I'm finally in Kentucky! Ok, well I've actually been here over a week, but in order to have the Internet, I had to sit outside the farm office. Fortunately I now have readily available Internet. Last week was "Orientation" week for the internship. Basically, we toured the area and saw certain sites. Most of the places I have already been, but some are new. Also, every morning before we left, we would watch the morning workouts here on the farm since the track is right next to where we live. That is a great sight to wake up to in the mornings. Here is a basic run down of where we went:
MONDAY
- Fasig-Tipton: One of the large sales companies in Lexington. This was their July Yearling Sale that is made to 'preview' the upcoming offspring of new sires. It was kind of interesting because two foals that I dealt with on Cobra Farms were at the sales (they were with their moms that got shipped up from Florida to be bred). Also, one of the foals I foaled out was supposed to be in the sale, but was scratched, so he wasn't there. That was pretty neat seeing them there.
- Keeneland: There is an all horse library there. They have a ton of interesting books. One of the oldest books is written in Latin and is from the 1600's or something like that. Also, they have several horse shoes from great racehorses, like War Admiral. Then we toured the racetrack and grandstands. Keeneland's track is a polytrack which is a synthetic surface supposed to be better on the horses' joints and all weather. Keeneland is a pretty prestigious track and they only race twice a year, in April and October. Also, Keeneland is probably the largest sales company in the U.S. Their biggest sale is in September. It's an all yearling sale and the first few days most the bids start at $1,000,000. I might get to work a couple days at the sale, but on my farm our job is working on breaking and training of the yearlings.
- Keeneland Backside, Kenny McPeek Racing Stables: One of the former interns that was actually with me on the internship Spring 2007, works as a barn foreman for a trainer at the track. She talked to us about her job and about what goes on in a training barn. Also, I got to help her feed. I think I might spend a day with her just to see what goes on there at the barn.
TUESDAY
- Kentucky Equine Sports Medicine & Rehabilitation Center (KESMARC): This is an awesome place. There is a pool for swimming the horses, an aqua tread (treadmill under water), a hyperbaric chamber (high oxygen and high pressure chamber to help accelerate healing and helps with certain bacteria that are anaerobic), a free walking hot walker, UV lights and an indoor jogging track. The owner gave us the tour and he also showed us their new dog rehabilitation center: Bluegrass Animal Rehabilitation and Hyperbaric Center (BARHC). There have been some pretty famous horses through there. Racehorses and Olympic horses. There was actually a show jumping horse from Brazil there when we went.
- Three Chimneys Farm: One of the most well known farms around because Seattle Slew stood at stud there for his life after winning the Triple Crown. We saw some of there stallions while we were there. This years Kentucky Derby winner is going to retire to stud at Three Chimneys. They are unique as a stud farm around here because they ride most of their studs, unless they have a career ending injury or are too mean to ride. I might go there one day because they sell quite a few yearlings at the Keeneland September sale, I believe over 100. Also, one of my favorites is here...Dynaformer...he's mean...
....really, he is mean.- Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital: One of the top equine hospitals in the world. They have several surgeons, ambulatory and specialized veterinarians. They have their own MRI, treadmill for scoping and bone scan. They even have veterinarians specialized in hoof care/horseshoeing.
WEDNESDAY
- Juddmonte Farms: This is one of the farms that has a couple of interns. One of the interns on this farm is from France. We saw two of the stallions that stand at this farm. This farm is strictly a breed to race farm. They keep most of the horses they breed. They do breed to a few outside stallions, but mostly they breed to their own. They have three stallions, but one was on his way to South America somewhere. Also, they have a farm in England and a farm in Ireland. We also went to their training barn and had the yearling manager talk to us about how thoroughbreds are broken. They do their breaking the 'traditional' racehorse way. They will start by putting a surcingle on the horse and walk him around the stall in a figure 8 for a couple of days. Then they walk him around the training barn which has a path around the outside of the stall. Then they will put a bit in the horses mouth and walk him around with the surcingle and the bit in the stall and on the path for a couple days. Then they will put the saddle on and repeat. Then they put weight in the saddle. (AKA a person crazy enough to hop on...heh) They walk the horse with the person on them around the stall and around the barn. The horse and rider are not allowed out of the stall independently until the horse will easily guide around the stall in the figure 8 pattern. Then they move to a large round pen or an arena and get the horse to respond to being guided and able to trot and lope. He explained all of this to us and then we watched them exercise a few horses that were lay-ups on their own private polytrack track. it is a fairly small track there, only about five horses wide and maybe a half mile long.
- Lane's End: Here we saw some pretty impressive stallions. A former KEMI intern works here and showed us the stallions. One of the stallions we got to see was A.P. Indy. He is a son of Seattle Slew and out of a Secretariat mare. His breeding fee is $300,000. This is the farm the queen stayed at when she came for the Kentucky Derby.
- Lane's End/Oak Tree Division: This is a farm managed by Lane's End. Here they house broodmares and yearlings. The yearling manager showed us several yearlings. He showed us some that will sell on the first few days of the sale (A million dollars or more) and then yearlings at the end of the sale (some are lucky if they go for $5,000). He told us how to look at conformations and how to show the yearlings. He also talked a bit about how to fit them for sales.
- Keeneland: We watched morning workouts, pretty exciting stuff to watch.
- Adena Springs Farm: This is a brand new farm location for this farm. They have only been there 6 months. Not only that, but it is not completed still! They have an 'employee village' that houses about 34 employees, has a pool, volleyball and basketball court. The farm is really nice. It only has broodmares and stallions. The weanlings are sent to the farm's location in Florida. Every stall is large enough for foaling. It is a really nice farm and they do not give tours so it was pretty cool that we got to go.
- Hagyard Equine Medical Center: This is the other top veterinarian in the world. This is the vet clinic we used last time I was here and I guess it is our vet clinic at this farm too. They also have an MRI, treadmill and bone scan. They just recently installed their own hyperbaric chamber. They also have lots of veterinarians employed. Even an acupuncturist.
- Old Friends Thoroughbred Retirement Facility: Here we saw many retired racehorses that have pretty impressive histories. Some have won lots, and some none at all, it just depends on who have donated horses. The main one that I recognized was a horse that was supposed to run in the Kentucky Derby in 2002 but had to be scratched due to a condition called "tying-up". It was neat to see all the racehorses. We even got to see one of the horses that played Seabiscuit in the movie. They said he wasn't a very good racehorse in real life, but he just had to act like one.
- Churchill Downs Racetrack: We toured the facilities and watched morning workouts. Then we went to the museum and walked around looking at all the neat exhibits.
- River Downs Racetrack: Our internship sponsored a race so we got a picture in the winners circle and watched a couple of races.
Whew! That was long, tomorrow I will probably post on how work is going. But for now I'll give you guys a break from reading all of that!
