I had this incredible blog ready to submit this morning... It was something perhaps a bit controversial, but good nonetheless by my way of thinking.

It was one of those things that I wrote on the aftermath of reading and hearing things such as the position PETA was taking on the death of Eight Belles at the Derby. The sort of blog that is nearly impossible to recapture the moment of emotion within. However, it happened... The moment I was nearing the submit button for the blog entry, the power outage hit! I was sure I had copied it to my blog editing page in word. But apparently not so, as I checked there confident I would find it tonight... To no avail!

I have to wonder if that is God's way of telling me it would be a bit too controversial and I shouldn't submit it at all. Then again, I'm not so sure about that either. Therefore, here goes nothing as I attempt to recapture the essence of this mornings lost blog!

I had the good fortune of reading it out loud to my Mom and son who thought it was good, agreed with it, but also stated that I was likely going to piss off several different groups of people.

Then again, my writing has had a way of doing that over the years; all but the book "A Love Beyond Time" which is fictional. However, I imagine there will be some who are even offended by it as well. I suppose it becomes one of those situations in which "you can please some of the people some of the time, but you sure are not going to please all the people all the time." I'm okay with that.

My first recollection of the earlier blog was my pondering as to why PETA would have a problem with the jockey who was riding the ill fated filly on Saturday. I simply couldn't help myself from clicking on the article with some thought that perhaps he (the jockey) had done something or said something lacking in compassion after the final fate of his mount. I couldn't imagine what it might have been, but it was a consideration. That was my first mistake, which is considering that PETA might actually do anything reasonable!


For crying out loud people....The riding crop did not break the filly’s ankles! Nor did the jockey! Anyone who knows anything about horses and racing knows that jockeys are in a most precarious position in such riding disciplines. They not only have to attempt to bring the best and the most out of the horse they are riding for the race itself, but for their own future careers! In addition, if a horse in injured in a race it is up to them to stop the horse in as timely manner as possible to protect not only the horses future but their own; as the world or at least the trainer, owner and other trainers and owners who may be interested in them riding another horse in the future, are all watching.

Then consider that many times when a horse is moving at such a rate of speed and stumbles or has a mishap it is not uncommon for the horse to fall or even summersault, not just on a race track! Many jockeys and riders have been seriously injured in such occasions with a horse throwing them to the round and/or often rolling over the top of them in the process. I have seen riders hung up in stirrups, crushed or even thrown into the path of other horses. The jockey's put their own lives on the line each and every time they mount up to ride. If a horse is pulling up, it is in the best interest of the jockey's future well being as well as the horse to stop as soon as possible!

Then their next ingenious idea...They want to strip the owner/trainer and jockey of the money and award for Eight Belle's second place victory. This would be to strip her of her final reward! She ran her heart out for that race! I believe it would be a terrible injustice to strip her of her second place title where she not only ran against the big boys, but beat the majority of them.

And for those who think she was a little filly playing with the big boys...Poo Poo to you too. There are colts and geldings on any number of tracks across the country that pull up or are injured as well as fillies! She earned the right to be there and held her own!

Yes, I'm totally an animal activist in many ways. I have rescued far more horses than I have ever thought of buying! I have numerous dogs from animal shelters and the side of highways and a cat as well. In addition to a turtle that was saved from the fate of being run over too. And yes, I have even cried a time or two when a bird has helplessly flown into the grill or windshield of my car. You get the idea by now? I have never killed anything on purpose and care never to have to in the future. Though I am not against guns, I surely could care less about having one myself, and I do fear them in a respectful sense of the word. I am very much a peace loving person over all and I love animals as much as people! Keep in mind I care for what our society generally appears to see as disposable youth in foster care.

So, when I say that PETA should be looking in a different direction, perhaps you can understand that it is not due to a lack of compassion on my part! I was choked up with the rest of the nation on Saturday and felt the moment of gripping anxiety enough so that I have now blogged on the subject matter four times...

However, this filly was from one of the millionaire horse farms as they are. She has probably lived a better life than you or I have even thought of and her suffering was for no more than mere minutes. She was out of her suffering before the trainer even realized there was a problem. With due respect we could only hope for that good of a response even in the local hospital's ICU!

Did I think it was Sad? Heck yes it was sad! Can the industry still improve? Yes, and with the consideration they are leaning toward synthetic tracks (softer surfaces) is a good start. You already know from the past two days how I feel about not just horse racing but several equine venues in which young horses are pushed harder than I believe they should be... But the reality is that one horse went down after doing what she was not only bred to do, but clearly lived for and loved doing. Let's get some perspective here folks... Thousands of people died in a cyclone on Friday and are still suffering with little emergency response!

But I do have to ask??? What about the numerous small tracks around the nation where horses from sub-standard facilities with sub-standard trainers are running horses without the time, money or emotional investment that the likes of the Derby's high dollar horses have... What about the numerous horses that end up on the back of cattle/livestock semi trailers headed for slaughter houses?

You see, we good hearted Americans got on a band wagon and petitioned our government to stop the cruel slaughter of horses in rural and local areas across the U.S. We knew of good horses that were ending up in the slaughter house and it was so wrong in all of our minds that we jumped right in and got a stop put to it. I was told some time ago there were only two left in the U.S. and a year ago that there were none. I am now of the understanding that every state has now banned from or had banned the slaughter of horses locally. We won the victory...Or so we thought. But now we choose to turn our heads and not see what the outcome of our grave concerns really is.

We did not stop the slaughter of horses! Instead of horses that owners do not have the couple hundred dollars it takes to have them put down by the vet and hauled away by a rendering company or buried by an excavator, instead now commonly stand around in physical conditions that are by far less humane than if their owner could have taken them, in a trailer suited for horses, painlessly to a local slaughter house, where they may be held for a short time in a comfortable holding pen until they were mercifully put away from their suffering. Many times, if they don't finally die on their own, they are sold cheap privately or at auction to killer buyers who many think no longer exist. Ha - that's a laugh! They are still out there and they are still buying horses! But now the horses go to random locations, such as feedlots in pens that are over crowded and many times under fed until a truck headed to Canada or Mexico is coming through town. They pick up the horses, generally adding to those that were picked up in previous locations before arriving there; not in a horse hauler but rather in a livestock double decker semi trailer which is not suited for horses. They arrive out of the country to the unregulated slaughter houses with gashes, broken bones, sick, starved or worse, some never make it off the trailer alive. And if they do make the trip, they face a death in a location that has none of the regulations or monitoring by agencies and private parties to insure a humane ending that once existed in the United States. Really, we can't even imagine what our good hearted intentions have done to these horses! Not just race horses, but family horses, some child's long since out grown friend, a retired show horse, sometimes even young pregnant mares due to foal any day. I know as I personally saved two mares just last spring. One foaled the morning we went to get her and the other foaled three days later, comfortably at our farm. They would not have likely made the trip and if they had, the foals would have been trampled!

So, what do I think of PETA throwing a fit over a filly who has had the best of everything in her life and suffered by far less than even my poor stud who was kicked in the groin by an ill intending mare over the weekend???

I think if they really want to get on a band wagon, why not attempt to put a stop to the event known as "Horse Tripping" which is still done at Mexican Rodeo's across the good old USA, in various states and locations! Now that would be an undertaking worth getting behind and involved in!

Oh yes, and by the way, those precious little prairie dogs (you know, the ones that PETA is so fond of) break far more horses legs with their soil eroding, land destroying holes than any track anywhere in the world has ever thought of breaking!

Maybe tomorrow I will change the rant to NASCAR... You know, now that I think of it, we should find a way to send unwanted bad drivers or should I say drivers (like Kyle Bush) with bad attitudes across the borders instead of unwanted horses!

Okay, that's it for tonight. I think I caught the general essence of my earlier blog that was lost to the power outage. Truly, I hope I didn't step on too many toes here today, but hey... What can I say? My way of thinking has had to change with the reality of the situations we have created!

Have a great night and if you want to think of things in a brighter light... I suppose that filly is running in greener pastures above even as I write. I'm sure she's been seen with my small herd of horses that have gone before us and are waiting for us all to join them!

God Bless Us Everyone!

I first of all have to clear the air from yesterday's post. It isn't so much that I hate the sport of horse racing; I hope that was conveyed in my message. It's simply that I personally believe that the horses should be allowed to grow up before they put such incredible strain on their immature infrastructure. However, I have to be fair here if I am going to put a personal opinion out there for the world to read and digest. I have to make it a bit broader in my viewpoint.

What is it I'm inferring here, you ask? I am speaking of a variety of applications that horses today are utilized for and begun at the tender age of two. All the way from two year old futurities including reining, barrel racing, etc.

It is the general consensus that a horse should be started at two of which I totally agree with. In fact, I would actually like to see them being sacked out and started even younger that this. However, even a lope can put an undue amount of stress on those young joints, let alone running all out even for simple training procedures. This is quite normal. However, one only need consider that many horses do not stop growing until they are five years of age and in many of the warm blood breeds such as the Thoroughbreds that are run on the race track, often their joints are not done closing and fully matured until they are between five and seven years of age.

Now consider that many if not most of these great studs are retired and used for breeding by age three or four!!!! I suppose that says it all.

I also believe strongly in full protective gear for their young legs and beyond. Full athlete splints for front and back with the ankle joint support cups as well, or at least well placed polo wraps when in light training. It only makes good sense.

Now considering the size of Eight Belles, 17 plus hands and built like a brick house that was a great deal of strain. However, I have never heard of such an injury, first of all both ankles at nearly the exact same instance and though the ankle injuries are not terribly uncommon; bowed tendons and upper fractues are more common. In addition to the fact it sounds like they nearly shattered in thier reporting numerous compound fractures.

Who knows for certain, but perhaps it was in the process of pulling her up on the dirt track coming off the hard pace she was running, combined with the potential she was used to running on a synthetic surface as opposed to the dirt??? Yet, I heard even the track vet said he had never seen any injury quite like this one, being after the fact and such.

In any event, last night when I heard the trainer speaking on the national news broadcast I wanted to cry with him. Yes, he was teary eyed and clearly devastated by the horrific turn of events at the end of the race. My heart broke right along with his just hearing what he had to say. He stated the well known fact that many of us as horse lovers already know; that these horses are not just another animal but are family members. He went on to say "We put everything we have into them and they give us everything they have and she was willing to do it." At that point it appeared he couldn't talk any more as he was breaking down. It was a very sad moment and I can assure anyone from what I witnessed in his brief interview that he never dreamed in a million years such a thing could or would occur to this filly and had he considered the possibility, he would not have had her out there, at least on that day.

Now, all I can say is either he is a great actor or this was truly a very sad and impacting (probably even defining) point in his own very life.

With that much said, I hope that you understand where I'm coming from on the whole matter of horse racing as well as any other number of sporting events that put young horses under such physical stress.


Speaking of undue stress... Our Palomino Stallion, Murray decided to help himself to a new comer mare before asking like a gentleman. I believe it will be awhile before he is in the baby making business. I hope the swelling goes down sooner than later and that he is back to normal in a jiffy. And I most sincerely hope he learned a valuable lesson about unacquainted newbie’s! See, these horses have their own ways of really hurting themselves without any help from us!

Just didn't want to receive the little reminders in the email box on why I keep missing every other day. Therefore, I'm stopping in long enough to say hello and good night.

We, the boys and Mom and I that is, went to the first Palomino/Buckskin show today in Longmont. It was a bit discouraging. I can't imagine why with all the Buckskin and Palomino horses I see when I'm out and about and many that are most assuredly show worthy, that there is any reasonably good excuse for why the numbers of people attending and participating in these shows appears to be dwindling??? There were some unfortunate individuals involved in the association a few years back, but it would appear they are too busy with the bigger Quarter Horses show world that (THANK GOD) they apparently don't have time for the likes of these little shows and what they no doubt view as the little people. That is anyway, unless of course you beat them! Then it was a matter of watching your butt... But as the case goes, they are not around these such shows and the folks who are and who are putting them on these days are great folks and very friendly if you'll give them a chance!

So, if any of you out there in the Colorado region have a Palomino or Buckskin, Red Dun or Gruella (SP?) colored horse with registration papers accordingly or are eligible for such, let me encourage you to find out and get involved! It really can be fun at this level!

On the other hand, I suppose the one good excuse that no one can deny is the economy. As one party said today, if it comes down to paying the heating bill or going to a horse show, the obvious answer is clear and most understandable.

However disappointing the attendance at the show may have been, it was a nice day and good to get out and see a few friendly faces of whom we know from earlier show days.

We did have a bit of excitement on the horizon when we put a new mare in with Murray (Moonlights Destiny) our Palomino stud horse. He learned, or so we hope, a very difficult lesson of not asking before presuming she thinks he's hot and can't resist him. After soaking his unmentionables with a hose for twenty or thirty minutes and a small dose of anti-flammatory/pain killer medication the swelling seemed to go down quite a bit. However, we sure couldn't help but feeling just a bit sorry for the guy! And when he attempted to forgive her and make up, she kicked him again; this time front angled and caught his throat. Needless to say, as he stood in the opposite corner of the pen glaring at her, I am pretty sure of what sort of names he must have had in his mind and opinion of her.

And last but not least, I ended up cooking at home which is the first in forever on a Saturday...

So, that would be a double

Oh yes and then there was the Derby... What a bummer that was! I am sure they did not expect or even consider such a horrific ending to such a valiant effort. However, just my opinion, but on a horse that young and that big, it is simply too much to ask of their joints to hold up too. Most of these horses don't have any business being run before they are at least four or five years old and even at that, the larger, taller ones still often have open joints i.e.; knees etc. at age 5 to 7! Thoroughbreds tend to close up even slower than some of the others. But that is the way it has been done for years and years and I don't see it changing any time soon. There will continue to be lame and abandoned horses as a result of such practices and there will be extremely high dollar horses that on a rare occasion will break down as Belle did today in front of the masses... But over all, most of it will continue to occur behind the scenes where the general public simply doesn't know of it. There are reasons these top horses are retired at three or four years of age. Consider a horse can live to be well into their thirties if conditions are right. Hmmmm... So, that is my rant for the day on racing. Nothing against one horse against another, just wish they would let them grow up a little more first.

Okay, I think I'm going to bed now. The boys haven't made any sound for awhile so I better go see if they are all in bed or if they are not??? Hmmmm...

Happy Saturday and God Bless Us Everyone!

Now many of you may not see the merit in this blog and admittedly I contemplated if I should write it or not with such considerations, for about two seconds.

Yes, it has to do with yet another young man (or woman's) rite of passage. I realize there are many and the one I am about to mention may sound ridiculous and unfounded in the bigger picture. However, it is one that occurred in our home this very week.

Yes, a sad day for the entire house, but only a few words were mentioned in it's after math. An icon of an era past has been removed from our midst. It was a reflection of a time gone by of memories, mostly of the favorable sort, of a loss of innocence, a time of juvenile pranks and questionable laughter. A time of street racing and hanging out in the parking lot on Friday nights until the cops chased them off.

If we're honest, most of us can and will relate to what I'm speaking of. As teen approaches their high school graduation there is a realization of the old passing away and the new having to be faced. There are many emotions around graduation and other such rites of passage, but there is one that is mentioned in a few songs but rarely spoken of in such a context.

Chad’s Big, Bad, Black, Ford Diesel truck has reluctantly gone to live in greener pastures. No, it wasn't wrecked, but Chad in his inevitable life course had to come to a point that most of us have to come to with our motorized first love. I know those of you who know Chad will understand that this is more than a monumental moment in his life. Kelly cried and Chad felt bad. And we all made light of her tears (including Chad). What else can you do? The tears are about more than simply a truck, but more of what the truck represented in all it’s years in Chad’s life.

I remember Sharell, bless her pointed little head.... The car she bought from us at a most reasonable price in the bigger picture of growing up. The car she felt Ron (who she calls Dad) had made possible for her and carried such deep emotion and meaning in so doing had to go away. And I do mean HAD TO... She too cried and fret over the fact she was parting ways with something of emotional value to her. Though it was of much less monetary value than the Ford Truck that Chad had worked so hard to buy and baby for the past several years, her silly old car meant something special to her. Or even Drew with the old blue Dodge of which he attempted to kill more than once; and so on.

So it was, last night I realized the significance in saying good bye to such old friends. I had to consider my own father who sold his Corvette after marrying my mother (much to her dismay). Yes, he showed up one night in a family car stating what he saw as the obvious necessity for his future life after marriage. I think Mom still regrets that decision on his part. LOL

Therefore, is it any wonder that as we face a new day around the farm without old Black that some deep seated emotion may begin to emerge from the depths of even my soul? This is the very truck that was even mentioned in my newly published book. The truck that Kelly before wooing Chad into finally being her beau used to run to the bank teller window to see drive by when she heard it coming a block or two away. Yes, this would be the same truck that found nearly every envious boy in school nearly hating Chad for owning. The very truck that carries the memories of Homecomings, Proms, Car Racing, Horse Shows, and yes, even the truck that pulled the horses to the Evergreen Parade and Rodeo Queen Contest when we were running incredibly late... Old Black came through and had us there just in the nick of time!

I only rode in it a handful of times, and drove it even less than that... One of those times was moving it to the front yard. Can you believe I even dared to drive it on my hard earned green grassy area to park it under the large shade trees? What else could I do, I had to protect it from a violent hail storm that hit the area that day. I suppose I could nearly write a book on the memories that include Old Black.

Old Black was more than a vehicle, it was an identity; the identity of my one and only biological son, Chad. In addition, it was a reminder of all his virtue, in spite of what others may have thought. I know, as does the rest of the family, how hard he worked to have it and what character and self discipline he showed at the tender age in which he made the commitment to purchasing and improving it. Though, many if not most are still thoroughly convinced he was a spoiled brat who's mommy and daddy bought this and any other number of things for, we know better.

I see the torch passed as another young man who has dreamed of owning Old Black will now be seen and recognized for not only who he is but what he drives. The legacy will continue as the truck is still mentionable, in a condition far from exhausted. Perhaps it will be a shorter time before yet another rite of passage is entered in and yet a new party will then assume the torch. In the meantime, I can only hope the new youngster will be as kind and loving toward Old Black as his predecessor and that it will be granted such opportunity to be passed on still again. I hope the memories and the meaning are even half as valued to him as they have been to Chad and the rest of this family.

In the meantime, I suppose the Kersey Policeman who found it his duty to patrol the streets with a watchful eye out for Chad and Old Black will live to find a new youth driving a new vehicle... And the rest of us will just once more have to deal with the reality that our once fair haired little boy is in fact, now a young man making very difficult and grown-up decisions.

Hope you enjoyed this little peek of our personal lives and that you all have a productive and blessed Friday!

Yes sir, its 8:30 p.m. and there is still drops falling from the roof and the air is still damp... I was wondering but I refused to quit believing for the rain I was determined we would receive today! When I left Denver at 6:00 this evening it had not been raining where I was at since we had arrived at 1:00 but here in our region it rained from this morning and is still not completely cleared! Believing pays off!

I hope you all had a great day... And for those of you wondering how things are turning out on the home front today? It's all good you see; because “God is in the process therefore, we can trust the process!!!"

GOOD NIGHT!