Every bit as nice
The comments from yesterday contain more info about him.
We have picked him up and got him home and he is every bit as nice as I thought he was. His temperament is spot on. We will see how he is in three or four months time, because it takes them that long to realise that they are not a machine any more but a horse. If he gets a bit sparkier I won't mind - he is really VERY quiet right now.
He is quite a horse. I am not totally sure why he stopped at such ridiculous price, when he is such an eyeful and moves too and has totally clean legs. It may have something to do with the lump he has on his back. Look carefully at the photos and you will see a sizable lump half way back along his spine. Yesterday there was also a ridge at what would have been the front edge of a surcingle, and I believe that's how it's been caused. It is a little sore and he didn't want it touched yesterday but he is happyish for me to massage it today and it is smaller. So I think that it is relatively new and still inflamed. And I hope that it will therefore get a lot smaller. If it doesn't, it's going to look a whole lot smaller once it's surrounded with the fat he is about to start putting on!
If any of you have any suggestions how to treat the lump to make it go away, please let me know. IF it stays, it's not a disaster - it is right on the spine dead central and will fit into the gullet of any treed saddle easily. He may have to have holes cut in his numnahs but that's about the limit of it :-) Unless I have made a terrible mistake of course and it will stay sensitive and he will never allow a saddle near it. I don't think so, but that's the risk you take at auction.
He is in a stable now, with Tia and Tetley on the yard saying hello over the door. There hasn't been a single squeal or a single foot raised. I am going outside soon to do his feet, rug him up well and let him out for his first taste of being a REAL horse.
So, I said his head was exquisite and I meant ECK-SKWIZZ-IT. Here is a better photo. He is about 1/3 inch overshot in the mouth, which means he will have to have his teeth checked regularly, but I have that done anyway so it's of no importance.
And here's the best one of him to show how nicely he is made. If you aren't accustomed to seeing very fit racehorses, he looks pretty ordinary. But when he has got rid of that tight fitness and is less lean, he has the frame to turn into a really nice looking horse. He's a lot bigger than Tia and although that wither looks sharp in the photo it isn't and he borders on being wider at the wither than Tetley. It's also not a high wither, and if he is a similar height to Tia, he is an order of magnitude bigger horse. I am hoping the front end might come up a bit - at the moment his backside is maybe a fraction higher. It might, or it might not, you never can tell with these horses that have been hot-housed to grow early. There was a two year old filly there yesterday that you would have sworn was a six year old. I even asked the owner if the catalogue was incorrect!
C
ps Tetley is moving really well but I'm too tired to ride anybody!
posted by cptrayes @ 1:42 PM
10 comments
10 Comments:
I just can't wait for you to start getting those feet sorted out! Look forward to lots of pics for us foot fetishists.
Liz
it occurs to me to wonder - he probably didn't race well as he's unhappy on his feet!
I've got Peter Laidely staying with me at the minute, he is doing a two day hoof trimming course with us. We spent some of today talking about event lines, he looks to have two quite prominent ones on his off fore and possibly some shallower ones, any idea what may have caused these?
He has also said some interesting stuff about when it is permissible to trim up to the white line to remove length which is quite interesting and may be applicable for him.
He's got a lovely head and a nice shoulder, I think he will turn out very nicely.
he does have a pretty face.....nice!
I bet he's going to enjoy being out and about and feeling like a horse.
What size is he at the mo?
When you say he has been a total failure as a racehorse, it looks as if the trainer had got him superfit to try and run the others into the ground.
Do you think the lump was caused by the saddle as racing saddles have a short tree? Do you know when he last ran?
I like his long ears, his big jaw and his wide nostrils - supposed to be signs of kindness and intelligence. We all wait with excitment to see how he turns out.
I have hacked over half an inch off each foot (he's smaller now!) and still not left him walking on his soles. Nearly all the nail holes are gone and the clip marks have just been cut right off. And still his feet are nicely concave.
He has the most concave feet I have ever seen. Those shoes had been on at least 10 weeks, they were race plates too (aluminium) and still darned difficult to get off.
The event line marks a very obvious growth of much thicker horn. I would hazard a guess that about 9 months ago they put him on a foot supplement. There is a very marked difference between that last inch and the rest. He has great thick whacks of horn.
He also had plenty of white line disease, but I cut off so much foot that it's all come off and the white line is now perfect. I might have overdone it, and now I risk overstretching his tendons if I have dropped the heels relative to the rest, but I reckon I took off more toe than heel. I find pincers difficult to judge but there was so much I couldn't do it with a rasp.
His feet are tiny, but already solid and hard and a very nice shape. He'll be fine in no time. There is no problem with his feet except overdue shoeing, as far as I can see.
He is out with the others tonight. Not a squeal or any bother from any of them. Tia is jealous (she's a girlie after all!) and is keeping him away from Tetley. He made it clear that he wants to stay out with them, not come in to a stable. But he is also standing staring into space as if he just cannot believe the world is so big! He doesn't have much of a clue what grass is, and I think it's a long, long time since he saw any when he wasn't doing 25 miles an hour.
Poor boy, he is banjaxed by being a normal horse right now, but I hope he will realise what fun he is going to have soon.
Jean, I can't find any history for him on Racing Post except his name, can you do any better? I'm not sure I'm doing the right thing on the site??
He last ran, according to the catalogue, in April but he is still race fit so he may have run since it was prepared.
The lump is about half way along where a saddle would fit and I know that the lightest race saddles have a half tree in the front only and practically no gullet. It is entirely possible, now you come to ask and I think about it, that the half tree ended right there. And the apprentice jockey and another groom with him, told me it was caused by the saddle (I just didn't quite believe anyone could have done that to him). How ON EARTH did they expect the poor creature to run with a saddle tree digging into his back??? It makes me really angry that they can treat them so callously. What a superb nature he must have not to have just dumped them on the floor! Maybe he did, but they said he was a doddle to ride and I really felt that they were telling the truth. If they weren't, I still have the pulleys ready!
C.
What a handsome lad. His head reminds me of my first horse, a totally elegant Thoroughbred. If his personality is similar too, you have a true gem.
Tucker went well today, but he needs to work on more forward. He earned a 57% on First Level Test 4 (one rider error) for a 4th place and 61% on First Level Test 3 with a 2nd place. He was pretty good in the schooling ring, so I may try him myself in a June show. He's fine in the competition arena. It's just a problem in the warmup with the other horses.
That's one big advantage of a horse that's been on the track. Usually, the other horses don't intimidate him.
As for Caddy's feet...what were they thinking? I'd bet he looks 100% better after your trim.
If you go to Equineline.com, you can find all kinds of reports. I forget how much it costs to join, but once you do, they offer free reports each month of various kinds. The five cross pedigree is always free. You can get race records and all kind of things.
You just need the horse's registered name.
You can also try a Google search for "Thoroughbred pedigree" to access some other on line sources.
I just like equineline, though.
Let us know what you find out.
If you scroll down the right hand side of the racing post site, there will be a little box where you can enter his name, then click go. you then click on his name and it brings up his full racing record, you can also see some of his races for free for a short time. To see some of the other race videos not available there, you can go the at the races (www.attheraces.co.uk) website and look for video form.
Helen
Thanks Helen! I never thought to click on his name. He sold for 15,000 gns as a 2 year old! He raced three times at 2 and only once at 3 so he has not been worked as hard as I feared he might have been. He has had 7 races this year already though so no wonder he looks fit but at least he was mature before they put him under that kind of strain!!
Well done with Tucker Jean, he's making a great start isn't he?
C
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