Crosshill Pacers
Well-Known Member
OH and I are getting to the business end of things now with the horses in terms of mares due to foal and horses coming in for training ready for the 2014 harness racing season.
We've got four mares due to foal between March and the beginning of June - three of whom were scanned before Christmas in foal, and one who was imported just before Christmas Day from America. The imported mare, Rita, was scanned in foal as a condition of her entry in the sale in Harrisburg, however upon her arrival OH and I both noticed she didn't look that heavy in foal considering she's due at the beginning of March.
She looked extremely well when I saw her on my last visit, and I kept telling myself that she was scanned in foal before she left the US so she had to be in foal, unless she'd slipped it whilst being held in the US/in quarantine, in which case someone would have notifed the shipping agent who would have in turn notified OH.
Despite all this, once the doubt starts creeping in then the worry starts, so OH took her to be scanned yesterday - thankfully we had nothing to worry about and there is a foal in there! That's one less thing to worry about now
the next hurdle is having a live foal so fingers crossed!
At the same time, OH took one of his racehorses to have a tendon scanned. Stevie was broken as a 2yo and worked down to a respectable time before qualifying to race. He then damaged a tendon and OH was advised to give him six weeks off before bringing him back in to work; unfortunately due to the racing season being so short, and the stakes races all scheduled within a certain time frame, OH felt that the time off, and then the time bringing Stevie back into work wouldn't allow him to compete in the stakes races. Rather than push him and risk causing more injury, he was turned away for the remainder of the summer.
Last year, due to work commitments and other horses being trained, Stevie wasn't trained. It's done him the world of good, and as a 4yo now he's such a strong horse. He has the most wonderful nature, so affectionate and willing to please. He's been brought in for the last three weeks in order to gradually build up his diet ready to start work.
OH didn't want to start training Stevie to find out further down the line that he couldn't stand up to the work, as it wouldn't be fair on him (and there's other horses there that could be trained) - more good news, as the vet confirmed that the scans showed no sign of the original injury. OH will take things slower than he normally would and if at any point Stevie is unable to cope with the workload, he'll be turned out again. Once again, fingers crossed!
Now all the hard work begins
We've got four mares due to foal between March and the beginning of June - three of whom were scanned before Christmas in foal, and one who was imported just before Christmas Day from America. The imported mare, Rita, was scanned in foal as a condition of her entry in the sale in Harrisburg, however upon her arrival OH and I both noticed she didn't look that heavy in foal considering she's due at the beginning of March.
She looked extremely well when I saw her on my last visit, and I kept telling myself that she was scanned in foal before she left the US so she had to be in foal, unless she'd slipped it whilst being held in the US/in quarantine, in which case someone would have notifed the shipping agent who would have in turn notified OH.
Despite all this, once the doubt starts creeping in then the worry starts, so OH took her to be scanned yesterday - thankfully we had nothing to worry about and there is a foal in there! That's one less thing to worry about now
the next hurdle is having a live foal so fingers crossed!At the same time, OH took one of his racehorses to have a tendon scanned. Stevie was broken as a 2yo and worked down to a respectable time before qualifying to race. He then damaged a tendon and OH was advised to give him six weeks off before bringing him back in to work; unfortunately due to the racing season being so short, and the stakes races all scheduled within a certain time frame, OH felt that the time off, and then the time bringing Stevie back into work wouldn't allow him to compete in the stakes races. Rather than push him and risk causing more injury, he was turned away for the remainder of the summer.
Last year, due to work commitments and other horses being trained, Stevie wasn't trained. It's done him the world of good, and as a 4yo now he's such a strong horse. He has the most wonderful nature, so affectionate and willing to please. He's been brought in for the last three weeks in order to gradually build up his diet ready to start work.
OH didn't want to start training Stevie to find out further down the line that he couldn't stand up to the work, as it wouldn't be fair on him (and there's other horses there that could be trained) - more good news, as the vet confirmed that the scans showed no sign of the original injury. OH will take things slower than he normally would and if at any point Stevie is unable to cope with the workload, he'll be turned out again. Once again, fingers crossed!
Now all the hard work begins