Arrival Scheduled!

Hooray!  Special Tyler is scheduled to arrive Sunday night into the wee hours of Monday morning.  Having shipped and recieved horses from all over the country I'm accustomed to tricky pickup and drop off times, that's just how it goes when a shipper is moving multiple horses to different destinations.  Hopefully the drive itself will be uneventful and soon the new kid will be all settled in the barn!

I did get this photo of Special Tyler shortly after he was informed of his summer plans...  he appears less than enthused about going to Southern Virginia where in mid July it will still be 90 degrees and humid at 10 o'clock at night.  Needless to say we'll be doing most of our work in the early mornings! 

So much excitement here about meeting him, and fingers crossed for safe travels!

The Introductions for ReBrand Initiative: Trainer's Challenge

Part of the process in this ReBrand Initiative: Trainer's Challenge is creating online posts to help draw attention to the horses and their aftercare organizations.  Here's the introductions for me, MMXX Standardbreds, and of course Special Tyler!

 

ReBrand Initiative: Trainer's Challenge

I'm very excited to share that I'm one of the participating trainers in the ReBrand Initiative:  Trainer's Challenge!  It's similar to other makeover projects I did in Colorado, but this one is specific to Standardbreds.  I'll be aiming my horse towards jumpers, but of course his opinion matters so we'll have to see what he prefers to do for his career  post-track racing.

 

This story begins when I applied two weeks ago for a trainer position, and five people were accepted, myself included. The program is kind of a "racehorse makeover" to show how nice these Standardbred horses are that are coming off the track, and how they can be trained for new careers and be competitive.  I'll be blogging and sharing videos, training techniques, photos, all kinds of info to draw attention to the breed and to the aftercare organization for good publicity!  There will be a trainer competition aspect to it, the participating trainers will get points for attention on social media when posts are reshared, get likes, comments, etc, as well as points being assigned for challenges and the horseshow at the end.  

I'll have 90 days to put my horse under saddle, train him, and (hopefully) teach him to jump.  Then I'll take him to Nationals at the Horse Park in NJ in Sept, and I'll compete with him there.  If the horse doesn't get adopted at Nationals in NJ, I can give him back to the rescue and he's much more likely to be adopted for having the training and show experience.  

My horse is coming from the aftercare organization MMXX Standardbreds, and he's going to be traveling here to Southern Virginia from upstate New York.  He's 8 years old and has only had harness racing training as a pacer, so he pulled a jockey in a two wheeled racing cart called a sulky at the track.  He has never been saddled or ridden, but has had significant let down and turnout since his last race in 2023.  

These are the photos I have of him from MMXX Standardbreds, he's a good looking fellow and I'm super excited to meet him!  His name is Special Tyler and he raced 45 times with 9 wins over his career, only retiring because he was "stalling out in the speed department" which is the best reason to retire.  Everyone is happy to hear there were no injuries!   

Keep an eye out, Special Tyler will arrive in the next week or so here at Bit of Honey Training and I'll have so many fun details, photos, and stories to share! 

In the meantime, you can check out Sweetpeacefuldream, Doit's Cat, or Grace , who all were part of past makeover challenges in which I participated.  Sweetpeacefuldream went to the Kentucky Horse Park for the big show at the end of her Retired Racehorse Project challenge in 2015, Grace and Doit's Cat went to the National Western Complex for Horse Expo in their Equine Comeback Challenge years, 2014 and 2015/2016 respectively.  Here's to excitedly looking forward to a wildly fun summer!

Shiny Thoroughbreds

 I will never get tired of taking pics of these thoroughbreds and how round and shiny they are on pasture.  This has been an absolute blessing - maybe the best they’ve ever looked in the many years I’ve known them!

One of the nicest hidden places on our ranch is where the horses’ water tank is located in the biggest field.  There are wild pink roses growing all over, framing these pretty horse faces whenever they go to have a beverage.

Tuxedo Kittens New Names

The new kittens are both a tuxedo pattern for coloring, the male is grey and white and the female is black and white.  Because of their formal attire I'm trying out the names Ralph and Lauren!  Sabbath has been remarkably patient with the new kids.  I let them out of their crates to play for about a half hour in the morning and again in the evening, and it's pretty cute watching them carefully approach Uncle Sabbath.

Sabbath looks on as Ralph attempts to scale the markerboard in pursuit of snacks

Kittens playing with a wood pellet and then swatting each other.

Little Lauren

Ralph in his formal tuxedo with tie

Ralph likes to wrestle and gently play bite when I'm scratching him.  He's very gentle and mostly likes to try to catch my hand with his paws and bring it into his mouth.

Sabbath looks on with light disdain for the youngsters and their shenanigans.
 

Blu totally and completely ignores the kittens, as if in hopes that they will go away if he gives them zero attention.

 

New Barn Kittens

Sabbath, at 18 years of age, has retired from mouse control in the barn and now is simply serving in a supervisory role.  Sadly, Orzo disappeared a bit over a month ago and so there was an opening for new barn cats.

Wednesday I got a text from a friend, who knew of two kittens dumped a neighbor’s place this week.  My friend knew I was in need of a cat or two and happily connected us.  The kittens arrived Wednesday evening and I set them up in a large dog crate in the tack room to get adjusted to the routine here.  They’ll be in the crate for a couple weeks to learn that the food arrives twice a day and get used to me, then they’ll be allowed loose in the tack room at night.  

I’ve begun the search for a low cost spay/neuter program in the area so that I can get them altered, ear tipped (a universal feral cat sign that they are altered) and vaccinated so that if they don’t stick around at least they are not out procreating.  They are quite small right now, and still have brand new kitten teeth, so are likely just weaned at about 8 -10 weeks old.  It will be a little while before they are old enough to get altered, but I do plan to get them fixed before the female is old enough to get pregnant. 

The grey tuxedo kitten is male, with a small grey patch under his chin. He has a loud and squeaky motorboat purr, and is outgoing and friendly.  The black one is also a tuxedo pattern, is female and a little more reserved, but is warming up to attention very quickly. Tonight I let them run around loose in the tack room while I cleaned their litter box and put kitten food into their bowl, and they were into EVERYTHING, including inspecting every corner of the cabinet under the sink where I keep the food. 

They don’t have names yet.  I was trying to come up with something general or non committal because I didn’t want to get too attached to them as barn cats sadly often disappear, as in Orzo’s case.  However, they have already won me over and it’s definitely too late, I think I love them.  

Sabbath is very tolerant of the new kids in the tack room.  Mostly he sits on the counter and surveys them from there. He does periodically get this look on his face which clearly says, “I’m getting too old for this…” 

Blu and Raven and Daffodils

 

Raven and I went for a short ride around the property to try out our newly altered girth with the aussie saddle. Success! Many thanks to George with Union Level Leather for altering an elasticized dressage girth by putting extra wide buckles on it, as well as changing my overgirth to be billets on both sides instead of a ring. He did a really thorough job and was careful to ensure the equipment was reassembled safely.  

When the ride was done I hosed off Raven and we were hand grazing while she dried. I didn’t want her to roll in the mud immediately!  Blu came to hang out with us. He’s remarkably brave around the horses considering how skittish he can be with people he doesn’t know. 

Just today all these daffodils popped up!  Spring is definitely here, with lows overnight in the 50s and a day in the 80s forecasted later this week. I’m so glad we moved here, I do not miss the terrible wind, breaking ice off water tanks, or bitter cold temps. I’ve only had to walk down the hoses to prevent them freezing a couple times all winter!