My friend Lorna and I looked at each other last week, saying more than once: "Are we crazy? Breaking yearlings in January?" No wait! They're not yearlings anymore; officially, they're two-year-olds!
Lorna trains the Thoroughbreds that are spending the winter at my place. In another month they go back to Woodbine to begin preparation for the 2006 campaign. We need to get the babies going by then. I have two here, and she's got another two to do at another farm.
So far, it's been an adventure. The one we expected to be a problem is actually doing wonderfully. Gladys is a bit of a flightly filly, but she's doing well with the careful progression she's been getting. The colt, on the other hand, is starting to think he knows what's going on, and he's not too impressed. Yesterday we worked out our differences and had a good day. Today I guess it wasn't meant to be, and he planted me in the mud of our January thaw. Great! Of course I had to get back on him, but once he was back in the stall and the tack off, it was time to assess my new aches and pains. Oh - shoulder not working too well. Then my ribs on the lower right started screaming for a bit of attention. I was aware of my head making contact with the ground on impact, but that't not feeling too badly, though I'm sure it will make itself known a bit later!
I come inside and ice my ribs -- it's true, frozen peas make a great ice pack! After an hour of that, mostly with me walking around holding it under my slightly less painful right wing, the ribs start to come around, so the shoulder stands out more. Ah well. Time to go out and bring in the horses and feed, so can't be moaning about my limited movement! Called upon my father, who was out doing some work on the barn, and he helped lift pails and doing the little things that seemed to cause me the most grief. It all got done. Back in the house, my ribs aren't feeling too bad at all now, the shoulder is uncomfortable, and yes, there it is, the headache! You know I'm going to be seriously stiff tomorrow...and if I'm convinced there's no fractures anywhere, I'll be trying to book an appointment with the chiropractor first chance I get!
The colt? Well, his fate is probably a little worse. The vet returned my call (placed before today's incident, by the way!). Next week, he'll be out to geld the poor boy! It had to happen sooner or later. Right about now, I'm wishing it had been sooner!
Ah well...I won't hold it against him. He's much too cute not to be painted! 
1 comment:
Well as you'll see, I started on it, Carrie! The hairy winter coat and snow will be a challenge. I miss the little guy, despite what happened! It always amazes me how relatively easy it is to teach a horse to accept a rider, so having one show some resistance is not a big surprise to me.
Anyway...he's such a cutie. I'm not sure what his real name is, his dad is Mutakkdim, and the mare was Body Moves, so the owners have somehow combined those two names, and I keep asking them to write it out for me! They call him "Mute" for short and I just can't do that, so he's Pip to me. There's a reason for that, and not just because I'm a LOTR fan...the filly they call Gladys -- I can handle that, so he needed to be Pip IMO!
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