Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.
Training
horses is like a soap opera, it really is. The only difference being
that in a soap opera, they show you all the details of the trauma. If
you are a horse racing fan, you rarely get to see what really happens
during the entire week when the horse is not on the track for 10 minutes
in front of you. Every trainer, groom and horse has a story that never
gets told or that is never known by the average guy.
I have mentioned Emersons Paradise in passing in many blogs. Near the end of my training days, he was my best horse. Best in terms of earning money. He was never really more than a cheap claimer, but he was sound, honest and a very nice horse to deal with. He did what he was told and he was happy as long as he was fed and got his paddock time to run free as much as possible. He was a joy to be around. He was just happy to be a horse and be well cared for. After he was done racing, I gave him away to a nice family with some kids, and they thought he was Secretariat. He was like a pet, and they basked in him and he with them. But, it wasn't the first time I'd had him in his career.
I have mentioned Emersons Paradise in passing in many blogs. Near the end of my training days, he was my best horse. Best in terms of earning money. He was never really more than a cheap claimer, but he was sound, honest and a very nice horse to deal with. He did what he was told and he was happy as long as he was fed and got his paddock time to run free as much as possible. He was a joy to be around. He was just happy to be a horse and be well cared for. After he was done racing, I gave him away to a nice family with some kids, and they thought he was Secretariat. He was like a pet, and they basked in him and he with them. But, it wasn't the first time I'd had him in his career.
When
he was just a colt, 3 years old, I spotted him warming up one day when I
was at the races on an off day. He looked to be a perfect horse for me,
after a string that were not. For a trainer who doesn't have to pay a
training bill, or a groom, he could earn well for me and I could bank
the profit. Not a good horse for an owner who had to pay all the bills.
He was zero vet work, he was healthy most of the time, and he would earn
steady if you put him in the right spot class wise and race wise every
week. I think I won 3 races with him in the 6 or 7 months I had him the
first time around, and he was claimed for exactly what I paid for him
when I lost him. I was sorry to see him go, but I was in the racing
game, not the barn pets game. I always kept my eye on him for the
remaining years until I got him back. The last guy who had him couldn't
do anything with him, and I approached him about either selling him to
me, or letting me train him on a lease. He decided on the lease, and
when I made him perform right away, and he was worth almost what he had
paid for him, he decided to just sell him to me. He was good for me for
another 2 years before some minor injuries and older age caught up with
him.
But,
the story of how I got to him and what I did after I lost him the first
time around is what this blog is about. I will do it in parts, as its a
long story. Just like a soap opera is.
Before
Emersons Paradise the first time around I had gotten myself into a bad
situation. I had a day job, a very good one in terms of money, and also a
small stable of cheap horses which I inherited as a trainer--one who
had never trained or groomed anything before, because my trainer could
not handle them anymore. Out of the 5 he had for me as an owner, I took 3
that I wanted, and sold him the other one, while the 5th one was
basically worthless to anybody and we gave her away for nothing. I
started from there.
Nothing
was race ready when I got them. They were still racehorses to some
degree or the other. One was a turned out mare that I had bought to race
and then breed. She injured herself fairly quickly right after I'd
bought her, and she also wasn't very fertile as it turns out. So, she
was being rested, and I thought I'd either try to breed her again, or
get her back to the races. I was told by everyone who thought they knew
better that her bowed tendon would preclude her from racing ever again.
It was ugly, no doubt about that. When she arrived on the trailer with
another one, she was dog lame. I couldn't figure out why, but it didn't
appear to be her bad leg, as there was no heat in that and she didn't
flinch at all when you touched her there. I turned her out and she
walked lame, with a limp. After a day, a guy at the barn I had picked to
train told me she had a big nail stuck in the middle of her foot. I
held her head, he pulled it out, the blood came pouring out, and 2 days
later she was completely sound. I didn't have time for her at this point
anyway, so I just turned her out every day and let her run. And run she
did. She was completely sound in the paddock and almost fit enough to
race. She was very energetic and ran the paddock all day. That would be
something I noted when I did get her back to the races. Her name was
Almahurst Loraine, a big strapping, bossy and fast mare. She was big and
strong, and if you didn't know better, you would say I had Niatross in
the paddock. She looked just like him, and her mother was by Niatross. I
had high hopes for her as a broodmare, but that never worked out.
The
second one was called Eddie Lebec, named after the character on Cheers.
I didn't name him. I bought him as an unraced 2yo when he didn't make
it to the races for the people that bought him as a yearling. I paid
very little, they paid too much. I thought he looked okay, he had good
breeding, he was healthy and had no injuries. I thought I would take a
shot. I went half with the trainer, but he couldn't make him go, and
didn't want him, so I decided to take him on. It was a risky move for a
novice trainer with no experience at all. One thing about him though, he
was well behaved. He would do just about everything you asked, and he
had some speed and grit. When a horse would come up beside him, even a
racehorse that was much faster than him, he would not let them pass. He
would go as far as he could until their advanced stage of development
was too much for him at that point. I knew he would take a while, as he
hadn't been trained at all in 2 months. I started back with him slowly,
just jogging and building him up, seeing what he was like, reading what I
could to see what I could do with him to make him into a racehorse and
valuable to me. I thought he would make it eventually, if I took my time
and let him develop. I didn't really ask much of him until the warmer
weather came back, so he wasn't much work either.
The
3rd one was the easiest to work with, in terms of me knowing virtually
nothing practical about training. He was perfect gaited, wore very
little equipment, stood quietly and waited for you to give him his cue,
and knew his way to the track and back. When you turned him to train
fast, he did that and understood his job. I literally could not go wrong
with a starter horse like this. He was the one I worked with and on
every day either before work or after, sometimes both. When I had more
time, when the days got longer, or on the weekends, I would fiddle with
the other two and do more work on them. There was no rush. I was making
very good money at my day job and I was taking my time and learning. I
also had no truck or trailer, so it wasn't like I was going to go
anywhere anytime soon with them when they were ready to go to the
racetrack. It was a process, learning on the job, trial and error. Let
me tell you, there were lots of errors. This horses' name was Edward
Seelster, a horse I had claimed a year or more before for a group of
friends to learn the owning game. He was also a cheap horse, like
Emersons Paradise, and they were similar. Edward was small, steady,
stout, consistent and easy to work with. Edward was another horse I
bought back later in his life, and that is a story for another day.
When
we first got him, there was a lot of room for improvement on the
previous trainer, and we did that. He won his first start, and then was
2nd 3 times in a row after that. The money was good where he raced, and
we did well. Eventually, he started to make smaller amounts only, and
then got sore, so we shut him down in November. He arrived on my
doorstep so to speak around February. I had hoped to have him ready by
mid May, and was on track for that. It ended up he didn't get there
until late June.
One
thing about Edward is he didn't like being in his stall. In a perfect
world, I would have lived at the farm I trained at, turned him out
almost all the time, then just brought him in to train and put him right
back out. He would have lasted and stayed healthier under those
circumstances. I put him out with Loraine whenever he wasn't training
and she was outside, and they were perfect mates. She was bossy and
dominant, he was a happy go lucky gelding who knew his place and just
let her boss him around. It was a perfect marriage for the two of them.
She ran a lot, and she made him run...chased him to run, if he didn't
want to. On the days I didn't have enough time to jog him, or it was too
dark when I arrived, I put them out together for an hour while I did
the stalls and that was enough to keep him fit. On the weekends I would
train him as fast as he was fit to go at that point, and he was getting
close to race speed. I trained him one last time in early May, and he
was a week away from going to the track to prepare to race again for
money. I couldn't have been more happy with him and the job I'd done,
considering how little I knew then.
One
thing about Edward, his biggest flaw was he had a bad stomach. That was
manageable, but it was an issue to watch. He would tie up, and if you
don't know what that is, its basically muscle cramps where he seizes up
and doesn't want to move. The best thing for those types of horses is to
always keep them moving. So, one night, just before he was to go to the
track to train, I left him outside in a small pen beside the barn. I'd
done that while I was there a few times, and he was good in it. He
couldn't get out on his own, and it was to be a warm enough night to
make it a good idea. In this case though, he didn't have Loraine to
watch over him and his back.
I
arrived very early the next morning, before work, and the sun had just
come up. I saw Edward, and something wasn't right. There was blood all
over his legs, and the little small pen had been torn up. My guess was
that some wolves had tried to corner him and kill him, and he fought
back, enough that they didn't succeed. Anyway, that set me back on him 3
weeks waiting for him to heal.
Wolves
were an issue in that area. You saw them off in the distance every now
and then when you jogged the horses on the track, and the odd time you
would see one actually on the track. There are 3 types of horses and how
they react to seeing a wolf. The first kind, like Eddie Lebec will keep
going forward but shy towards the inside of the track to avoid getting
close to them. That is the majority of them. The second kind, some of
them, are the Edward Seelster types who see them, stop in their tracks,
and turn completely around to go in the other direction. Most of those
also want off the track and back to the barn, where its safe.
Then
there are the very few, the 3rd kind, who will not only not shy or turn
around, but make a B line right to the wolves and attack them.
Almahurst Loraine did that a few times when I jogged her. She was
fearless and brave. As long as Edward was in the paddock with her, he
was safe. She would kill anything that got near them. When I went to get
Edward, I had to put feed on the other side of the paddock so she would
be occupied and let me take him. Otherwise, she was the boss and I was
not allowed in their space.
Since
Edward was off for 3 weeks, other than to take care of his legs and
bring them back to proper standing, I began to jog Loraine and also do
more work with Eddie Lebec. Eddie Lebec was tricky. He had a hitchy
gait, and I had to play around with his shoeing and equipment to manage
it. That was using skills I really didn't have yet, so as I said
earlier, at that stage it was trial and error. By the time I got him
close to race speed, I had him right. All the pieces came together. He
was never perfect, but he was viable and he did very well when I first
started him at the track. He showed that determined desire to lead and
not give up the lead, and that got him 3 wins in his first 6 starts. He
turned out to be my best earner that summer. The guy that had him before
me, my previous trainer, and also still a good friend, watched him race
and couldn't believe he was the same horse. I had done a good job
making him into something. I was proud of myself for that. Eventually,
he was kind of lame, as he had suspect ankles that only got worse over
time, but I kept him over for the next season. That was a mistake. I
could have sold him for decent money and a good profit after the 3rd
win, but I didn't. Live and learn.
Jogging
Loraine was another matter entirely. Jogging would be a loose, but
inaccurate way to describe what she did. Loraine didn't jog, not often
anyway, and not willingly.
She
was scary. There is no other way to say it. I felt I took my life into
my hands every time I took her out to go onto the track. She was so
strong, so determined to do it her way, to go as fast as she could as
soon as she could, that I couldn't control her. As they say in the game,
I was just a passenger when I sat behind her. It wasn't jogging, it was
survival.
Being
that I was by myself much of the time, the biggest danger was letting
go of the crossties and having her bolt forward before I could get
seated and have some measure of control of her on the pathway to the
track. If I could do that, I could at least try and keep her slow. Even
with that, she would pull so hard you could only go a lap or two and
then either let her go full out, or take her back to the barn.
I
tried to take her out mostly on the weekends, when I could get someone
to lead her out and try to stop her from gaining a head of steam. Once
she did that, it was game over. That worked for a while, but with Edward
on the shelf, I ended up taking her out to
"jog" every night. I feared and dreaded it every
time. It like thinking you are driving your car, but you know the brakes
likely will not work.
Next part to come shortly.
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