same manner.

The only direction his ears move is forward or back. They never offer any other expression besides “what’s that in front of me?” “what’s that behind me?” or “I don’t like this!” He views a crowd of horses with apparent curiosity, but if they come close he explodes with claustrophobic terror. He does not mind running with them, but only when that type of motion is fast and forward, as it is during a race. When you come to his stall, his ears flick forward with alarm, then down and back in a defensive display. Rather than seeming curious at any point in the interaction, he seems at once anxious that he doesn’t understand if you threaten or greet him. He can’t make sense of the socially grounded gestures humans offer, as other horses seem to.

He will take a mint, however. Not like a gentleman, but with a vacuous stare in his eyes.

When he drops me, it’s not as if he’s being mean, in fact, it almost seems as if he has no idea of his intention before it happens. I think when he gets suddenly frightened, he simply tries to unload the dead weight and get the heck out of wherever he is.

For what it’s worth, I conclude that Hateya is autistic, or at least something like the equine equivalent thereof. Not the first (nor, probably, the last) that I have ever had the dubious pleasure of working with.

Hateya

In Friday's race, Hateya was disqualified and placed fourth, for interefering with the the fourth- placed horse. The rule is that if one horse bothers another, it will be placed immediately behind the one it bothered. If it runs over everybody, it is placed last.

I watched a replay of the race, and cannot tell what caused Hateaya to bolt outward. He has never shown any fear at that particular spot on the racetrack. My only explanation is that he saw something on the inside that frightened him and took a right when he should have been taking a left. Mind you, this is the most difficult horse to work with in the morning. If you are not prepared to keep him distracted, something else will. It's hard to understand how a horse could suddenly see a ghost in the middle of a herd barreling along at top speed. I have a lot more to say about this, but I gotta go to work now. It's six o'clock.

Friday, June 24, '05

I can't get the photo function to work so I gave up on it, at least for now. Can't find any 'upload photo' icon. Too bad.

What a morning!

Whenever I have to gallop Hateya, it's my day to really pay attention. Tonite he's running (in about 45 minutes) and I was giving thanks for not having to take him out for a few days. Instead of things being relatively uneventful however, it was one of those nightmare mornings wherein you have no communication with either your equine or else your human partners. The first thing that went wrong was at the gap, as I guided my second mount off the track.

Whenever there's more than one horse coming and going, and often even when there is only one, that being oneself, the horse takes the narrowest point of navigation to exhibit 'airs above the ground'. In this incident, Mini Cow reared up and waved hello with both paws to all the oncoming horses, so high that I stepped off and tried to gain control from the ground. I hit the ground awkwardly and fell flat. The left rein snapped, right in the middle of the rubber grip. The leather inside of it was dry rotted. If it hadn't been for a quick and risky recovery by Jimmy the maintenance hand, the loose horse could have been seriously injured while racing blindly back toward the barn area.

I have always preferred nylon tack. I don't mind leather, and of all outfits, the Bruja's cleans the tack after every use, so it gets inspected for weaknesses regularly. Nonetheless, the leather broke. I have never seen nylon break. Its condition is too obvious to miss when it becomes dangerous; but leather can look and feel fine and still be rotten inside. Anyway, I made it through that fiasco without a scrape on either me or Mini- Cow.

I managed to get the rest of the pre- breaktime horses out without any serious incidents, only a squirrely Tippy Toes bucking through her turn around the oval. That's a horse that needs another year to mature; I think Hardhead is of about the same mind as me on that. She never gets bored but never gets over her childish shenanigans either.

Third horse after the break was a pick- up for a shipper. Nice woman- I know the family. Very high class horses. New saddle. Stirrup comes out of safety catch at three- eighths- pole. Rider (me) literally loses footing and crashed to the ground underfoot. It took fifteen minutes to catch the horse, who, unfamiliar with the layout, couldn't find its way to the exit (where the crew actually has a way of coralling it on three sides and catching it.)

The horse an bound for an eighth- mile "blowout" to sharpen it up for a short (5 furlong) race after having last run around two turns. Neither of us were injured, AGAIN, thankfully, but the horse failed to get the lick that it needed for its race on Sunday. Because of that deal the horse is lacking an edge. Also, I missed my last horse of the morning.and was in such a hurry trying to catch up that I never got paid for that one (I get paid to throw a leg over, regardless of whether I make it all the way or not. And it's not my fault when the tack breaks.)

At least it gave me something to write about.

I had planned to say a lot more but between other committments today and because of my serious overdoing it on Wednesday, I'm really not up to --- WOO! I gotta watch Hateya run. Be right back!

Hateya finished third. This was a mile dash. He had been running short (5- 1/2 - 6 Furlongs). I missed the race but heard Patterson, the TV H'capper for Mountaineer refer to him in his analysis of the next race on the card. Third is no better positionwise than he has been, but I would guess he got more of an education out of that race than the short ones. I get four days of peace and then he goes back to the track.

Anyway, I'm pooped, it's 8:45, time for me to hit the sack, and I'm going to sleep very well thank you! God Bless!

Tired

Wednesday is my one day off. Instead of getting on here as I had promised myself, I got the notion to clean up my raspberry patch, take the bird for a walk in the woods, do an hour of Ty- Bo, and steam the carpet. I finished just in time to shower and dress for my brother in law's birthday party. There I drank several vodka & cokes and played four games of volleyball. Somewhere along the line I ate some cajun food.

My back is so dang sore right now! Just when the doctor said to wait until Worker's Comp decides whether to cover us or not, I need a good rub down. Needless to say, since thenI haven't been able to get up early enough to write. All I have time to do is post this photo of the Lap Dance they hired for John. He was sixty on tuesday.

Actually, I don't. I can't figure out how to do it. I'll have to do it later.

Update From Old to New BLOG

UPDATE:

I changed programs to continue this BLOG. The reason? I can’t spend the money right now to purchase the full version. Such is the truth about everything on the site, and that’s why it looks like patchwork. The forum is an Invision Power Board, the Classifieds are by Noah’s Classifieds, the photo gallery is by Coppermine Photo Gallery, and the BLOGS are by City Desk and Blogspot.com, Respectively. Why? That’s how us nickle- and- dime horsemen do things. Who gives a crap if the buckets don’t match? Matching buckets don’t make the horses go faster! This post will be dull if you have not read the ones in the old BLOG, so you should either do that before reading the UPDATE or just don't read this one.

A couple years ago I spent a ton of money on a startup business and it never completely paid for itself before I gave it up. I literally couldn’t put in the time by myself to do it. Running an eCommerce site is a lot of work, at least if you have a big inventory. I’m still hurting from that time so until I have a large wad in front I’m not spending any money on new stuff.

I changed the names of my horses again. I realize it’s the only way to talk freely about them. Anyone who knows who they are is just that much ahead, but nobody will have their feelings hurt publicly or their horses claimed if I can help it. If you read this, recognize yourself, and you don’t like what I say please take it up with me for clarification.

Since it has been so long, I will briefly update the careers of my beasts.

Things aren’t going so well in the Hardhead outfit. I think it might have something to do with the mediocre stock. Hardhead is the kind of person who has taken every lesson that the failures the business could dish out, and over the years has transformed them into success for himself. He will likely train horses till he drops over dead. The more performance one learns to squeeze out of each and every horse, the more one feels compelled, by curiosity, to continue.

Several horses have either lost their form or not turned out as anticipated. Vic, whom I never was crazy about, is now at Thistledown, running with the cheaper horses and finally hitting the board. He finished second last time out and we are all anticipating him topping that now. Quiet has tailed off, having never made it back to last year’s condition. I worry that he is just too decrepit to run all out, yet still hoping (as surely is Hardhead) that he will turn around given the right dose of exercise and rest. The same is apparently true for Hurricane Charlie (his real name- nobody’s in the market for Hurricane Charlie) since he has won his fourth lifetime condition.

Clyde has turned out to be a bit lacking in confidence. He gallops enthusiastically, but runs without courage. The incident wherein he caused trouble while boxed in has turned out to be due to a claustrophobic moment and not to an aggressive desire to make the lead. Lazy has simply failed to maintain her performance record in her last two outs and there is no visible reason why. Actually, come to think of it, there is! After she got to running so well and seeming to be in top form, Hardhead began breezing her in between races. Since she has breezed, she hasn’t run well.

Tippy Toes has not yet run. I think they backed off on her training, hoping Huz would break her maiden, run in the next condition, and leave the door open for Toes to compete in that spot. (I don’t know why, but they simply do not run entries here. My thought is that it is due to some backward aspect of Mountaineer culture: “we never have!” “What’s an entry?” “Oh, no, we’d have to order new saddle towels with 1A, 2B, 2X” etc. so it just isn’t done here. For her part, Huz has simply not been in the hunt yet.

Bonnie is trying consistently but in her last race had a wide trip. Hardhead blamed Rex, the rider, who would have gotten through on the fence for a piece of it had he the patience of Pat Day. He ended up about seven wide and finished fourth. I watched, and counted the lengths as we lost them. She has won two races, though.

It’s a lot easier to ride from the sidelines, though, and a lot easier to see the race developing from the grandstand than from a hail of dirt (and pebbles in the case of Mountaineer Park) being thrown back at you.

Hateya has run well every out, but hasn’t won. And Freddie has won his first race, and finished two thirds in the following two races. He seems to be able to handle the six- furlong to one mile distances, but no further.

In my opinion the maidens Hateya and Huz would both benefit from running around two turns. Often for a green horse the added distance allows for an education to sink in before the race is over. I don’t think either one of them understands the game. I realize that what horses do in the pasture should come second nature, but it’s a lot to ask a baby horse to make the mental jump with a million other distractions, from the heavily populated grandstand with all of its noise to the number of entries, to the strange smells and sounds of those entries, to all of the ceremony and restraint, and so on. The races are a bad place to learn, and these babies and green horses don’t get the opportunity in the morning to become educated. My only real beef with Hardhead, and this goes for many others, is that there is too much importance placed on the comfort of the humans over the horses.

It’s not really a beef; after all, it’s none of my business. Hurrying to get done before 9 AM over finding a green horse a suitable partner- regardless how late of a morning- costs the horse education. It probably costs them money, time and aggravation. It also makes it harder for me to do a good job, but hey, that’s up to them, too. Hardhead has always run the outfit on a shoestring (my opinion), so it probably all works out the same in the end; help is at the bare minimum, and they need their rest; they will be out of there by 10 AM no matter what. I am sure they have chosen to do it this way as the most bearable solution to the numerous problems involved in horse training.

The Bruja does things a little different with her young horses, but this year she has none. Three from last year have all won, and from the year prior; Settle Down. They are still holding out hopes for her. I don’t know how much longer they will hold them out, but there are very few people compassionate. Of course, compassion requires generous financial backing. I do not mean to ‘diminish’’ any outfit that simply cannot afford the time.

Bigfoot has won, and seems to be tailing off a bit right now. He mainly seems to suffer from lack of interest. If he has any discomfort he just cannot stand it, but oddly this is the case only when galloping. When he jogs a mile or on his trek back to the barn he’s a bundle of acrobatic enthusiasm. This behavior leads me to believe that he was meant to be a show horse. Other aspects of his personality are better suited to that kind of life as well. Fortunately, with the Bruja he will get his chance. All of her horses will have a second vocation.


Puffthemagicdragon, Puff for short, has done nothing but improve since he was two. He has won a race or two since last Christmas, and he is just a happy jolly fellow. I have taken a special liking to him. There is nothing outstanding about him, really, but that he is swooningly handsome. He is just what this little girl loves in a man, I guess.

Lightfoot is a rocket, and all racehorse. She has won her Maiden condition, and looks to become a solid contender, possibly even for stakes competition. I hope that she remains sound underneath.

Longstockings and Moocow are both competing successfully at their levels, and Mini Cow is the new arrival. She is much like Moocow in her behavior, although her physical type is about as opposite as it gets. They have a common relative, either the sire (dad) or dam (mom), and are truly sisters under the skin.

Doc’s stable is in transition, and that’s all I will say about that. One of his horses ran third last night, and another ‘in the crapper’, as they say. He’s been getting a lot of bad stock. When he gets something good, there’s a hole in it somewhere, and if it’s a homebred, it invariably has some undesirable physical characteristic that renders it unsound. Just bad luck, I guess. He spends most of his time as Thistledown’s state vet and is almost never here anymore. At least the ones that went bad last year are returning in a better state of health this year. I’ve got my hopes pinned on ‘Hopalong’.

Finally! I’m done with that update. I don’t think I said that much about the horses in the entire old BLOG. But this is good for anyone who has never read that far back. The regulars have been introduced; the biggest task is done. Now I am free to write about whatever I want to. See youn's later.