Kids vs Horses

So some of my children-less horse loving friends and I were having a discussion about horse poop vs baby poop, and then horses vs children in general. I had to add my $0.02.

Well as a Mom of 4 I can honestly say horse poop smells 1000000x better than baby poop. And baby poop is INSIDE your house (not in an airy barn). As are the dirty diapers (even double bagged) til they get to the trash can (muck piles can be located conveniently downwind.

Thank goodness we are way past the diaper stage with our youngest - she is 3. And just to clarify for all you children-less folks, it really should be the terrible threes, not the terrible twos. Mallory was still sweet and amiable as a two year old. Now she is an evil heathen child and we all fear her wrath.

She has been sick for most of the past 6 weeks, 2 strep infections and just yesterday diagnosed with a UTI (had fevers of 104 yesterday and night before). So she is REALLY REALLY grumpy. I am bribing her with popsicles to take her Bactrim (horse people - can you imagine drinking crushed up SMZ tabs? Let me tell you, its really vile stuff). However the popsicle supply is getting low - and is top priority on the shopping list.

It took us all day yesterday to get her to pee in a cup for a urine culture. It is easier to get pee from a racehorse than from a 3 yo child. We tried at the Dr's office at ~2:30, and then again at the hospital lab in vain til they sent us home with a supply of sterile cups and plenty of castille soap wipes (just like you can use to clean up horsie legs, skin, genitals - castille in wipe form is amazing, must find it online for the track!). We had to return the pee by midnight or we would have to re-register and so began the pee in a cup mission.

I filled her up with lemonade, ran water in the bathroom, whistled at her, put warm washcloths on her wrists.... and she sat on the toilet and told me "But Mommy I just don't pee in cups." Explaining and insisting and bribing and finally about 7:00 we had pee in a cup. Darlin Darren took it straight back to the hospital (we live < 2 miles away) and the lab had closed, so as instructed he dropped it off in the ER, clearly marked with her name duct taped onto the container inside a plastic bag with her name written on it. Doctor told us not to begin antibiotic until we collected the urine sample, so she began the Bactrim last night after we had completed the pee in a cup mission. This morning she had her 2nd dose of Bactrim and shortly thereafter and I get a phone call. The lab calls me and tells me that yes, they have record that we did indeed drop the pee in a cup at the ER last night but it has unfortunately gotten lost in the ER and never made it to the lab. Do we have these problems with horses I ask you?? You bet the test barn never loses their horse pee in a cup. They even store samples for later testing!

So, just heard back from the Dr's office and they said the urine culture is now useless since she has already begun her antibiotic. We will have to do pee in a cup after the course of antibiotic to make sure it's all cleared up. I am going to start whistling every time she goes to the bathroom and maybe I can have her "pee broke" by then.

One last benefit to horses over kids is the fact that you can put them in a stall, field, pasture, paddock, round pen, hell I have seen folks tie them to a chain in the yard and GO DO SOMETHING.

In her favor Mallory is just adorable and very snuggly, and loves "huggies and kissies," she is a Mommy's girl. I must remind myself that she will grow out of this stage and be on to bigger and better ways to terrorize Mom and Dad.

Racing Cancelled

(Dan's Report, a grand gelding by Corporate Report, Overbrook bred)


Well tonight we had Victory Moondance in race #2 at Mountaineer Park. His owners, the Swiharts are great folks and have had their share of hard racing luck this winter with cancellations. They drive 90 minutes each way, Chuck taking off work to come watch their horses race. I warned them earlier in the day that the clocker had warned us of a possible cancellation tonight, so they were prepared for the possibility. The past 36 hours or so have been warm enough that the ice on the bottom of the track surface has begun to thaw, in big chunks. Some places the track is 1" to the bottom, other places it is 12" before you hit bottom. It is never a good situation - thawing causes us as many problems racing wise as freezing conditions and cold weather.

Moondance was picked 4th, having regained a nice race condition (nw 2/6 mo)that allowed him to race against an easier class of horses. He has really come around, his coat blossoming, his body rounding and muscling out, and a new fluidity to his movement. Dancer was alert and ready to race tonight - ready but not worried about it. We were in race #2, and at the time of the cancellation announcement (about 6:40 pm) Moondance had been groomed, bandaged, his tail tied up and taped to keep out the mud - in short he was ready to be bridled and led over to the races. We were all disappointed, yet all agreed that cancellation was in the best interest of the horse given the track conditions.

The bright side is that a cancellation gives the horse a "Z" date for our entry system. Since we got "rained out" so to speak we will have priority the next time we enter. There is a race for him next week when he regains an even easier condition (nw/6 mo), it looks like the spot for him.

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be 60 degrees with up to 1/2" of rain. The track will be thawing out even more, ice mixing with the rainfall. The racetrack will be a total mess and in marginal condition. We opted to breeze a horse a day early because of the anticipated track conditions for tomorrow morning. We have Dr Zi racing tomorrow night (tuesday), and it is likely they will cancel racing again tomorrow. That horse has gotten so sharp he has to run soon before he hurts himself (or an innocent bystander).

Countontherun

Just a note to say that Countontherun (the $45 horse) was adopted thru New Vocations with the assistance of the Exceller Fund. He is now living in Tennessee with his young owner who adores him. Please support the Exceller Fund and New Vocations.

Busy, cold, night at the horseraces.

Well last night at the racetrack it was cold, rainy, and miserable. It was the first night of horseracing at Mountaineer Park without the "King" - Dale Baird. The flags in the Mountaineer infield flew at half staff in remembrance of Dale. We had three horses in plus one to run for good friend Bob Guciardo from Cleveland. Two were longshots - Unstable and Carrie Boone. We were worried because we didn't know if Dr Zi would do his recent "head throwing/ smash jockey's face in" move out of the gate with his huge jowly head. As added stress 2 of our 4 jockeys took off their mounts for the evening and we needed to find new riders for the 2nd and 4th races at about 6:00 - an hour to post time. As usual it was more a matter of "who can we get to ride" rather than "who do we want to ride" and replacement riders Axel Dasilva and Ken Deonaugth (sp?) both followed instructions perfectly, we were absolutely thrilled with both rides, and will use both riders again.

Unstable ran really well for Axel (at 50+ to 1 odds), beaten less than 5 lengths, was wide in a smart move by jock Axel Dasilva to keep the dirt out of his face, and he really liked him and asked to ride him back.

Dr Zi stormed immediately out of the gate ahead of the rest of the rest of the field, with NONE of the headslinging of the past 3 races - yeay!! Jock Ken D had him laying beautifully third in hand down the back side. Zi is is a router going short so he ought to have a good kick at the end. At the 3/8 pole Ken asked him for his run, Zi considered it briefly then chucked it at the head of the lane, starting to "climb" and complain about the muddy going.

Carrie Boone was in with such a tough bunch of mares. When she was obviously not going to place jock on a deep muddy track Luis Rivera wrapped up on her and let her canter safely home, and she came back in one piece.

In the same race, Never Under ran a huge race under Rex Stokes, leading most of the way, ceding late for 2nd. Bob has done a beautiful job of training her - she has really had a great year. Her owners are leaning towards breeding her - and she will produce lovely, athletic, stout babies.

We tried to sell Dr Zi this morning - had him sold, paid for and delivered once this morning and the guy came back 15 mins later and told me he didnt realize he was a stud and wanted his money back. Technically he IS a "horse" and I never tried to mislead him. Yes I realize I should have pointed out that he was (very obviously) a stud. Zi looks all stallion and has these HUGE nuts hanging there and when the guy picked up his legs to flex him, the nuts practically poked him in the face. We could have been been a typical "horse trader" and say "too bad, you bought him, he is yours now." But we said "fine, give him back."



Jockey Axel Dasilva came to the barn this morning to check in with us as I was walking Zi and mentioned what a gorgeous horse he is. Zi is a horse that turns heads because he is the cock of the walk - vibrantly healthy, slick as a ribbon and dapples glowing in his rich liver chestnut coat. I commented to Axel that he had just run last night (as now Zi is dancing and snorting fire with the chain through his mouth) and Axel asked "Is that Dr Zi?" The horse is infamous, I swear.

We have Charles the First in tonight with Ricky Feliciano aboard. Charlie is feeling great, acting strong and full of himself. There is a lot of dying speed in the race and we know Charlie is capable of a great closing kick so we are hopeful he will like the conditions and put in a big effort.

A Very Good Week

So we had a very good week with the racehorses this past week. From 5 starters we had 2 winners, 2 seconds and a fifth. Not bad for a small outfit like ours.

First we started the week off on Sunday with a nice win by Story's Image for owner Keri Basham. Image got up and won going short for the first time with rider Huber Villa Gomez (aka "Shorty") in the irons. Unfortunately she was claimed away by trainer Paula Bacon for Aces Full stable.

Monday kept up the winning streak with jockey Jason Lumpkins piloting Blues Mountain to a convincing victory over the Mountaineer strip.

Friday saw Canyon Crook rally with jock Huber Villa Gomez for a good 2nd and Bay Window run a respectable fifth place with Daryll Brinkley up.

And finally on Sunday we finished off the week with She's So Cold leading for most of the race then settling for a game 2nd place finish with jockey Daryll Brinkley aboard.

All in all it was a very good week. :-)

After Words

Life is so fleeting. It can be here and gone in an instant. Blindsided, struck with no warning, vulnerable, dead at the scene. How do you recover from something like that? How does one begin to recover both physically and mentally? How do the survivors cope with the loss, and the grief? That feeling, this awful anxiety, this feeling of impending doom, what ever you want to call it - I can’t shake it. Life is so precious, every second.

A Parent Wonders

A parent wonders when their child grows up......

What one thing will I wish I had done differently?
Will they still think I was a good parent when they're grown?
Will I be happy with what I did for them vs what I didnt do?
Did the things that mattered at the time really matter in the end?
What should I have said?
What should I have done?
Would my parents have approved?
Would it make a huge difference?
Did it really matter?
What was the cost, in the long run?