The Far Turn

Discussion Board..

2009-01-05T02:37:00.000-08:00

Please have a look at my Website's News Page to get an update about the forum I'm begining. We'll be able to discuss issues here that are important to the health, longevity and popularity of horse racing, especially here at Mountaineer.

http://www.thefarturn.net/news.htm

Oh, and read my post below, about my cousin, Leah's dream of being on the USET eventing squad!

Leah's Dream of the Oympics

2009-01-04T03:32:00.000-08:00

Some really wonderful things have happened lately. The first is that I recently got a letter from a woman named Kim about Jerry Norwood. Here's the note she sent me:

Hi,
I am sorry to bother you...but I was wondering if you could help me with any info on Jerry L. Norwood who was a horse breeder? I came across your blog when I was searching his name to try to get any info on him.
I own a horse that I have traced back to him...he bred the horse. I was just looking for more information/pictures or anything on my horse from his racing days. I am not even sure if this is the same person you mentioned in your blog....he was supposedly in PA then?
My horse will be 23 this coming year.
If you know any leads I can follow...I really appreciate it!!
Sincerely
Kim

Remember my post about jerry? (Saturday, Jan 18, 2008) and the half-broke horses I was talking about? Well, that's the same Jerry. He's been around a long time, and this is one of the horses he bred. She calls him Hogan but his real name is Catty Shack.

This is the second instance of someone contacting me regarding the history behind a retired racehorse. I'm beginning to think that a smart thing would be to create a database of retirees and what their careers were like.

This is also the second time that photographers have been either deceased or no longer working at tracks that the horse won at. The point we're at with Catty Shack is that we have to find Jim McGreevy if we want to get his win pictures. I know Jim was at Thistledown when I was there, and at that time I think he was shoeing horses. Jerry sold Catty Shack to Jim for 20K and Jim trained and raced him for his entire career. The horse ran in 33 races and won 4, making about 45K. He's a gorgeous horse; she sent me links to photos of him. He doesn't look 23! He looks like he's in his prime.

I think it would be a good idea to start a Website for people who have retirees and want to find out about their horses’ careers. It is such a compassionate thing for them to do, and Thoroughbreds are so gifted at returning sensitivity and affection; what better way to honor your noble friend than to treasure his records? (Even if he retired as a maiden).

Just two days ago I got more exciting news, from my Cousin in Richmond, VA. Her name is Blair. She has 3 kids; on son and two daughters. They are my second cousins, once removed. The daughters are both horse lovers, as was Blair. The youngest, Leah, is about 10 and is evidently an accomplished rider at her age. Not only is naturally physically talented, but she also has very mature intuition with regard to her mounts. To me that's important; when you can specifially ad instantly identify subtle signals that the horse communicates, you gain the ability to make ongoing adjustments to optimize their performance. That's often the difference in a few points or ticks on the clock.

She has her focus set on making the USET and competing in the three-day eventing competition. You have to be good, but you also have to be well-mounted. For her, this could be hard, since she is far from being connected, and obtaining a good horse is a costly and daunting prospect for a family with no liquid assets. You’re always well-mounted in the Olympics; but you must be well-mounted to get to that point. She has a long road to travel and will need considerable sponsorship.

So I'm going to take a moment to advertise Leah's Website and read her very articulate descriptions of her experiences. Please donate if you can afford to; every little bit is appreciated; she cannot get there without you. Also please have a look at Leah's slideshow (you can also see it on her wesbite):

Post-Holiday posting...

2008-12-29T04:03:00.000-08:00

I sure didn’t leave much time to write. Seems like before I leave for work, I’m all up, my nerves are all jangly and ready-to go (even if it’s work that I don’t feel like going to). At that time, however, nothing has happened to write about so there’s no reason to be sitting here. My head is often empty of events and opinions about anything.

Then, when I have finished my work for the day, I’m usually full of all that has happened, but I’m also crashing from my two-cup tea habit and ready to nap. As soon as I get home, I eat something and lie down. Once I’m up, it’s all over. I’m empty-headed again.

I noticed in the results this morning that one of my earlier favorite horses, I’ll call him Phoenix (because when he had a trainer switch, he improved tremendously), finished third last night. What a gallant fellow! He’s had a lot of bad luck. He missed out on some specific care for a long time, that the new trainer (I’ll call him Cal) has managed to provide. When Cal first got the horse, he reversed his performance almost completely; after getting beaten double digits repeatedly, he ran second. Then he had an injury leaving the starting gate, and he hasn’t been 100% since. Last night he felt good enough to run third, and I am proud of both him and Cal.

I’d like to speak more openly about my horses and people, but because most of my horses run in claimers, I don’t want this column to become a place where people scout for horses to claim. I also have an aversion to being deceiving in it, because that would produce no lasting benefit for the industry, my credibility, the horse, and my friends. So as strange as my names sound to me, I guess that’ the way I have to do it. Some I will be able to speak about, I think, but certainly not all.

I’m supposed to work for Burkle today. He's been off two days and at his request, I have collected Saturday and Sunday's programs to give to him. The idea behind having the programs is to mark down who made money each evening and then see which of those people owes the tack store. It's never a bad time to ask for money. Heck, one of my own clients just won a race; and I had been so anguished over the lack of renumeration for my services that I had really become resentful. And the bad part is that it is someone I care about and really love, but I was really feeling taken advantage of. The win was a hefty gift, a Maiden Allowance with a purse of abotu 21 K. When the owner-trainer handed me a check, she staked me $100. That sure helped!
It should be a very busy day today. I have a half-dozen clients that have to go. Nobody went yesterday except for Cal, and I only galloped two. There’s a new Canadian that shipped in over Christmas. I inquired yesterday and hopefully will be able to again, early, because he’s gonna have ten or twelve horses, they say.

It sucks that his putfit is all the way at the top of the hill – it’s hard to get up there fast from Cal’s outfit.

Gallop Girl Predicts Long, Cold Day in North Panhandle

2008-12-20T04:14:00.000-08:00

It’s another cold one out there. Supposed to get up to 30 today, and then snow tonight. The last two days have been so without work I’ve been lucky to have my Burkle's job. So far I’ve made a few extra dollars dressing up other people’s boots with hair-on deer hide (see my reference to this way, way back in ’04. The proto-type was a whole set of leggings. Now I just glue the hide to an old pair of boots – just as warm, less trouble, toss ‘em out in the Spring.)

And it’s time to go now, a bit after 7. Today should be very busy. Track will be frozen mud, and hard. Jack has about 10 that haven’t trained since Sunday/ Monday; Perry Kerns is bringing 4 for after the break, and Jessie and Lori will both have something. Also I imagine Hugh Mahan will be sending. Only possible one not to go would be Pat, because he never gallops and has to finish early (for no reason - he stays here all morning regardless). On Saturdays the track forbids backtracking between 8 & 9 a.m. Cuz of the Schooling race. I'm the one for whom this call has been issued, but that's a story for another page....

Working at Burkle's

2008-12-19T02:29:00.000-08:00

NOTE:

Before I actually begin this post, I want to let you know that this is all part of my website, which has been up for quite a long time with no traffic. So briefly check out my other BLOG, the Far Turn News to see what I am up to. It sure would be nice to actually get some traffic, and start using the Forum as a place to discuss things that are related to our little neck of the woods, as well as some issues that are pertinent to horsepeople on the Track in general. With that in mind, here's the url for the site. Please navigate it a bit, with the understanding that it is, as we sometimes say about our horses, stuck in neutral at the Chute.

If it gets a little traffic around it, maybe it would find its motivation. Not only the Forum, but the other departments I have planned (which are linked, but which have no content yet.) Once you see them, you can get an idea of what's possible in them.

OK: First, the Video (I don't know how to embed it from youtube, so the quality might suck- I'm uploading directly):

Anyhoo, yesterday as I was finishing up, Ed leaned out the door of the new establishment and let me know I was gonna be working. Here's the terms of my employ, just BTW:

1) You work only when I need you (you can't count on having work, or any specific number of hours per week.)

2) You work only when I am here (You MUST adjust your schedule to fit into mine when you do have work.)

3) Your job consists mainly of:

a) putting up with a constant barrage of claptrap, balderdash, and requests for the latest gossip

b) listening to a single, repeated line from the same song (or advertising jingle - my choice, a different tune each time you are here, but the same one for the entire bloc of time you are here)

c) replying at all times whenever you hear "Liiiiiiiiizzzzzziiiieeeee.........answerme......"

d) Listening to my stories

e) Replying "yes you are indeed," when I tell you I'm brilliant.

Other tasks include:

a) stocking shelves and marking prices

b) unpacking and counting stuff

c) wearing me on your shoulder while I scrutinize every little thing you do, while explaining how I have already figured out the best way to do it

d) Choking on dust.

e) Avoiding sweeping, except for when it's absolutely necessary

f) When doing the absolutely necessary sweeping, combing through the pile to retrieve any screws, rivets, useful scraps of leather or shipping labels with the Burkle Turf Supply address on them.

So I do actually work when I'm there, but it's more like Work, Interrupted. What it comes down to is really about half the work and twice the pay. And I meant that; it's a great job! Doing it isn't as fun as telling about it, but: you couldn't ask to work for a better boss, really.

I don't have any specific hours. Usually hollers at me to tell me he needs me, which is when he expects an order in. It's my job to get the stock out of the boxes, price-marked and placed on the shelves. Lately I've been putting in about 6 hours a month, so I wouldn't call it lucrative even though the pay isn't bad. Stock prices keep going up, and even though gas is cheap again, and even after saving millions of dollars in fuel costs by routing the trucks to avoid left-hand turns, UPS shipping has never gone back down after going up.

Add to that the change in racing days for the season - four more this month, a half-dozen in January, and not many more in February; everyone will be too broke to buy anything, so why pack the shelves?

So yesterday there actually wasn't that much to unpack; I don't know how I managed to blow four hours there cuz I only emptied five boxes, mostly Numotizine that's been sitting there since the end of October. I guess it was filling out the bad check complaint packets from the Sherriff's office in Lisbon. We spent more time discussing how to fill then out than actually writing. That was fun, even though I didn't have a stool to sit on and I had to sit on the counter above the cash drawer and use a crappy ball point pen.

Oh, yeah, we did accounts payable. That's fun, but not as fun as sending out accounts receivable. Accounts receivable always brings up the great stories behind the bad checks we filled out the forms for yesterday.

Wow, it's already time for me to go to my first job. It's raining like heck out there, too. I wonder if I'm gona have to do anything. Perry Kerns was supposed to bring 4 horses in for after the break. I hope he doesn't, because by the sound of things outside I'll have soaked all my raingear by then.

Mercy Wins.

2008-12-17T03:17:00.000-08:00

Wooo, Mercy won last night. I didn't stay up to watch the race.Mercy who? you must ask; so here's my post about Mercy from early in the year. I'm so thrilled even though realize there wasn’t much talent in the race.

With her it's been one thing after another; the shin, her attitude, races being cancelled, races not going her way, being nervous in the paddock, nervous in the gate, only running half way, and so on. But after a six- week layoff this summer, her demeanor changed, from anxious and fretful to bold and self-contained.I think she was mainly suffering from pain in her shin, and the fear of pain in her shin made her difficult to work with. That layoff gave her a physical break that she needed, and probably put her finally into a more confident state of mind. She seemed able to comprehend the whole picture.

We went out to train in company with Copper, the lead pony, allowing her to run away from him, and she loved beating him. She really got better all around. Even though she's a bitch to gallop, that makes it all worth it. And here's a perfect example of what I was talking about in the last post; about working together (which by the way, that post needs a lot of editing to be understandable):

Last spring Mercy was so difficult to work with, I felt as if I had caused it in her. Maybe when I realized she was dropping her head and taking hold of the bit, I began letting her progress too fast. Then she got a shin (epiphysitis) and she and I began fighting about how fast she could go, and time dragged on. The shin didn’t get better and the horse had to run, because she had been in training for eight months or something- no sense letting her lose conditioning, right?

But the problem was, from the time the shin got bad she lost the alignment between her physical and mental states. And on top of that, the two older horses in the barn were not earning a dime, so all the pressure was on her. Worse, it wasn’t coming from Lori, the owner-trainer, but from her owner-boyfriend, who cannot feel even a little of what a horse feels. All I wanted to do was have Lori stop with her and give her six months off, just to forget all the stuff that was making her so sour and to let that stupid shin heal.

People seem to think that if they need something, the horse must produce it. But this isn’t about the modern human experience; “Tommy you must learn to earn your keep, so do your chores or be punished.”

You cannot reason with a horse that way. They don’t know why they are being asked to continue in pain; only that they are being punished while in pain. That we feed and bed them for doing so is a stretch to ask them to understand- it’s an artificial relationship, and not something they require of each other.

That’s kind of odd, when you consider what’s so for humans, at least us american ones; that our work ethic has a moral imperative attached to it is so inseparable from our Protestant legacy. We are unaware that we work to please God; we look down on our neighbors if they don’t work hard. The horse doesn’t fear god, and cannot understand the room and board exchange, and doesn’t require its neighbors to produce or be left to die; the lazy members are just lazy, without any repercussion from their kind.

So we expect them to try when they do not feel well, which to them is a threat to their survival. They can only see that we ask them to die willingly or be forced into death unwillingly. And we hate the lazy ones among them and among ourselves. The horse is the less intelligent, but perhaps not the less practical, or the less ethical. Could we take a lesson from the horse?

OK, enough of the philosophical wandering; the whole point is, Sweeny couldn’t give the horse a break, and it took Lori the incapacitating event of giving birth to force a well-needed break for the horse on an unwilling grantor of same.

Somehow, providence shines when truth and reality are aligned. The truth was, the horse needed the break. The reality was, finally, that the horse was getting a break. Horse gets a break, horse comes back renewed physically, refreshed mentally; with a new picture in her mind. She expresses it with a winning performance.

And the best part is the Providence: Maiden Special Weights pays $12,644 to the winner, including the return of the jockey fee ($1,2640) to the West Virginia resident owner, plus any breeder award for having a West Virginia bred; it couldn’t have happened in a better race.

Nor at a better time. Lori owes me so much in gallop pay (another squeeze from the owner-boyfriend) I’ve been afraid to count it all up. I’m only glad I permitted myself to be patient, and rather than getting mad and cutting her off of my services, I’ve stuck beside her, the only change being that I got my pay horses first, before getting hers out.

I’ve been so broke myself, and some days, like Sunday, have been so absent of horses to gallop, I might as well have stayed home. How can I stand in judgment of her?

So now, on a high note, I leave my readers to go about my day off, while Providence continues to bestow favors; a buyer for the Hoover Carpet Steamer I advertised on Craigslist for the second time a week ago suddenly appeared in my email. Just when I was down to my last ten bucks and a hundred dollars in my checking account.

But the bottom line is, it makes a difference when you don’t work together in the interest of the horse, just as when you do: Lori’s significant other put the screws down and it forced us to do the horse an injustice. Once that pressure was off, the horse returned to us an equal measure of what we needed. I’m only so glad I worked with her through thick and thin, testing her way of going, adjusting to her needs in the weeks after Lori’s maternity leave, because the victory is indeed a sweet one. ..
Too bad I didn’t bet, though….

So where was I yesterday........

2008-12-17T03:06:00.000-08:00

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…!

In General....

2008-12-15T03:45:00.000-08:00

I'm down to fifteen minutes for writing. So never mind, I'll have to write later...

Sorry for the Hiatus

2008-06-20T03:15:00.000-07:00

Don;t mean to be gone so long- working on my house, finding a new job, etc., and not managing the web site at all.

Was gettin' ready for work this morning and caught the Senate Subcommittee hearing (part of it) on the State of the Thoroughbred Industry.

This is a step in the right direction. The url for the streaming video (2+ hours) is here:

http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library/index.php?main_page=product_video_info&products_id=206060-1

The re is no shortage of jobs in this business- it matters not how things change, so let's let them change without fear for any personal losses. Let's honor our horses.

A Little Light

2008-03-31T02:48:00.000-07:00

Friends-

I'm a little light on the website and the posts. The reason is manyfold; mainly, I have been working harder in the mornings, and on the house in the afternoons. about 4 p.m. I pretty much poop out. I'm behind in my letters and other contact stuff and I just have to catch up. I just spent the last hour writing notes to people. Now I have to go to work.

Also, with Debra's horses, I am enjoying my work once again. Her method is after my own heart; she has a complete understanding of her horses and is a good person to work for. So I make a point of getting to sleep and being fully alert for work. I'll say more about that when I have the time. That's all, gotta go to work now.

Just Stopping in To Say I'm Still ALive

2008-03-21T03:24:00.000-07:00

Why some people get themselves so busy is something I don't really understand, but I'm one of them. I really have more things on my plate then one person can do. I have at least a half- dozen projects going on at any one time, and I have to rotate them.

The bad thing is, few ever see completion. The good thing is, when I get tired of one project, I can switch to one that I haven't been doing for the last few weeks, and it feels just like a new project. I think I resist boredom even though I have two very consistent boring habits, the first of which is I never go anywhere that I don't absolutely have to and the second, that I stay parked on the couch nearly the whole time I'm here. Once I'm down I hate to get up. At least while it's cold, anyway.

When I am not posting, I am doing any one of the following things:

Working on my fixer-upper house (needs a lot of fixing up)

Writing my e-book that is supposed to make me a lot of money so I can continue to be self-
employed.

Playing my violin (which is currently slated to practise with the community Orchestra at the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center and eventually perform there.)

Reading email jokes

Sending email jokes

Reading short emails

Sending long emails that take three hours to write. This is probably the most demanding part of my day and generally a waste of time because nobody ever reciprocates to the same level of sharing, and I wonder if anyone realizes that all it takes to share is a willingness to seem like an idiot. That puts words on paper faster than talent for writing.

Writing cover letters and adapting resumes to whatever job I'm applying for

Applying for jobs that are not galloping horses.

Taking the bird for a walk

Bird watching (currently we have three ring-necked ducks in the pond on Olga's property. They'll only be here a couple days as they are migrating north and have only stopped to rest and feed.

Working in my rasperry patch

Planning and working on my website

Working on my ebay stuff

Making connections with wholesalers who have the stuff I want to sell on my website, at work, and on ebay.

Folding Origami, drawing, woodworking, or reading some how to do it book or software. I can't remember the last time I finished a fiction book. But I guess as reality TV demonstrates, real life is at least, if not more interesting most of the time. Fiction is for true literary types and readers of the same.

Dreaming about doing something or other that is not listed above.

Getting ready to go to work. Which is what I am about to do right now. So that's it for my post this morning. Oh, except I got a job working for Debra Rombis, a canadian woman who pays well and has become my bread and butter for all practical purposes. Well, gotta go. If you see no posts for six weeks, you know what I'm up to.

Jockey's Eye View

2008-03-09T04:49:00.000-07:00

I was surfing earlier today among the horse racing wesbites and stumbled upon this neat video. It's a Flash or Shockwave type of tutorial on race - riding! You can click on links that illustrate with text, animation, and a little narration by Russel Baze just what is going on at important junctures in a race. I have been trying for some time to take my own videos of what the riders' hands are doing, or what the riders are doing with their bodies when exercising or riding.

Video is the most powerful tool for learing. The fastest learning comes from watching and imitating success. First, watch videos of other people and then watch videos of yourself. You can see what you are doing in comparison to the effective methods you have watched in others. You will see the things you are doing correctly more clearly, and you will see the mistakes you are making to the point of tremendous embarrassment. This will alter your riding like nothing else can!

I learned this important lesson from Ron McLoughlin, who is a premier instructor in the science of riding. Those who desire to elevate their riding skills to an art are best served by the kind of science that only Ron and a few others have developed.

Cancellations// Yesterday

2008-03-03T03:06:00.000-08:00

This took place yesterday, but required too much editing to post right away:

Last night was to be the second start for the red filly (the angry one- nicknamed "Mercy"). Buththe races were cancelled. Lat week I believe we made it through the whole four days without missing. Unfortunaltely for Mercy our luck could not hold out.

Everyone is so broke this time of year, and even more so for all the missed days. What usually happens is that as we go back to five days, as we do now becauase it's march, they add a race to the card, and although we normally wouldn't run ten races until later in the year, we'll begin now to make up the number of races. I don't know how anybody makes it through this time of year as a trainer. At least not without money coming in from a different job or a good- paying owner.

And for my part, I am so busy on any number of projects I can barely get to this screen to write. Aside from my little forays into other sources of income, there is the house and its demands. I will probebly have to rent it just to pay off all I'll be borrowing to remodel it.

During the past week or so a disturbing trend has surfaced: I am getting tossed, dumped, dropped, thrown, sacked, ejected or whatever you want to call it an average of three times a week. Since I got back from the wrist injury I have been unwillingly separated from my saddle more times than everybody else has so far this year combined.

That’s a lotta loose horses, baby!

I am sure my old instructor Ron would tell me that the problem is all in my head, and he’s probably right, because here’s what I think; winter sucks; snow sucks, cold sucks, layers suck, working outdoors sucks, being obligated to help when it’s ten degrees sucks, wetness sucks, cold rain sucks, sweating inside your outfit and getting chilled sucks, getting sick sucks, getting chapped sucks, having your hands freeze inside your gloves sucks, not being able to feel the reins sucks, and in general having to work early in the morning when it’s cold sucks!

When I don’t feel like working, and I usually don’t in the winter, I have a hard time keeping focused on the horses. When you are younger you don’t really notice the littlest things, but as many times as I have thrown a leg over, I have come to realize that exercise is for many horses just like a walk is for a dog. Even a bad racehorse likes to stretch their legs once in a while, and it helps to have a playmate. That playmate would be me. The one categorical necessity for insuring my ass stays in the saddle is that I must show up as a playmate.

If I just sit there in the saddle, minding my own business, returning from a gallop, say; thinking about how much so and so owes me or how I am going to get brackets for the gutter today, suddenly Goober will sling his head and buck. I'll shorten the reins and tell him what a rude asshole he is, but that's what he was just telling me! What he just said was; “what a rude asshole you are!” What do you suppose makes me say that?

You can’t notice it until you’ve been through it a million times- enough to learn by repetition - stupid humans - that you as the rider exist in an ongoing conversation with the animal from the moment you plop yourself in the saddle. And it’s like being in a video game; if you stop concentrating for just one moment to eat some chips or something your little man could get whacked.

The difference is you can pause the game; you cannot pause the horse.

To illustrate the dynamic, let's turn it around to the horse's perspective:

Someone greets you by throwing an itchy scratchy nylon harness on your head and a cold belt around your belly. Then they hand you off to someone else who jumps up on your back and kicks you. Not as if you don’t know the routine, though; a long time ago you learned that it’s not about being attacked. It’s uncomfortable and maybe even a little unfair from your point of view, but it beats having to stand in a cubicle for the whole day.

As you shuffle around the shedrow on your way out, one of your neighbors thrusts a curious muzzle out and your head turns to meet it nostril to nostril. “Oh, NO” you hear from above, and the steel cheek of the bit jerks you away from the interaction. Sure keeps things from getting interesting, doesn’t it?
Most of the next 20 minutes is pretty much the same. You go down the same path to the same place and do the same thing you did yesterday. You get a kick when you stop to smell the air and when you pause to watch the other horses out there doing their thing. And most of them are all by themselves, too, with just their riders.

Within all of this restriction and regimentation, the one variable that actually has an interactive element is the rider. You can’t talk or do anything with anybody else, after all, so how you gonna have fun? The only evidence that you are even alive is the rider kicking you, so if they think they’re gonna forget you're there as soon as you what they want, espeically when it’s your one hour out of the whole day to actually do a little showing off, you’re not gonna let them get away with it!

After all, isn’t it rude to completely ignore another human because you suddenly remembered that you left your socks on the woodstove at home? Of course it happens, and your human friend will normally ask you; “hey, you there? Something wrong?” Even more insistent they will be if you are the one who initiated the interaction. “Hey, you invited me; if your gonna ignore me I’m leaving.”

And so will Goober; he might shake his head and neck, or pull the reins out of your hands as if to say, “hey, you there?” or he’ll throw his head between his knees, pull you forward and then kick his ass in the air and blast you right out of the saddle, meaning “YOU INVITED ME; IF YOU’RE GONNA IGNORE ME I’M LEAVING!!”

So who’s calling who rude?

Anyway this has been happening a lot more than usual lately.

About half way through this composition Doc called to tell me the track was closed. I don’t think we’ll run tonite.

I’ve been told that blog readers don’t like long posts. So that’s all for now.

Go Look at the NEWS BLOG and See WHy I haven't Posted!!

2008-02-29T03:39:00.000-08:00

Go to the news BLOG!!!

www.thefarturn.net/news.htm

The Big Debut

2008-02-18T16:25:00.000-08:00

Tonight I am watching the two fillies I have spoken about earlier run their first race. It's about 4 minutes to post and the good thing is they are both acting very professional. They're both in the same race too, a maiden allowance dash- a bit above their class. But it will be a good experience for them. Oh, here goes...

I'll take some of the credit for them both leaving the gate quickly. But neither was able to keep up. The older one hung in a little tougher, which doesn't surprise me, but she looked almost amazed when the fitter and classier horses pulled away, as if she couldn't imagine a faster horse then herself.

But it won't diminish her spirit. She will very likely take a serious lesson from it and come back ready to take on all comers, win or lose. The other one was out of the picture so fast I can't even comment. I'm just glad that I schooled them well enough that they were in the race when the gate opened.

So much for the $1.50 program and the time spent on the internet races. Time for bed. Tomorrow comes early.

Back to work after weather-enforced holidays

2008-02-15T04:33:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the first day since Sunday that I did any work worth speaking of. Saturday and Sunday mornings were slow; I sauntered in late, got one horse out and left. Hey, I’m not lazy! I’m forty-nine years old! I got dropped last summer and four pins were threaded through my bones to put my wrist back together!

Actually I’m excited about work because I’m finally reaching a fitness level that both enables me to react more quickly and also to keep myself from getting busted up if I fall. Yesterday I took another tumble and- although I heard a little ‘crack” sound I’m as fine this morning as if it never happened. But right now, as I returned so late in the year from the wrist, it’s been slow going. I’ve had to navigate carefully to avoid several potential accident variables. For those on the outside, the variables are as follows; green horses; lying owners such as my friend Jerry Norwood (who probably believes himself so it’s not a lie) who put me on green or bad horses without telling me, deadbeat payers, jerks who don’t think their tack is dangerous even though it is; outfits that are another rider’s bread and butter, and unsound horses that the trainer wants breezed.

The thing about it is that you are new to a place, or, as I have, just returned from an injury you generally have to work your way back into your good outfits- you can’t just get them back from the rider who took your place. In my case, two of my outfits had left and I had nothing strong to get started on that I could expect to care for my physical welfare until I got strong again. Plus I really didn’t feel like working just as the weather was getting cold. It sucks to have to come back in the cold. If you’re gonna get hurt you need to get hurt in November and be out until March or April, because there’s not much work to do anyway and besides, it’s painful weather, the cold, especially when it is wet.

Needless to say I haven’t wanted to work, and I haven’t been sorry that I haven’t had much to do. But to circle back to the original intent of my post here, I had no serious obligations for Saturday and Sunday (after a BIG day Friday) and Monday and Tuesday the track didn’t even open. Then of course Wednesday is dark and the track is never open, so it was Thursday before I got to doing anything. I enjoyed the days off, and I had a great day yesterday except for the green horse. The fact that I am letting myself get dropped so much is disturbing. I have had periods of two years wherein I’m sure I have not been dropped (or had to bail off one that is flipping over backwards) and not even gotten a jammed finger for that matter. But I’ve noticed that I’m experimenting with staying relaxed and I think I better tighten up a bit.

But anyway, yesterday I was completely absorbed in the work and everything went super. All the ones that missed racing last weekend on account of cancellations will get to run this weekend (looks like) and they got out – even a couple of breezers – without doing so much as to take off the edge. I’ll take credit for that.

Plus one of the ship-ins paid me $30 instead of $20, just because it was 15 degrees Fahrenheit and I didn’t fink out on him- I showed up at 8 o’clock and got him done so he could go to the farm and finish the rest of the horses. Then I got three for another guy because the regular rider didn’t show and he paid me in cash, and the others I got were solid accounts that will pay. The last one of the morning was cash and even though we got dumped, the horse was very kind- he even waited for me to catch him instead of hightailing it home. I only had to get one horse that has shitty tack and I got that one around- the girl paid me $20 the owner owed me. So I made enough to put gas in the truck!

Hey it’s time to go out and conquer another day. I don’t mean to post boring stuff but if you think about it, a kid who likes horse racing and is interested in getting into it should find this kind of thing very informative, so I may be doing someone a great service by telling them what winter is like for northern racing. I’ll check this out and edit it next time I hit the page - it could probably be said better, but I’m spewing out stream of consciousness because I’m in a hurry to go to work.
Later!

That Was Another Good Saturday

2008-02-03T01:55:00.000-08:00

My horse got her OK to start! The best part about it is that she has not become a nervous wreck. Each visit to the starting gate, she has learned something and she has had enough physical rest to greet her gallop days with enthusiasm. She isn't overly talented, but she'll win at least one race this year and probably ore as long as she stays sound and happy. I don't think she will win her first out, but it shouldn't take long.

My other filly , the angry one I was talking about yesterday, is OK. I missed watching her breeze, but the trainer said she went around the turn without bearing out. That means to me that she is doing sound underneath, her equipment is not bothering her and she is not too sour on her program. I couldn;t be hapier about that because although she is small for a four-year-0ld she is quick and, most important, has it all upstairs. I hope when I get on her again we can smooth things out. I need to take her out when there is no-one else out there, so in case she heads for the outside fence I can let her go without touching her mouth. She will hopefully get back in balance with me and we can keep working together.

That's all for now. I've noticed that these posts need editing badly. Bt the moment I don't have time.

Saturday Again!!

2008-02-02T03:46:00.000-08:00

Schooling race day again!

My little filly is going to get in the gate in a full field and hopefully get her OK. After that, she is considered ready to run and her next trip to the gate will probably be in a real race.

Personally, I like to take them back to the gate just to stand, but they aren;t mine. If I were to do that got left behind in their first race it could be blamed on me. But if the horse were mine and I could take my time, that horse would stand a couple of times, then break again, either with or without other horses. Just to teach them that they cannot be positive what is going to happen, but that they need not be nervous; just prepared.

Every horse is different, though. Some are quite nervous and will take so long to settle down that it makes financial sense to run them before they act as though they are ready, simply because their ability is sufficient to cover for their defects at the start. So even the ordinarily meticulous trainer might gloss over the difficult part.
I have another filly that is unfortunately going the wrong way on me. This has happened on at least three occasions for the same reason and in the same fashion, which I am going to quickly describe (it's almost 7 a.m. and I have to go to work):

The horse arrives at the track as a two year old or three year old. We begin training- galloping, breezing a couple of times, and going up to the gate. After a couple of months the horse is catching on. Mentally they are prepared to move forward. At this point comes a setback; the horse has an abcess in the foot, or a crack, or epiphysit is in the shins (having to do with the growth plates on the bone surface- an inflammation that feels like shin splints or metatarsal stress fractures in humans). So the horse gets some time off.

After a week, the horse is feeling too good to keep in the barn, because it has attained a level of fitness that demands some attention. Anyone who runs can tell that it's difficult to just stop for an ankle sprain when your lungs feel like you they want to run a hole in the wind. But for you, you know why you are not; you see the big picture. The horse has no understanding of the relationship between healing and someday winning a horse race. They just know they need exercise that they are not getting.

What happens from here is that the injury continues to interrup the horse's training regimen, i.e. every time the horse goes back to work it's OK until it breezes, then suddenly needs another week off. Then the horse begins to resent the program. All it knows is pointless gallping around until it has pain, then stopping and never seeing the outside of the barn. This is especially detrimental to a young horse's temper.

At this point with my filly, she has become very angry. The trainer has been lucky in that she has a farm to send the filly to, which has helped. But thte horse happens to be talented and aggressive, which has made the setbacks no less difficult. Now she is beginning to resent being held back and even a strong hold on the reins can cause her to rear up and drop me, which is what she did the other day when just going the wrong way for a mile in prep for a breeze. She is also evading the bit by bearing out, which can become a very bad habit. The trainer has decided to just let her gallop, which is some help, but for me I actually feel that I need ot be out of the equation for a bit, because she associates me with the stuff she dislikes. I think she'd go to the track happier right now if she didn;t have me on her back.

We also had a discussion about her equipment, which the trainer felt was properly adjusted but which I felt nonetheless was pinching her mouth. We've settled on a figure 8 noseband as a solution to the problem. She is supposed to work today with the jockey, and I hope everything works out. She'd a talented horse that needs her chance to move on right now.

Well, I'm overtime. Gotta go!! I'm not editing, either.

Should I stay or Should I go?

2008-01-31T05:03:00.000-08:00

How they say? It f*****g cold, baby!!
I'm still home at 8 a.m.. The wind chill is only 15 though and it is suppposed to warm up fast. So I was going to set here and write but uh, I guess I have to go.
And much has happened...it's a shame I don't write more. But I will be getting more photos up not too long from now.

And A Good Day it Was!!

2008-01-26T23:18:00.000-08:00

After a bit of a hectic start, Saturday turned out well. I found company for my filly and four of us left the gate together with the bell rung behind us. She went head and head with another horse for half a mile, took a breather at the five- sixteenths pole and continued chasing him, catching him at the wire. Although he was only galloping out by then, I thought it wasn't bad for a little maiden's first attempt at six furlongs. If she comes out of this work OK, next week she will go to the schooling race. I suppose I'll have to take her myself, though I'd like to see her paired with a rider.

I saw Norwood in the kitchen. Turns out he got stalls at the top of the barn area and is planning on shipping the green horses in to stay. I can almost hear him crying about why I should help him for ten bucks a head with his half-broke homebreds.

The other day he says to me, about his baby:

"I'm doin' kinda bad right now, but - um - is she still a twenty-dollar horse?"The next day he shells out 10 K to claim one of Dale's horses (and a not too sound one at that).

He was sitting with Lary Reed and Tex Irwin.
The three of us got talking, about the horses and galloping and training and whatever; I think someone said something about Dale, because I somehow wound up on the track of saying what bad luck it is for me that none of my de-facto relatives (John Baird, Mike Baird, Bart Baird) will hire me because (supposedly) they're afraid of getting me hurt.

So anyway I was going off on what a joke it was that the Bairds are actually throwing me to the wolves when they could be protecting me, but before I had quite gotten to that I mentioned, by way of reassurance, that Neither Tex nor Larry ever put me on anything I had to worry about, and then I paused as I looked at Norwood and said - "YOUR horses get me pretty nervous sometimes..." and he gave a sheepish smile and a shrug.

Why horsemen cut corners with green horses is beyond me. As far as I can tell, the best opportunities in a horse's life come when it's just starting to race. The more education it gets before it runs in a real race, the better chance it has of winning its first three or four before it loses interest or gets too sore to run, or both (usually in the reverse order.) If you have a horse mentally prepared to win before it even runs, you have twice the marbles anyone else has; at least around here, because almost nobody else has educated their animals around here....the perfect weakness to exploit.

That brings me to another thought, since I was talking about the racing office and about having applied for a clerk job there (so I could get off all these crazy animals for a while). For years I remember people who worked in the office who would come in to gallop for a couple of hours before going to their office job. Here at Mountainer and now also at some other places that kind of thing is considered a conflict of interest.

I can vaguely see why management could come up with that idea. After all, maybe having an insider's knowledge would impel you to try to manipulate the races with your position. But as far as that goes I honestly don't think that separating the office from the back side does much more than attempt to satisfy a public that is so far removed from those goings on as to not even be curious about them. Plus I think that people will try to manipulate things regardless and that the only way to prevent it or lessen it is to police it.

One of the best regulating elements on a race track is its social network, without which there would no longer be any censure of office staff except from the top down. Once they become a bunch of anonymous white collar droids how can their motives be questioned? The risk of being suspected would be greater, I think, if there are people in the office who are more closely connected to the back side.

Otherwise any complaints from horsemen will be treated too lightly; because there will always be complaints, but no longer a strong advocating force for the complainers.

It's only my opinion, though, because I've never worked in the racing office; I don't know what they do or how anything really works from that side of the counter. And I really don't understand what motivates people to try to manipulate their circumstances or the outcome of races. Plus I have vested interest in the idea of getting to make the extra money that working two jobs in the same location offers. If you ask me that's a conflict of interest for the Association. I mean how do you otherwise get skilled people to put in ten hour days for a hundred bucks a day (four in the morning and six at night)? I would like to work in the office to see things from that side, and do hope to have the chance some day.

I did compose a note for the Racing Secretary asking for a temporary position - conditional on whether he still wants me after the winter. If he has someone he wants to replace me with in the Spring I would have no complaint. But I haven't submitted it to him yet; what people say about Joe leads me to believe that he's going to do what he wants, and any appearance of trying to sway him will not make a difference.

SATURDAY AGAIN!

2008-01-26T03:56:00.000-08:00

Saturday again!

I remember two things from last Saturday; the first was McGaffic hollering to us as we left the gate:
-Bring 'em back!!
and the second was Norwood abotu the same two horses:
-next week the schoolin' race fer sure!
to which I hollered back:
-Better talk to Bobby about it!

I'm not planing on taking that horse to the race- nor any horse right now. I have one filly that is on schedule for a work from the gate, but I've already discussed that one with Bob, and we agreed that one more shot in smaller company would be better for her. So I have to do that today, and if that was the only thing I accomplished that would be it. This filly is one I especially like; she shows her pleasure by bouncing home from a gallop, her ears flopping, relaxed but full of herself. When the girls do that my heart feels so full, as if it were me, and I hold a special afection for that kind of horse.
I don;t have much time to write- what I need, I suppose, is a Blackberry, so that I can do this anytime- even while at work. Because by the time I get home all I want is a nap, and by the time the nap's up, I've forgotten the entire morning.

In addition to galloping, I'm beginning to run again, if only on the treadmill. I am hoping that soon I'll be doing some other job that will give me more control over what happens to my joints - it's OK that my knees hurt all the time- but my shoudlers and back have begun to feel arthritic, and everything needs more warmup now. I want to be at least in decent cardiovascular shape before I go back to working with weights.

There's nothing like feeling strong in every muscle fiber. I hate this weak feeling I'm getting, which seems to be a product of being both older and having less desire to spend my time doing physical stuff.
WOO, Gotta GO!! Find company for my wonderful filly!

What day is today?

2008-01-19T01:03:00.000-08:00

Oy, I guess it's Saturday, which is Schooling Race day. Nothing going on there for me, luckily. Used to be fun barreling out of the gate at full speed with a pack of unseasoned horses (and riders for the most part) just to see "how it goes" for the one you're on. And in fact, it can be fun if business is otherwise slow. I mean if I am feeling good and my fitness is sufficient to respond to any exigency, it’s still a thrill. To further qualify that statement I should add that you have to have confidence in the horse, though. So here’s where a discussion of he said she said on the degree of “broke “ that a mount might be.

For the most part I gallop horses I know, especially since the one that are based here are my regulars, and I rarely have time to get any outside horses. But it happens often enough that someone who ships in or someone whom I have done some small job for in the past brings in a green horse that one way or another I wind up getting on.

Of late it’s Goshdang Idiot (I can;t say the real name). He has two green horses that “ought’ to be going together. Mind you this is something difficult to get going – unless you pay more – because lining up two riders at the same time can be costly for one or both- time is money for riders. He asks me to get on one of them - a filly - and as I round the corner of the receiving barn to her stall, he explains to me that when he puts a rider on a horse “it’s broke. Ah don’t put nobody on no horse that ain’t broke.... See, ah use’ to rahd, and ah wout’n put nobahdy on no horse that I wout’n get awn mahself.”

(Right. Maybe when you were twenty. And anyway, back then broke had a different connotation in these here - and most other - rural parts)

“I’m gonna give you twenty dollars, but she ain’t no twenty dollah horse. You’ll see; when you come back you’ll tell me she’s broke. Now, what ah want you to do is go as eeaaassy as you can and I want you to tell me how she feels, okay?” All this I’m taking in without saying anything because broke is in the senses of the breaker – at least for the purpose for which it is being used here, which is in essence, if she throws me over the outside fence she at least was broke in his mind and he cannot be held responsible for what happened. And maybe he’s right, but he’s from somewhere else, like Oklahoma or something, where a horse can run for miles without running into any solid objects like the outside fence of a racetrack. Maybe he doesn’t make such (miniscule) distinctions.

OK, let’s go” I say. And he legs me up – in the stall, which I hate. To me, that means the horse isn’t broke enough to be outside the stall, where there is more room to run and more things to run from. But I hate the stall- goshdang it’s close in there, and me fear of a horse going over backward into the wall and breaking everything from my T-7 on down is not a good thing to possibly transfer to a young, green, and possibly nervous or frightened young horse.

Anyway, up we go without incident beyond the fact that Idiot’s strength has ebbed with age and I have to do a bit of climbing to get up there (she’s broke to climb, anyway, I think to myself). “Don’t let me run you over” I say as he exits in front of me.

Down the hill we go. At Mountaineer Park, there is no pony path to speak of. It’s all concrete from barn to track. If you fall you fall hard.

We pass a 12 foot high fence made of two-by-somethings and scary blue tarp without too much apprehension (construction hasn’t begun on the other side yet) and navigate behind a couple of other horses and riders toward the racetrack. Her steps are a bit hesitant; she has no shoes on. My first thought is her feet probably hurt. Her toes are square, about seven inches wide where the sides flare out, but short to the point of appearing dubbed off at the apex of the toe. When she hits the racing surface and I ask her to jog, she throws her heard up, then down in a circular motion; she isn’t happy about going forward.

Now, see, a broke horse, in my opinion, will still go without that wringing head. Why? Because the broke horse has confidence in a rider. O.K. maybe the toes are stinging, but the behavior will be more – and I’m not saying or intending submissive – respectful (there’s a huge difference, and respectful is the only way, if the horse is to have a successful career in racing, or anything, for that matter.) A broke horse will more likely demonstrate a compensatory behavior such as carrying their weight on the back end, or warming up very slowly, in obvious pain.

If the two horses were to speak English, the broke horse would be saying “okay, I’m not able today, but I am willing to at least try as you request.” And the Norwood horse would say “GODDAMMIT! MY FEET HURT! WHERE’S THE NEAREST EXIT?” and that’s about it. No communication with the rider. What rider, in fact? So there you go. To an unbroken or minimally broke horse, the rider is not a factor; just an irritation, and if the feet hurt, just an added irritation.

So at this point we’re on the track and beginning a stilted jog. The head is high, the ears are pricked forward and the whole body is taught as a bowstring; not an auspicious beginning. Certainly not unbearable, though. At least seven of ten are just like this, so we ask for a little forward motion with a heel tap. And so we go on, this first day, with a few crow hops until the kinks are out and the foot pain has been forgotten in the wake of a battery of stimuli; strange horses everywhere, huge structures looming into view, machines whizzing by, and pure open, empty space with no cover or companionship to sooth the anxiety of being completely alone with a rider pouncing all over and kicking.

You get the idea, then, that being “broke” might include being habituated to some of this stimuli prior to being asked to perform publicly?

Not to mention the response to a tug on the lines.

And what do I mean by this?

When I was learning about breaking horses, all of the equipment I used had a purpose. That equipment included a yoke, or martingale, and a set of “rings” that, properly adjusted, set the reins (and thus, the bit) in position to go no higher than the horse’s withers, no matter where the rider’s hands are. You have to see the effect in order to understand it, but the purpose is twofold at least: first, it’s lateral control: Monte Forman put it best; that a horse follows his nose. The rings assist in placing the horse’s nose where you want the horse to go. Without rings, a horse can raise his head as high as he or she want to in order to avoid feeling the pressure of the bit on the bars of the jaw, which is where the rider wants it.

With rings, if the horse should raise his head, the bit is still anchored in such a way that it cannot be grabbed in the teeth, but will be felt on the bars of the jaw. This gives the rider more control over the horse.

The second really good reason to have rings is that they offer better stopping power as s rule. Since they place the bit in an optimal position, the rider need not have direct contact with the horse’s mouth. The weight of the reins alone is what the horse feels at any normal relaxed pace. The rider can sit down and relaxed in the saddle and allow the reins to be long, or better said, ‘allow the horse more rein’ (which equals more freedom). If the horse begins to go too fast, the rider need not change position or shorten the reins, necessarily; by simply pulling back on them in a give and take fashion, the communication to slow down or stop can be given without undue and constant pressure on that sensitive part of the mouth that riders like to keep sensitive. And here’s the thing about it: if the rider’s hands go up higher in the air, the horse’s head will not, because the reins have that optimal setting.

It’s not good for a horse to go forward with its head in the air, or stargazing, as it’s called. That would be like you walking or running while looking at the clouds. You can trip over yourself. Same for a horse, though perhaps not to the same degree. But there’s the thing: If the horse goes too fast, and the rider pulls on ringless reins, the horses head goes up (more often than not) and the horse’s balance is compromised. That’s dangerous and undesirable. With the rings on, this cannot happen. The benefit to a green horse that a set of rings provides cannot be overstated; it teaches them to keep their head placed in a position to receive positive communication from a rider, while minimizing miscommunications and avoidance of communications. It also keeps their head positioned so that the rest of the body is balanced beneath the riders' seat. It helps the horse develop its balance properly so it has less chance of injury.

That's something riders should figure out early- a green horse will relax faster if it’s head is not in the air. You get their head down, and they discover the balance they need to develop, and they understand signals to guide (left and right) much faster. The whole picture of this crazy immovable panther pounce suit (saddle and bridle) that they’re wearing makes a bit more sense. They get confident faster. They learn good behavior easier and faster. They learn fewer bad habits because they have fewer opportunities to engage in them.

This baby horse that I’m on, supposed to be broke baby horse, throws her head up every time she feels my hand on the reins. In order to deliver any kind of message- any kind of guiding, or any directive of any kind, she has to accept my pressure on her mouth, which she hasn’t done yet. Picture this; on a racetrack there may be twenty or thirty other horses flying around at all speeds, pounding the surface like drum rolls before an explosion, and going both clockwise an counter-clockwise. A horse that receives no message is essentially a loose horse- it goes where it decides to go. If the chips are down and the horse thinks it needs to run away, it will- in any direction it is drawn or driven to; to follow another horse, or escape from another horse- without regard for traffic safety.

Around the course we go: a bit jolting at times, a little spook from a shadow on the ground, head cocked toward potential danger and occasionally rickocheting like a pinball for a mile and a half. When the first day is over, nothing, to my mind, has been accomplished. It’s what most of us call ‘gettin’em around there’.

“He can get‘em around there, alright,” we say; meaning they don’t have to be controllable- so-and-so can get them a mile and a half without getting either one hurt, and the horse will have gotten its exercise. This is something that mainly risk-taking young cowboy types don’t mind being known for, because it usually brings in more money (another famous saying is “that’s a twenty-dollar horse”.)

So we get around there the first day and by all appearances, she is broke, at least Norwood broke. Being aware that he cannot view it the same as I do I suppose it has to do. I explain that she was OK, except she did feel a bit like her feet might hurt, mainly because of the way she jabbed her fron ones and threw her head (like "good, Idiot-broke" horses do to tell their riders something isn't quite right...) But then the next gallop day comes- a few days later.

Just by the way, this is the ship-in type of horse. A green horse ought to be ridden every day, a little bit. Keep them fresh enough to be positive about the experience but tired enough to keep from getting too rambunctious. Young horses are playful by nature and need not be punished for cavorting; however, the goal should be to keep the inadvertent cavorting to nil. Keep them busy and they won’t have time to dream up alternates to your plan. Ship-in horses rarely are ridden every day. They live on a farm and are either turned out and chased with a whip, or jogged on a walking machine or on one of the new “equiciser” or “eurociser” machines (which are huge round or elliptical arenas designed like walking machines only with stalls instead of tethers for the horses, so they can carry themselves in their natural balance.) Green horses that ship in this get less contact with humans, and generally develop slower mentally than they develop condition-wise.

So this ship in baby is lucky to see a rider every second or third day. Getting fitter by the day, but not smarter. So the few days later, this fitter horse returns, and once again I’m astride.

We get to the track. We start of, gingerly once again, and once again with a head wring and a head duck combines with a little crow hop, communicating resistance in her own little way. The following few paces went stiltingly, head a little low, rider trying to stay relaxed and loose enough not to communicate any bad vibes. “C’mon, Boo Boo; you can do it; c’mon, ttsschch, scoo-scoo..” A few more steps and her head raises up, only to see an oncoming predator at two o’clock (the outside fence). Just another horse, really, but the combination; no lateral control (because no rings) a little foot pain, a little more condition and a little less education; and no confidence (because there's been no way for the rider to establish dominance while demonstrating that only what comes naturally is being requested) and in two seconds we’ve parted company.

If you could see this, this is how it looked:

Filly is wringing head and trotting, oblivious to anything outside of her feet or her resistance to this stranger on her back, or whatever thought is in her head. Then filly raises head to look around (for any horse –related reason) and sees the approaching figure. Filly freezes momentarily; sucks (drops shoulders and weight goes to the hind end) back and dives leftward, away from the potential danger.

Rider loses stirrups; stirrups hit filly on the belly, causing fear. Filly bolts to the inside, and stirrups bang harder; filly tries to buck stirrups away, still swerving slightly, and rider (myself) loses balance and slips to the right.

On that cue, filly ducks even more left and heads for the inside rail. Rider bails, both from an inability to rescue herself from her compromised situation and also seeing the approaching rail and supposing that the horse may not. One last leftward leap and the rider goes off and rolls under the rail. Horse heads off in the direction from which she came.

The call goes out to shut the gate and the horse is caught. I get back on and this time give her a double blast in the ribs with my heels, repeatedly, so that she runs forward instead of bucking. Forget going as easy as possible. Screw what the trainer wants to do. If she were mine I’d have taken her two miles, but she’s so fat I don’t want to hurt her. But then again, if she were mine, she wouldn’t be out with the grownups yet anyway.

By the time we return I conclude that another day has gone by with the horse learning only one important lesson, and one that we’d all like to keep her from learning; "If I buck, I might get that pesky rider (the one that’s making my feet hurt even worse) off my back."

Idiot says; “I never seen her buck before”. I say to myself well, it might be her first, but now it won’t be her last. And every day since then she has tried me at least once. So he asks me on the third or fourth day, since he’s “not doin’ very good right now” if “she’s still a twenty-dollar horse”.

“For a fifty year old woman?" I ask. You bet your ass!! Get some young punk out there on a horse you want to ruin anyway. I did my free stuff when I was riding races. Now I deserve top dollar for giving a dang and putting up with the less-than-optimal circumstances under which I am doing this work. That pays for my workers’ comp.

Do you get the idea that this fellow’s horse might not exactly be “broke?”

It’s called 'breaking' because that’s mostly they way it played out in frontier times, I suppose; the horse was ridden into the ground; sometimes surely encouraged to buck until it learned that bucking was no use, the riders would prevail no matter what. If it bucked one off, another would get on it until it was tired, or whatever it took for the horse to give up.

But breaking is not and never needs to be a stressful situation for a horse. To me the most important things in breaking a horse is understanding what its temperament is and then serving it exercise and communication that complements its physical and mental characteristics in such a way that it develops confidence in itself and in it’s relationship with a person.

That begins with treating it with respect and forethought for its well- being. Don’t ask a young horse to do anything when it’s in pain of any kind. Don’t teach it one thing and the next day throw ten at it (i.e., break it in a stall at the farm, take it around the paddock once or twice, then bring it into the track and expect it to know which direction to go and what to focus on if it becomes afraid.)

Don’t leave communication up to chance if you can avoid it; set a horses head in a rig or drive it for fifteen minutes a day to give it the experience that pressure on the bars of the jaw means something like stop, and steer left or right. Put it in a round pen until it responds to these signals instantly and does so with confidence and pride. You can tell what a horse is feeling if you just pay attention. If you don’t, he won’t either, and when the chips are down, someone could get hurt because he won’t look to the rider for guidance.

That's all for now, except for one thing; how I one way or another wind up doing stuff that I later decide I shouldn't have gotten involved in. Here are few of these scenarios:
Scenario #1: some stranger ships in, into the receiving barn and hails me as I am walking by to another account. “Got time to get one?” They ask, and I answer yes like an idiot if I am not too busy, without considering the source of the request.
Scenario #2: Some trainer I know asks me to please get on a horse today because “my rider didn’t show” (and later we know why).
Scenario #3: Some agent or other exercise rider asks "can you get on one for me?" It’s Mattress Megan’s – " I got on her once and she didn’t do anything wrong; but she ships in at 9:30 and I have to be at Stinky Paul’s then so I can't get her myself."

Anyway, that's all for now. Gotta go take Idiot's horse to the gate. His son is supposed to go with me on its buddy... Say a little prayer for me, will you?

Today, before work

2008-01-17T03:15:00.000-08:00

I am going to begin writing again about my daily work. What I want to do is bring readers up to speed about what I have been up to the last two years- since the Princess hurt me. That was a twisted knee, which was painful but not as damaging as it could have been. It was the bad knee to begin with, so how much worse could it get? I was out for a couple months, though. I just never got back to writing for whatever reason. Then I got into school for a bit, thinking about getting a PT Assisting Certificate. When I realized that it was going to cost me 20 K, I quit (though not before I discovered I'm actually good at math.)

I already have an education- why should I pay for another one? I need to be making money, not throwing it away. I went to the Steward's School this past fall and (as soon as I get my letter) I'll know about the other three of five tests we took, two of which I heard that I had passed. Some people already know where they're at - Quinones told me he has to take something at KSU, so I suppose I should hear soon, so we can line it up to go together. Maureen, too, though she's been enforcing the rule for six months- I would guess she passed them all. But the point is, Stewards' (and Racing Officials') School was cheap and took one week, and provided I've passed all the tests, I'm Certifiable (no joke intended.) All I need is a job!!

But the bottom line is, I'm currently still exercising horses at age 49. I do enjoy it, but I think my reflexes are either not as good as they were, or else I am just too trusting. I've been dropped so many times since I got off a wrist injury last summer that I must be pretty empty-headed to keep on doing it. It's the green horses that are screwing me up. The green horses and the fact that it's winter now.

Winter is the time that makes horses better and people worse. We're cold; we can't feel our feet and hands; we have so many clothes on that we can't move, and so on. They on the other hand, are like naked people in an icebox: they have to keep moving. Combine that with the fact that because of the bad track in the winter, they actually GET to move less often, and thus have enough pent up energy to launch little lightweights out of the tack all day long (and that's me - like a 112 lb. monkey hangin' on.)

Sometimes I feel as though I am completely incompetent, because I can't always stay on when I see others staying on. But to my credit, I ride about anything most of the time; and I'll explain what I mean by that when I actually have more time because it makes for good tales. But to stick to getting us to the present, it figures that this past summer, at the height of the money-making part of the season, I should break my wrist and hand in what I thought was going to be a simple rearward dismount. The recovery required four pins and I didn’t go back to work until the frost was on the pumpkin.

I hate working in the winter, because you can’t just get on anything if you are me, but often there isn't much choice about it- there isn't enough work to begin with, never mind kinder mounts. We generally have the ones that were so-and-so broke; they don't have any visible connection to the larger scheme of things. The only difference is that most of them are older and although the more mature, they are just the more set in whatever common ways they learned early on.

Better to spend winter in Florida, but the boyfriend is another issue. I'd suffer along if it were him going, but I don't think he'd put up with me going. The old double standard can be difficult sometimes. And this winter was the worst only because I'm older yet, and I had lost a lot of fitness. I've only just begun to feel like I belong again on a horse, and it's been almost three months.

And it's time to go now, so off I go. Takes a half-hour to get all these clothes on. Sucks.

Holidays and Family

2007-12-25T07:26:00.000-08:00

By now the news has traveled to much of the Racing media and is known throughout the horse racing world that Dale Baird has been killed in a car accident. As a default family member for half a dozen years now, I find myself here among his brothers and sisters this holiday as well as all the holidays and Edna birthdays since '01.

My spouse, Charles and Dale shared some personal distance, and I have always felt that this was due mainly to their very disparate priorities: Charlie would sacrifice his livelihood for the quality of his relationships, and Dale would sacrifice his relationships for the quality of his livelihood. Although they did not share much conversation, Charlie would help Dale anytime if he needed it.

Charles doesn't recognize offhand how like Dale he is: He focused his competitive nature on being "a good person." and he could beat the hell out of Dale on that; But the truth is as Charles has often declared; "I'm just myself." And so was Dale; just himself.

Dale was certainly great for what he did in the material construction of our world, but his loss isn't augmented by his acheivements in the eyes of God. Nor is it mitigated by the fact (or fantasy) that "just becasue he got recognition doesn't make him better in every way"; since he most certainly was not.

When the one who was just here is now gone, the pain is never measured by a scale of a legacy, but only by heaviness of heart.

The spirits of the family and all who were close enough to feel connected have been both injured and strengthened by the loss. Events occur that change our lives all the time, and in the eyes of Creation it's all perfection, because in the end all that is left is the Spirit.

So in sadness or in lighthearted memories, these moments are perfect in the same way a simple farmer's self-expression amid the appearance of hardscrabble circumstances was.... a Heaven in Hell's Despite.
Blessing to all this holiday season!

Moving Toward the Future of Racing

2007-12-13T01:55:00.000-08:00

If you have been visiting at all, which I suspect you have not, friends, you will see that I am beginning to ramp up my activity with the website. I'm planning on changing the domain name when this one expires to one more appropriate to the thrust of the site.

I'm also working on a new application that will make many of the departments obsolete and probably obviate the need for any web developing tools on my part. I have discovered my server's numerous new free tools that can be automatically installed, which is the key to the whole thing. Eventually there will be tremendous space for anybody to create content, so people can share more about what all of us do (at least, thise who can type and use a computer, which are still comparatively few.)

While I was at the Stewards' School in Louisville, there was much talk about tranceparency in the Industry. In case it has never registered to all of you members of the Public, horse racing has for decades been the most heavily policed sport in the country and probably the world. Fans of baseball, football and bikeracing have only just begun to investigate cheating. But because horse racing has always been a gambling outlet, testing for illegal medications, for example has been in practise almost as long as illegal medication.

So imagine, if you will, all the stuff the public never hears. We have been 'corking our bats' since before baseball was a game. But we're the only ones who have been under official scrutiny since the 1800s (maybe the 1700s- I don't actually know).

But this is a new age; I never thought I'd hear a General Manager express that the public should see what this website intends to show: that horse racing is no different than any other sport; or any other game in life, for that matter. It has its share of folks with hay-and-oats integrity and its share of cheatin' m*****f****rs. The only way to promote the honest elements is by exposing the dishonest ones continually. After all, if politics is a nasty, cheating, backstabbing business and no leader exists who has completely avoided involvement in some grift or graft, why would anybody try to say that horse racing is clean?

I am really excited about this. I wouldn't argue that we can completely clean up horse racing. But I will argue that it is best to acknowledge what's so and begin to allow public pressure to add to the other risks that cheaters take. Cheating is a great art, in my opinion, but the sad fact is that making a dishonest dollar costs two honest ones as a rule.

In the Olympics glory is the biggest prize, but in racing the money matters most. To that end, very dollar spent to fix a race cuts into the profit, which until the tickets are cashed is still never a guarantee. Adding to that, behind every score is nearly always at least one failed attempt which means even greater loss. Finally, policing racing makes hiding the fix more costly; an educat public would make hiding the fix more difficult. So the more the public knows about the realities of horse racing, the better off both the public and the industry will be.

I suppose that, like a pimple, transparency could make things seem worse in the beginning. But in the long run, after the patrons go through their own vain attempts to 'expose' foul play and begin once again to trust the industry to police itself, the tide would move more fluidly in the direction of leveling the playing field. And that is an important thing for the health of the industry; keeping it as fair for the competitors and the public as possible.

On and off, I spent some time among people for whom the art of cheating itself appeared to be worth the expense. Some of them were crafy, some of them utterly, hopelessly stupid. The bottom line was that except for the one-in-a-million that actually gets pulled off without a trace, the effort and dollars spent ultimately impoverish the small-time thief. And in these higher tech times, the little cheaters don't have the resources to pull anything off. In my analysis, it costs a lot more money to make a 'score' than it used to. Only a big time thief can pull that off.

The bottom line is that if (and when) it can happen, and if (and when) it does, then it happens no more often then does cheating to become president. And I can rest my case on that.

These conclusions arise from having hung around some shifty people, which I know cost me dearly in my own career as a rider. I don't regret it for what it taught me that I can pass on; it's not worth the cost. I had fun, and I got to hear the stories, which was what I loved about it. Plus I never had to hold a horse - I only ever had to let a horse run. But I ultimately garnered less opportunities to ride because of my associations. If I ever wondered why so-and-so rode all the other girls, but not me, the reason was most likely that I was hanging with a known crook. This continued even after I no longer hung with the crooks; I was marked by my associations.

That's all for now.