What We Did Over Summer Vacation

Went up North, out of the Florida heat. Alex is finally catching up on these.

Hazards Of The Haul

If you haul enough, you will run into plenty of adversity. Try to be as prepared as possible. Membership in a roadside help service like AAA or what your insurance company might offer is a good way to have some peace of mind. Just be prepared to wait. It seems like they always take longer than you'd like to arrive.

Racing Up North

On Tuesday I loaded 3 horses and hauled to Cincinnati Ohio. It was a good trip and the horses traveled well, even for Zulu the two year old. We got there on Wednsday afternoon and Thursday morning Zulu galloped at river downs.
Friday at 5:00AM Greg and I were on the road to Erie Pa where I had TS Faye and Tiny Tune Lily entered to run that night -- 350 more miles – Again, a good trip.
TS Fay ran well but tired. If the race had been five instead of five and a half.... Oh well.

Then Tiny ran. It was a terrible group of horses in gates. She was # 2 and the 1 went crazy and then 3 panicked and reared up whirled around and was pawing Tiny and almost jumped into her stall. The jock got off, 3 fell and was stuck under the gate, they unloaded all the horses but Tiny and 3 then they got 3 out from over and under Tiny and then unloaded her. She had stood quietly while all this went on around her. Incredibly, Tiny was all right. No cuts or anything on her back and they reloaded the horses ( 3 got lose and ran away and was scratched).
In the race Tiny broke second was flying when a horse veered over and cut her off. She was severely checked and almost went down. Now she was near last she again dug in had to check again and still managed to get third. I am so pleased with her as she was very gutsy and bold. Good out of the race and fine the next morning.
Did I mention that the farrier almost cut his hand off while trying to grind down Tinys toe grabs...Much blood and drama but he is okay with many stitches.
Zulu went out gates at Ohio this AM. He was nervous so they want him to come back and stand tomorrow. Then we'd we go to back to Presqueisle in Erie PA. He needs to break well in order to start in Erie. Meanwhile, Tiny and TS Fay will run Wednesday night. TS is against boys and still a little long race. Tiny is in a better spot but it is 5 1/2 furlongs and she is best short. So we shall see!

Another Trip To The Calder Gates For Zulu and Duffy

Zulu's jock did not do him any favors by barely holding on for the break:


Duffy was still slow off the bell, but her bottom is filling in and she did a solid four furlongs.

Gate Work at Calder for Duffy and Zulu

Pretty sure Mom was kidding about Duffy's break being "speed".



Zulu actually popped out pretty smartly.

May Update For International Guy

He is really coming around!

Stack Bali: TIme To Move On

Mom says:
Off fairly slow works I started putting Stack in races. His best race was on the grass but still well out of the money at Tampa bay downs and after 5 starts with no real promise to be competitive here. I thought about taking him to RiverDowns where the races are a little softer. But on the last day I decided to give him to another trainer. The thought of spending more money on him ( shipping etc) was too much. With his non sweating issues ( though he was sweating well at the moment) I thought it would be better to concentrate on my two year olds. I wish him well. He is very sound and very willing but needs turf and a cooler place to live.
You can't win them all ... Or I sure can't!

Phontiff's Wind and Up Fired Up

Looks like we put the wrong horse in the race...

Duffy and Zulu Go To The Track

Duffy's Prediction and Zulu Prince go from newbies to old hands with a few visits to the track.

Mr. Herman Trains Like a Pro

He is shaping up to be a workmanlike little sprinter.

TS Fay Back To Training

Janet says:TS Fay has been off almost four months. She came out of a race with a hot ankle. We turned her out and did jogging and bringing her back last month when her ankle was normal. We have found that she has no speed on the dirt and her breeding is turf and long. To prep her without too much trauma to her joints I decided to train her on the grass rather than my heavy sand track. So here we are tuning her up for a turf race....using our "grass" course. She is very explosive and just wants to run.

Irish Eagle Breezes At TBD

Still working through his breathing issues. Let's see if he can run and breathe at the same time this go around...

4YOs Breezing At Tampa

More Trips Around The Trail

This time with Roan and Guy...

Ride Along with Duffy and Roan on the Route

With a cameo by Duffy's Mom...

Leave Me A Roan's First Ride On The Route

International Guy On The Route With The Pony

Nice maturity finally being shown...

Zulu Works The Route For The First Time

Duffy On The Route For The First Time

Works at Tampa on the 23rd

Up Fired Up's first work ever!


TS Fay goes for a "spicy" breeze:


Irish Works a fast 5 Furlongs:

One Step Back, Two Forward With International Guy

International Guy; Incremental Improvement

More Progress With The 2YOs

Getting on their backs, getting them to walk and turn...

And Sometimes Things Go Your Way

Mr. Herman places at Tampa in the Tenth.

Farewell Timeless Promise

Sometimes a horse does not have the right temperament for living and training on the farm and shipping into the track. Unfortunately that was the case here. While she was sweet, this filly did not seem to remember her lessons and was continually surprised at the normal distractions on the farm. We hope she will better reach her potential via a more conventional training regime at the track, where such variables are more tightly controlled.

More Franco-Fun And A Trip To The Lake

The Prodigal Rider Returns

Part 2 will be up soon.

International Guy Progresses Nicely

Eric shows how to do it. Patience and a soothing manner are key.

Progress With Irish Eagle

Some improvement today. He is definitely breathing better! We used a tongue tie and ring bit...we can't control him without the ring bit but maybe the tie helped. Also having a jockey that was not rushing helped.

Irish Eagle vs The Flying W

You can't say we have not tried things with this guy...

Trying To Get Irish Right To Race Again

Another trip to TBD for a work. Another bit.

Irish Eagle Faces Challenges

From breathing issues to broken teeth. But he does show some speed as you can see here. The 7th race on February 3rd is the one in which he crashed into the gate and broke his teeth. We would have put the race in the clip below, but TBD uses a video system Alex is as of yet unable to import into the videos he makes.

Irish Eagle's Gory Mishap and Timeless Promise's Training

More on this in the video, with updates to follow soon.

International Guy Gets Started

He is a 3 YO new gelding who we are just now starting to familiarize with the tack.

Another Go With Timeless Promise

Reinforcing the lessons from our first session...

Timeless Promise Starts From Scratch

She is a 3 year old filly without much more than halter training... Follow these videos to learn the smart and safe way to break and train. As you'll see, it is key to let the equipment do most of the work and take all of the abuse.

2nd Session with the 2 Year Olds

Good follow on work. Check back to see us try with a couple of unbroken 3 year olds I just got to the farm.

Leave Me A Roan's First Ride

The rest of the yearling riding. More excitement, but happy ending:

Breaking the "Two Year Olds"

These three are May foals, but as some of you know, their official birthdays are January 1st, so they just turned two as far as the industry is concerned. I happen to think there are bargains to be had with later foals if you are fine with starting them when they are ready and not in a huge hurry. This is often the case with Backyard Trainers as daily upkeep is not so expensive as spending all that time at the track with a trainer. Great calm and patient horsemanship by Eric here. The next video with Leave Me A Roan's first ride is a little more exciting.