Author: reenchantedOTTBS

One day while going through Shandoka’s pedigree, I came across a name that took my breath away; Count Fleet. “No way,” I whispered to myself. Count Fleet raced long before I was born, but that didn’t mean I didn’t hear about him. After Count Fleet died at the age of 33 not long after Secretariat won the Triple Crown, my grandpa decided to tell me a story. He started it off by saying, “Before there was Secretariat, there was Count Fleet….”

Count Fleet was born on the Stoner Creek Stud Farm outside of Paris, Kentucky where he was bred and raised by the Hertz family; the rental car magnate. He was a small colt that didn’t impress John Hertz at all. The Count, as he was known, was out of Reigh Count, who won the Kentucky Derby in 1928. Reigh Count as a sire was known for producing colts of stamina without a lot of speed, so he became an unpopular sire. Hertz decided to only breed him to four mares a year that were all speed. One of those mares was Quickly, a sprinter, and the two of them created Count Fleet.

First impressions aren’t always accurate. He was a small colt, and as he developed, he was narrow, looked more like a filly, and flat muscled with a lot of leg. He also had an interesting personality.

Count Fleet stopped munching a mixture of clover, timothy and alfalfa to take a playful nip at his exercise boy at Belmont Park today and Trainer Don Cameron’s eyes glowed as he looked at the wonder horse of 1943.

“He’s a big fake,” the ruddy-faced Scotsman smiled.  “He wouldn’t hurt a baby.  Watch.”

Cameron shoved a ham-like hand into the stall and the Count flashed his big teeth toward them like a man without a ration book diving into a steak.  Inches away the mouth closed and the shiny brown horse nuzzled Cameron’s hand with his velvety nose.

“See what I mean?” Cameron asked. …

– Oscar Fraley (UP), Nevada State Journal, April 4, 1944

There were many stories of people going up to his stall, how he would walk up to them and let them pet him, and as soon as they turned their backs to walk away, he would give them a strong push down the shedrow with his nose.

The great, and one of the best jockeys of all time, Johnny Longden, said in a biography written by B.K. Beckwith, “He was not, you understand, a mean horse. Just one full of the devil with a mind which was very much his own.”

My grandpa always said that the great horses know exactly who they are and what they can do. If Hertz would have spoken with my grandfather, maybe he wouldn’t have even considered selling him.

“He didn’t really have the look of a top prospect then. He was medium size-about fifteen hands three inches-and, though he was deep in the girth and had a good shoulder, he was weedy behind. As a two-year-old he looked more like a filly than a colt. And those rough, unpredictable manners of his didn’t exactly endear him to anyone,” explained Longden to Beckwith.

In Hertz’s autobiography, Hertz recounted the following story:

Sam Ransom…was the first person on his back. … Ransom was drafted into the Army.  Before leaving, he came into my office to bid me good-bye, and on that occasion said to me, “Mr. Hertz, don’t ever sell that leggy, brown colt.  He has tried to kill me in every way I know of, not out of meanness, but he sure has brushed me up against every tree and barn on the place that he could.  Mr. Hertz, when that leggy, brown colt wants to run, he can just about fly!”

– The Racing Memoirs of John Hertz, as told to Evan Shipman 1954

Longden took him out for a work on the Belmont track and somehow the work didn’t end in tragedy. One day, with his mind set only on running, the Count headed straight for two horses coming right at him. “Somehow I managed to steer between them, but how I’ll never know,” said Longden to Beckwith.

After this story got around the backside of the track, Hertz decided to sell him deciding he was too dangerous of a horse. Asking price was $4,500; some say $3,500. Longden was at the barn, when the Count was brought out for another trainer to look him over. Longden immediately hopped on his bike and rode to the nearest pay phone where he called Hertz begging him to not sell. After a discussion where Longden assured Hertz he wasn’t afraid of the horse, and that he was something special, Hertz took the Count off the market. The rest is history. In 21 starts, he won 16 times, with four times placing second, and one time placing third; he never finished out of the money.

When asked why the Count lost those other races, Longden said, “He beat himself. He never should have lost a race, but he was a tough customer to handle, green and rough in those early starts, and you couldn’t take a hold of him-you couldn’t even properly guide him. You had to let him run, and if he didn’t have racing room, he’d go to the outside or just climb over horses. If you were in close quarters with him, you were in trouble.”

For instance, Count Fleet was expected to with the Futurity at Belmont easily. However, his amorous ways got the best of him. Longden explains:

“He broke alongside Askmenow, the Hal Price Headley filly. I called on the Count for speed, but he was not interested. He was flirting with a glamour girl. He kept alongside Askmenow, nose and nose, and nothing interested him except to remain in her companionship. If she spurted, the Count would spurt with her; if she slowed stride, so did he. I tried everything that was possible to end her fascination and pull away from her—but nothing helped.”

Despite being a flirt and not always willing to work with his jockey, he won ten of his sixteen races during his two-year-old year. Even though he lost five times, he completely dominated the horses he faced often beating them by four to six lengths. He entered his three-year-old season as the favorite to win the Kentucky Derby and the Triple Crown.

Due to World War II, the Kentucky Derby almost never happened. War changed the landscape. Traffic on the railroads was jammed, and talk of ending racing for the duration of the war floated across the country. The Kentucky Derby had been run continuously since 1875 thanks to Matt Winn who ran Churchill Downs. He was asked if he intended to keep it going despite the war, and he said that he would even if there were only two horses in the race.

In February of 1943, Joseph B. Eastman, chieftan of the Office of Defense Transportation, issued a statement pointing out how traffic conditions had worsened. He asked that all unnecessary travel be abandoned including the running of the 69th Kentucky Derby. Matt Winn worked with the OFDT discouraging out of towners from coming to the race, but remaining committed to keeping the race going. It thus became know as the “Street Car Derby” as locals took the street cars to the race. The expectation was that there would be a low turnout, but somehow just under 65,000 people showed up to watch the Count race.

However, in the Wood Memorial, his prep race for the Derby, a portion of his left hind hoof was nearly torn off. They had to remove it and packed it with sulpha drugs. Longden was so concerned about The Count that he rode with him on the train to Kentucky while packing the injury with ice. Luckily, he healed in time.

He won the Kentucky Derby after being boxed in and facing a couple of light challenges. All Longden had to do was cluck at the Count, and he took off winning easily by three lengths. After suffering from a second injury in as many races that wasn’t deemed serious, he shipped to Pimlico.

There was a slight challenge in the Preakness. New Moon broke out of the gate with the most speed, but Count Fleet quickly overtook New Moon to win easily by eight lengths. He demolished the track and his competition. He even went wide in the turn with ease not losing a step or tiring a bit. This is a horse that grabbed hold of the bit and ran; not because Longden hit him with the whip or forced him to go. He ran because he loved it.

“They’d (his competition) get dizzy trying to stay with him, and the rest would be easy,” explained Longden.

Did he rest for the three weeks between the Preakness and the Belmont? Not at all. He raced in the Withers two weeks after the Preakness and one week before the Belmont. How could he do this you ask considering no modern day horses can? Back then horses didn’t run on Lasix. They were able to recover much faster after a race, and no they didn’t drown in their own blood. Man o’ War took the same route to the Belmont after racing in the Preakness.

The Withers was a mile, so it is a good prep race for the Belmont. It gave Count Fleet a chance to blow out his pipes, help him relax, and get him out of his stall. He faced only two other horses on a muddy track, went off at 1-20 odds, and won with ease by eight lengths.

The Belmont is where we are made completely aware of his sheer power and will. Lots of horses need to stay with their competition, otherwise they get bored, their attention wanders, and they slow down until their competition catches up. Count Fleet never needed another horse to get his blood going and his racing hooves flying over the surface. The Belmont proved this.

Sid Feder in an Associated Press recap story published in the June 6 edition of the Tallahassee Democrat said it best, “From end to end, any resemblance between yesterday’s Belmont and a horse race was purely coincidental. When the gate opened, jockey Johnny Longden sent the Count charging right out and away from the others, and all the way ‘round he lengthened his edge with each stride.”

He won by 25 lengths, although the New York Times stated it was by 30 lengths. The Count unfortunately got hurt in this race. Longden explained, “He fractured a small bone in his left front leg. I felt him bobble in the long stretch and knew he had hurt himself. I started to pull him up but he’d have none of it. He just grabbed the bit in that bull-headed way of his and took off again. He coasted home by some 30 lengths.”

Count Fleet’s margin of victory was a staggering 25 lengths . The length of victory held until Secretariat ran his Count Fleet Belmont winning by 31 lengths. His time of 2:28 1/5 was a new stakes record to be tied by Citation in 1948 and finally broken in 1957 by Gallant Man.

Unfortunately, the next day Count Fleet was so sore they couldn’t get him out of his stall. Some say that he hurt his fetlock, his leg or his knee. Some say that the injury involved a tendon and the limb was fired. What is known is that the country waited in hopes that the Count would return to racing only to be disappointed. After reaggravating the injury, the Hertzes retired Count Fleet to stud at their farm in Kentucky; where he was born. He went on to become a very successful sire, and his blood runs through all three of my thoroughbreds.

In Racing in America 1937 – 1959, Robert Kelley wrote a chapter called “The Year of Count Fleet” and said:

This year in Thoroughbred racing (1943) will always be remembered as “Count Fleet’s year.”  And that is an interesting thing, for Count Fleet ran only six times during the entire season and he was out of action before the end of June.  Not in modern years has there been a greater impression left on racing people than that left this season by the son of Reigh Count out of Quickly.

Count Fleet’s sophomore year was like a skyrocket flaring across the sky to reach its climax of blinding white, then suddenly blacking out.  Man o’ War and, in later years, Citation had somewhat the same effect on the sport.  But the shortness of this one, with complete dominance over racers of all ages and sex, is almost without parallel in the Thoroughbred annals.

Was Count Fleet a super horse? Does he deserve to be mentioned in the same breadth as Man o’ War and Secretariat? I believe so.

Longden, recounted in “The History of Thoroughbred Racing in America,” says it all:

“The only jockey to ride the Hertz colt in a race, Longden also exercised him at times, and he later stated that once, just once, he turned the brown flash loose for an instant, to satisfy his curiosity concerning how fast Count Fleet really was—but he felt such a surge of power that he took him in hand again almost immediately, fearful of the consequences.”

Count Fleet lived to the age of 33. Assault, another Triple Crown winner died in 1971 leaving Count Fleet to be the last of the Triple Crown winners to be alive. Some say that he was waiting for another horse to win before he left this world, and the horse that came along won and raced like he did; the amazing Secretariat. After failing to stand for two days, he died from an apparent blood clot on December 3, 1973 only a few months after Secretariat won the Belmont.

When Longden was asked who was the best horse ever, he responded emphatically Count Fleet.

“I guess it’s no secret the way I feel about him. I’ve said it a thousand times-he was the best I ever rode and the best I ever saw. Maybe I’m prejudiced. because we won the Triple Crown together, but there was a horse who could do anything-go five-eights or five miles, run on a bad track or a good one, rain or shine, hell or highwater, it made no difference to him. Just give him clear sailing ahead, and I don’t honestly think the horse was ever foaled who could beat him.”

I thought Harley would be the problem child when I introduced Dulce to the herd. He was with Chaco; he was furious when I first introduced Chaco. This time around Chaco is the challenge. Or should I say pest? He never leaves him alone constantly nibbling on his hindquarters and legs, which causes Dulce to kick or buck…..ugh. I have two friends that lost horses because of introducing horses too quickly. Both times their horses ended up with broken legs and had to be put down.

So, part of the problem is me. Whoever says horses don’t get jealous, tell them to stuff it. Horses do. When Shandoka was alive, Chaco and Harley were never allowed to be around us when I was loving on him. He’d have none of that even though he absolutely loved them both. Now Chaco is acting the same way. Once I was loving on Dulce through the fence when Chaco charged him from out of nowhere, stuck his head over the fence and bit him. Chaco looked at me as if to say, “I’m protecting you.”

I’m working hard on mellowing out this behavior to prevent it from escalating. How? The crazy way. I get in the middle of them, and I move Chaco off letting him know that I won’t stand for it. How do I move him off? I hold up my hands and shake them towards his shoulders or face to get him to move away from that pressure never touching or hitting him. Believe it or not this has helped, and now Dulce is standing up for himself when it happens. It’s as if him seeing me do it gave him the courage to do it also. Chaco is a full hand taller than him, and he seems so huge next to Dulce at times.

What does Dulce do when Chaco can be too much? He hides behind me! How am I resolving that? Letting him fend for himself as much as possible, but also letting him have some alone time to relieve the stress of it…..or let him hide behind me every now and then.

The best way to get horses together in my opinion is to walk them together and to pony them together. I believe that when two horses start working together it changes how they approach one another. They become working buddies, and their dialogue changes somehow. It also teaches them that I’m the leader, so it takes some of the stress away from them both. When you show them how to work together, it carries over into turnout time.

The next best thing is to turn them out on pasture. They’re so busy eating grass that they don’t pay as much time focusing on each other. I have my pasture split up into three sections, so in the beginning I would put Chaco in one section with Dulce and Harley go in another. This way they could graze together with a barrier to prevent any horse racing or fighting. After they were on the pasture for an hour or two, I’d open the gate that separated them, and it usually went really well. The main thing for Dulce is to have a safe place to go if it all overwhelms him. I make sure he can come down to the dry paddock area if he needs a small break before he heads back up.

Did I mention that Dulce is completely barefoot now? The spot on his left front hoof has hardened after enough sole developed over it, and the quarter crack cracked off one morning. I was leaving the boots off for 12 hours a day, and then out them on for turnout time. During Kentucky Derby Day, it finally came off. No soreness, no bleeding, and he is walking perfectly. I turned Dulce out on the dry paddock one morning, and he went on a bucking and running spree a couple of days after this. The boot on that right hoof…well, look for yourself below. He is totally sound on both hooves as you can see in the video below.

The hardest part is when I bring them down to the dry paddock. Chaco has cornered him a few times trying to get Dulce to play with him. That’s the main thing in all of this; Chaco loves to play. When I first brought him here, he was scared to death when Shandoka and Harley would play. He’d hide in a corner and watch the two of them gallop all over the place. Shandoka slowly drew him out. He’d let Chaco play with him at a level that he felt safe with. Usually, they’d stand in a corner, and they’d play nip each other around the nose. I remember the morning that Chaco fully took part in the morning play gallops with Harley and Shandoka. He came running up to me with nostrils flared, his head high, and so happy before he took off with them again. I think Chaco is trying to do the same with Dulce except he constantly nips at his legs and hips. He wants him to run and play with him even though it comes off as somewhat annoying to Dulce.

How are all my attempts working? Here are some pics. I’m so happy for all of them, and I may call Chaco and Dulce, Frick and Frack; the three of them the Three Amigos.

I wrote this blog a few days ago. The other day, Dulce was taking a long nap. When he decided to get up, Chaco wouldn’t let him by grabbing hold of his fly sheet. I went out calling to Chaco who immediately let go. Dulce got up, and hid behind me while Chaco looked at me as if saying, “What did I do?”

Things have been trying here. Well, they’ve been frustrating to be honest with you. Dulce’s weight gain stopped two weeks after he got here, which some of you know. There are so many reasons for this. He has so much healing and recuperation to do from the mouth and hindgut ulcers he had. He also had three hoof abscesses before I got him. Two old ones on his right front and one newer one on his left front. The main thing was the food change. I will maintain this until the day I die; the change in hay made an uphill struggle become a battle.

What I haven’t been saying is the struggle with his poop became much worse. I mentioned it in one blog, but it never smoothed out. He would swing from almost normal to abysmal within fifteen minutes and then bounce over to decent and plummet back to several piles of diarrhea. One morning when I fed him, I noticed he no longer wanted to eat his flax/beet pulp mix that the day before he gobbled down within a few minutes. When a horse goes off his feed, it’s time to worry. He still ate hay as if it was going out of style, but that blue bucket filled with his version of grain ended up all over the ground several times that day.

I called my vet in desperation. Was it time to bring him in even though there was no fever, he was staying hydrated, and he ate hay? He went through things I needed to do. I had already done all of them but one; he wanted me to put him on Sand Clear. Sand and dirt can build up in a horse’s digestive tract over time causing all sorts of problems including colic and diarrhea. Sand Clear has psyllium in it, which is a high fiber laxative. It binds on to the sand and dirt and flushes it out of their system to sum it up in a few words. I put Shandoka on Sand Clear every month, and my other two boys get it. I think I was so focused on the fact that he had ulcers I forgot about this simple yet dangerous possibility. I ran into town, bought a bucket, and pondered how in the world I’d get him to eat it since he was only eating hay.

I made a mash of it with a little bit of honey, rolling small balls of it over crumbled dry hay cubes. It took me an hour to get him to eat his first dose. The next day it took me thirty minutes. The third day he was back to gobbling everything up on his own without a spec ending on the ground. His poop started to get more solid. Only once in awhile there was a pile of moosh, but for the most part there was improvement. On the fifth day he suddenly had several piles of diarrhea again within two hours. My only thought was that something was being cleansed out with the sand clear. After two hours, his movements became normal again. My wonderful, incredible vet was right; he needed to clear out his gut of dirt and sand. A couple of days after his last dose, his poop worsened slightly, but it wasn’t wildly swinging all over the place anymore. I measured him for weight, and he lost ten pounds. He went from 890 down to 880; not the direction I was looking for.

I did more research on horses that were underweight and how to bring them back. I was doing everything right and everything that could be done. The one thing that I couldn’t avoid was rapid change in diet. I had to transition him to Colorado hay a lot faster than I wanted. This rapid change disrupted his digestive tract and all of that wonderful bacteria in there. Even though I had him on a really good pre and probiotic, I put him on ProbioticWise by Wise Concepts. It is specifically for horses with the problems he is having, and it is helping smooth things out.

I also read how the organs of underweight horses shrink. Who knows how much healing has been going on within him this past month that he hasn’t gained weight. I’m thinking this organs were regaining their strength and size.

However, last Sunday, which was three and a half days off of the Sand Clear the poop hit the fan. I went into his barn when I saw this massive pile of poop. It was almost as tall as my knee and weighed several pounds. I knew what was coming, and I my stomach clenched; colic. Colic is what killed my horse Shandoka, and I felt like a deer standing in oncoming headlights; completely frozen until he exploded. A few seconds after the thought hit me, he went into stress. He began running and pacing nearly running me over twice. I tried to catch him only to get bumped hard until he gave in to me constantly following him. As this was going on, pile after pile of the worst diarrhea he ever had flew out of him. I tried to get his vein to inject some banamine, but it was impossible by myself. I couldn’t hold him while putting a needle into his vein, so I shot it into his mouth. We then walked and walked until he calmed down while piles of diarrhea kept coming abeit at a slower rate. Finally, the banamine won out, and he relaxed. I got out my stethoscope and listened for gut sounds. He had good ones in all four quadrants. I thought about calling my vet and tubing him, but I decided to watch for a little bit.

He went back to normal within fifteen minutes. He munched on some hay while coming up to me every now and then as if to reassure me that all was well. All of the diarrhea stopped, and the gut sounds got more and more normal. Did we go through another cleansing? I think so. I think something broke loose, and his body wanted it out.

An hour later, he had a pretty normal poop. Ever since that day, they remained around 80% of normal. I’ve changed his diet from hay pellets to hay cubes, which seems to suit him better, and he still gets his flax seed with a lot of beet pulp. We may not be perfect, but we’re pretty good.

Today showed me that we’re really doing okay. I went to measure his weight expecting no changes to find that he gained 25 pounds this week. He now weighs 905 pounds, and he has gained a total of 75 since I brought him home on April 2nd. We are finally out of the 800’s. We only have 150 to 200 more pounds to go!

He has a beautiful shine to his coat, which for me means we’re on the right path. His coat was so dull when he got here, and now it shines in the sunlight. He probably will plateau for a week or two after such a big gain, but that is okay. It is important to stay true to what is working and take it day by day.

He came out of the turn for home heading down the stretch when the unthinkable happened. The crowd gasped in sheer horror.

* * * * * *

When Afleet Alex was born, his mother didn’t produce any milk, and she rejected him despite all of the attempts by the breeder to get her to accept him. Desperation ensued as they tried to find a nurse mare for the foal. While the adults searched, the breeder’s nine-year-old daughter fed him from a sterilized Coors Light bottle faithfully until her father found a mare for the foal.  Because of this, Afleet Alex always had a special place in his heart for children, and because of being bottle fed, he loved human comfort never becoming a typical stallion in demeanor.

The breeder, John Silvertand, was terminally ill at the time of his birth in 2003. Silvertand died in 2007 from cancer, but Afleet Alex helped him deal with all the difficult times ahead he said. This became a theme in this horse’s life.

A little girl named Alex had cancer, and she started a lemonade stand to raise money for other children suffering from the disease. It made national news, and then Alex died. Her parents started a foundation called Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation to honor their daughter and raise money to fight childhood cancer. That is when her parents got a phone call:

“I can remember when the phone call came in, my wife Liz took the call, and the person on the other line said simply:

“We own a horse that is pretty good, and we have been donating anonymously to Alex’s cause whenever the horse wins. Would it be okay if we kept donating, but go public with it?”

Because of that phone call, Afleet Alex and his owners helped publicize and raise money for their foundation. https://www.alexslemonade.org/afleet-alex-10-years-later. This is what horse racing is about; never forgetting your roots.

* * * * * *

Afleet Alex was bought at auction by a group of people called Cash Is King Stables. None of them owned a racehorse before they bought Afleet Alex, and the only reason why they got into horse racing was because of the Smarty Jones fever sweeping the nation at the time. There were ten near winners of the Triple Crown since Affirmed, but they all fell short in the Belmont. After winning the Derby and the Preakness, Triple Crown and Smarty Jones fever infected thousands of people around the nation. Unfortunately, he lost the Belmont like the others. His pedigree was more of a sprinter, but that wasn’t even really it. He couldn’t relax like he did in the Derby and the Preakness setting the Big Sandy on fire with blistering speed that he couldn’t keep up. For the first time in his career, he was undefeated at that point, he was passed up by another horse called Birdstone, and for the first time he lost. Smarty Jones was retired after this race due to repeated bruising of his ankles. People were in love, and they wanted to be part of horse racing; thus, Cash Is King Stables came to be.

Afleet Alex got his name through his sire and the founding owner of the partnership, Chuck Zackney, had a child named Alex as well as two other owners. He was bought as a two-year-old for the group by a top, local trainer named Tim Ritchey for $75,000. Within five weeks, he made his debut at Delaware Park where he won easily by 11 ¼ lengths. As you watch this race, his talent was evident from the beginning. He sat off the pace, and when asked, there was nothing or no one that could stop him. His turn of foot was amazing in this race and the races yet to come.

He won his next race at Delaware Park by 12 lengths. After this, they headed to Saratoga with their eye on the Sanford Stakes but their main goal was the Hopeful Stakes. They won the Sanford by 5 ¾ lengths, but how would he handle the less than ideal conditions for the Hopeful? The slop wasn’t what made this race interesting, but this race shows how green horses can go astray. Who knows why he did this in this race; maybe he saw something, maybe he got spooked a little, maybe he tired a smidgen, or maybe his attention span fluttered a bit, but Afleet Alex veers towards the outside rail as they headed down the stretch. The boisterous crowd became silent. The jockey Jeremy Rose quickly gathered him up bringing him back into the race, and somehow they won by a neck.

Afleet Alex finished second in his next two races and ended his two-year-old season as one of the leading candidates for the Kentucky Derby. To get there, they went through Oaklawn Park where he won his first race. He was the favorite in his next race, the Rebel Stakes, but he came in last, which shocked everyone. People wondered if he hit his peak and was beginning a downhill slide. However, the trainer discovered Afleet Alex had a lung infection when he returned from the race. Nobody believed him stating he was just making excuses for the obvious. This is how it is in racing; people purposely spread rumors and when it comes to the truth, everyone doubts it. Afleet Alex recovered quickly, so Ritchey sent him off in the Arkansas Derby where he showed his amazing burst of speed subduing the competition and winning by eight lengths. All of those critics and doubters were silenced.

He came in third in the Kentucky Derby after a challenging trip and probably being a bit tired from the Arkansas Derby. The race that caused the gasp around the world was the Preakness.

It started off like most races where Afleet Alex tucked in behind the other runners in tenth place waiting for his moment to strike while the winner of the Kentucky Derby was right behind him. The pace in this race wasn’t as fast as it was in the Derby, but it was fast with the half mile clocked at :46 seconds flat. As they entered the turn for home, Alex found himself bottled up on the rail with no place to go. However, a hole opened, and before you knew it, Afleet Alex moved with such speed that it seemed as if all of the horses he picked off were simply walking through the turn. As the leader, Scrappy T was coming out of the turn into the stretch, Afleet Alex was about to pass him on the outside, when Scrappy T’s jockey went to the whip with the left hand driving his horse into the path of Afleet Alex. Afleet Alex clipped heels with Scrappy T going down to his knees spread eagle, his nose hitting the ground while the world gasped in horror as to what they thought they were about to see; a horse falling in a roll getting stomped by who knows how many horses. Rose about to come off could only grasp on to his mane as he slid out of the saddle, and this is when the miracle happened. Afleet Alex pulled himself up, and in so doing his neck knocked Rose back into the saddle. He gathered himself in four strides changing to his right lead, and with fury, pure heart, determination, and pure athleticism won the race by five lengths.

When Rose was asked about the near catastrophe immediately after the race, he said, “He’s just that athletic, and I was just that scared.”

I want to add that none of this was intentional. I don’t think Ramon Dominguez thought Afleet Alex was coming as fast as he was if he even saw him. I also don’t think he expected his horse to move off the crop like that. Also, you can tell it wasn’t intentional, because he was looking backwards, scared about what may happen. If it were intentional, he never would have looked back, and everyone knows how Dominguez loves horses. He was one of the best.

When Afleet Alex and Rose returned to the grandstand the roar from the roar from the standing ovation became louder and louder each time Rose waved to the crowd. People loved these two, and that day they inspired everyone that saw the race.

This horse and so many others are why people love and admire thoroughbreds so much; their courage and their athleticism. However, it is so much more than that. Horses, all horses, teach us by example that we can be better than we are. Maybe someone will get in our way and knock us down, but we can get back up and persevere until we cross that finish line. Maybe we are rejected by the one that we need the most in life, but we can still be kind and loving to others. This is why people love horse racing. It’s not the betting…it’s watching these amazing athletes do amazing things reminding us that we can do them too. It is time we solve the problems within the industry to give back to the horses what they have given us. This is horse racing, and this was the most amazing Preakness.

It is amazing how different hay is from state to state or region to region. For instance, the hay in Kentucky is the complete opposite of Colorado hay. The small bales weigh hardly anything compared to the bales here. When I lifted up one of the bales from Kentucky, I almost fell over backwards because I over lifted expecting it to be heavy. Colorado small bales here weigh on average sixty pounds, and the Kentucky bales weigh maybe thirty pounds. This doesn’t mean there is less hay in the Kentucky bales at all, but there is nothing similar about the grasses at all.

When we left Kentucky, I had two Kentucky bales. It made me nervous, because I didn’t think it would be enough. Racehorses have to adjust to all sorts of changes, but he had never been out west. He roamed from Indiana to Louisiana, so I wondered how his gut could handle our hay. When we got back to Colorado on Monday night, I had one bale and two flakes left. By that Friday with his voracious appetite, we were out of Kentucky and dove into Colorado hay. The next day his poop started getting a little mushy.

I waited and waited and waited for his body to adjust praying he would find his balance. His poop slowly got worse and worse, so a few days ago I put him on Bio-Sponge. He has gone through so many changes….different hay, different feed, different water, and he climbed five thousand feet in elevation. That climb into our mountains also increases metabolism to boot, which worked against his body finding balance. I didn’t want to give him a full dose for fear of causing an impaction, so he gets one quarter of the dose recommended for an adult horse. So far, we’re seeing normal poop again, and he went back to eating the same amount my other two horses eat in twenty four hours. Before the Bio-Sponge, he was eating like a normal horse eats.

Yes, us horse people pay a lot of attention to horse poop, because of colic and other issues. Their poop can tell you when problems are coming on or when those problems are working their way out. Lack of poop is a dangerous thing, and nice, perfect pellets are what we want to see. I can tell you which pile of poop belongs to which horse. How crazy/wierd/sad is that?

The mushy poop is one of the reasons he hasn’t gained weight, but there are others.

His hooves are healing! I finally stopped diapering his hooves, applied hoof armor, and decided it was time for some change. He is walking around barefoot outside right now as we speak. Yesterday we went for two hours, and today we’re going for four hours. We still need to be careful so when he goes barefoot, I make sure there are no rocks and he can move around safely. He is growing in new sole, and that is a beautiful sight. Seeing him barefoot for these few hours is thrilling even though I also see all of the problems we need to overcome.

Also, when a horse is underweight, they usually have a dull coat, and when it comes time to lose their winter coat, it doesn’t come off evenly like on a healthy horse. It comes off in patches and clumps, and lots of bald spots emerged on Dulce. I thought I was going to be the first person with a hairless horse! I imagined news crews in the pasture talking about the Colorado hairless horse. Luckily, his summer coat is growing in quickly, and surprisingly it is coming in with a nice shine to it. I didn’t expect to see that at all, and that tells me we’re on the right track.

Growing in hair takes a lot of energy, growing in new sole takes a lot of energy, and having mushy poop drains his energy; thus this can be the reason for a stall in his weight gain. I’m hoping to see a change in the coming week though.

The coats of horses always remind me of different aspects of the earth. Chestnuts like Harley and Chaco’s remind me of Moab and Sedona. Paints remind me of the mountains with those patches of snow that refuse to melt and reshape the mountains over time. Buckskins remind me of the Badlands of South Dakota or the tall grass swaying in the winds on the Plains. Grays remind me of storms on the ocean. Their dapples remind me of the foam swirling in circles on the sea water as the storm rages.

Then there are the Bays. For some reason they are referred to as plain, brown wrappers if they have no chrome, or major white marks anywhere on their body; Dulce falls into this category. However, bays are anything but plain. There are so many colors moving through their coats; they are the colors of the deep earth…. umber, mahogany, black, deep earthen venetian reds….Bays are anything but plain. As they walk, the colors move and change into deeper or lighter shades. Nothing stays the same.

Tonight Dulce walked to the fence gazing at a far away mare grazing on some pasture in the glowing, western light. His coat lit up, it had a vibrant shine to it, and yes, I could count every single rib of his cage, but I saw how beautiful he is and will be. He literally took my breath away. I couldn’t move, and I dropped my hay bucket while watching him. I saw him. I saw his health, I saw his beauty, I saw his inner strength, and I saw his desire to be. His eyes glowed and were filled with calm power. Yes, we will get there. He showed me tonight that we will get there.

(No I didn’t get a picture. My phone was on the charger. Sorry about that.)

Since Dulce came to Reenchanted Horse Ranchita, he has gained 50 pounds. He is still 20 pounds shy of 900, and we have 120 to 130 more pounds to go to get to our goal. He eats constantly, and he cleans his bucket quickly each day four times a day.

I do think he is going to level out here this week and start gaining weight more slowly mainly because he is more active now. I’ve started turning him out in the dirt paddock to let him run and move around more, which will help his hooves heal faster. It also is good to get those muscles to move and release any tension in his body.

I may not be able to do regular groundwork with Dulce yet, but that doesn’t mean we can’t work together. We’ve started basic calisthenics using poles, because I want to bring his muscles along with his weight gain. This way when we get to a better weight, his muscles will be ready for more strenuous work.

We’ve also started doing some basic suppling and desensitizing work. Racehorses are notorious for having locked polls. If you watch a horse going through a turn from above during a race, you’ll see how a racehorse’s body is basically straight. The turns are so wide that their bodies don’t need to bend. Most, during training, are never introduced to suppling exercises. Chaco was as stiff as could be, and Dulce isn’t any different. I started doing gentle work on his poll, and he loved it relaxing deeply and releasing a couple of times. When you unlock the poll, you unlock the entire body.

He was funny the first time I asked him to yield his hindquarters for me. What you do is look at the hindquarters with the intention that the horse will move those hindquarters away from you. If you have a stick, you lightly tap on the side of the hindquarter increasing in strength until they move away from the pressure crossing their hindleg over their other hindleg. As soon as they move away, you stop the pressure and reward them. I didn’t have a stick, so I used the end of the lead rope. He moved off the pressure immediately from the lightest of tapping while looking at me as if saying, “Why the heck are you doing that?” I immediately loved on him to answer him, and after that he loved yielding those hindquarters for me.

Love is the answer for him. Whoever his groom was, he did an amazing job with him. It is obvious to me every day that his groom really loved and respected him. I think this is why Dulce is so trusting of me. I feel like we’re weaving a beautiful piece of art with beautiful yarns and threads.

What I’ve found out from Dulce so far is this: He is ridiculously smart. When I introduce him to new things, he thinks it through and gives it his all. He leads really well never trying to get in front of me. He has two gears: walking and running. So far not much in between, and before he takes off at a run, he makes a sound that goes, “Weeeeeeee!” If I hear him make that sound in the saddle, I will be grabbing onto some mane, because it will be rodeo time. He loves to be loved on, and he is patient with me as I doctor his hooves. Even though I wish we could do more, I’m relishing this right now. We are building a strong foundation slowly.

There are times I wonder if I’m in over my head with Dulce and Chaco. I worry about Chaco’s leg all the time, and everyone seems to doubt that I will get weight on Dulce. For some reason I never worried about putting weight on him until I heard everyone’s doubts. I’m worried about his hooves; especially his right hoof because the hoof wall is so disconnected from the laminae behind it. If I whispered into the area between the two, I know I’d hear an echo. Right now a huge bulge is dropping down from his coronet that reminds me of a beer belly hanging over way too tight jeans. It will grow out I keep reminding myself, Heather keeps reminding me, but the challenge is keeping everything together until it does.

Then I go outside, and Chaco walks up to me giving me his kisses and rubbing his neck on my hip for a hug. I go over to see Dulce, and he lets me hold his head in my arms, and I find my strength again. That’s about when Harley comes up for me to scratch his butt once again. I wouldn’t have any of this any other way. I love them so much, and I will do whatever I can to keep them healthy and happy.