What Now? Life Goes on.....

Well, I took advantage of a perfect May evening to throw a saddle on our retired OTTB and hack around the pasture. The funniest thing was when I first went out to catch our horses for a good grooming I really wasn't going to ride but here is what happened. Sometimes they walk right up to us and we can toss a halter on them and lead them to the barn and sometimes it takes a little sweet feed. But today they were feeling frisky and decided to toy with me. Now our pasture is just 3 acres fenced but still plenty of room for two horses to elude capture by a 40 something fella with a bucket of sweet feed and a pitiful attempt to hide the halter and lead rope. I thought I almost heard them laughing as they galloped from one end of the field to the other. Ah, but what they didn't count on is they were being chased by a stubborn, hard-headed irishman bent on getting them to the grooming stall. Well, 30 minutes later I was finally able to catch Finn and Quinn followed. After grooming Finn and turning him out I decided Quinn needed some excercise carrying this overweight jockey so off we went. As I scan the horse racing news of the day and still keep one eye on Barbaro and my fingers firmly crossed, I am starting to think about horse racing again but I find myself missing that superstar. It's weird, the american sports fan. We like to see our stars rise and fall and comeback, maybe because that mimics the ebb and flow of our own lives, who knows? But I know I long for a champion Thoroughbred that I can tell my future Grandkids about. Smarty and Alex and poor Barbaro, all great stories but their careers too short and the elusive Triple Crown potential unfulfilled. Maybe I should be combing the nearby horse farms for the yearling with perfect conformation and "that far off look" of a champion and scrawl down their name in hopes that maybe they might be the one that breaks the Triple Crown drought.