The newsletter of HorseHobbyist.com Spring 2003 In This Issue:
Spring is finally in the air, and horses are shedding, grass is growing, foals are frisking about and the 129th running of the Kentucky Derby is right around the corner. We haven’t had a Triple Crown Winner since Affirmed took it in 1978, and we haven’t had a filly win since Winning Colors led from start to finish in 1988! Who knows what will happen this year - perhaps a new record? Monarchos couldn’t quite beat Secretariat a few years back now, but our horses keep getting faster and more competitive, so who knows! We're also looking for some photos for a horse screensaver we're building, to be available free for download on our website. If you have a good digital image of horses, we'd love to use it! We'll be glad to give credit to you or to your stable in exchange. Just drop me an email and let me know if you are interested.
PH Cody
After a long period of design, followed by a few rounds of beta testing, HorseHobbyist.com finally launched its BRAND NEW message boards last week! Please come by and check out all the great new features, including "Today's Posts," "Find New," email if you get a reply, "Tools and Toys," better navigation, and a whole lot more. You'll find the new message boards on our website at http://forums.horsehobbyist.com. Current hot topics on our message boards include: Foal Watch: Is tonight the night? Back in the Show Ring - In Style! As always, some of our "hottest spots" are the Ask the Equine Vet and Equestrian Tavern Forums. We hope to see you there!
We have assembled a complete resource center on the Kentucky Derby on HorseHobbyist.com, including Derby Trivia, a history of Triple Crown Winners, tips on watching the race, the Derby social scene, related links on the web, and even a Racing and Racehorses Bookstore. We are updating our Derby page constantly, and also invite your speculation and analysis of the contenders - let us know what you think in our Thoroughbred Forum! You will find all this and more at the Kentucky Derby on HorseHobbyist.com!
Reviewed by Christie Keith
Seabiscuit was a homely horse with an impressive pedigree whose early career was in the hardluck world of small time tracks and claim races. Seabiscuit threw his knee when he ran, and couldn't even fully straighten out his legs. But millionaire automobile dealer Howard Smith saw him and spotted what everyone else had missed. The rest is quite literally history. During the 30s, Seabiscuit was not only the most famous horse or the most famous athlete; he was the single most famous personality of his era, garnering more column inches in the newspapers and magazines than Hitler, FDR, or anyone else. His incredible Cinderella story, from the lowest echelons of horse racing to the highest ranks of fame and fortune, appealed to an America caught in the grip of the Depression. Hillenbrand captured not just the story of this scrubby little horse, nor of the men who trained and nurtured him, but of the nation that idolized him and the era he symbolized. She conducted numerous interviews with primary players in Seabiscuit's story, as well as with the family and friends of those now dead. She saw rare film footage of Seabiscuit's races, and her account of his famous one-on-one race with his chief rival, War Admiral, is without question one of the most vivid and exciting passages of writing in any genre I've ever read. Only the best novels take you to another time and place; it's very rare that non-fiction has this power. If you are a horse fan, the story of "Lone Plainsman" Tom Smith's training and nurturing of this scrappy horse will add a whole other element of enjoyment to Hillenbrand's tale. In today's era of "horse whisperers," the radical nature of Smith's gentle training methods might be missed, but there is no doubt they were as effective as they were unusual for their times. Smith took an unruly, ugly horse who hated to race, hated to compete, and hated people, and turned him into one of the fastest, hardest working, friendliest, calmest thoroughbreds ever to run a race. Seabiscuit actually had his own railroad car, in which he traveled with his best friend, a horse named Pumpkin who he lived with for the rest of their lives, and his other buddies, including a monkey and a spotted mixed breed dog named Pocatell. Unlike most horses, Seabiscuit (known as a very lazy horse when he wasn't blistering the track) liked to sleep lying down, and his idea of a good day was one he spent cuddled into the hay napping with his friends. He snoozed his way across the United States, coming out of his private railcar to greet his fans along the route and accept carrots from newspaper reporters. (The only things he liked more than napping were eating and being admired.) There has never been a horse like Seabiscuit. There has never been a story like this one. Hillenbrand, whose book is now being made into a feature film, has done justice to her subject with one of the finest works of history and sports biography ever published. Copyright 2003 by Christie Keith. Used with permission. All rights reserved. Visit the Racing and Racehorses Bookstore on HorseHobbyist.com for Seabiscuit and other great books!
Make sure your tractors, lawnmowers, weedeaters, etc. are all tuned up and in working condition. If needed, replace the blades to any mowers. Sharp blades make for cleaner cuts, which increases the health of your grass. Go ahead and start building your fly control arsenal. You don't want the flies to get an upper hand, they take that inch and run a mile! If you haven't already done so in the last 6-8 weeks, deworm your horses. Winter does not stop parasite cycles, and in fact, with little grass to eat, the horses are more likely to pick up parasite eggs off the ground while foraging.
Even if you don't go anywhere with your horses, and are fortunate to live where mosquitoes never roam, please check your rabies vaccination records and make sure your horses are up to date with this important vaccine. Rabies has broken out in several different areas of late and there is NO CURE once your animal has contracted the virus.
Spring is the best time for reseeding and sprigging for warm weather grasses like bermuda. I know if you are like me, you think continually about your horses' well being and comfort and tend to neglect your own. But because we at HorseHobbyist.com worry about you, too, we want you to be healthy and around for many, many moons! So please, before running out to spend a day in the sun with your equine buddy, do grab some sunscreen as you walk out the door (and apply it to your skin, doesn't work well otherwise!). Not only is it uncomfortable to deal with sunburn, but skin cancer is one of the leading cancers out there and you don't want to have to go through that! Other than that, just get out there and enjoy the beautiful spring weather! Before too long we'll be wishing for the mild temperatures as we sweat out the dog days of summer.
The Thoroughbred stands a little over sixteen hands (one hand equals four inches) on average and its appearance reveals its Arabian ancestry. A refined head with wide-spaced, intelligent eyes sits on a neck which is somewhat longer and lighter than in other breeds. The withers are high and well-defined, leading to an evenly curved back. The shoulder is deep, well-muscled and extremely sloped while the heart girth is deep and relatively narrow. The legs are clean and long with pronounced tendons. The cannon bone is short and relatively flat with the pastern, whose flexibility and strength cushions much of the stress put on a horse's legs and body, set at an angle slightly less than forty-five degrees to the vertical. When viewed from behind or in front, the legs should be straight and move smoothly in unison through one plane. The bone structure of the upper hind leg makes room for long, strong muscling. The thigh bone is long and the angle it makes with the hip bone is wide. The powerful muscling of the hip and thigh continues to the gaskin, which is set low. The trailing edge of the hind cannon should follow a perpendicular line to the point of the buttock. The Thoroughbred's conformation makes it an ideal runner, capable of covering more than twenty feet in a single stride while reaching speeds of up to forty miles per hour. The rear legs act much like springs as they bend and straighten during running. This tremendous "spring power" helps thrust the horse forward as its front legs provide "pull." The Thoroughbred's head and long neck also help to make running smooth and rhythmic. The neck moves in synchrony with the forelegs, aiding in forward motion and extending the "arc of flight," the time the Thoroughbred literally is airborne. Thoroughbreds come in many colors. The Jockey Club is the parent or central registry for all U.S. bred thoroughbreds. The Jockey Club recognizes the colors of bay, dark bay/brown, black, chestnut, grey and roan. To register a horse, the damn and sire must both be registered thoroughbreds and blood typed. Additionally, when the foal is born, blood must be sent in to be typed to insure the foal is of the reported breeding.
The noble and wonderful Thoroughbred, with the look of eagles, is truly a remarkable horse. Come discuss the Thoroughbred in our NEW Thoroughbred Forum!
Some of my fondest memories are of when my Dad would take me to the tracks in Birmingham, Alabama for the races there. Those were good days, father-daughter time. None of my brothers cared for horses or horse racing, so this was something my dad and I could share together. Nowadays I can’t tell you much about who’s winning, or even who’s racing. I even live 10 minutes from the Finger Lakes Race track, and have yet to go watch a race. Growing up can sometimes be a bummer! But I have memories. I remember Willie Shoemaker, who in my opinion was the greatest jockey to ever step into a stirrup. The only one I rank anywhere near as close would have to be Pat Day. I remember cheering Ferdinand as I watched him via telecast in 1986. I remember my heart breaking as Timely Writer went down and Belmont and the world lost a beautiful and courageous horse. I remember how you held your breath for 2 minutes while your favorite struggled to hold the lead, or get the lead, or just stay with the pack in some cases! Of course, I also remember wanting to be a jockey with a passion, and being very upset when genetics dictated that I was well over the limit in height by the time I was in high school. I remember John Henry, who started out his career walking from the gates in his first race, then sprinting to a win. And I remember going to Kentucky with my Grandma, and meeting Foolish Pleasure, and even being allowed to rub his nose. Back then I knew the horses, knew who was racing and got right good at picking the winners. From my Dad I learned to size up a horse, knew which trainers were worth their salt and why, and which jockeys worked the best with the horse. I learned all that from a non-horse person. Of course at the time, he was just Dad, and Dads know everything. But as I got older and realized how much he had taught me about a subject he would have claimed to have known nothing about, I realized that we all have something to contribute. Dad taught me more at those races. He would give me a set amount of money that I was allowed to bid with. And I learned that you don’t have second chances, you lose it, its gone. He also drilled into my head that gambling was just that, a gamble. Never gamble with something you can’t afford to lose. This was a lesson that has served me well in life, not just on the tracks. We gamble every day with different things, time, money, friends, life... And I guess that my favorite horse racing memory, as well as the best lessons, came in 1988 when I sat at my Grandma’s with Dad and Grandpa getting ready to watch the Derby. I always watched the horses parade to the track and chose my favorite then. There was this beautiful grey filly who caught my eye and she’s the one I chose. I figured she had two things going for her: She was grey (and Dad always loved the greys) and her trainer was Wayne Lukas, my all time favorite race trainer. My Grandpa, who loved to disagree with anyone and everyone, laughed at me. Told me a filly wasn’t about to win the Derby, she didn’t stand a chance. I stuck to my guns though and told him he could cheer his favorite (which as usual, was the crowd favorite, a colt named Forty Niner) and I’d cheer on my filly. Well, Winning Colors not only won the Derby, she led the entire race. My Grandpa was never a very good loser but suffice to say, I learned that there’s never a “never” and the underdog doesn’t always come out on the bottom. I also learned to stick with my own feelings because most of the time, they serve me well. And looking back, I remember my Dad sitting there grinning as she won. You see, my Dad was always my number one fan.
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Welcome to the Spring edition of Hoofbeats!
Enjoy the newsletter, venture on over to our 
Often called the most exciting two minutes in sports, the Kentucky Derby is long on history and pageantry. Each year, the first Saturday in May is reserved for Derby Day. From the tension packed paddock area, to the playing of "My Old Kentucky Home," to the loading at the starting gate and electrifying start, the Kentucky Derby is an event not to be missed.
The key to being ready for summer, is starting in the spring. Warm weather brings out nice green grass where there was yucky brown mud (or worse, layers of snow!), sleek shiny horses where there was big fuzzy teddy bears and t-shirts and caps where there were heavy coats and 3 layers of hats! Some things to get going on now before it gets hot are:
Spring is the best time for yearly vaccinating, for several reasons. The biggest reason being that your best immunity from many of the vaccines is during the first 2-3 months after they are given. Mosquitoes transmit one of the more common vaccinated diseases, encephalitis, as well as the West Nile Virus, so you want the best protection during the worst of the mosquito season. Other diseases like rhino and flu are transmitted from horse to horse. During the spring and summer many folks are out more, trail riding, showing, etc. so again, you want that immunity boost before heading out!
If you aren't fortunate enough to own several hundred acres, join the crowd. I'd recommend doing something to spread the manure out as thinly as possible in your pasture if you don't remove it. This will not only cause the manure to break down faster, it will also expose any parasite eggs to the sun and elements, which will kill them.
Be it racing, dressage, hunting, jumping or all around pleasure horse, the thoroughbred is a remarkable breed. Basically developed over the past three hundred years to serve man's passion for racing, the noble Thoroughbred is known for speed, stamina and heart.
While most people think of the Thoroughbred only in racing terms, the thoroughbred excels in dressage, hunting and jumping show ring events. Additionally, the American Quarter Horse in its quest for speed and stamina has allowed out breeding to the thoroughbred. Many of the quarter/thoroughbred crosses can be found performing western pleasure, barrel racing, pole bending, reining, cutting as well as being great trusted mounts for the casual rider.
My Dad was not what anyone in their right mind would call a horse person. He wasn’t without some knowledge of them though. After all, he had grown up on a farm where a good horse meant the difference between being able to farm the land or not. And he did have a passion for the Sport of Kings, horse racing. From this, I have many memories and learned quite a few lessons in life.