Just Horse Talk

Kentucky Derby 2018

Posted on May 11, 2018 by CopperCoat

Hey! Did y’all watch the Kentucky Derby last Saturday? Great race from Justify who, in my very humble opinion, ran a better race than American Pharoah did back in 2015. Does this mean he’ll win the Triple Crown? Impossible to say. Nyquist also ran a good Derby in 2016, but looked tired at the end of the Preakness and lost to Exaggerator. Last year’s winner, Always Dreaming, ran a Derby race similar to Justify, but faded badly in the Preakness running out of steam half way through the last turn. For many Kentucky Derby winners, the Preakness, run only a short two weeks after the Derby, has proven to be their nemesis. There is, however, one Derby winner who lost the Preakness through no fault of their own and that is Winning Colors, only the third filly in Kentucky Derby history to win the “Run for the Roses” (Regret won in 1915 and Genuine Risk in 1980), and that was because the boys ganged up on her. Guess they were angry at losing the Kentucky Derby to a filly (she went wire to wire in that race, by the way.) In spite of being bumped around in the Preakness, she still managed to finish a respectable third.

Only 34 Kentucky Derby winners have gone on to win the Preakness, and only 12 have gone on to win the Triple Crown. Will Justify be number 13? Only time will tell. See you May 19^th at the Preakness!

Floating Teeth

Posted on May 2, 2018 by CopperCoat

Remember the other day when I told you that my mistress said my teeth needed to be “floated”? Well, I asked Ziggy. She looked at me like I was some country bumpkin and she said: “Floating your teeth means that the dentist will file down the sharp points off your molars so they no longer pinch the insides of your cheeks. The tooth surface then becomes smooth so you can properly chew and swallow your feed instead of spilling it all over the ground. The type of file used for this is called a “float,” which is where this procedure gets its name.” Then she added: “You will not like it because he will put this metal contraption in your mouth to keep it open while he works on your teeth. But you will feel so much better after he’s done.” I looked at her, vaguely remembering going through that a couple of years ago. I remember getting a shot; then getting really, really sleepy; then something being shoved into my mouth. Don’t remember much after that. Anyway, looks like I’m going to go through that again. Just hope I sleep through it like last time.

Back again!

Posted on April 23, 2018 by CopperCoat

Hello, it’s me again! Or, to be grammatically correct, it is I. I guess y’all thought I had forgotten about you and my blog. Nope. Just took what you humans call Long Term Disability. Was under the weather for a while with pneumonia which took me some time to get over (thank goodness I live in South East Texas and not up north where there’s snow and sleet and ice in the winter with temperatures below 32 degrees! Brrrr!); then got an abscess in my right front hoof which also took a while to heal. So I haven’t been much in the mood to write.

Evenings are still a little cool, but Spring is in the air: saw a couple of red birds, the pecan trees are putting on new leaves, grass is growing but so are the weeds. My mistress had our little pasture mowed and, I’ve heard, she is also having it sprayed for weeds and plans to sow some good pasture grass. Personally, I’m hoping for Bermuda which grows well here and is deeee-licious.

We have three new arrivals: two little heifers and one nanny goat. The heifers have been bawling for the past couple of days, looking for their mommas; but they’ll soon give up and get down to the business of grazing. I did notice that they sure know how to chow down the feed. Good thing, too. They will need to eat well if they’re to grow up to be nice momma cows themselves one day.

Talking about feed, my mistress has replaced my feed bucket with a feed bag. Says that’ll keep me from spilling my feed all over the ground. She also mentioned something about my teeth needing to be “floated”. Now, what does she mean by that? I can’t imagine my teeth floating around like a boat inside my mouth. Hmmm. Guess I’ll have to ask Ziggy about that one. You know she’s Miss Know-It-All. Not that I mind. Anytime I need to find out about something, she always seems to have an answer. Although I wonder sometimes if she isn’t just making one up.