Posted on 05/29/2006 4:17:11 AM PDT by beyond the sea
Yes, but I am getting ready to head to the Delta.
Be back later this evening. Ping me to the GOOD stuff. :)
Will do ... have fun.
I was amused to find out that my dog knows she is beautiful and is very proud of it (our next-door neighbor does say she is always standing as though posing to have her picture taken), that she is very brave although she doesn't like swimming pools because she fell in one when she was a puppy (I don't know of any such event though!), and that she wants to be a therapy dog. (Now THAT makes me laugh - my wild eyed field bred Lab a therapy dog - I can see little old ladies flying through the air!)
LOL
Well, I had thunderboomers all day yesterday, off and on. Every time I thought they were gone and I fired the ole puter back up - BOOM - out of nowhere. Had to get off again.
Yeah, I wondered what everybody would think of that little "tidbit." I'm going to have to go by *their word* on it, since I don't have the tape to slow down and rewind and so forth.
Right off hand, it's hard for me to picture Brother Derek's *right* front leg hitting Barbaro's *right* hind leg. He'd have to have been right up B's you-know-what, it would seem. But I suppose if it were extended, as they said, and the left was back and B's right was extended back, that must be how it could have happened.
I felt all along that something had happened in a "micro" way before the first major snap. This could have been the tiny "micro" nick, if they think they saw it and claim that Barbaro responded to it slightly.
I hate to put that onto someone else - Bro Derek (lol, I just "got that" - Bro Derek, like Bo Derek) or his jockey. I wonder what they think about the statement or if they could see it by extensive review. It's neither here nor there, but it would make me feel a "teensy tinsy" bit better to think it wasn't some out-of-left-field inherent weakness of B's bone structure that contributed to the massive fracture.
Two more "tidbits" today:
.Barbaro got a bath and loved it!
~~~~
5/31/2006
Barbaro eating, feeling good
Dr. Dean Richardson said he is continuing his daily assessment of Barbaro's cast on his right hind leg and that the Kentucky Derby winner's appetite and vital signs remain good.
"The new excitement for the day was that he got a bath. Today he got a good soaping, and he loved it," said Corinne Sweeney, executive director at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center.
~~~~~~
And the AP story excerpts:
Posted on Thu, Jun. 01, 2006
Barbaro's training center to get synthetic surface
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Fair Hill Training Center where Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro trained will install a synthetic track.
The injury to Barbaro, who shattered his right hind leg at the start of the Preakness, has renewed debate over whether synthetic tracks would reduce the number of injuries.
....
Usually made of wax-coated sand, fibers and rubber, synthetic surfaces have been used for years at several tracks in England, and they are starting to gain popularity in the United States.
Sally Goswell, manager of the Fair Hill Training Center, said yesterday that the center will replace its wood-chip track this summer with a Tapeta surface developed at trainer Michael Dickinson's farm in nearby North East, Md.
"Over the years, our wood-chip track has served us well as an 'alternative' training surface, however it is seasonal, i.e. it freezes solid in the winter," Goswell said.
"We are confident that Tapeta is the best synthetic surface available to meet our needs from both a safety perspective and maintenance perspective."
.....
Turfway Park, in Florence, already has installed Polytrack.
~~~~~~~~
>>>Part of that story was about the California Racing Board making synthetic surfaces mandatory by next year for the race tracks themselves.
Everything I've read has indicated that Polytrack is the surface that will be used. There doesn't seem to be any discussion of other surfacing materials for California.
I'm a little skeptical about this, even though I don't have a horse in this race or a dog in this hunt, lol. Some horse owners and trainers have said that the Polytrack material - which is wax coated sand, rubber (from recycled tires, I believe) and other fibers - may be causing some respiratory problems for the horses breathing it.
That might just be sour grapes or something, but I will be very interested in following this progress. I did some PR writing work for an artificial surface that debuted in the US over 15 years ago on a new track near my home then. I moved away that same year and had not kept tabs on it.
When this came up with Barbaro and people again talking about synthetic surfaces, I looked around to find out about that one I knew - because the drainage system to me was the most fascinating part of it.
Well, turns out it didn't work out very well and the track in OKC - Remington Park - returned the surface to turf 2-3 years later, due to horse owners' demands. I hope it wasn't because of horses running more slowly on it - not being able to set new records - but I haven't investigated it too much further.
Ping to Post #146 just above this. I messed up and forgot to put names in the To: box! Sorry.
I suggest to the world ............ NO MORE HORSE RACING ......... yep, I'm a reactionary moroooooooooooon!!!
;-)
Love from this propagation nursery to all (the wise) FReepers.
When we humans finally get hip, if we grow up ............... the horse racing will end.
Really!
****
These wonderful animals should not be and are NOT an amusement.
I would like to see some changes/improvements to racing. The single thing that would benefit the soundness of the horses the most would be to limit and then eliminate two-year-old races. It would take some serious pressure because of the strong motivation to see a return on the investment. But perhaps someone could devise an incentive -- like a prestigious race with a large purse limited to three-year-olds who did not race at two. And more distance races would encourage the breeding of more substantial staying types.
But if racing is eliminated altogether, you will wipe out THE number one financial support for improvement of the breeds (not just T'bred, but QH, Standardbred, etc.) plus the money for advances in veterinary medicine. Without the racing money, the Penn Center would not exist, and Barbaro (who probably would never have been bred either) would have been destroyed where he fell.
So just wiping out racing isn't the answer.
Nonsense. They are created by us, for our amusement. If not for our amusement they would not exist. After you eliminate horse racing, what next? Eventing? Show jumping? Rodeo? Horse shows?
Know one thing, if not for the money involved in horse sport, there would be no elaborate horse facilities, no New Bolten Center, no expensive research into extraordinary veterinary science. The best thing that ever happened to horses is their increased value. Without sport, no one would own them, they are too big, and too expensive to keep, just so you can drive by and think they are beautiful.
The best thing that ever happened to the horse was to be converted to hobby, business, and athlete purely for recreational purposes. He used to pull plow and haul heavy loads for work, and his treatment for injury a bullet to the head. Barbaro's injury was heartbreaking to watch, but don't lose perspective. The lives of sport horses have never been better. The best thing going for Barbaro is his potential to add to the future of horse racing.
Got your back :~D
Hair mentioned that the old work horses got a bullet in the head as their veterinary medicine.
Here's another point: I've done a lot of research into American history, particularly the Civil War era. In that time I've seen an awful lot of photographs of horses . . . just because in that era they were as common as automobiles, trucks, and tractors are today. Everybody had a couple.
Except for a very few high bred carriage horses, hunters, and racers . . . the poor things look just awful! So many of them are weedy, poorly conformed, poorly cared for . . . just pitiful! I think it was because they were utility transportation, the equivalent of a Ford Taurus, and nobody really cared what they looked like or felt like, so long as they could pull the wagon. And if they couldn't pull the wagon, off they went to the dog meat man.
Our horses are much better off today having been converted from Ford Taurus status to Lamborghinis.
Do they eat grass............ get real.
What would you do without a lousy, meaningless horse race? Get another interest?
Baloney. Check out the horses that run freely...... if you can find any of them any more.
You are merely making excuses for a meaningless, human-centered sport......... horse racing.
Horse racing is a lame and poor joke.
Of course these particular race horses are cared for very well and look wonderful .............. so what!
Horse racing is an egotistical, moronic human endeavor.
Plain and simple.
You get real. Yes, they eat grass, but that's the least of it. What's the cost to allow them the acreage they need to survive? What's the cost of the fencing that keeps them out of the road? Whats the cost of their foot care that has to be done whether they work or not? What's the cost of the supplemental hay and grain almost all of them need to remain healthy and strong? What's the cost of their shots, wormer, medicines? Do you have any idea? I do. I keep horses.
Please, beyond the sea... I responded to your suggestion about ending horse racing by telling you it would be the worst thing you could do to the horses that are nurtured and survive because of it. I'm right, but you don't have to agree. I didn't answer for you, because I think you're a rather juvenile poster who spams the board with feel good nonsense. I answered so that other readers would see that such suggestions are not well thought out.
He had a bath and loved it. Oh happy day!
With some exceptions (where the breeding stock is varied, sometimes by deliberation introduction of a good stallion) they are pretty weedy and weak - and in some cases showing signs of severe inbreeding. Left alone, feral horses tend to revert to a small, short-backed, big-headed type.
I'm very familiar with the feral horses on Cumberland Island and have spent some time photographing them. They don't look like what you probably expect wild horses to look like. "Scraggly" is the first word that comes to mind. Many have very noticeable conformation faults that interfere with gait, etc. But the faults don't prevent them from breeding . . . so over time with the limited gene pool you tend to get some ugly and unsound critters. University of Kentucky vet school DNA analysis of wild herds has turned up low foal survival rates, blindness, and dwarfism in feral herds with little genetic variation.
Selective breeding, by humans, has given us a wide variety of horses suitable for various uses. Without human intervention, horses revert to a feral type that isn't much use . . . other than to wander around. Just like dogs, left to their own devices, revert to the "Carolina Yellow Dog" type.
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