Ottb – Page 15 – My Ex Racers

21Jun 2012 by myexracer

Africa Hot

[caption id="attachment_228" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="will she or wont she "][/caption] Its hot. It's not just hot it's Africa hot. The heat index makes the 99 degree heat feel like 199 degrees. At least to my southern California Sensibilities. Because it was predicted to be so hot, I decided to head to the barn and spend some time cooling down my pretty filly. I stopped off at the market and picked up some Gatorade. I wasn't sure what flavor Jezebel might be interested in so a picked up a variety and made sure to get the "low cal" Gatorade which has half the sugar and all the electrolytes. The barn was void of people and it was sweltering, my filly was standing in front of her fan trying to escape the…

17Jun 2012 by myexracer

Pennsylvania

Life with Jezebel, OTTB

[caption id="attachment_220" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="AKA Miss Ten Oaks"][/caption] I spent the day in PA at After The Races. The lovely farm I adopted my adorable filly from. It was really nice to hang out with them, they are good folks doing good things with rehabbing and re-homing Thoroughbreds. They have a slew of great horses all in different stages. Some recovering from injuries, some just getting started under saddle and some being let down and getting used to being horses again. It was great to see "Oakley" being worked in the round pen avoiding obstacles and making good decisions. She was the ex racer I originally went to check out way back in Feb. At that time she had been on the farm just a couple weeks and wasn't ready…

11Jun 2012 by myexracer

Its hot!

Life with Jezebel, OTTB

[caption id="attachment_213" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="No, I will not pose for photos..is that a carrot!? "][/caption] This east coast weather thing is crazy. I come from southern California I'm used to hot, I can handle hot. I am however having trouble with this humidity thing. Egads this isn't hot, this is torture! It's hot enough that the horses are in during the day and out at night now. My filly has her fan so I'm hoping that helps to keep her cool. Our 20 minute lunge routine has been cut in half because its too damn hot to work her hard. I'm not sure how I'm going to get her in shape with only 10 minutes a day of serious work. Sometimes its hard for me to believe she actually was…

12May 2012 by myexracer

The thing that wouldnt quit

Life with Jezebel, OTTB

[caption id="attachment_197" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="This is what 600+ bucks looks like"][/caption] I am learning more about hoof abscess then I ever thought I would. My filly is still laid up with hers. I called in the vet last week to check her out since her abscess wants popping and she was pretty ouchy. My vet was able to find the track and pop it. Yay! however there are now concerns about her back left hind hoof. The infection was on the same track as the last abscess though my vet feels its a different infection and not a re0infection due to the amount of time that had passed. So in order to address her susceptibility to the abscess we've done a couple of two day wet wraps to draw out…

04May 2012 by myexracer

Its back!

Life with Jezebel, OTTB

[caption id="attachment_191" align="alignleft" width="257" caption="Getting checked out"][/caption] When I went to get my pretty filly out of the back field the other day she was slow and sluggish. usually shes bouncy and happy the other day... not so much. At first I figured it was the heat. The sun was shinning hot and the humidity was high. I took her to the field trough and let her drink before I took her in for our daily lunge work out. Standing at the trough she was holding her left hind awkward. She didn't seem to be limping at all but on the sharp turns to get her out of the filed gate she was definitely having trouble with the back left. I had one of the trainers at my barn look…

21Apr 2012 by myexracer

Walk Trot Trot Walk Repeat

Life with Jezebel, OTTB, Training

[caption id="attachment_186" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Pretty filly"][/caption] Ground work, ground work , ground work, that's my new theme. Since I have no saddle at the moment I'm focusing on lunging my filly. I've taken to lunging her for 20 minutes a day trying to get her into a routine. I bring her in from the field, groom her, put on her splint boots and caveson and we do 10 minutes in each direction walk to trot, trot to walk, and back again. Our circles are looking less and less like D's and more and more like circles, which I'm pretty pleased about. She is picking up the voice commands but doesn't have them entirely yet. Her trot is often calm and collected which makes me happy, when shes in a groove…

17Apr 2012 by myexracer

Beyond The Track- Book Review

Book Review, OTTB, Training

[caption id="attachment_180" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Step one... read"][/caption] After my really disappointing day a few weeks ago with my filly I decided to read some books. Its something I do a lot. When I get stuck anywhere in life I find a book on the subject, often I find many books on the subject and read and absorb and read and absorb. It's a habit I picked up as a very little girl which also is why I think I can learn and do anything but that's a tale for another day. I bought Beyond The Track by Anna Ford. I couldn't wait for it to get here cursing myself for not paying expedited shipping. When it did arrive I read it immediately, ignoring everything else. I was taking a horse…

16Apr 2012 by myexracer

Another Day Another Disappointment

Life with Jezebel, OTTB, Saddles and tack

[caption id="attachment_163" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="HDR All Purpose Saddle "][/caption] This saddle hunt is making me insane and that's putting it mildly. My girl is hard to fit which is making this process harder. I'm not made of money which is making it doubley as frustrating. Of course everything over a few grand fits her and fits her well, everything under.. nope. The boyfriend took a day off of work so we could drive to VA ( cuz VA is for saddles not lovers) to pick up a saddle from good ole Dover. After sitting on the barrel in a few different makes and models the best i came up with was a Henry De Rivel all purpose. This HDR was also on super sale, which is to say it was…

14Apr 2012 by myexracer

Back To The Begining

Life with Jezebel, OTTB, Training

[caption id="attachment_159" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Work you say? "][/caption] Since I do not have a saddle that fits my girl yet, we are going back to square one. The lunge line. I'm going to be very aggressive with the ground work with my filly. She needs it and I think I do to. So after about a week off from horse land, a landslide of work and out of town holiday guests made that pretty easy, it was time to put my new ground work plan into action. I hiked to the back field and got my girl ready for some ground work in the indoor ring. It was the first time I put her splint boots on her and being a race horse she didn't bat an eye to them…

06Apr 2012 by myexracer

Saddles, Saddles, Everywhere

Life with Jezebel, OTTB, Saddles and tack

[caption id="attachment_154" align="alignleft" width="239" caption="Im sure this one wont fit either"][/caption] I like all job titles with the word "master" in them. Master Of Whiskey being my favorite, though this time my brush with a "master" title, was a master saddler. When my saddler asked me "what is the plan" I told him we were starting from scratch. So we started off with him examining my filly and yes shes got a couple of sore spots. Shes more developed on the left (hello racehorse), a longer back, high withers and it seems as if she will need a medium tree. I should have long flaps and a 18 inch seat because lets face it I'm a tall, leggy girl. He then took a look at my Lovatts and Rickkets saddle…

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