DelMar 6th Aug 11

[Diane]

Woodman's Luck reached over and tried to bite Romeo Royale in the stretch. The camera caught it and everyone commented how they'd all heard about horses doing that but how rare it got caught on tape.
www.calracing.com
What do you do when you have a horse that behaves like that? Geld them? Time off? More work? It looks like he may have grabbed the bridle. Can you imagine what the jock must have been thinking?
10% brainless idiot is what I have often thought of my own blessed old hot mare.

[Barcaldine]

TVG reported later in the day that the horse's connections were shocked at his aggressive behavior because he is supposedly a sweetheart at the barn. THey think the horse was just frustrated from running second so often because he wants to win so badly.

That's their story, anyway.

[FOS]

hi Diane

If you click on the following link, it should retrieve an eclipse-winning photo that you may appreciate ...

CLICK HERE Great Prospector biting/savaging Golden Derby - Tremont Stakes - July 1980

Hope you enjoy it.

Respectfully

[hpkingjr]

Thanks for a great photo.

[Jeff]

Used to have a mare just like that, she'd try to bite or body slam a horse that would pass her, she couldn't run a lick, I coulda probably out run her, but she sure hated to get passed.

She was fairly easy to handle until she had a foal and then her inner she-devil revealed herself. You better NOT try to touch her baby, and don't look at him either

Sold her after she had the foal.

I may go buy her back and breed her to something fast though.

[Pan Zareta]

What do you do when you have a horse that behaves like that? Geld them?

If so, Round Table would never have had a single foal. His teeth were usually directed at human flesh, but supposedly he would also take a swipe at his opponents on the turf when a prime opportunity presented itself. See also the remarks for Reigh Count.

Biting is just one means of equine 'communication'. Obviously it's something that must be strongly discouraged when directed toward the human handler, but it's inevitable within a herd. IME, mares and intact males are far more apt to employ this particular method of getting their point across. But one of our gelding group, otherwise easy-going and well-behaved, morphs into Hannibal Lecter if any of the guys subordinate to him in the pecking order try to get out the gate first at turn-out time.

[Diane]

Looking at Woodman's Luck pp's it looks like he's a closer who doesn't quite make it. He's got talent but he's got enough 2nd place finishes to make me wonder if his shenanigans cost him other races like they did here, though I didn't look at any of his other replays. He's got well known connections so you'd assume they are doing their best to figure out what's going on in this horse's pea brain. I didn't see where blinkers had been used on this horse in the pp's. After this episode would they help?

[Kari]

Didn't Easy Goer take a couple of nips at Sunday Silence during the stretch run of the '89 Preakness? That's how my very young eyes saw it, anyway