Going to the track, aquisition, and acclimation of the horse

"Midnight Tucker" - FLF Listing

For the few who may encounter this blog, I have established it to track my OTTB's progress. I usually do it on paper, but being an unorganized individual means that this usually ends in messy and illegible scribbles.

On Friday the 13th I drove out to Finger Lakes to look at "Midnight Tucker", a solid bay trained and owned by Ulises Gonzalez. The horse was nicer in person than on paper, and it was agreed I would purchase him and come back the next morning with a trailer.

Saturday - That morning I came to pick him up and paid a man at my soon-to-be-boarding-barn to haul him in his rig. We had to park the rig outside of the track entrance and walk about a half mile to the barn, fetch him, walk back to the rig and load. The horse was an excellent citizen until we walked past the gate and he stopped, unsure of himself because he had likely never been past the track gates before. There were horses breezing past him and he seemed a little unsure of his surroundings (understandably). Unfortunately, the man who I had paid to haul him was handling him (he said "my rig, so I load" -- whatever) and misinterpreted the horse's stopping as insolence and unfairly disciplined him by shanking his chain. The horse flew back and got loose (though it was remarkably an uneventful "loose"), I caught him, removed the lip shank, and reapproached the trailer -- in which the horse loaded after a few second doubts.

In summation, I think the horse is "sensibly sensitive", and regret allowing the hauler to handle him. The ride home was uneventful, he settled in beautifully. I took him on a half hour walk around the indoor and there was absolutely no fuss from him. He seems to love his reflection in the mirror, and was quite fascinated with it every time we walked by. He has trouble leading to the right (understandable) but after about ten minutes of this he seemed to get a little better. He doesn't seem to be too interested in treats.

I noticed he has a small cut on his left hind that looks as if his prior handlers put Blu-Kote on it - there is a purplish dusting on it and he does not appreciate it being touched. He has very clean legs for 31 starts, though his left hind is a little thick. No heat and he looks sound.

Sunday - I volunteered at the CNYDCTA dressage show, which was hosted at the beautiful Tanglewood facility in Cazenovia. There were a lot of nice horses to watch, and I was the ring steward for the entire day. It was nice to see some "real" dressage horses after being out of the loop for so long, and I met a wonderful woman named Chacea who has a horse (Perfect Velocity) who she purchased last year from Finger Lakes. The horse is a lovely mover and she seems to be a very classical rider (she pinned very well at the show), and I was impressed at his natural athleticism and training. There were also some new inductees to dressage - as well as a few school-master horses who were a blast to watch perform third-level movements. I got a little sunburnt but the day left me inspired and I could not wait to return home to see my horse. We arrived at about 8PM and the BO (who lives on site) had forgotten I asked for special permission to come after hours the day prior (8 is the closing time) - meaning my visit with the new horse was cut short, as I did not want to disturb the BO so early into the boarding despite her apology after she remembered I had sought her permission to come. In a deft conversation turn, I think I placated her by mentioning she had forgotten to tell me how much I owed her for board (having come in at the middle of the month) and I handed her $125 in case as well as our signed boarding agreement, the 150$ being half of $250 - which had been the advertised price of boarding. The horse seemed to have settled in and Mike (my BF) met him for the first time. We groomed the horse shortly and left.

I learned that the barn has an "halter-in-effect" rule at all time, which I wish I had known prior to agreeing to board there. The horses have to have halters on at all times - in turn out or in the stall, which is disgruntling to me as I personally have known a few disasters to arise from that. Unfortunately the BO is not willing to negotiate this case, so I guess it is time to shop for an easy-break/break-away halter - he has an all leather halter on now but I think a break-away would be safer. We'll see!