Where in the World is Shannon?!: I AM still alive :)

The past few weeks have been crazy! Can you tell? I haven't posted lately lol. Let's see I did start riding a racehorse every morning since my last post (Mon.-Fri.). He is a two year old that got injured so they are getting him back in shape. I jog him twice around the 5/8 of a mile track every morning. (1 1/4 miles). He is a jerk some days! The first day my farm manager gave me a 'stick' (whip) cause he said he can be bad. He was a perfect little angel, actually I got through a week and a half with him without any problems. I only had the whip the first day and then I never got it again, until one fateful day. My roommate and I went down to the track as usual, however, on the way down Varinsy (The horse I'm riding) decided it would be a good idea to plant his feet and not move. I try everything to get him to go and he won't. So Brent smacks him on the butt with the lead shank. That worked. We get on the track and go to start jogging and he only goes a little and stops. Brent had to smack him again. Then he went a bit and stopped. Brent then started jogging with him and that only worked for a bit....well we went around half the track this way before I finally got him to go forward. As we were rounding our final turn of the first lap Varinsy decided to kick up. I lost my left iron and then he ducked out from under me...So basically, I fell of. How humiliating! I had to buy the whole farm donuts for that. Oh well...The second lap went well because Clifford (The farm manager) brought me a whip. Ever since then, I've had one. He's been alright, he has to throw a fit every day, but he gets over it. He's just bored with jogging around.

Varinsy~ I tacked him up...he is very heavy for a racehorse

Varinsy and me leaving the track

Varinsy and Me

We have been line driving (like draft horses pulling the wagons minus the wagons, so we walk behind them) the yearlings all over the farm for 30-45 minutes. We have been doing it with the rollers and now the saddles. Thursday we strapped a dummy, which is a pair of coveralls stuffed with straw that weighs about 40 lbs, to half of the yearling colts. They all handled it fairly well. Then in the stall Paul laid across their backs and then sat in the saddle as Brent led them around the stall. The next day we did the same thing, only this time I got to 'back' (ride) the yearlings because Paul was gone. They were all good, one of the boys I didn't get on because he did not handle the dummy well.

Sunday, Ike decided to share his wrath with us. We had a horrible wind storm. It would be a usual windy day in Wyoming, except here there are more trees that are not accustomed to wind. There were trees and limbs everywhere. Plus the horses were all nuts because of the wind. My poor housemate got kicked in the face by one of the weanlings because the filly was freaking out from the storm. She's going to be fine, a couple stitches, broken nose, and a black eye fine.

Today (Monday) I got to put the first ride on three of the boys. I tacked them up and walked them down to the round pen. Clifford then legged me up so I was laying across their back. As he walked the colt around and he felt comfortable I swung over and had both feet in the stirrups. Then I patted the horse and got him used to the feel of me moving and my legs putting pressure on his side. Clifford would jog with me and the horse and then let the longe line out slowly so we were almost going on our own. After a few laps of jogging we would then walk. Clifford would unattach the line and then we would go the other direction and jog with limited help from Clifford. Everyone I rode was great! One of the boys was like riding a Cadillac! Smooth and very responsive to cues. Clifford even mentioned he looked like a dressage horse. It was a great day.

On my day off last week, I got to go to the most lucrative Thoroughbred sale in the country. It is the Keeneland September Yearling sale. I have even seen some of the yearlings I helped foal out last year! This one sold for $240,000! She was a pretty nice foal last year, so I'm not too surprised. I'm going to have to go again on Wed. and see three others I worked with.