Queens Plate, what a day !!!

Way back in early May of 2008 a small filly was born here on the farm out of Noble Strike by Hennessy , she was quickly christened with the barn name " Brandy " a reflection of her fathers name and for the next year and a half we shared her company. 

Sometimes the youngsters stay with us and we race them and other times we sell them , she fell in the later category and went to the CTHS September Sale in her yearling year and was sold. The next time we saw her was in 2010 when she ran her very first race here at Woodbine , winning the Franferluche Stake impressively. She then let us know that her win was not a flash in a pan when she won her next outing in the Ontario Lassie Stake . After wintering in Luisiana were she placed 2nd and 4th in Stake races she came back up here winning the La Lorgnette and then most impressively the Woodbine Oaks.  

This past Sunday was her toughest challenge as she faced off against 16 boys in the very prestigious Queens Plate and in amazing style with a breathtaking stretch run beat them all. 

We all went down for the race braving the crowds , a pleasant distraction in a troubling time , we stood and watched her be saddled , placed our bets , found our vantage spots and waited with trepidation for the gates to open. The bell sounds , they're off , and past us they went for the first time , she in her usual preferred spot towards the rear of the bunch , around they went jockeying for positions on the backstretch and patiently she waited , the favourite made his move , she unhurriedly followed and then on the turn for home she let loose and gobbled them all up winning buy an impressive two and a half lengths !!!! , what a felling , we were all hoarse form cheering her on, tears in our eyes, joy in our hearts , what a girl our little Brandy or as she is now known: 

" Inglorious " 

 The Post Parade

 Riders up

 And they're off !!!

 The joy of the win

On the way to the winners circle

Picture time !!

 Post race hose down

 On the way back to the barn

The governor Generals entourage 

An afternoon on the farm

Here is just a mix of pictures I took today , initially I was sitting outside the house taking pictures of the many birds that frequent our bird feeders. During a lull in bid activity  I decided to slip on the new running shoes I had bought earlier to see how they fit , well the dogs misunderstood this as I sign that we were going for a walk, so off we went and this is what we saw as we walked around the Farm. 

The Last Foal

This past Thursday after a long wait our last foal of the season was born “Brewski“.  It was a very hard foaling and extremely long night with a foal that couldn't nurse, but after much perseverance daylight brought relief to this situation and all is well now. 

As the unexpected new circumstances in our lives present themselves it may actually be the last time I mid-wife a foaling, I’m not sure if I feel good or bad about this. I’ve spent many, many nights huddled with mares patiently awaiting new life to emerge, sitting and waiting, waiting and waiting for that magical process that is both nerve wracking and joyful at the same time to occur, some of those nights were good, some were bad, very, very bad, strange how tragedy stays in ones mind, but on the whole the good vastly outweighs the bad.

It all started why back in the early 80s I think, not by any particular love-affair with horses or birthing, no, I was working on a feed-lot in Sutton at the time, fattening heifers for market, 160 of them at a time would arrive and spend some months with me getting to there optimum weight, then one day the cattle trucks would appear and they were all gone, only emptiness was left. I grew tired of that, as soon as I got friendly with any of them they would be gone, there was no joy in it compared to my childhood on dairy farms were you got to know the animals very well, even giving them pet names !!, bonds were formed, life was shared. The feed-lot eventually got to me, so one day I just quit and decided to take the first agricultural job I could find, it just happened to be with horses, it has became a career that in general has been very good to me over the years.

After working with them for a while I did fall in love with them !, of all the different facets of work on a horse farm it always amazed me showing up in the morning to find a brand new foal in the barn. I inquired about the night job, but I didn't have experience, lived far away at the time so the answer was always no, until one day the Farm Manager who was a friend of mine talked me into going to Ireland to foal mares on a big Stud Farm. With limited practical knowledge but lots of theoretical knowledge off I went to the green isle and spent a wonderful five years during which with my partner we would foal 80+ mares a season. Upon returning to Canada I continued participating in the foaling on most of the farms I worked on and have been doing it here for the last 21 years, a rough calculation would be that I have been present to something between 500 to 700 births, watched that first breath of air taken, the first wobbly steps attempted, that quick transformation from a helpless newborn to a little horse able to gallop alongside it’s mother within just a few short hours of being born, ah, I loved it then !!!, but over the last few years the late nights and cold weather have gotten to me and I don't enjoy it as much. So if the plans go ahead for all the horses to be sold there will be no more foaling, no more wondrous feeling of new life arriving, and I think I am ready for that, it’s sad but live goes on and we move on with it , the future will bring new challenges and I will tackle them as they come.

 Just a few minutes old here

Brewski, at 9 hours of age