Every Picture Tells A Story, Don't It?**

I don't usually search the web for photos, but this one, recently downloaded from msn.com, caught my eye.  It captures two of the things I care most about: horses/animals and art.

You may hear the percussive thunder of hooves on a race course surface.  To you, music.  I see legs like brooding leafless trees in a winter forest and the shoes, fleeting headlight reflections on a rain slick road.  Scattered clods of dirt, here thick and heavy and there, thin and transparent, disturb the photo's angularity.  They are a kind of dissonance, like blood spatters on a wall.  In my eyes, art.

It's funny how you remember clearly things, important things to a child, that happened long ago, especially when those memories are about a favorite toy or a little boy's dog. When I was three or four years old I had a cur dog, chestnut and white in color, that lived under our hen house.  There is an old black and white picture of me, skinny and blonde, already a year or two in glasses, wearing faded bib overalls and no shirt standing next to Brownie in his run.  I think I was smiling in the picture, but then I always smiled when Brownie was around.

When the rabbits raided our garden at night they would taunt poor Brownie and he barked until he was hoarse, at least that's what the policeman told my dad. "Get rid of him or I'll shoot him," the cop said, and in those days he could have shot Brownie and gotten away with it too.  Mrs. Clark from across the railroad tracks had gotten her wish and my dad gave Brownie away.  

I don't ever remember hearing my Brownie barking in the night.  You know how soundly innocence rests. And somehow my dad gave Brownie away without my knowing.  I've carried Brownie around in my heart for many decades now and I hope to see him again one day.

My mother was a big, well, big for King's Mills High School anyway, band singer in the late '30's and early 40's.   And while she sang, she also doubled on bass and did it all while standing on a chair or a stool, or anything that was handy.  She was very short.  

Because of her there was always music in our house, on the radio mainly, and singing, although my tone deaf father remained blessedly quiet.  Because there was music, I've always sung, but after more than 100,000 cigarettes' (haven't smoked for more than 20 years) not as well as I once did.  Perhaps my memory is a just a little fuzzy about the quality of my singing..  

I was a normal kid for my time, baseball crazy and good at it too.  But I was shy and had a difficult time fitting in with the other kids.  So it didn't help my cause when mom enrolled me in tap dancing classes!  Ugh, I hated every minute of it and although dancing helped to make me faster, stronger and more coordinated than most of the other boys, it didn't matter to me, I still resented it.  I just wanted to be like everyone else.  Just a normal little boy.  I was the only boy in the dance class and it made me different, even more than my thick glasses already had.  You bet I resented it.

She redeemed herself though whenever there were "teacher in-service days."  For me it was a day away from the rigors of school.  Mom and I would take a trolly downtown to the Cincinnati Art Museum where I happily spent time with Picasso, John Singer Sargent, Egyptian history and wondered about whoever it was that wore that suit of gleaming armor.

McAlpin's department store had a tea room where mom and I would eat lunch after the museum.  I don't remember not ordering filet of sole with tartar sauce.  I didn't need the menu.

My youth is gone, so is McAlpin's Department Store and its tea room and so, sadly, is my mother.   What is left then is my love for animals and art in all their variety.  Oh, and I almost forgot, all of the memories.

Every picture tells a story, don't it?

** Wouldn't be quite right not to credit Rod Stewart with the title of this piece and the refrain from one of his best songs.

Copyright by Loren R. Schumacher, March 11, 2016

One Fine Day ( Part 1 )

Maybe the cool and distant reception our tour received at Winstar Farm had something to do with our bus driver squeezing into a place he shouldn't have and plowing into one of the large flower pots standing outside the door of the stallion complex.  Or, as it is in most companies, attitude is a reflection of ownership or management.  Giving the benefit of the doubt, I'll excuse Winstar and blame it on the youth of our tour guide, the marketing manager and her assistant.  There is more but I'll skip the details.

Winstar itself is a very young company, founded in 2000 with the acquisition of the 400 acre Prestonwood Farm by current owner Kenny Troutt and his partner.  The farm's history dates to the 1700's, then owned by the Williams family of Virginia.  Their bank barn and several other buildings remain and are on the National Historic Register.  Along with the purchase of Prestonwood came two sires: Kris S and Distorted Humor.  Before his death in 2002, Kris S sired 5 Breeder's Cup winners and 3 Eclipse Award winners.  Distorted Humor, foaled in 1993, remains an active sire to this day, commanding a six figure fee.  More about him later.

There are three viewing areas in the new stallion barn, 18 stalls, 2 breeding sheds and 22 three acre paddocks.  The first horse to be ushered into the viewing area was the incredible Tiznow, once both American Horse of the Year and California Horse of the Year.  He is the only back- to- back winner of the Breeder's Cup Classic and winner of $6.2 million dollars.

His progeny have won the Belmont, Travers Stakes, Dubai World Cup, Santa Anita Derby, the Wood Memorial and others.  My Sweet Addiction won the 2015 Vanity Stakes, Colonel John the Santa Anita Derby, Well Armed won the Dubai World Cup by a record 14 lengths and Da'Taro beat Big Brown in the 2008 Belmont.  It should be remembered that Big Brown finished dead last in the race for an unknown and still suspicious reason.  His trainer has had his license lifted in some states.

All of the photos taken at Winstar, with one exception, were taken in predominantly natural light under a dome in one of the viewing areas.  The light illuminates the best of the horses physical characteristics and if they were not elegant enough, well just take a look.

Tiznow, foaled in 1997

Tiznow ranks in the top 2% of sires by average earnings.

Still rowdy and sure of his supremacy, Tiznow.

Super Saver won the Kentucky Derby in 2010.  Just another big, fast bay horse, no not really, just the fulfillment of a lifetime dream to see a Derby winner up close.  And I was not disappointed.

Super Saver was sired by Maria's Mon who sired another Derby winner, Monarchos, the 2001 Derby champion.

Super Saver

Begging for a peppermint.

I'm exhausted, can't you see my tongue's hangin' out?

Super Saver is all man too, covering 165 mares in 2015.  His most notable achievement is as the sire of Runhappy, the 2015 sprint champion and winner of the 2015 Breeder's Cup sprint.  Runhappy posted a 113 Beyer speed figure in 2015.  Very fast.

Runhappy winning the 2015 Malibu Stakes with Gary Stevens up.

Runhappy looks like his sire Super Saver.

Pioneer of the Nile was a 2006 foal sired by Empire Maker x Star of Goshen by Lord of War (Arg ) and is now an up and coming third crop sire.  

His was a successful racing career finishing second to Mine That Bird in the 2009 Kentucky Derby with wins in the Santa Anita Derby, San Felipe Stakes and Robert B. Lewis Stakes as a three year old and the Cash Call Futurity G1 as a two year old.

Pioneer of the Nile, his groom and Stallion Manager Larry McGinnis in the background.

In Pioneer of the Nile's lineage are:  Empire Maker, Fappiano, Mr. Prospector and Northern Dancer on the top or sire side and Lord of War, Key to the Kingdom and Bold Ruler (Secretariat's Sire) on the bottom or dam side, but Winstar would like to introduce broodmares with Seattle Slew or Storm Cat (Sire of Empire Maker) breeding to his progeny.

Pioneer of the Nile

On October 26, his fee was $110,000.00 and five days later on Saturday it was raised to $125,000.00.  Why?  Because of this guy:

American Pharoah 

We may never in our lifetime see another horse like American Pharoah, record setter and winner of American horse racing's grand slam:  The Derby, The Preakness, The Belmont and The Breeder's Cup Classic.  Unlike many thoroughbreds, American Pharoah is not a brat, but a sweet and gentle champion.  My wife and I have tickets to Coolmore America, Ashford Stud to see AP on January 27th.  That's the good news.  The bad, we're not guaranteed to see him.  You pay your money and take your chances.

 Pioneer of the Nile appears to have the same sweet disposition as his son.  In the two pictures that follow he seems anxious for company.

Pioneer of the Nile at home.

The cleanliness and beauty of Pioneer's surroundings in the new stallion barn

Oddly, though we might have been able to pet Pioneer of the Nile, or at least be photographed near him, no one tried.  I will say that as we walked through the barn we were tightly shepherded by the stallion manager and other staff.  It was probably just as well.

Lane's End has AP Indy and Winstar has its own star, Distorted Humor, now 23 and still active in the breeding shed.  His 2016 fee, a mere $100,000.00  Why?   Because this smallish sire (15.3 hands) has sired over 130 stakes winners.  He has sired more G1 winners than all but two North American Sires. His progeny have won each of the Triple Crown races and he is a grandsire of a Kentucky Derby winner.  You'll recognize these names: Funny Cide, Commentator and Drosselmeyer, winners all. 

At the 2015 Keenland September sale a Distorted Humor colt sold for $1,525,000 to Goncalo Torrealba of Three Chimeys Farm.  

Distorted Humor's own race record of 8 wins, 5 places and 3 shows in 23 starts is an enviable one.  He was still winning at the advanced age of five.

Distorted Humor was not on display the day we visited Winstar, but wandering up and down the aisles I was able to get this picture, not the best, but interesting.

Distorted Humor behind bars.

You can see that there are bars preventing Distorted Humor from reaching outside his stall and nailing a passerby.  The hand on the right had just tapped on the piece where Distorted Humor is chewing on the bars.  Obviously he is a biter and best left to his leisure.  They can't all be Pioneer of the Nile.

While I love horse racing, I know that many people do not share my enthusiasm.  Horse racing has been its own worst enemy and deserves much of the criticism it has received.  But the industry has begun to clean up its act, even to the point of its concern for retired race horses.  Of course, the minor leagues of racing, the claimers, race on and on, I recently read of a retired race horse that had raced every two weeks for nine years without a break.  Nine years!  This is the type of abuse that has caused many, myself included, to question the industry and its neglect, mistreatment and its discarding of animals like chewing gum wrappers.  Still, there are unscrupulous trainers who watch their horses run until they cannot run anymore.  Let's not even talk of the drugs masking chronic injury, milkshaking tired or sore horses to reduce the lactic acid in their system and then there are the catastrophic injuries to consider.  But as long as two people have two fast cars, or two fast horses, they will race them and when they do, we have their beauty and grace to take our breath away.  It is the nature of man to answer a challenge and the nature of the thoroughbred to run.

Please see One Fine Day (Part 2) which follows.

Copyright January 15, 2016

All Photos by the author, Copyright, January 16, 2016 except Runhappy and American Pharoah in the public domain or Bloodhorse.com.

One Fine Day (Part 2)

Decreasing fertility made AP Indy's last years as a sire a struggle, yet so revered is he that a life size statue of him occupies a place of honor within sight of the stallion barns at Lane's End farm in Versailles, Kentucky.

AP Indy's statue at Lane's End.  I believe that it will also be his headstone.

Indy is the oldest living winner of the Breeder's Cup Classic at 27 years of age.  Although he's now a pensioner living off the fat of the land, he is still an imposing figure.  He is a bit sway backed now but still, as his long time groom Asa Haley said with a smile,  "Indy has his days."

Indy's broodmare sire was Secretariat and his sire was Seattle Slew x Weekend Surprise, one of Lane's Ends three Blue Hens.  Blue Hens are broodmares that consistently produce winners at the races and in the breeding barns.

Indy and Haley seemed to rise up from the bluegrass acres that surround the stallion complex at Lane's End, where our tour group was warmly welcomed by Lexi, a twenty-five year employee of the farm, and Chance Timm, Director of Stallion Seasons and Shares.

Rising Up. AP Indy and Asa Haley.

As a yearling Indy brought the top price for his generation at auction-$2.9 million dollars.  At the age of two, Indy won the Hollywood Futurity and in 1992, at three, won the Belmont and the Breeder's Cup Classic.  He was scratched from the Derby and the Preakness due to foot problems that plague him to this day.  Also in that same year he was named Horse of the Year and retired to Lane's End to begin his second career, the career that he is perhaps most famous for as a sire.

Indy has sired more than 150 stakes winners and among his prestigious offspring are: Malibu Moon who stands at Spendthrift Farm and has himself sired a Kentucky Derby winner, Orb and G1 winner Declan's Moon among others. Bernandini and Honor Code winner of the Breeder's Cup Dirt Mile.  Honor Code was retired at the end of 2015 to Lane's End along with speedy Breeder's Cup champion Liam's Map.  And last but not least, AP Indy is the grandsire of Tapit.

Even as Indy's fertility decreased, owners of  well bred mares booked him until the bitter end, hoping to catch the lightening in his genes just one more time.  But after only 36 of 150 mares brought to him in 2011 became pregnant, AP Indy began his life of leisure.

Indy and Asa, with Chance Timm in the background.

Lane's End was begun with a two hundred acre purchase by businessman and later ambassador to England, William Farish.  So respected are Ambassador Farish and son, Bill, that HRH Queen Elizabeth stays at Lane's End when she visits the United States to look at horses.  The farm itself now exceeds two thousand acres divided into several complexes: training, yearling, stallion and broodmare among them.  The most famous of the broodmares, Zenyatta, was not on display the week of the Breeder's Cup at Keenland in October of 2015 when our tour took place.

The cemetery at Lane's End speaks of the respect and reverence the Farish family has for the horses in their care.  Quiet, simple elegance and respectful  are words that came to mind as I walked among the rows of headstones arranged in a semicircle with the fabled bluegrass paddocks in which they once capered as a backdrop.  Each of the horses had been cremated.

The grave of AP Indy's dam and Blue Hen, Weekend Surprise.

Candy Ride ( Arg)  1999 16 1/2 hands

Candy Ride, not just your average horse in a plain brown wrapper.  His racing career consisted of just six races, all wins and four of them Grade 1 or Arg 1 races.  His $60,000 fee has produced 43 stakes winners including Twirling Candy, who also stands at Lane's End and whose own progeny seem to appear in nearly every race and the ill fated Shared Belief. 

 Shared Belief died December 3, 2015 of colic after every attempt to save him failed.  A smallish thoroughbred he was a winner in 10 of his 12 career starts including the 2015 San Antonio Invitational Stakes G1, where he defeated California Chrome.  He had won two other Grade 1 events in 2015.  He was an Eclipse Award winner as a two year old in 2013.

Shared Belief 

Candy Ride, not just a plain brown horse.  Lexi stands to the right.

Last but not least, the flashy seven year old Union Rags, a beautiful bay with three white socks, a white blaze, and a powerful, sculpted physique which made him by far the most appealing of all of the horses seen.  

 Union Rags was successful on the track winning 5 of his 8 career starts with one second and one third place finish as well.

Alert and full of himself, Union Rags.

His toothy grin.

Photogenic.

Wealth can be gilt, garish and off-putting, cheapening the risk, sweat, effort and acumen of its creators, but that is not the case at Lane's End farm.  The look, the geometry, the attitude, the attention to detail and the success all pay tribute to the Farish families planning and the execution of their vision by their staff.  Lane's End is as much about the dignity of its animals as it is making their guests, whether investors, buyers or tour groups, feel welcome and appreciated.

Each horse, whether in its stall or not, was turned out as though it were a day to go racing.  Most of the horses had just been fed and groomed after a night spent in their paddocks and we all know how much horses love to roll in the nearest dirt or mud.

After being fed and groomed each of the horses spend hours resting in their stalls, lounging in knee deep, clean straw should they choose to lie down.  At 3 pm they are turned out for the night.  Surprisingly some of the horses are actually ridden to their paddocks.  

The next picture  was taken outside the stall of Langfuhr, sired by Danzig.  Langfuhr, now twenty four years old has the second lowest stud fee of the eleven horses standing at Lane's End at $7500.00, But his stable environment is exactly the same as the most expensive sire, Smart Strike.

Lane's End:  leather and wood, saddle soap and polish.

The biggest disappointment, aside from the cold blustery weather, not seeing Curlin, who no longer stands at Lane's End.

Copyright 1/11/16 by Loren Schumacher

All photos Copyright 1/11/16 by Loren Schumacher except Shared Belief from the public domain or Bloodhorse.com

If It Isn't Love, What Is It?

Are horses capable of love?  According to Greg Kallmeyer, owner of Kallmeyer Equestrian Center in Burlington, Kentucky, the answer is unequivocally no.  He scoffs at the idea when he says that we are, "...ascribing human characteristics to animals..."  He made his comment in a story published by the Cincinnati Enquirer on November 2, 2015.

When my wife Carol read the article she knew that Kallmeyer's comment would trigger an immediate and visceral response from me.

Only in recent years have we begun to study the emotional lives of the animals with whom we share the planet.  As we gain greater knowledge and insight, our attitudes towards, and no doubt our relationships with our animals will change dramatically.

Here is my take on the subject.

As animals of prey, horses are reactive as opposed to being cerebral, thinking creatures.  We are not discussing their sentience, but rather their capacity to feel.  However, because their need for food, shelter, security and reproduction closely mirror our own needs, we might ask, is it a stretch to believe that their emotions are very similar to ours, even though they may be demonstrated in different ways?

Has my horse Callie been deprived of the ability to care about me?

Horses evidence much of their physical and mental state through a variety of physical and occasionally verbal clues.  For example, a horse's pinned ears indicate anger, etc.  But in the context of the herd, horses pair off or join specific groups that satisfy their need for emotional support, while avoiding other herd members, perhaps even the herd's dominant male or female.  When separated from a horse with whom they've developed a deep and long lasting relationship, severe depression can ensue and some have been known to lose their will to live.  In what way does that response differ from the human response?  When our complex needs are fulfilled by another person, we too pair off, and we call it love.

In my many years of horse ownership, I have seen my mares show anger, frustration, confusion, jealousy, depression when scolded and what can only be described as affection, devotion, or, dare I say it, love.  There is no doubt in my mind that they are capable of a great range and depth of emotion.  Have you ever seen a mare react to the death of its foal?

We might well say that for as many differences as there are between animals and their human counterparts, there are many fundamental similarities.  Seemingly, love is one of them.

Something Different

It is not often that you are able to place a check mark next to an item on your bucket list.  But this past weekend my wife and I were invited to an event at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens Mast Farm breeding facility in Loveland, Ohio.

The Cincinnati Zoo is renowned for its breeding programs, particularly its breeding of the spectacular cheetah.  Saturday was a special day because we would see Nia ( pronounced Nee-uh), one of the zoo's outreach ambassadors, run, chasing a drag for more than 600 yards.  At the zoo the cheetahs perform five days a week and spend two days a week at the Mast Farm, presumably for some r&r and additional training.

Nia

Nia is a six-year old female.   Cheetahs are completely solitary, coming together only to mate it seems.  At the zoo they are not bothered by the addition of a cheetah from another zoo, far different in their reaction than that of the lion and its strong family ties to the pride.

 Because of their small size, females weighing less than 100 pounds and males up to 120 pounds, cheetahs will often have their prey taken from them by much larger animals such as lions or hyenas.

Unlike domestic cats cheetahs cannot retract their claws.  The lines running down their face serve as "sun glasses" in the white glare of the dry savannah in which they live.

One of the zoo's cheetahs owns the world record for speed by a cheetah.  Over short distances, speeds of 70 mph ( 43 kilometers) can be reached.  One of the videos I've included shows Nia chasing, catching and mouthing a drag.  Curiously, her keepers could easily take her "prey" from her without much of a reaction, she much preferred to lie down in the grass and purr. The purr is high pitched and to me sounds like the chirping of my own pet cats.

Someone in the small crowd asked what would happen if Nia were to see a deer, rabbit or squirrel.  Her handler said, "Nothing, she simply would not know what to do with it."  Even though most if not all of the zoo's cheetahs have been born in captivity and know nothing of the wild, I suspect they would quickly revert to their natural instincts if left to their own devices.

On the downside, cheetahs do not care much for strangers and Nia in particular does not like men. Perhaps there is some well deserved justice in that.

Nia surveys her audience.

With her handler and her prey.

There was never a moment when Nia's handler was not smiling at her.

What trust looks like.

The chase and capture.

OOP'S.  Watch how calm Nia remains.

After the cheetah run we visited McCauley's Saddlery to pick up some Cowboy Magic green spot remover.  Stormy has spent the last week or so rolling in her own poop, but with the weather cooling off, I need some outside assistance to keep her as clean as possible.

I think I may have mentioned in another post that a while back Callie became startled and when she raised her head with great force, my head got in the way.  No doubt I was out on my feet for a bit. Well, the saga continues, When I bent down to put on her Soft-Ride boots, she stepped forward and caught me on the eyebrow ridge over my right eye with her knee.   I have a nice shiner, but that's okay, because my black eye's color matches the color of the nail on the ring finger of my left hand. After feeding Callie some peppermints, I let her lick the sweetness from my hand while I reached over to pay some personal attention to Stormy.  How my ring finger wound up in her mouth I don't know, but I certainly knew it when she clamped down.  The pain was unbearable and all I could think was, "She's going to take the tip of  my finger off."  No matter how hard I tried to get away, I couldn't.  I began yelling in panic and pain, until a startled and frightened Callie spit me out!  And several months from now the black and blue nail will give way to a new pearly white one. 

 Will I never learn?

Oh well.

Copyright, October 20, 2015 by Loren Schumacher

Beach Crisis Has Been Rescued!!!

Great news.  The Standardbred, Beach Crisis, has been pulled from the kill pen in Pennsylvania and is awaiting transportation to his new home in Indiana.

Beach Crisis, battle tested and scarred.

The only picture we have of him.

Contributions are still needed and if you can contribute to Beach Crisis' continuing needs, please make them through this Paypal account: red22bug@aol.com for Munster Stable.  Remember there are still other horses in kill pens, no doubt hundreds of them and they are as disposable as Kleenex Tissue.  Please help as you can and to those who have made a contribution, Thank You.

Some days the sun is a little brighter and the air a little cleaner.  It's going to be a good day because Beach Crisis is going to live.

Loren*

*I am not soliciting on my behalf.  The above mentioned Paypal account belongs to Munster Stable.

This Horse Is In A Pennsylvania Kill Pen. Will You Help Save Him-Please?

A friend of mine who races Standardbred horses (trotters and or pacers) also rescues horses in need and has asked me to reach out to you for help.  

Beach Crisis is a twelve year old Standardbred that today stands in a Pennsylvania kill pen awaiting death.  He has raced over 300 times in his career and raced as recently as April of 2015 at Northfield Park here in Ohio.  He has won nearly $250K in his career.

How he wound up in this predicament is unclear, but what is clear is that he needs our/your help if he is to live out his life in peace and quiet as he should, as all of us hope to do as well.

Bobbie, who owns and operates Munster Stable, is willing to bring him back to Ohio, but it will take $675.00 to buy his freedom and another $300.00 in transportation costs,  

Will you please donate for his rescue?

Bobbie's Paypal account is used solely for rescues of this kind.

The account is:

red22bug@aol.com

It should be under Munster Stable.

Here is the printed information on Beach Crisis that Bobbie passed along.

Please help Beach Crisis.  He hasn't much time.

Thank you so much.

Loren