All or Nothing

"I know you're tired. Keep going, keep trying. Just a little longer. You can get there. Finish strong."

-my thoughts that were applied as much to myself as the horses this weekend.



 I watched this before Hirsch's race. It just seemed fitting, as cheesy as that may sound. The numbers and odds all said that the chances weren't great, but everything about the horse was telling us different.

Last weekend was the end of the Arapahoe park meet. It was a REALLY good one for us!

Photo credit: Coady Photography 

It started out with Sandy winning the 1 and 1/16th mile Spicy Stake. We had claimed her for $5,000 last year and ever since The Fiancé had been saying that we were going to win The Spicy with her this year. This is very unlike him and it still shocks me that he was so confident. The fact that it actually happened makes it all the more interesting. Positive thoughts can do amazing things, I guess.

Photo credit: Coady Photography

Sandy, who went off at 3rd choice at 5/1, won the race by a nose. Her and the 2nd place horse were 11+ lengths in front of the rest of the field. She ate a lot of dirt and had to weave through some traffic to get there, but she kept digging in and I'm extremely proud of how hard she tried! Russell, her jockey, rode his ass off too. They both gave it their all and it worked!

Big Momma getting some love from her owners Neil and Roger, and jockey, Russel Vicchirilli.

*Side note: Scriptonite ran 4th in a $3,200 claimer on Saturday, which I was happy with considering that he had bruised his foot so bad that he couldn't even hardly walk after the Boise race and hadn't run in 45 days. I thought it was especially good for a horse that was "finished". Apparently, people took it upon themselves to diagnose him so even though they've never so much as touched the horse. They also proceeded to inform the lady that wants Script when he retires of his doomed racing career. No, I'm not mad. It is what it is. If I worried about everyone that loves to stir shit up, I'd never get any rest. I guess it's a compliment, no one would bother with us if we totally sucked. The only thing you can do is laugh it off and keep focused on the things that really matter.

I love this photo, by photographer Carrie Sigglin, of Script getting bathed! Photo credit: Carrie Sigglin Photography

Photo credit: Coady Photography

On Sunday, we had Hirsch in the $100,000 Arapahoe Park Classic. It was a long shot after how bad he ran in Boise (I forgot that I didn't do a post on the Boise trip, he REALLY threw in a clunker), but I wasn't really deterred over that. After he got back to Denver, he flourished. He was good mentally and physically. If we were going to take a shot, now was the time to do it. We certainly didn't have anything to lose, so why not?

We knew Dennis would have to ride another horse in this race, it ran 2nd in the Classic last year, so we got the second leading rider of the meet, Dennis was leading rider (CONGRATS BUDDY!), to come and work Hirsch. Theriot fit Hirsch perfectly and in the two times he got on him before the race, you could tell that the pair was going to be a force to be reckoned with. *Hirsch picks his people and if he doesn't like a rider, you might as well not bother.

Hirsch and Brian Theriot

"My name is Hirsch and you seem kind of okay so I will now allow you to kiss my nose."

The Fiancé said before the race that he doesn't want to go out there not to lose, but to win it (yes, there is a difference). He didn't want the rider to play it safe, he wanted Theriot to be aggressive. We knew that no one expected Hirsch to be able to make the 1 and 1/8 mile distance, but we had adjusted his training for it. We knew that the other riders wouldn't want to risk burning up their horse to chase a horse they would be anticipating to stop. Theriot understood that too. It was all or nothing. Hirsch was either going to run 1st, 2nd, or last. It didn't matter where we ended up, but we were damn sure not going to play it safe.

Photo Credit: Coady Photography 

Hirsch is a very quick horse. I told Theriot to not be afraid to open up three or four lengths on the rest of the field, make them catch him. That's exactly what he did. They made a good run at Hirsch coming down the lane, but he had cat and moused them the whole way and held on to win by a length at 7-1 odds. *He probably should have been 10-1 or higher, but his owner is very popular at the track (I often refer to him as The Godfather of Arapahoe Park because you can't sit down and talk to him for more than ten minutes without someone coming up to respectfully shake his hand and ask what he thinks about one thing or another) and when he told his friends that Hirsch could win the race, they believed him. A few of our other owners had a lot of faith too.

The Fiancé and The Godfather of Arapahoe Park aka Dale enjoying the moment.

This was Hirsch's first stake win. It's the biggest purse we've ever won and our second Black Type win (stakes with a purse of $50,000 or more). Sandy's stake was the third largest purse we had ever won. Yes, it was a very good weekend!

I can't even begin to describe how much I adore everyone in this picture with me!

I'm so extremely grateful for the horses we have and especially for our owners. The fiancé is very particular about who he will train for, he strongly believes in quality over quantity when it comes to horses AND owners. Having awesome owners has made life all that much more peaceful and we really appreciate them!

ARAPAHOE PARK 2015 HIGHLIGHTS

20 starts- 7 wins, 1 second, 2 thirds

35% win percentage, 50% ITM (1st,2nd, or 3rd)

Ranked 5th of 86 trainers with earnings of $172,447

Ranked 11th by wins.

4 stakes wins, 2 allowance wins, and 1 Maiden Special Weight win. (We only ran two horses in a claiming race, so I'm not too upset we didn't win any of those)

Average earnings per start: $8,622.

Bourbon Sense:

4 starts-3 wins

Ranked 1st of 508 horses with $77,400 in earnings.

1st- Allowance 6 furlongs purse: $13,000

1st- Allowance 5 1/2 furlongs purse: $13,000

4th- Front Range Stakes 7 furlongs purse : $40,000

1st- Arapahoe Park Classic 1 1/8 mile purse:$100,000

Colinda Dawn:

2 starts- 2wins

Ranked 5th of 508 horses with $48,000 in earnings

1st- Goeorge Wafer Memorial 1 mile purse: $40,000

1st- Colorado Derby 1 1/16 mile purse: $40,000.

Sandhill Lady:

4 starts- 1 win, 1 3rd

Ranked 16th of 508 horses with $30,151 in earnings.

1st- Spicy Stake 1 1/16th mile purse:46,055

Scriptonite:

3 starts-1win earnings: $6,438

1st- Maiden Special Weight 5 1/2 furlongs purse: $10,000

Snow Bunny:

1start- 1 3rd earnings: $4,000

3rd: Goerge Wafer Memorial 6 furlongs purse: $40,000

*The winner of this race was disqualified for carrying the wrong weight and Bunny was moved up to 2nd. However, the trainer of the winner is trying to get the ruling overturned and she may get moved back down. The Fiancé is siding with the winner on this, the weight being wrong was more a clerical mistake than the trainer's fault, and it isn't right that he should get disqualified. It's okay if Bunny gets moved back down to third. The fiancé has helped the winning trainer out a lot with his appeal and apparently the good karma came back to us this weekend. I'm proud of Ty for standing up for what he thinks is right even though we stood to double our money (we get half of what Bunny makes) if the winner was disqualified.

I'm not bragging or starting to get a big head or anything like that. I understand just as well as anyone that our barn could get cold at any second, which is why I appreciate how well the meet at Arapahoe went for us even more. I am very proud of the horses, The Fiancé, and even myself. We all worked really hard and I'm officially, completely exhausted. Two weeks of racing in Farmington, NM and then we get to go on a vacation for 2-3 weeks before heading to Phoenix. It will be our first significant break from the track since 2009.

$hit Happens

On Sunday I left Idaho for Denver. I got back to the track at about 10:30 in the morning Monday. After unloading the horses and getting them taken care of, I called The Fiancé, who was in Farmington, NM with another horse we had running.

He asked me if I wanted to ride down with our jockey, Dennis, to watch the race.

Sure. Why not? I had only driven all night, what's seven more hours in a car? I said I would and informed Dennis that he would have to do the majority of the driving. We were going to take his Mustang and then decided to take our truck instead just in case the Fiance decided to ride back with us (more room, more comfort, etc.). Thank God we did. A couple of hours later, I was back on the road.

It was an absolutely beautiful drive through the mountains. The Fiancé had told me about a place on the way that he thought would be a good spot for us to get away for a couple of weeks. The place looked amazing and both Dennis and I were mesmerized by the scenery.

It began to get dark and we ended up missing a turn. After we realized our mistake and were headed back in the right direction, a car came flying around a turn with their brights on, nearly running us into the guard rail. I'm honestly not sure how we missed it.

I was shook up over that, but we were back on our merry way and just over an hour away from Farmington. All of the sudden I see a brown blur off to the right.

There was no time to react. Not even time for me to get a single cuss word out and those come pretty quickly to me. Just the beginning of a a gasp and WHAP!!! Dennis had stomped on the brakes a half a second (if that) before it hit. The hood flew up. I saw a blur of brown fur flying off to the left. That was about it. I remember thinking that seemed WAY too big to be a deer. My first thought when I saw it was "moose", which is obviously an absurd notion in New Mexico, but panicked minds can be very imaginative. We finally managed to get stopped without going off the road.

After sitting in silence for a second or two, listening to the truck hiss, we confirmed that we were both basically okay. I checked my phone which seemed to proudly announce that it had no service. Neither did Dennis's. At this point we both began to cuss. A lot.

We jumped out to check the damage to the truck. It was bad, but not as bad as I expected for how hard of an impact it was. A car came and just kept on rolling by. I wanted to cry, but figured Dennis wouldn't want to have to deal with a weeping Jodi on top of everything else. He went to check on the deer, which was really about a 400 lb cow elk (at least that's better than a 700-800lb bull elk). Yeah, it wasn't going to be going anywhere anytime soon. I was afraid that we wouldn't be either. Being stuck on a dark, mountain highway with people driving like crazies and my truck sitting out in the middle of the road was NOT a good feeling.

A nice, older couple from the nearby reservation picked me up to take me where I could get phone service while Dennis stayed with the truck. I called The Fiancé. They called the cops. The cops called the tow truck. The cop picked me up and took me back to the truck. He did his report, asked questions, gave Dennis a breathilizer (for insurance purposes) and we waited on the tow truck.

How small town, Idaho girls cheer their friends up.

I finally got the nerve to go look at the elk. It wasn't our fault, but I still felt horrible. I'm a rancher's daughter, I was raised that hunting was just a part of life. I have never felt the need or desire to go hunting myself, I wouldn't have the heart to kill an animal unless I absolutely had to, but I'm not against other people doing it. I've eaten a lot of deer, elk, and other game in my life. However, I was also taught that hunting was for the food, you don't kill just to kill, and you certainly don't waste the life you took. This dead elk just seemed to be such a waste. Knowing that she would just sit there rotting really bothered me. I was hoping that the coyotes would at least eat it, but she didn't look like anything had touched her when we drove by today. I know how stupid it sounds to be bothered by unintentionally killing an elk (I wasn't even driving), but I was all the same.

*deleted picture of dead cow elk here* 

I figured no one would want to see it.

Maybe it was just the shock of everything, I didn't stop shaking until I got the hotel, four hours after we hit her, and got into a hot bath.

The ride in the tow truck didn't help. I was sitting in the middle which, of course, ended up not having a seatbelt. The driver informed us how top heavy the tow truck was with that big of a pickup on it and then proceeded to speed through the dark and winding mountain road that is in a forrest filled with deer and elk while proceeding to light his cigarettes and play with his phone. Thanks for that dude! I really needed a whole hour of being convinced I was going to die after everything else that happened. Asshole.

To lighten the mood of this post, here is a pic of Dennis and The Fiancé sleeping on the way back today. They're both going to kill me if they ever see this.

I've honestly never seen a person sleep in this position before...

Anyway, I'm rambling. The good news is that neither of us are hurt. Dennis is just a tiny bit sore and my chest, the left side of my ribs, and neck are sore. We both had our seatbelts on. The elk didn't go through the windshield. We probably would be dead right now if we had been driving Dennis's mustang and hit her, but we didn't. The truck might be totaled, but it might not be (we should know by tomorrow). All in all, we're pretty lucky.

Who would have thought that Hell could be this pretty?

This does prove my point that New Mexico is just a very bad place for me to be. Though, I thought it'd be safe asking as I stayed away from Hellbuquerque.

*Fingers crossed that the truck isn't totaled because I really need that vacation, no matter where we take it, even more now. That won't happen if we have to get a new one.

Filly Power

The fiancé and I had a good week.

Last Sunday Colinda Dawn won the George Wafer Memorial Route and we ran third in the George Wafer Memorial Sprint with Snow Bunny (both stakes for 3 year old fillies).   

You can watch Colinda's George Wafer Memorial win here.

Colinda went to the lead out of the gates and ended up winning by 2 1/4. Dennis, her jockey, came back and said that she was still looking around at everything (she got herself beat by a half length in a stake in Phoenix because she was convinced she saw dragons in the infield). You can see in the replay that she is just out there screwing around. That doesn't mean I'm any less proud of her. She was barely even tired after the race and it was her first race off after we gave her a 30 day break, 85 days since her last race. I told the fiancé and Dennis that I'd rather she do it easy and be messing around than be all out to win.

Colinda coming back with outrider and friend, Haley.

The fiancé decided to nominate her to the Colorad Derby for the following Sunday just in case she came out of the George Wafer really good AKA breathing fire. She did.

I was fairly certain Colinda would run well in the George Wafer as long as we had her fit enough. The Colorado Derby made me nervous because the colts and geldings she would be running against were quite a bit more accomplished than the fillies she beat. Plus, Colinda is speed and almost the entire field was speed.

What made me feel a little better is that she trained like a monster the day before the race. That still doesn't mean we went into the race overconfident.

                  Such a diva!

It turns out that I didn't need to worry. Colinda went to the lead and never looked back. Dennis said it felt like they were out for a two minute lick when he was on the backside and that was with her going a fairly good clip on a fairly slow track. She pulled away from the rest of the field to beat the boys by 9 lengths.

Watch Colinda's Colorado Derby win here.

Now, when you do something like win a stake with a filly and enter her back in another stake against the boys to run a week later, you're going to catch some crap. People will think you're greedy or cruel or both. They don't know Colinda and they don't know my fiancé. Colinda has fire running through her veins and  she LOVES her job. The fiancé is very conservative as a trainer and he especially isn't going to risk hurting, as I refer to her, "his princess". Colinda has way too bright of a future to take an unnecessary risk or enter just to run. The fiancé thought she had a good shot at winning it, he wouldn't have bothered if he didn't.

         PC: Coady Photography

Like I told one lady that admitted to thinking Ty was crazy initially, she came out of the Wafer on tilt. It was either work her or run her, might as well run her.

Thank goodness Colinda and Dennis (who didn't doubt Ty at all) put all doubts to rest. She didn't just win, she did it impressively.

Colinda and jockey, Dennis Collins.

Dennis came back from this race saying that Colinda still wasn't completely focused. She did seem like she put a little more effort into this race. Dennis had to keep getting after her a little, not to keep her going, but to keep her from losing too much focus down the lane. Colinda trains well in the mornings, doesn't do anything wrong. There's not much we can do to make her more focused on race day other than let age and experience take it's course. Colinda is perfect in the paddock, post parade, and gates. She doesn't do anything wrong, just isn't 100% professional when she hits the lane on the lead yet. In the meantime, I'm still as proud as can be of her and hopefully her talent continues to make up for her distracted moments.

Colinda with Dennis and owner, Eleanor

The fact that Colinda won a stake coming off of a layoff and then came back a week later to win another stake by even further against a tougher group is impressive. She gave us everything we asked of her and more. We're very lucky to have her and that she has an amazing owner!

Thanks to Colinda the fiancé is now ranked 6th by earnings and tied for 8th for wins. That's with only 11 starts. I'm not bragging at all. Racing can be very hot and cold, I'm extremely grateful to have good horses that are running well right now.

Also, Colinda is now ranked 1st by earnings. She probably won't stay there because there aren't anymore stakes for her here and there are a couple of $100,000 dollar stakes at the meet (that she can't/won't be running in), but it's still nice to have her there for the time being.

*I may have made it sound like Dennis isn't happy with Colinda. That couldn't be further from the truth. He absolutely loves her and stops by everyday to pet her. When he says she's not focusing, he isn't complaining. He's just saying that if she can do this with being distracted, just think what she can do if she isn't.

Spastastic Fun

I was going to write about home, but I'll just give a quick rundown and then get to the hopefully more entertaining  part.

My family and friends are still completely awesome. Obviously. They still love me even if they only get to see me every couple of years. I love the fact that I come from a horse family and have SO much support behind me!

 I thought that people were being overdramatic when they told me how bad Les Bois (the track) has gotten. They said that the racing secretary/office was a pain in the ass, that the track surface is horrible, that the vets aren't very good, and that it basically just isn't a fun place to be anymore. They weren't totally wrong (one vet didn't seem all that bad), It certainly isn't as pleasant as it used to be. On a good note, I had heeded their warnings enough that I didn't have too many high expectations, so at least I wasn't disappointed much. The 105-110 temps that happened the entire time I was there were absolutely miserable. THAT really sucked! I still maintain that Les Bois is one of the best tracks to watch races at and it could still be a fun place to run horses. It just doesn't seem to be right now. There are some really lovely people that I adore there and it was worth the headaches just to get to see them again. The best part is that being there made me appreciate the tracks we are normally at all that much more. Except for The Downs at Hellbuquerque, it takes the cake for shitty tracks to be at.

Anyway....

Other than seeing my family and friends, the best part was getting to take a lesson with my mom's trainer. She is a very sweet person and let me ride her horse, Sasha. Sasha is showing 4th level right now, schooling higher levels.

No I wasn't making her fix my stirrup for me. Though I'm not sure what I was doing....

I was totally exhausted and cooking to death (hot weather is not something I do well with), but I sure wasn't going to miss the opportunity to ride a horse like Sasha! I messed up A LOT, but I had a hell of a lot of fun in the process.

Anyway, here's how my thinking works when  I'm completely exhausted while riding a more advanced horse than I'm used to. *I apologize in advance to those of you that don't like videos. I did edit them down to spare you from the several times I had to go around the arena to get something at least half way right. No need to thank me.

"A double? When was the last time I rode in a double? Like eight years ago?"

"Oh wow! I am being a spaz with these reins."

"THIS MARE IS FREAKING AWESOME!"

"Do I need to loosen up on the curb? Agh! Poor girl! I'm sorry, so sorry!"

"I totally want to steal this horse. Do they still hang people for that in Idaho? Eh, it'd probably still be worth....oh crap! What did C just tell me to do?"

"Did she say to half pass or circle? I'll just do a bit of both so that I'm covered either way."

"Oh yeah, she knows pirouettes. I can probably stop riding her like she doesn't now."

"I wish I weren't deaf, because I'm pretty sure I totally just butchered whatever C was trying to tell me to do. Yeah, no. I'm positive I did."

"Why in the hell am I struggling so much with these reins! Ah crap! That was the curb not the snaffle. Damn it!"

"This horse is freaking awesome!"

"I hope I can get Indy to at least this point  one day. This is so much fun! Oops! I almost ran over Mom. Again."

"Holy Hell! It's HOT!!!"

"I should probably just try to stay out of her way on the changes. Obviously she is much better than I am at them."

"Eh, circle/oval. They're basically the same thing. Close enough."

"When was the last time I schooled passage? Let's see, I schooled piaffe like over ten years ago...never passage though. I don't think. What are the aids again? I know that I've read about them at some point."

"I have to bounce more in my seat?! I've been working my entire life to not bounce!"

"I actually got a few steps! How did I do that? Maybe she just got tired of me embarrassing myself and gave me some pity passage. Who cares! That was soooo much fun!"

"I hope that my mom got that on video. You know, just in case it never happens again."

So, there's the general just of it. C has done a very good job with Sasha, it was obvious that she had been built up from a solid foundation, there were no holes. C is also very, very patient because I was having a hard time hearing and focusing. After being able to hear what she said in the video, I understand a lot more what she wanted (it took me five minutes to figure out that C was asking me to try for passage). Hopefully, I get to ride Sasha, or any horse, with C again because I really enjoyed the lesson. Preferably when I'm not delirious from hellish temperatures and long trips.

Straight Shot Metal: Good Juju

                Thanks Beka!

The other day, Dennis, the main jockey we use, and another jockey were at the barn. We were talking about how Dennis had a rough day the day before. He had gotten dumped off of a horse in the post parade. It got away from the pony, jumped over the rail to get off of the track, and ran off wearing Dennis's saddle. Later that day, a horse tripped after the wire and he ate dirt again (they're both okay). I told him that he needed to get some good juju.

The other rider goes "What's juju? A girl down on Colfax?". Colfax is the area of town that you might refer to as the "red light district". If you were putting it politely.

After mentioning that they should get their heads out of the gutter, I told them that juju is like luck, that Dennis needed a good juju charm.

That just received a couple of blank faces staring back at me.

So, of course I had to order one of Beka's (The Owls Approve) Straight Shot Metal Good Juju Bridle Charms just to show them I wasn't making stuff up. Plus, a little extra luck is never a bad idea for a jockey, especially the one that rides almost all of your good horses and is your friend. Right?

Dennis on Colinda

Okay, I'll admit that I'd been wanting to order a bracelet from Beka anyway, so I might as well order two things instead of one. 

I sent Beka a message about what I wanted and she was AWESOME to deal with! She always got back to me quickly and sent sample pictures to get a better idea of what I wanted. Once she had my order, it was made and shipped within a day or two. It's pretty rare to get that kind of service on custom made items these days and I really appreciated her efforts.

I told Dennis that I ordered him the charm and he was excited, even if he didn't know exactly what it was.

Not going to lie, I was eagerly awaiting my bracelet too. The package arrived on Monday, but since the office at the track is closed on Monday and Tuesday, I couldn't pick it up until Wednesday. Jerks.

Anyway, here's the goods (that I absolutely love):

Beka sends everything in cute packaging, which is great for when you have her ship someone something as a gift.

She even topped it off with an extra tag for me!

Dennis's charm in his colors and with his initials! He loved it and is going to put it on his helmet. I'm assuming he will attach it to the laces in the back? I really like it too and am going to order one (or five) for myself.

In all honesty, I hope it isn't too good of luck since he opted to ride a different horse in the upcoming stakes race instead of Hirsch. *There's nothing wrong with Hirsch, Dennis just went with a Colorado-bred that has a good shot in the race too. It provides more opportunities for stake wins because it can run in the state-bred stakes as well as the open ones, so he didn't want to lose the mount. Hirsch can only run in the open ones. We are also a little more laid back about that kind of thing than most trainers and he knows he'll most likely get the ride on Hirsch back. I'm not happy about it, but I understand. *cough* TRAITOR! I wonder if I can get Beka to make a bad juju charm for him for that particular race....

My bracelet! And yes it is supposed to say HEADFIRST INTO DREAMS instead of HEAD FIRST INTO DREAMS. I had originally wanted to get one that said BEEFHEART, but didn't really want to have to explain it all of the time. So, I picked a line that I liked from a Captain Beefheart song to use as a personal remembrance of him. The line is perfect! It is my own way of remembering Beefs, but it also fits me well. My life has pretty much revolved around me jumping headfirst into things that I want to do. All of the dumb shit and all of the good things I've done have been because I'm that way #noregrets. This line of the song was just the kind of thing I had in mind and Beka's "perfectly imperfect" theme on her jewelry made it even more exactly what I wanted.

Thank you, Beka!

I know that a lot of bloggers have already done reviews on her products, but I just wanted to reiterate how great her products and customer service are. Not to mention, her prices are awesome too! If you're looking for unique, customized jewelry and/or tack accessories, check out Straight Shot Metal on Etsy!

Yeah, this was meant to be just about the things I ordered. However, I couldn't explain what I ordered without the stories to go with.