Kids that love racing

[clh]

Just for fun I thought it would be interesting to see if anyone else has children under the age of 3 (or any age for that matter) that love horse racing? My 2 1/2 year old granddaughter will watch TVG forever if it is on. She is obsessed with horses and has no fear of them. She gets on her rocking horse and says to me "say it nannie" and I have to say "and they're off" or "away they go" before she'll start riding. My son says she'll be the only pre-schooler who knows the meaning of pony to post. She loves the mares and foals on the farm and is always ready to help muck stalls, feed, etc... however it is hard to explain to her why the mares leave to get bred and/or foal. We explained when we weaned that the mom's needed a vacation. It was really hard to tell her that the Birdstone and Scrimshaw colt moved to find new homes (at least we hope they do). Explaining to a two year about a foal nursing was another treat! She had her play pony in the car seat while we going somewhere and she put it between her legs and told me "my pony is hungry nana". Good grief. Try explaining that to her folks. Anyhow, just wondered if anyone else has little ones that love horses and racing as much as she does! With the November and January sales approaching, stallion research, etc... thought something a little more light hearted was in order

[Heidilady]

That is sooo cute! She got into it even before I did. I didn't grow up with horsie people around but still at that age? Impressive. You know I bet you can get her reading earlier than just about everybody if you get her into the Black Stallion series and Marguerite Henry books. Great way to turn her on to reading books.

I bet you'll have fun explaining what happens when a person sends a mommy horse to a daddy horse for money. Did you do that already? If so I bet it was a fun discussion.

[clh]

Haven't had to have that discussion yet thank god! Let her folks deal with it as they are expecting another baby in February. Right now she just thinks the baby is there and they go to the hospital and pick it up. She has more "horse stuff" than should be allowed! Since the new baby is coming we're moving her room at our house to a "big girl room" and of course, she had to have a pony quilt and comforter. Everytime we go to Keeneland, etc... she gets something else - sweatshirts, socks, dresses, etc... She has a dress that says "well bred" on it with a picture of a foal. For the new baby I found a onsie that says "Pasture Bedtime" with a foal sleeping. When she heard the foals were coming home last spring she kept saying "I'll rock them and hold them and feed them". Even after she saw their size she still thought she could "rock them and hold them". She knew that horses had hooves, wore halters and fly masks before she knew people had hands, feet and wore glasses! Am sure she will be upset again when the Tapit filly leaves. She is sure that the gray one is "hers" because it has hair the color of her papa

[FancyHorse]

A couple trainers at my track have a couple very very small children who come to the track with them and they ride the water buckets and hold a racing whip and whip the bucket LOL

[btcountess]

our 17 month old granddaughter, Arden Lyn, absolutely loves horses. We have TVG and HRTV and she wants the races on, not cartoons. She loves to go with us to Monmouth and Philly. We have one racing right now at Philly and she gets so excited. Luckily Smokin Nails is very sweet and lets Arden hug her and gently takes carrots from her.

She has a box with little horses in it that my daughter calls the stable. One day she put a goat from some farm set in with the horses. How did she know that one? Guess we'll have to ask when she gets older.

Oh course she has tons of horse things - books, stuffed one, clothes, three different rocking ones and we have some surprises for Christmas from Rods catalog. Thanks for sharing. Wish I knew how to put a picture of her with Nails in the post.

[Lei Owen]

Just wait till they get older. Then your buying horses that cost in the mid 5 figures, $2,000 saddles, $500 magnatic blanket for the horse, and $400 boot's for them. And that's the cheap part. If they go to show's, then you need the trailer and truck to pull the trailer.

[Rez]

I've been around horse racing since I was knee high to a grasshopper and so have my kids who are 6 , 10 and 16. They help out at the barn and love going to the races , especially when we go to the fair meets. Next year they will get to take their horses and race with other kids. We travel all over the Northwest racing( Emerald Downs , Kennewick, Missoula and up at Vernon BC and other bush tracks ) and the kids have a blast.
Great big ol family event , dad gets to run his horses and they do to.

[clh]

We're plan was to take AnnaBelle to the racetrack this fall - haven't gotten that brave yet because I could just see her running up to every horse she sees and think she can give them carrots and peppermints - plus she is awful smart and it is hard to tell what she'd say? You know, why is that mean man hitting the horse (she doesn't "see" that part on TVG). We were at a restaurant recently and a very nice waitress who was very mildly "goth" dressed (black, black hair, lots of piercing, black fingernail polish and a skull and crossbone t-shirt) - after she left with our order AnnaBelle said "where is that pirate waitress going?" - we all looked at each other and wondered if anyone heard - looking around the place, we knew that everyone had!

I know she'll be too tall to be a jockey (my son is 6'5" and she's been off the charts since she was born) so she probably will want to hunt or jump - beats all the other alternatives for the kids these days. I looked into riding lessons for her and most places around her don't do children until they are 5 or 6

[CeeDreams]

Our stable is named after my nephew and niece. It is also the license plate on my father's car. Then along came my other niece who felt left out. So she had a horse named after her. My niece was 3 yo at the time. This horse, in her opinion, is hers and no one elses. Especially not her brothers or sisters. So when her horse had her first foal my niece demanded that she choose the name. She already has a name picked out for the next foal. You can definitely tell when a child names a horse. I think her next name choice is (her name)Snowball. All the names, of course, include her name. My nephew was in the paddock when he was about 7 years old speaking with another 7 year old having an "adult" conversation about breeding. He had told the young girl "we had born her". What he was trying to say was we had bred her. Now that the kids are 10, 9 & 5 they want to bet. They understand it better than me and they explain it to the other adults.
They all love horses and watch our horses race on satellite TV when they are not at the track.

[clh]

What a riot! Not sure I'd let AB name any of my foals although she does know their sire names (that's what we call the foals - so the babies are: Birdstone, Tapit, Scrimshaw, etc...). If it isn't horses with her it is princesses so we'd have horses named Cinderella, Ariel, Belle, Snow White, Aurora - I'm thinking not! Some of the colts might take offense! And they all can't be Prince Charming. Besides - I haven't quite had the heart to tell her at this young and tender age that there really aren't no Prince Charming's around (ha).