Wins

It was hectic with having three horses running yesterday. The fiancé and I do almost all of the work ourselves to get them ready to run, so having one in the fourth, fifth, and seventh race makes it a little tough. Our groom, her brother, and her dad helped us with getting the horses up to the paddock and cooling them out or we would have been in a world of hurt.  We were literally going non stop from early in the morning until early evening.

Princess was in the fourth race, a non-winners of three lifetime going seven furlongs. She drew the outside post, #7 of 7 horses, which was perfect. After breaking on top, the rider took a hold of her and set her just off of the pace. She started to really pick it up coming out of the turn and the horse inside of her started getting out, pushing Princess wide. She kept digging in down the lane and ended up winning by two lengths. She got a perfect ride, I couldn't have asked for a better one. So proud of my girl!

My pretty filly!

She could have posed a little better.....

We had Volage, aka Nelson, in the fifth race. He won a maiden special weight here last week. The race didn't knock him out at all, he was bucking and kicking on the walker the next day, so we ran him again this weekend. After he won, there were people mouthing off to his owner about how the horses that he beat weren't much, which we already knew and is the truth (that's why he was in a non-two $5,000 instead of an allowance this race). However, a win is a win and it matters to someone. I don't see why people have to be assholes to the owner about it, let the guy enjoy his win. Anyway, I was hoping he would run well enough yesterday to at least shut some of them up.

Nelson's win picture from last week.

Nelson is a big old plodder and will just lope behind the rest of the field if the rider doesn't be really aggressive. The rider did a good job of keeping him close to where he needed to be and Nelson ran a pretty good third, which was fine. No excuses, he just got outrun. This is the first time he actually came back a little tired, so at least he finally put some effort into a race.

By the time I got back from Nelson's race they had already called to get ready for the seventh. I only had about ten minutes to get Harley bridled, wrapped, and stretched before we went up. I hate doing race day wraps because wrapping anything with Vetwrap without some form of padding freaks me out. Having to do it in a huge hurry REALLY made me nervous, but they actually turned out well and didn't budge during the race. Phew. 

Harley drew the #2, which sucked because she tends to run better on the outside. I really got nervous when she didn't break well.

She's in the white. This was right after they broke.

Harley was 9 1/2 lengths behind at the quarter pole. Dennis is a smart rider and didn't panic when she broke bad. He just sat there and let her gradually get closer instead of freaking out and shipping her to catch up. At the half mile pole she had made up a little ground, now only 5 1/4 lengths behind the leader. At the quarter pole she was third of six horses by 2 1/2 lengths. Dennis swung her to the outside and she came flying to win it by a length and a half!

Zinging down the lane. Dennis said she was just really starting to run and had a lot left, that he had a hard time getting her pulled up.

Apparently he was right, because she came flying back to the winner's circle too.

Harley and Dennis are now three for three. This was Harley's first time against open company and even one of our owner's said he didn't know if she would be able to win it due to the competition now being tougher. She showed so much heart and try! It was impressive that she won, but even more so that she overcame a bad break to do so. 

Thank you Dennis!

So, we had a pretty good day yesterday. Winning all three races would have been even better, but I'm not going to complain.

Riding, Racing Recap, and Random

I couldn't just post about one thing today, so you get a little bit about a few things.

I'm going to pretend that everyone is this excited about that fact....

Riding:

Beefs had laser therapy yesterday and he felt REALLY good today (thank you H). He started out much more relaxed and even though we didn't get those moments of huge impulsion, he was more consistently active in the hind end along with using himself better. The good moments are coming more and more frequently.

What I focused on today:
1. Riding the hind end
2.Getting him to reach for the connection more consistently instead of curling up
3. Transitions (however slight) within the gates.
4. Sending him more forward into my hands when he wanted to back off, hallow his back, and get above the bit.
5. Getting him to use his hind end, top line, and the base of his neck better.
6. Keep his neck from shortening in all three gates.





*I was too lazy to edit, so you get it all; the good, the bad, and the ugly. Feel free to judge, I ride better after I've been criticized :) Also, yes I know that shirt looks horrendous to ride in, but I'm trying to fix my polo tan.



Apparently my left wrist decided to join my left foot in being spastic. Whatever.

I'm not going to say I accomplished all of these things, but there was general improvement. In short, you can see a fairly good difference between the videos from a few days ago (click here) and today. He may look a little more inconsistent in the connection at times today, that is because I was riding him into the connection instead of messing with my hands to keep it (hopefully, that makes sense). I still feel the work was a lot higher quality.

I guess I should mention how well behaved this is for him being at the track. Especially since the bugs were really bad (he doesn't typically have helicopter tail). If he does this well here, he is going to really rock away from the racetrack.

Racing:

Harley and Dennis-win #2 at the meet

Harley won her second race in a row here yesterday. Everything has just kind of clicked with her these last two races. We drew to the outside for both, Dennis (the jockey) fits her really well and she relaxes well for him out there, and she is doing well as far as health and training in general. These last two races she has run very professional, doing everything Dennis has asked of her. Good girl!

Woody (#7) heading to the gates

Woody ran 2nd yesterday, out nodded and beaten by a nose. This meant that we were a nose away from winning our last four races in a row. Not that I'm complaining, but crap! Anyway, after having one mishap after another for his last three races, I was just happy that everything went smoothly and he put in a really nice effort. BTW, if you ever want to see a really pissed off jockey, go talk to them after they get beat by a nose. What mattered to me was that Donnie gave him a smart ride. He made all the right choices with where he put Woody in the (very weird run) race. Shit happens, hopefully next time.

Random (photos and video):

It's a man's world...

I'm not sure who is babysitting who.

"I think he's full."

Looks at his mouth

"Yep. He's full."

Kid is hysterical!

More dark clouds coming our way. Shocker.

H working on the mare we just claimed. I call her Gigantor or Sasquatch (the horse, not H).

Apparently Beefs prefers his lunch over grazing.