Game faces

[imnumberjuan]

Anyone have favrite stories on horses "game faces".

I have had two claiming fillies... one put on such a show that she new it was "race day" that you'd think she was gonna win every time, the other, well she looks like a space cadet fried on pixie stix

I was at my trainers barn the morning before a stakes race her good filly was running in, and she was backed in the stall staring everyone down... I went down to my filly (the space cadet) and thought to myself "Why can't Pat put them beside each other... maybe Classy could learn some thing from Goldie" ... then again I'd hate the stakes filly to learn anything from my filly

[horsenuts]

Anyone have favrite stories on horses "game faces".

I have had two claiming fillies... one put on such a show that she new it was "race day" that you'd think she was gonna win every time, the other, well she looks like a space cadet fried on pixie stix

I was at my trainers barn the morning before a stakes race her good filly was running in, and she was backed in the stall staring everyone down... I went down to my filly (the space cadet) and thought to myself "Why can't Pat put them beside each other... maybe Classy could learn some thing from Goldie" ... then again I'd hate the stakes filly to learn anything from my filly

I've seen some interesting game faces in my time. I'll never forget the first time I saw a horse get "hopped"(treated by a vet a couple hours prior to post time)... at the time I was 14 and naive.. but would quickly learn the ways of racing. We were standing her in an ice tub and after being "treated" she broke out profusely in a sweat absolutely wringing wet... soaked from head to toe as though a hose had been turned on her. Boss Man(trainer) was kind of nervously laughing about the whole thing and we began "cooling her off" by soaking large bathing sponges in the ice water and dousing her. After 30 minutes or so her sweating slowed but she was continually chewing up her lead shank at an incredible rate and shaking her head non-stop in a violent fashion.


Well as post time neared she "tapered off some" and we were able to lead her over to the paddock, saddle her and put the rider up. Not knowing exactly what to expect I watched her run the best race of her career to date on that day and pay $58 dollars on a $2 win ticket. For those wondering the drug used was "talwin", a narcotic opiate analgesic for pain. It was routinely used for years before testing equip. finally caught up with it. Needless to say it was extremely effective for the right ailments(filly had a hairline crack of one sesamoid) and had been backing out of her races in recent time..... but not that day.... and boy did it put a "game face" on her.

[kezeli]

Yea, trainers have been hopping horses with some cocktail or another for ever. My favorite is amion plex, a vitamin B complex with amino acids and electrolytes I.V. Compleatly harmless and in fact really good for them as they deplete all those in a race. Makes them feel REALLY good, and a bigoil wash just before walking up and we're the best we can be without "real" hop.

[Tiz]

Speaking of naive, I'm still stunned that people run horses with cracks, fractures, a little tendon here, a suspensory there and a dash of blocked joints thrown in.
If you can't relate to an animal's suffering, how about the riders who have their lives on the line, and could be killed or maimed when a catastrophic breakdown occurs?

[horsenuts]

Speaking of naive, I'm still stunned that people run horses with cracks, fractures, a little tendon here, a suspensory there and a dash of blocked joints thrown in.
If you can't relate to an animal's suffering, how about the riders who have their lives on the line, and could be killed or maimed when a catastrophic breakdown occurs?

It's been that way since the beginning of time with horse racing. Years ago horses weren't x-rayed as they are today but the few that were often had chips and cracks galore. Many horses run for years with such injuries including top horses and often quite successfully. OTOH, I've seen the most clean legged and soundest going of horses break their leg clean in half so injuries are not the only contributing factoe to break downs. Landing wrong or taking a funny step can cause a catastrophic breakdown, unfortunately.


Now "blocking" such injuries is always dangerous but again that has been going on for a long time as well.