So where was I yesterday........
I'm gonna have two posts today, because I had an issue with my wireless and couldn't get the following column up after I wrote it. So this is my post for Dec. 16th:
So where was I yesterday? And I ran off to work only to find that none of my outfits were sending. So I got on three horses, left at 10, and went on a truly mediocre shopping trip, which included leaving one of my grocery bags at the store with 5 bucks worth of groceries inside.
I’m looking back and it seems that my last post was in March, just at the end of the long winter that everyone around here has to tighten their belts for. And right now we’re at the beginning of another. It’s like my uncle said to me once “you either have time, or you have money, but you never have both.” I hope I have both someday.
I was supposed to quit galloping on my birthday, which is on the 23rd, but I don’t see it happening. And the interesting thing is, at least to me, that for the first time I am enjoying doing it in spite fo the cold weather. Years ago I had made an enemy of the cold because my next-door neighbor used to bully me and I hated playing with her, so anything else I was aware of whenever I was with her got added to it. I distinctly recall coming in from a play session crying because my hands had frozen, and it seems that since then I have always feared that sensation (it’s a nasty one no doubt anyway). So far this year I haven’t cried once about it. Really haven’t had it happen (though we’ll have colder days in the new year than we currently have had.)
One of my trainer friends told me about their horse’s workout – a horse I worked – said they had the second fastest work of the day for 3/8ths. This is a horse I really like.
I really need to drop a disclaimer in here, because I don’t want these horses claimed (or not claimed.) Some of my friends have horses that are definitely worth claiming, for the 5K or so that they are running for. So here’s the disclaimer, for anyone who is considering taking one of the horses I mention; they all have issues, and many of them would be difficult to improve, as we’re already doing what’s possible with them. If you take one, you take the same risk as you do without knowledge of them. And I’ll take some of the credit for helping my people solve issues they have with their charges; without it, you can’t be sure how much you’ll have to fix (or be able to fix) when you get them.
With that said, I feel as though I can start nick-naming my horses (and trainers) again. I love writing about my horses; their idiosyncrasies, their progress, their strengths and weaknesses and the connection in general that I make with them.
I do all I can to meet my charges on their level. From the moment they leave the barn with me, it’s about them. Are they comfortable? How does today compare to last time? Are they quiet, signifying some internal discomfort, or quiet, signifying relief from the same? For example, a little filly I have been getting on (sharing duties with another exercise rider) for a couple months and who has tied up on a few occasions suddenly went good the other day:
The long version is, she obviously had mixed feelings about training for starters; crawling to the track slowly and trying to turn around, expressing tremendous discomfort – not a fearful discomfort, but really crabby and pissed off. When she would gallop, she would have difficulty switching leads from her right to her left. Unless she was allowed to really pick up the pace and reach out, she would bear out on the turns until she got the lead change in her back end, and even after that she would still bear out a bit while on that left lead.
I told her new groom Diana, what I had been saying about this. The trainer knew she had an ankle that bothered her, but nothing would improve about the gallop. Not that it had to, but it’s always good when a positive change appears.
This day, she went to the track pretty much the same (there is unfortunately nothing I can do to show her my sympathy except for talking to her, while I furiously kick her ribs to get her to keep walking). I went straight from the chute to pull up after the wire, a mile-as she was to run the next day. As she galloped into the first turn, she swapped leads without a hitch; no pulling on my left rein angrily for more slack, no attempting to run off as fast as she could. And the fact was, she was to run the next evening. I was amazed at how good she felt, and I told the groom when I returned.
The groom, Diana, said “well good; I’ve been painting her hocks.” “I mean she’s a different horse, Diana; she dropped her head an picked up the lead with no trouble. If you had seen her before and seen her today you’d know you did right.”
But between my sharing my experience with the groom, and the groom’s attentiveness to the horse in the stall and the shedrow produced another improvement, and that made all the difference in her performance. I even remembered that she was in, and bet $2 to Place and Show on her. She paid something like $38 to place. Not bad.
Another filly in the same barn ad a big turn around because the trainer kept working on an issue until he got it right. I didn’t bet on that one, but I should have- she was in a field of maidens in a never win two allowance, with only one other non-maiden in there. She paid a decent price, too, but the point is, it was his perseverance toward making the horse more comfortable that produced the result.
So that’s a great feeling- contributing to success, and working with the horse, and with others. I love it. And now it’s time to go to work. Ugh! 50 degrees yesterday, 20 degrees today. Later…!
So where was I yesterday? And I ran off to work only to find that none of my outfits were sending. So I got on three horses, left at 10, and went on a truly mediocre shopping trip, which included leaving one of my grocery bags at the store with 5 bucks worth of groceries inside.
I’m looking back and it seems that my last post was in March, just at the end of the long winter that everyone around here has to tighten their belts for. And right now we’re at the beginning of another. It’s like my uncle said to me once “you either have time, or you have money, but you never have both.” I hope I have both someday.
I was supposed to quit galloping on my birthday, which is on the 23rd, but I don’t see it happening. And the interesting thing is, at least to me, that for the first time I am enjoying doing it in spite fo the cold weather. Years ago I had made an enemy of the cold because my next-door neighbor used to bully me and I hated playing with her, so anything else I was aware of whenever I was with her got added to it. I distinctly recall coming in from a play session crying because my hands had frozen, and it seems that since then I have always feared that sensation (it’s a nasty one no doubt anyway). So far this year I haven’t cried once about it. Really haven’t had it happen (though we’ll have colder days in the new year than we currently have had.)
One of my trainer friends told me about their horse’s workout – a horse I worked – said they had the second fastest work of the day for 3/8ths. This is a horse I really like.
I really need to drop a disclaimer in here, because I don’t want these horses claimed (or not claimed.) Some of my friends have horses that are definitely worth claiming, for the 5K or so that they are running for. So here’s the disclaimer, for anyone who is considering taking one of the horses I mention; they all have issues, and many of them would be difficult to improve, as we’re already doing what’s possible with them. If you take one, you take the same risk as you do without knowledge of them. And I’ll take some of the credit for helping my people solve issues they have with their charges; without it, you can’t be sure how much you’ll have to fix (or be able to fix) when you get them.
With that said, I feel as though I can start nick-naming my horses (and trainers) again. I love writing about my horses; their idiosyncrasies, their progress, their strengths and weaknesses and the connection in general that I make with them.
I do all I can to meet my charges on their level. From the moment they leave the barn with me, it’s about them. Are they comfortable? How does today compare to last time? Are they quiet, signifying some internal discomfort, or quiet, signifying relief from the same? For example, a little filly I have been getting on (sharing duties with another exercise rider) for a couple months and who has tied up on a few occasions suddenly went good the other day:
The long version is, she obviously had mixed feelings about training for starters; crawling to the track slowly and trying to turn around, expressing tremendous discomfort – not a fearful discomfort, but really crabby and pissed off. When she would gallop, she would have difficulty switching leads from her right to her left. Unless she was allowed to really pick up the pace and reach out, she would bear out on the turns until she got the lead change in her back end, and even after that she would still bear out a bit while on that left lead.
I told her new groom Diana, what I had been saying about this. The trainer knew she had an ankle that bothered her, but nothing would improve about the gallop. Not that it had to, but it’s always good when a positive change appears.
This day, she went to the track pretty much the same (there is unfortunately nothing I can do to show her my sympathy except for talking to her, while I furiously kick her ribs to get her to keep walking). I went straight from the chute to pull up after the wire, a mile-as she was to run the next day. As she galloped into the first turn, she swapped leads without a hitch; no pulling on my left rein angrily for more slack, no attempting to run off as fast as she could. And the fact was, she was to run the next evening. I was amazed at how good she felt, and I told the groom when I returned.
The groom, Diana, said “well good; I’ve been painting her hocks.” “I mean she’s a different horse, Diana; she dropped her head an picked up the lead with no trouble. If you had seen her before and seen her today you’d know you did right.”
But between my sharing my experience with the groom, and the groom’s attentiveness to the horse in the stall and the shedrow produced another improvement, and that made all the difference in her performance. I even remembered that she was in, and bet $2 to Place and Show on her. She paid something like $38 to place. Not bad.
Another filly in the same barn ad a big turn around because the trainer kept working on an issue until he got it right. I didn’t bet on that one, but I should have- she was in a field of maidens in a never win two allowance, with only one other non-maiden in there. She paid a decent price, too, but the point is, it was his perseverance toward making the horse more comfortable that produced the result.
So that’s a great feeling- contributing to success, and working with the horse, and with others. I love it. And now it’s time to go to work. Ugh! 50 degrees yesterday, 20 degrees today. Later…!
posted by hoofstep at
3:06 AM
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