"Just Jeepin'" (macintux)
05/01/2020 at 10:55 • Filed to: None
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"Just Jeepin'" (macintux)
05/01/2020 at 10:55 • Filed to: None | 0
| 7 |
I don’t pay attention to horse racing, but this article caught my eye and I found it pretty interesting. Last year’s controversial Kentucky Derby feels like a lifetime ago; here’s the story of the winner (with an asterisk) and why he dropped off the face of the earth.
Just...sorry a bout the ads. What a mess that site is.
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Snuze: Needs another Swede
> Just Jeepin'
05/01/2020 at 11:28 |
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That was a good read, thanks for sharing.
I’m sort of plugged into horse stuff, by proxy. My mom and sister ride, but they event, which is like horse triathlon - stadium jumping, dressage (fancy horse dancin’), and cross country . My sister’s current horse is a thoroughbred who was a “track pony” though. T hat son of a gun is fast, b ut he wasn’t fast enough to race. I nstead he did chores at the track, like leading race horses into the starting gates (some horses are scared of these, but if another horse walks through first, they figure it’s safe so they will go).
My sister also worked for an equine vet who saw a lot of the race horse from the Charlestown, WV track, and she spent a couple summers working for a race horse breeder/ trainer. From what I’ve gathered, it’s an eclectic, and interesting group of people.
Horse racing is also more like car racing than you might think , except the car has a mind of it’s own. So you need both the drive(jockey) and car(horse) to perform. Like a race car, y ou also need them to not break, and for being 1200+ pound animals, they are surprisingly fragile - horses can get injured and/or die from all sorts of stuff, even something simple, like eating too much. Of course the difference you can’t fix a horse with spare parts.
Chariotoflove
> Just Jeepin'
05/01/2020 at 11:43 |
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Amid all the hustle and bustle and controversy and competition, I always like to think of the horse’s perspective, which is, “ooo, a carrot!”
Which is to say, I’m glad to read the horse recovered from laminitis and will get to have lots of sex in retirement.
As an aside, the trainers drug ging horses thing is something we experienced. My sister’s horse almost certainly was treated badly like that in an effort to turn her into a productive mare in the show circuit before she was sold to us. She was uncharacteristically skittish for a Morgan because of it, but love and patience and no small amount of skill on my sister’s part turned her into a moderate success.
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Chariotoflove
> Snuze: Needs another Swede
05/01/2020 at 12:01 |
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Racing thoroughbreds are the high strung race cars of the species, too. They are engineered for high performance, but they are fragile, and service is super expensive. I like my thoroughbred mixed in with other breeds to calm them down and make them a little more stable (no pun intended). Then they can be good jumpers but sturdy enough for the trail.
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Snuze: Needs another Swede
> Chariotoflove
05/01/2020 at 14:16 |
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I am significantly less knowledgeable about horses than my family - I can pick out some of the more distinctive ones like palominos , drafts, arabians, fjords, zebras, but that’s really about it, if it’s not distinct like that then to me it’s just a horse.
I also mostly have negative experiences. My sister’s first horse arrived on my birthday, and then stepped on my foot. I’ve also been bit, head butted, pushed into an electric fence, and stepped on again. Her current horse is pretty chill though, so we get along.
My family is in Maryland, in proximity to multiple horse racing tracks, so there’s always noncompetitive thoroughbreds for sale, and a lot of trainers who have made good careers at turning into slow race horses into competitive event horses.
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Chariotoflove
> Snuze: Needs another Swede
05/01/2020 at 14:49 |
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Horses push you around unless you push them around for sure. Mine was named Rebel, supposedly by my mother after he kicked her.
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Snuze: Needs another Swede
> Chariotoflove
05/01/2020 at 15:15 |
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What a handsome boy!
As much as I don’t really get along with horses, they are beautiful creatures.
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Chariotoflove
> Snuze: Needs another Swede
05/01/2020 at 15:45 |
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He was like a brother to me. A brother who lived in the barn and needed me to clean his stall, but we grew up together nonetheless.