Month: January 2017

January 9, 2017

Pre-pre-purchase

Howdy licking the grate, Elliot eating and Sammy working up another whinny

I am hanging out at the Iowa State University vet school with three horses.  Howdy, for his pre-purchase exam; Sammy, for his recheck on a torn check ligament garnered last July at FRVPCHT horse trial; and Elliot for a suspensory avulsion from his sesamoid and a cracked splint bone from a pasture incident in October.  Let’s just say that 2016 had its not-so-fun moments.

But I’m thinking we are going to get a yellow light, if not a green light in putting Sammy and Elliot back to work.  They certainly appear sound.  We’ll see what the ultrasound says.

And now I am looking at Howdy walking around in his stall, licking the auto waterer, munching hay, thinking he might roll and I’m thinking, “I know he’s got something wrong with his left eye.  Is that a club foot on the right front?”  And then he coughs twice and I’m thinking I’ve got a respiratory infection on my hand too.

Time for another cup of tea.  Thank goodness I don’t have Jack Daniels in the trailer, because I’d put some in it.

Just did the flex test. Mild reaction to left knee and mild effusion on the right stifle.  Also some reaction to hoof tester on right front.  Opthalmology will look at his eye this afternoon.  Hopefully this early afternoon.  He is in for radiographs of front hooves, knee and hocks right now.  Ugh.  Blah.  Arg.

January 8, 2017

Stole Me a Hoss

So I’d been in contact with the owner of Howdy, who lives offsite from where his horses live.  The horses are managed by a person who lives onsite.  The owner said he couldn’t be there to meet us today when we went to pick him up in the early afternoon, and he advised us by text to go to the house and get the manager when we got there.  So we got there, I went and knocked on the door and got a yippy corgi to respond, which I took as a good sign, because no one could sleep through that.  I waited a few minutes and no response.  Then I RAPPED on the door, got the yippy app refreshed, but no human response.

Jay and I had a quick conversation about how to proceed from there and we decided that since we had it in a text that we could take the horse, we’d, well, take the horse!

So, we went to the paddock, and by this time all the horses had come over.  There were about 8 of them, some still racing next year and some yet to race, but Howdy was easy to spot because he did this  (again):

So, feeling like old time horse thieves, we snapped a lead rope on his halter and got him out of the paddock.  Jay trotted him for a soundness check for me, and Howdy trotted like a giraffe, but a sound giraffe anyway.  Howdy’s head was what seemed like 4 feet above Jay’s head, and Jay is about 6’3″.

So, what were we to do but load the horse on the trailer?  He loaded right on with no hesitation and stood there like an old pro.  We closed the slant load dividers and shut the back door, giggling a little at the sheer thrill of being maybe a little bad.

We got him home and offloaded him (ho hum) and let him loose in the indoor just for fun.  The wind was up and the curtains on the arena were snapping occasionally, which was exciting for him, and mirrors are fascinating:

I turned him out in a paddock where he could see the other horses and he was pretty sedate.  Some trotting about, but not craziness, and he likes our hay.  He’s in good weight.  I brought him in and put him in the cross ties to look at his eye, which is a little cloudy on the bottom side, which is worrying to be sure.   It was fine when I saw him in September, but I noticed that he was holding it a little funny in December, and now we seem to have an infection.  Of course he is going to ISU tomorrow, so I am hopeful that they can help us get him back on track.

I will try not to worry about that tonight because worry is an abuse of God’s gift of imagination.  He settled in to his stall, and in keeping with the giraffe theme, he ate the hay out of the TOP of the feeder rather than pulling it out the sides.

Tomorrow’s the pre-purchase exam.  Wish us luck!

January 7, 2017

Retired Racehorse Project

I’d heard about the Retired Racehorse Project Thoroughbred Makeover (RRPTM) a few times.  I had a vague notion about some event that happens in fall at the Kentucky Horse Park where people competed with their off track thoroughbreds.  I found myself thinking that was very cool.  And I heard an unmistakable distant beckoning. Then my friend was telling me about it and how much fun it is and how many people she met when she competed there last year and did very well in the field hunter division.  I thought that was really cool too, and the beckoning grew a bit louder and significantly closer.

Well, then I got a new farrier in the barn.  Don’t get me wrong, my usual farrier is great and I still use him, but a new client insisted on having this new farrier do her horse while he was in training with me.  Not a big deal to me, so I get the new guy in, and have a cup of tea and chat with him as he works.

After the pleasantries of where do you live, how long have you been doing this and oh, I bet you know so and so, he comments on the barn’s pictures of leggy horses jumping fences and he says, “You like thoroughbreds and you jump.  I know a horse you should go see.  He’s about 17 hands, 5 years old, sound and still at Prairie Meadows in Altoona. Here’s the guy’s number.”

And the beckoning was in the room and the approximate size of an elephant.

So I called the guy and went down to the track to look at the horse.  I get past the guard shack and find the right barn, and stall, and the trainer, and owner and the horse.  At this point, I’m feeling accomplished just having done that.  They show me the horse, “Howdy” and he is indeed about 17h.  He’s also a ridiculous pocket pony, and the owner comments that the exercise riders said that they should have been paying him to ride Howdy because he was so easy to ride.  I thought that might have been laying it on a little thick, but I went with it.  I happened to be in breeches so they assumed I was going to ride him – at the track, down the shed row and in the warm up area on the way to the track.  I’m pretty sure this is against track regulations, but I play mum because, well, I’d like to ride the horse.

So, they put on the mere suggestion of a saddle that is an exercise saddle, lengthen the stirrups as long as they go, and I hop in the tack.  It was ridiculous fun.  I had a grin plastered on my face the whole time.  He walked flat-footed around the shed row, past dogs and radios blaring.  Wow.  Then we went out in the warm up area, which is on the way to the track.  I did some trotting here, and he was tight in his back and high-headed, and relatively short-strided for what you would have thought from his conformation.  I chalked most of that up to general tension.  Then we cantered, and whaddya know, he had an easy two leads.  I know a lot of horses, track or not, who strongly prefer one lead over the other.  I trotted a little more, then headed in.  He jigged his silly self back to the shed row, which was frankly, at times, not fun, but not terrifying either.  I just happen to really object to jigging because it develops all the wrong muscles.  However, Howdy and I had no mutual tools to communicate with so I grinned and sat there like an idiot.

So I got back to the barn and rode him in to his stall (they told me to!  It freaked me out, but apparently it is common practice) got off and offered that he’s a nice horse, and thanked them for meeting with me and showing him to me.  They let slip that he hasn’t been out of his stall in 5 days due to track conditions.  I was glad they did not tell me that before I got on because I would have been all “I’ll come back another day” or “Can I lunge him somewhere?”  Ignorance is bliss.

They told me that his barn name is Howdy because his sire was owned by Toby Keith and they were going to register him as Howdoyalikemenow”, but someone else got the name first.  So they had to name him something else.  And I do not know what that is at this point.  So awesome of me.  Not really, not really. (Prior link is the origin of my use of the phrase “Not really, not really”.  If you object to profanity, do yourself a favor and pass that link right on by.  If you think a smattering of profanity is merely good use of the entire spectrum of the linguistic spectrum, click on, my friend, and enjoy.)

We chatted while they put him on the hot walker and I snap a few pictures.  This one, in particular, strikes me, and I when I looked at it, I pretty much knew I needed to have this horse in my barn.  Why?  Partially because his mostly calm personality shows through, and partially because he looks like Eddie in the picture.  Eddie (Best Etiquette) is my event horse/fox hunter/good citizen, classic thoroughbred, 18 year old gelding.  I look at Howdy and I see what he can be.  He won’t be Eddie, he’ll be different, I know this, and I see that he can be someone pretty great in his own Howdy way.

So we negotiate a price and we agree that I will pick him up in a few months when I will have room in my barn.

Some weeks later, my husband Jay and I went out to look at him at the farm where he was being let down.  (And ok, part of this was to get husband buy-in).  When we got there, Howdy came right to the gate and gave us this face (below).  That was a good start for husband buy-in.  Smart man, Howdy.

Fast forward to tomorrow and we are at that few months later when I will pick him up.  The day after tomorrow Howdy has an appointment for a pre-purchase exam at ISU.  Whee!

I made these cookies to help him decide to get on our trailer tomorrow afternoon.  I may be a little excited.  Hee hee.  We’ll also have cookies for all the horses when he gets home to Field Day.  Nothing makes a better first impression than showing up with food.  I hope the class likes the new kid.