It’s been a long time since I wrote one of these life on the farm articles so I better get started. I used to enjoy writing but as I get older it seems to take me longer to get started. Once I get going, however, I still enjoy it. So, I have Ian Tyson on the stereo and while Matt is out planting bushes and flowers I will get started – I am sure he will finish before me. The small animal vet is due soon to do toenails and shots. Tomorrow is the horse vet. Always something and all of it expensive.
It was a long wet winter – more rain than we have gotten in years, snow also, which considering I live at about 3000 feet is pretty awesome. Everything is really green and the weather is warming up making it tough on the allergies. There are so many wildflowers, grass and weeds that I imagine the fire season will be pretty grim but for now it is beautiful.
The new apartment and barn finally are finished and my friend has moved in. She liked the area she was in before and I am not sure she is happy on this side of the mountain but it is free and she is pretty broke so she will learn to love it. I have faith. Of course, I am jealous because I have never lived in a brand new house. It is really a nice property and the barn is should be in Better Homes and Barns. It has three stalls with pens but most of the horses will be out on the pasture except for adjustment periods between racetrack and pasture. I don’t have any horses over there now but will have the end of this month as the racehorses start to come home.
Speaking of racehorses – I have a slew of them. I bought a horse out of Maryland named Boomerang Miss. She has been wonderful, winning two and also has a couple of seconds and a third. She has only run one bad race for me. She is so gritty and tries so hard – I just love her. She is now stakes placed (that is a big deal if she goes on to a career as a broodmare) and has been running so well it is hard to remember that she was a 12,500 claimer when I got her.
Wildfire Kid and Nat Gio were both coming back off of injuries. Wildfire won a race since he has been back and a couple of in the monies. Nat Gio has had a couple of slow works since she returned to training in January and should start to pick it up soon. She needed the horse dentist badly and since he came she has been much happier. Lot’s of caps and sharp teeth.
Sedona Sunrise I claimed in January and he has a win and a second and a couple of fourths but then he stepped on a rock and we had to wait on that. He should be back soon. I claimed Oh Brother Jack the end of February and I hope he gets better soon as he hasn’t done much in two starts for me. We have him pointed towards Arizona Breed Day which gives horses born in AZ a chance to run for some decent purses. Sedona Sunrise is also a AZ bred so I should have a couple of shots at some purse money on the 20th of April.
Turf Paradise closes the first week of May and then we move to Prescott. The new track is named Arizona Downs and they have done a bunch of work on it. I have been out there a few times and it is really nice. Best of all it isn’t as far to travel as it is to Phoenix. I will bring Jack and Boomerang home for some R&R. Jack has been running non-stop since he was a 2 YO and Boomie likes the turf and Prescott doesn’t have a turf course. The other three will run through the summer.
I still have three at the farm – Barilla, Story and Nae Doot. They are just fat and happy with nothing to do but eat. I may put Story back in training as a riding horse this summer when I don’t have so many at the track. She got a huge scaroid tumor above her eye last spring and I sent her to a specialist in Phoenix and he treated her all summer. She came home with nothing but a scar over her eye – well she was pretty thin but it didn’t take long to fix that. She looks good again so I am not embarrassed to send her to the trainer.
The Kentucky horses are doing well. Crown Secret is in foal to Flat Out and AP Pepper is in foal to Tale of Ekati. The two mares should foal this month if all goes well. As of now I am breeding Pepper back to Strong Mandate and bringing Secret home next fall after this colt is weaned. The yearlings will be coming back then also. Things can always change though.
I guess that is about it. I have Wildfire Kid in on Sunday, April 7th but he is in tough and he will have to run very fast in order to get part of it. If he doesn’t fire this time, I may just retire him. He is nine and has done it all so it wouldn’t be a bad thing. Okay, I have things to do so see ya, next time.
Views (106)
All sounds good !!
Thanks for sharing, as always
Thanks for the update Roys…. I remember back in the early years when you just had a few mares and you were trying to figure out what sire to send them to…. Seems like yesterday ,,,, Good Luck and Good Health.