As I quietly walked
into the barn at 3:15 a.m. the horses knew I was there. They all gave their morning welcomes
with the question on their faces, “Where is my breakfast?” I feed them and turned out all
geldings into a 4 acre feild so they could work off some of they energy from staying in the
night before. Olivia arrived and helped me turn out the only mare I have into the small
paddock. Next came Gina and Erika pulling up in their Lions Journey Stables pick-up trucks.
Every one grabbed a colt and put them into their individual paddocks. We have six colts and
one stallion. At 3:50 a.m. the grooms, Nick and Channing, pulled up ready to work.
We started early today, at 4 a.m. with the lights around the track turned on. We cought the
first set of horses and started. Up first was my MSW,
Victoryonmymind and a 2 y.o. [b]Ballroom
Champ[/b]. Victory’s workout included doing a 2 mile jog and then breeze 3/4 of
a mile. I was riding Victory and Gina was on Champ. Champ jogged with us for 1/4 mile
because he ran a great race yesterday. After they worked out Gina and I walked them back
into the barn and gave the horses to Nick and Channing, our grooms. Next, we got on
Northern Barbarian and [b]Mistico
Cigano[/b]. They both were schuled to do a 1 mile jog and then gallop for 3/4 of
a mile. We are taking it easy on these guys because one is a 2 y.o. and the other is coming
back from an injury. After that Gina and I took a break and gave Erika a leg up on
Wildcat and Olivia got a leg up on
Guacho (a promising 2 y.o). Wildcat and Guacho were supposed to
take it easy today but they got a little out of hand and ended up running off with Erika and
Olivia for a 1/2 mile. But they looked fine when they got them back under control and were
walking them back to the barn. The next horses out were [b]In
General[/b] and Loot and Plunder, a 2 y.o. In
General is showing Loot and Plunder the ropes of being a successful racehorse. Erika gave In
General the signal to go and Olivia and Lootie followd happily. They jogged 3 miles and then
were asked to gallop for 1/4 mile, they got an impressive time of 25 seconds w/o going full
speed.
As, you can tell by now Erika and Olivia we exhused, so Gina and Nicole got
back on the next two sets. First up were Simply Spectacular and
Killer Instinct. Spectacular was supposed to jog for 1/2 mile,
gallop for 1/2 mile and then canter over 2 miles of steeplechase jumps. Since Killer just
raced he got to take it easy today with a 1/2 mile jog. Everything went great and they both
came back quite tired. Next up were my two 2 y.o’s, [b]Townsend
Secret[/b] and Iglesias. They we supposed to do a 1
mile jog and Secret was supposed to breeze 3/4 of a mile. Secret did a great job and pulled
off a time of 1 minute and 10 seconds, an incredibily quick time! Gina and Nicole took care
of this set themselves and Erika and Olivia we given leg ups onto
Waccamaw and Possibly Perfect, two
steeplechasing veterans. The were just supposed to do a 1/2 mile jog and they did so
perfectly.
After all the racehorses were taken out and given some work we decided
to ride our stallion, Distinct Possibility. He behaved like a
gentleman and jogged 2 miles to try and get some fat off his ribs. We finished up around 12
noon. After all the horses had their baths they got banaged up and were set for the night,
after they got their lunch.
Hope you liked my story!!!