I did it again...

Well, I blew another bet. Nancy's diamond finished fourth. Still that was not bad for a jump in class from 15 K to Allowance, and only her second lifetime start. The odds were good, anyway.

Later today I'm going to post some cool photos taken of Hateya prior to the first race yesterday. I hope they came out. I haven't looked at them.)

Bet on Nancy's Diamond

Never mind my typos. Just bet on Nancy's Diamond in the fourth at Mountaineer tomorrow night. Actually, check back with me and see if it's the right horse, first. If it is, they won't see which way she went. This filly is a rocket.

WWhhhoooooooeeeeee!

The two horses that ran after Friday's fiasco finished first (as second choice) and second (as second choice,) respectively. I can heave a sigh of relief. I don't know if Summer Legacy will come back for the Derby, but at least the injury did not prevent him from getting the prep, and he ran a nice race, clearly second best. So all is well in the Ronnie Allen barn. I see Hardhead's new horse, one we call Freckles, won his race. But it won't make hardhead happy because it was a dead heat.

What winning a dead heat means to a racehorse trainer is that they only get half of the winner's share of the purse. On top of that, the horse has to move up in class ( often off of a dubious effort.) The next race it runs has to be harder to win, so recouping the the cost of buying the animal becomes a more drawn out and difficult task.

God knows I love the Hardheads, but they probably have more money than the guy on the other side of the barn who has twice as many horses to feed and half as many wins to pay for oats with. They are doing this for their health. They cannot retire even though they are old enough, because what else would they do? They would get no exercise, and they would rot in their home and die. So why be upset with anything, when they know they are going do well, by dint of talent and experience? It must be the cost of health insurance that eats up all the money, and makes them have to work.

I guess that makes me doubly right. They really are doing it for their continued health. You don't get health insurance without paying for every penny of it yourself, in this occupation..

On a final good note: my back is not sore, or at least only spent one day being badly sore. When you lack fitness, if you get injured as I did when that horse tried to run off on Friday and I had to hold her down for a mile, you usually are more sore the second day after the accident. If you are fit, the soreness is already diminishing the second day. And it is diminishing, which means I am a lot fitter than I was two months ago. I also haven't missed my workouts on account of soreness, so I am on schedule to get even fitter. I like that. It makes me feel a lot safer, and also more able to do my job. Its the difference between being a winner last night because you kept a horse from running off the day before the race, and being a loser because you weren't strong enough to prevent it.

Lizzie, Her Clients, and the No Good, Very Bad Day

Yes, it has been a while, but nobody's reading this anyway, at least not yet.


Well, yesterday was one of those marathon bad days.

It began ordinarily enough. I showed up for work; there wasn't too much to do. Lately I have been casting around for a bit of extra work, and now that the word is out, I have been getting client solicitations. It is not long before I am in the midst of considering what's on my plate, when a ship; in asks for help with not one, but two horses, one before and one after the break. PLUS a pony.

Folks, I am on horseback. It's not like I have time to run around and look for my favorite pony, much less to employ them within the hour. The only way to guarantee help if you have to ship your horses in is by having phone numbers and getting commitments a day or two beforehand. Nonetheless, I go out of my way to accommodate my own presence, over several regulars who are stabled her and are more bread and butter to me. I do this because of a personal bond with the client.

Let's back up a bit, to make the story more interesting. The last time this client employed me, I was to give a horse a quarter mile blowout for a race two days hence; I was just preparing to round the far turn when the stirrup slipped out of the safety catch. I tumbled to the ground, fortunately unhurt. The outrider couldn't catch the horse; the client was pissed off, and so on. I had not seen this person for several years, perhaps six or seven years, and I was disappointed that it turned out that way. Of course they were not counting this as my fault; however, this is an inauspicious beginning for our reunion.

Now fast forward to yesterday. What we need is a pony and a rider to hold a horse together, because the horse is so tough to gallop. (Really we should have just jogged the wrong way.) Well, I see no ponies, but the client finds one, and hollers at Maureen, who happens to be passing by on her own busy way, "hey, is that pony OK?" Well, who knows? I never get ponied anymore because I don't ride races. Only once in a while do I ever. And this pony girl is new; I don’t really know her. So we get her. "Now, this mare is double tough, it will take both of you to hold her." no problem.

We back up to the three eighths pole, turn and begin galloping. I HAD to tease the client by holding up one hand when we passed the fence where she was standing; "I can gallop her with one hand!" I was kidding, but it didn't add humor to what followed.

As we get closer to the wire, she gets tougher and I keep gathering the reins up to meet her. Suddenly, as a horse breezes by she bolts away from the pony and the e pony ducks. I am on my own. I gather her up the best I can and paste her on the rail. By doing so I hope that I can cock her head into it to slow her down. She never does run off, but gallops a sort of open gallop all the way, with me on the left rein entirely, stretched as far as I can be from toes to nose for all of the leverage I can get out of it (and I still cannot turn her head.) Nobody else would have tried so hard to hold that horse for that lady, I guarantee. That's what a bond of friendship is for. There is nothing I want more than to see my client win her races and go home happy. Nothing means more than the condition of her animals. Anyway, somehow we managed to rescue some dignity from the situation. I guess the client figured the pony girl wouldn't turn the other one loose, so she still had the account for the second one, after the break.

Now, this second horse is a potential derby contender; he missed the Florida Derby at Tampa because of a case of strangles; the race he is scheduled to run the next day (which is tonight) is like a prep for the West Virginia Derby, and his first race in quite some time. He needs the race for conditioning, as well as he'll probably win by a pole anyway. The bottom line is: he's an expensive horse. As an extra precaution, the client decided a pony would help keep the horse from stepping on itself (the problem with wearing shoes, especially those with toe grabs, is that if a horse steps on its heel the heel will get badly torn; it's a guarantee.)

We take the horse straight off; the pony loses me again at the wire! This is a kid horse however, who waits for us to get re- situated even though he is confused. As we gallop around, the horse is thinking he is going to break off for a workout, so he keeps shuffling down toward the inside. The more we try to take him off the inside, the more he pushes back. The pony is absolutely awful, no question about it. He wants no part of the activity, and the girl says to me; He kicks if he feels he is going to get stepped on.

The bit in my horse's mouth has cheeks that point downward, and they are gigging the pony girl in the leg, and her pony in the neck. Why she has no shoulder shield for the pony is a good question. Finally as we round the far turn, the pony decides he's had enough; he ducks away from me and the horse, and wheels to kick us. Fortunately, he misses, but we're on our own, at the quarter pole, practically staring down the most familiar part of the track for a blowout that a horse can be staring at.

The important thing was that I remain cool, but at this point nothing had gone as it was supposed to and I just panicked. I reached down and snatched thaw horse in the mouth, cocked his head to the rail and choked him out of his intended lick. If I had let him go, as my client so painfully pointed out later, the worst that would have happened was that he would have gotten a bit of a blowout, and maybe have come up short for the race today, but would have still been healthy for the Derby. What we have now, as it is, is a horse with a quarter half torn off by a toe grab. Under normal circumstances, this is something I know how to prevent, but instead I lost my head.

Well, we get off the track and she hit the f***ing ceiling, and you can't blame her for being upset. But in the meantime all I can think is that I didn’t have to choose to do this stuff. Instead of farting around with these horses, I could have been pleasing some more regular customers, gotten on more horses with less aggravation and went home happy. SO how to clean up the mess instead of being up at 2:30 AM with a stress hangover?

For starters, never expect to do it all for someone who doesn't make the effort to prepare beforehand. When you see them, let them know first off that they needed to call you yesterday. Because that rattled me to begin with.. I was actually pissed off that they asked even though I really like them. Another day I might have been happy to have the extra work, so I'm not playing the blame game here, but that's just the way it's going to have to be. I gave them my phone number and told her "next time call me and I will find you a pony if you need one, or call me and I will make sure you get accommodated." I don’t even care if you don't use me again, but for Christ's sake, use your head too, so I don't have to use mine for both of us."

Second, remember that you always do better for people who express their confidence in you. These people actually do want my service, they show that by simply having used me, (although after this fiasco I am not so sure.) The thing about them is that they have the 'prove it to me' attitude in order to keep you on your toes. This is the highest expression of confidence they can muster. It works backwards for me: It makes me lose confidence. So I have to see through their eyes; I have to take on an attitude of "I can't wait to prove it to you!" and find my own confidence in that space, and if I'm not up to it that day, stay the heck away from them. I sure didn't need the work yesterday..

Third, take the offensive: "I cannot switch gears that fast today, you need to wait for me or find someone else. If they are already pissing me off, how can I make them happy? They want my honesty more than they want me to go out of my way and then mess everything up for them.

And that's about it. I cried the whole rest of the morning. Why does it always happen with the best horse? I'll have to chat about the inverse equation of Murphy. In order to avoid screwing up, you have to keep a representation of screwing up clear in your head. Unfortunately, this crowds out the possibility for simply doing it correctly to occupy that space, and this explains everything that happens in complete reverse of what was desired.

At least the colt that one of my other clients who is a “prove it to me” type did well at the gate and Mini Cow won her race the night before last. Makes me feel like at least the descriptions of the level of soundness that I offer are paying off, and someone really appreciates me.

Saturday----

For a Quick update, Hateya ran fourth. The big mare that was in the fourth race crapped (and will be sold as a brood mare), and Miss Bonn Bonn ran third in a very tough race. I lost six bucks, but that's all.

I have a horse coming up I think I can bet on that will run 1,2,3 in her first out. I've been prepping her for four months. She breezed from the gate today, in what they call the "schooling race." The schooling race is a casual morning event with a permanent schedule of 8:30 A.M. every saturday, rain or shine. She wasn't running against much, but finished first in the field of six. She'll do for bottom maiden fillies (cheapest fillies on the grounds- $5,000 claiming price.)

The purpose of running a horse in the schooling race is to give it experience. There is no purse money, no public betting, and no eligibility conditions. Anybody can race with anybody else (Secretariat can race with Three- Legs.) The horses that mainly participate are those that have never run, or have not run in more than six months time. They get their final preparations there before competing as betting interests in a race. Last week my filly (not really mine, just my responsibility to educate) got permission from the Starter (the guy that clicks the gate open) to run in a race, meaning she showed that she knew how to leave the starting gate straight enough and fast enough to be competitive. She also won that dash. I cannot divulge her identity, but I will say when I am going to watch her run. I'll bet more than two dollars in that race.

Sunday

Today is the seventeenth of July. It’s been a week full of bucking and carrying on, for what reason I cannot figure. Bigfoot tossed me like a flapjack to the surface in front of the clubhouse, Mini -Cow nearly went over backward while rearing as high as she could go, forcing me to bail off. In the process a leather rein snapped (fortunately the rotten leather gave way in the morning instead of in or after a race). The number of loose horses soared by Thursday, with no less than four between 7 and 9 A.M. To cap it all off, yesterday I was asked to gallop a new horse by a new outfit. They didn’t tell me that she had been off for ten days. I can honestly say that I sat more bucks in a row without being thrown than I ever have, and I feel so improved and so validated by years of experience that my helmet felt tight today, and she went quite a bit better, too.

The well- behaved have been bad, and the bad have been well- behaved. Hateya went back to the racetrack today and was as consistent as ever, though. Instead of backtracking one mile I went two. Hardhead was a bit put out. I don’t blame him, but it’s up to me to judge sometimes how much edge is on the horse and how much to knock off. Sometimes I think I do too much with a horse simply because I want to give the trainer the most for their ten bucks. I rarely consider that less is more in some cases.

I suppose we could rectify this by just jogging him again, only once, on Tuesday. Better than galloping anyway.

The management of the track was very kind to me this past week in giving me a horsemen’s rate on a room for my parents for Tuesday and Wednesday night. Many thanks, Rose Mary Williams! It was so good to see my mom & dad. I took them to The Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. Mom wandered through in her own space, and dad and I made fun of all the paintings we didn’t like and ooh’d and ahh’d over the ones we did like. We laughed so hard the security guards got suspicious. It was a nice break from the routine. I have been feeling a little sour again lately. It comes and goes. I was wanting to write when the site was down, and right now my mind is off in another direction. I do have big plans for when I get on a roll again.

July 12th, 05, the BLOG finally reappeared

Well, my site has been down for about two weeks, now, so I had stopped posting. I couldn't get ahold of anybody who could help me. THe fellow who had been so indulgent before has been incommunicado. I believe he has simply just gotten so big and so busy he no longer has time. He has half a dozen sites all interconnected, so he is definitely following a very involved formula. But enough about that!. Hateya is running again tonight!! It has been that long already! There is also another horse I like, in the Fourth Race. I forget her name, and the outfit would have preferred to run 6 F instead of 5-1/2, but since she has been here (about 1 week, she has made such an awesome turn around that if she runs 1-2-3, the payoff could be significant). To add excitement, Bonnie is also in tonight's feature race, and she is 10- 1. I cannot see any reason she missed the last time except for going six wide. This time out she is a lot less stove up, so she should do way better than 10- 1. We'll see, I guess...