Counter Strike

Counter Strike does not want to wear a halter. We have tried all of the old horseman techniques, but will soon have to go the medicine route. When he was about six months old we think somehow he was hit on the upper part of his forehead. If we try to push back his bangs or pet him around the ears he quickly pulls back. It does not seem to matter who tries to pet him on the forehead. Otherwise he is very friendly. He will let you hug him, pull his mane, pat him on the rump.

Here are some photo's to give you all an idea of how tall he has grown. He was born April 21, 2008 at about 5 am. His Dam is She's on the Move (Jade Hunter) His sire is Counter Punch.

Buzzing Bayou

Buzzing Bayou has joined Judy Behler at the Fairgrounds in New Orleans. It is about a 3 hour ride in the horse trailer from the training farm near Maumou, Louisiana. Evidently he was planning to stay at the farm until Mardi Gras. We think he may have heard about their fabulous down home celebration and horse parade nearby.

Buzz had no trouble leaving our farm via the horse van. He jumped right in the trailer for the 30 minute ride and hopped right out once he arrived. Buzz studied his lessons, learned about saddles and jockeys. He studied every move and his trainers declared him fit and ready for the Fairgrounds. Judy came to fetch him with her trailer. Buzz would have none of it. No more Horse trailers for Buzz. He shied, he bucked, he twirled in circles, he outright refused to step into the trailer. Three hours of stubborn refusals and Judy was reduced to giving him tranquilizers. Head hanging down almost to his knees he finally stepped into the van. The effects of the drugs were just beginning to wear off when they arrived in New Orleans but Judy was able to safely walk him into a backside stall.

Judy was so frustrated with Buzz she nicknamed him Nickel.

One month later:

Buzz galloped around the race track every other day and his muscular conformation improved on schedule. It was time to allow him his first short breeze. The exercise jockey was instructed to just let him run 3/8 of a mile without putting any pressure on him to run any faster than he wanted to run.

Buzz stepped easily into his breeze very relaxed and then he spotted another horse coming up from behind. He flattened out, moved his legs with total precision, and beat the other horse by two lengths.

Judy was totally impressed. She had a competitor, the stubborn little gelding that wasn't worth a plugged nickel had potential. Maybe his Jockey Club name meant what it said.

to be continued.........

Sorry camera broken refuses to turn on

Sorry no pictures. My camera refuses to turn on and therefore I'm unable to upload the pictures. I tried fresh batteries. I plan to have the pictures made into a disk before I start yelling at Kodak since the camera is less than 6 months old and I did buy the warranty.

Dixie Blaze will be #9 in Race 2 at Louisiana Downs in Shreveport. The race is at about 1:00 CDT and it is scheduled to be on the turf for about a mile. The hurricane closing in on south Texas could send wet weather that far north.

Dixie won her race on August 21, 2010. She was all alone at the wire. It was truly exciting and my friend Suze was able to make it to the race and into the picture in the winner's circle. Suze was excited, Chris was excited and Judy was thrilled. I was so excited that six of my shots were blurry and I might be able to post one that is decent. Judy Behler is her owner, but we will have a breeders award in time for Thanksgiving. We will be very thankful. This has been an exceedingly tough 2 years.

Chris has managed to remove Terry and his horses from the barn. Now he will start his clean up campaign.

Terry has managed to pilfer so many items it is incredible. Example: all of the screw eye hooks. What I'm angry about is that somehow the new water pump we bought last year is missing. Chris has a long list of items including a starter, hack saw, water tubs, feed buckets and halters. Chris had one room padlocked, but forgot about the kitties room, the location of the water pump. It has been a long six weeks waiting for the barn to clear. Terry had 9 horses in there and was not paying rent.

Chris has been able to install water lines into the barn and has brought in a temporary electric line that we used when the RV was parked here. There is an electric box with wires so jumbled it would take a master puzzler to find where they lead. Fortunately Chris is good with electricity, and should be ready for the master electrician and the inspector from the electric company before the shorter days of winter.

As you can imagine the front part of the barn is filthy and Chris has determined the best way to handle the problem is one stall at a time. Clean it, spray it with bleach and the put down shavings/rice hulls when every thing is dry. Dry is difficult around here, so shavings might take a while. After that he plans to repaint the interior. When the pastures and the barn are ready he hopes to find a few horses whose owners need a place for them to stay. He has room for a couple of steers so he could go that route as well. I suggested pigs, but he remembers my cousin's noisy pigs and said "no".

Chris has two horses left. The filly has been promised to a friend of Judy's who is looking for a riding horse. She's a Bandit has a great disposition and was trained by a friend of Judy's. She has terrific breeding. Her brother, Counter Strike, is the colt left over. Chris has worked with him for months hoping to slip on a halter. He is making tiny steps of progress. It would be nice to get him ready for training to the saddle, since the alternative is the auction and a possible dinner plate in Mexico.

The movie Secretariat will be playing in a theater near you in a few weeks. It's a Disney movie so you can take the grandchildren. My part as an extra is the restaurant scene where they announce that Secretariat has been proclaimed horse of the year. In the scene Penny is told her father has returned to the hospital and is near death. I'm wearing a pink shirt if I didn't wind up on the cutting room floor. Scroll down on the http://horseystories.blogspot.com/ and you will see my pink shirt. It is a good story even though you all know how it ends. Secretariat's statue is at the horse museum in Lexington Ky. A place I highly recommend and worth a day's outing. Tidbit: Secretariat's fillies have done well at the races and are excellent brood mares. His colts won a few races but were not spectacular.

You can keep up with the other part of my life at www.astrologicalinvesting.com We've been very lucky this summer to have five terrific students, our web site has sold some textbooks and I have done a few readings. My New Moon predictions have been pretty good and I have managed to complete 2 e books for Astrology. They are almost ready to sell.

Kaye

pictures at http://horseystories.blogspot.com/

Horsey stories #160

Photo: Spreading the News with Chris

Dixie Blaze is #2 in the 3rd race at Evangeline Downs at about 7:00 on Thursday April 29th.

Chris hopes she has figured out the concept of racing. Terry hopes she enjoys running. Kaye hopes she is in the money and we all hope she wins.

Breeding has its detail challenges.

Spreading the News just started her cycle so Chris and Terry loaded her up and took her to Dr. Barrone for her culture test to be sure she is ready to become a mama. She also had her Cogins test which is required when she goes to visit a handsome stallion. When she came back I made Chris walk her around for the camera. She whinnied her messages to the other mares in the field as loud as she could and the proceeded to gobble up huge bites of grass while Chris brushed her coat and I snapped a dozen photos. This is her second year without a foal so hopefully she is anxious to be a mama and ready for breeding. We will take her to the stallion as soon as her tests are read.

Acadia is alive with Spring festivals. Saturday we went to the Etouffe festival in Arnaudville. Took home our crawfish etouffe box lunch and finished the generous portions late Sunday. Sunday we went to Lafayette to the Festival International in Lafayette and I giggled myself silly at the Circus Punk Marching Band from Chicago. We set up 2 camp chairs under a tree and in perfect alignment with a cool breeze. We took turns on the chairs and enjoyed the music. The Irish band "Lunasa' was fabulous. Chris liked the Zydeco band and my friend Suzanne liked the Salsa band.

Timely News

Timely News ran today at the Fairgrounds.  Somehow she made a bad step, fell and broke her left leg. She had to be put down.  Her odds were 2/1 so the handicappers felt she had a good chance of winning the race. She ran third in her previous race.

Sam Breaux sounded very broken hearted when I spoke to him on the phone.  Sam and Al and Melody Helms were her owners. I had to turn over my half of her ownership to Sam when Steve passed away because I couldn't afford a training bill.  Chris and I decided to just take care of the mares we had at the farm.  I will tell her little sister and her mama tomorrow.

Timely News

Timely News (Mymamastillstandin's little sister ) will run at Delta Downs in the 3rd race Saturday Oct 31st at about 7:00 CDT.

Al and Melody Helms and Steve and I are listed as the breeders for this filly.

Timely News survived quite a mess when she was a yearling. She thought it would be fun to swim in one of the ditches near Sam Breau's farm.   She had scratches here and there all over and she was soaked in mud from her trek into the world beyond the pasture.  Sam's grooms patched her up and by the time she was ready to break to the saddle she looked like a potential race horse. 

She was 7th in her last race at Evangeline Downs. Who knows she's had 3 months to stay fit and train she might do fine.  

Cheer for Her

Don't really have the $60 for gas and the round trip to Delta is about 200 miles. I don't really have the energy to drive it either. So if it is on TVG we will watch it.  

Movie career

I'm still pretty tired from my 4 day stint as an extra in the movie Secretariat. Most of my time was as a patron in the diner scene. It is up and down in and out.  When we finished they sent us to play fans in the grand stands.  They dressed us in '70's polyester outfits.  The fabric really absorbs the heat. The temperature was only 80 degrees but all of the extras were using their hats and props as fans. 

Monday there is an infield scene with as many extras as they can find so I'm going if my name is on the list.  I know I will really appreciate the check whenever it arrives. 

I'm on Facebook if any of you are on that web site and I will post this on the horseystories.blogspot.com.

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Disney Movie Extra Secretariat

Mymamastillstandin is entered to run on October 23, 2009 at DELTA DOWNS. He will be #6 in race #2 at about  6:15  

Cheer for a win!!

Today I had the opportunity to be an extra in the Disney film Secretariat. 

The scene is a restaurant setting which is the backside kitchen at the Evangeline Training center. The interior had a nice paint job and the tables were covered with new oil cloth.  A few horse shoes were scattered as decoration on the walls. No dirt on the floor and a few extra benches placed along the back.

We parked in the Evangeline lot and were taken by bus to a large storage barn that had been cleared of all the track equipment that is usually kept there.  The extras were sent to wardrobe to be dressed in 70's outfits which were pretty outrageous. My friend Claire had quite a time finding a dress.  The wardrobe mistress deemed my plaid shirt appropriate but made me wear matronly shoes not sneakers.  Then I told the hair dresser that in the '70's women my current age wore bee hive hair do's so she fixed one for me.  First time I've ever been paid to get my hair done.  Next we were ferried to the Back side kitchen were they seated my friend Clair and I at a table with jockey Rick Faul.  We had several rehearsals and talked and talked and talked to each other while waitresses who were also extras placed cold food on out table and took it away. 

A few hours later we filmed the scene which is the one where Secretariat is declared Horse of the Year and  everyone cheers then Cheneys secretary comes into the restaurant and tells his daughter that he has just been taken to the hospital.  

The director liked the shoot and sent us to find the food tent.  it decided to rain and rain and rain. At about 2:00 they sent us home. Clair said the film crews will keep extras as long as 12 hours and the pay is $105 but at 14 hours the pay is doubled. 

to be continued

Clair said there will be quite a few more opportunities to play extras this winter.  Here I am in my free hairdo.  More pictures on my facebook page

Next story down is a copy of the speech I gave to Toastmasters that tells the story of Secretariat.

Connections: Toastmasters Speech #4

Connections

My three foals will meet hundreds of people as they pursue a career as race horses. In horse racing we call them connections. I thought I would give you a brief description of the adventure they have ahead of them.

As soon as they are weaned, they start their journey to the races every year acquiring more and more connections.
As a weanling life is pretty simple running and jumping around the quiet lush green pastures of a remote farm. Only two humans and one Veterinarian to worry about.

The Breeder and his farm hand feed them grain and vitamins twice a day and provide water, hay, alfalfa and bedding. The Vet provides immunization shots and advise.

As yearlings, the breeder and his farm hand continue feeding them teaching them manners and horseman’s English. The Vet provides booster shots and advise.

Then it's the Terrible Two's

The breeder sends them to a specialized trainer who breaks them to the saddle. In a round pen they learn proper horse English, manners, to wear a saddle, and a rider. Two more humans come into their life.

Next its time to move to the Training Center. More humans; an owner, a groom, a trainer, an exercise rider, a rookie jockey, a real jockey, a starter at the gate, a ferrier nailing horse shoes onto their feet, a tattoo artist to put their number inside the upper lip, a horse dentist, and then gate guards, groundskeepers and a vet.

Yeah! the Terrific Three's have arrived
The owner sends the almost race horse to a real race track. More humans: the owner, a trainer, a new groom, another ferrier, an exercise rider, a pony and rider, a jockey, a hot walker, a starter at the gate, the clocker, along race track fences humans standing watching with binoculars, and a vet giving shots, and another vet taking blood, and another vet for testing urine.

Finally the big day comes for each foal.

THE RACE
The tractors circle the race track smoothing the surface, an announcer calls all the horses and their grooms to walk to the paddock behind the grandstands to get ready for the race.
A bugler plays Call to the Post and humans appear by the thousands. Familiar humans: the owner and his entire family, the trainer, and the groom wish the horse good luck. Then unfamiliar humans arrive: the tattoo checker, the lead pony with rider, the jockey’s valet and trainer put on a saddle, the jockey, the TV cameraman, the announcer, the humans along the paddock fence, the lead pony with rider, the starting gate and crew, more humans along the fence yelling and screaming, the finish line, the photographer, the stewards, the groom, the test barn, the blood sucking vet, and the urine vet.

And behind the scenes The Humans in Charge of Everything Else. The Jockey Club, the state racing board, the legislators, the track owners, the managers, the kiosk owners and crews, the state licensing clerks, the track clerks, the jockey agents, the chaplain, the horseman’s book keeper and clerks, the program printer, the guards, the tote machine clerks, the tote machine repairman, the groundskeepers, the gardener, the backside managers, their guards and grounds keepers, the TV crews, the announcers, the maintenance crew and the official track veterinarian and the emergency vehicle driver.

My three little foals will meet hundreds of people, and hopefully provide great entertainment for all their connections. Swampy the mother of one of the foals ran 20 races before she changed careers.