Can you say COLD?

This isn't even enjoyably cool. Or enjoyably cold. It is frickin freezin out there and while the horses are loving it, I'm sure my toes are going to fall off from frostbite!

So Mr. Doodle was feeling particularly good today. Any rider other than Cowboy would have been dumped gua-ran-teeeed!

Did I mention snow flurries this afternoon? No? Did I forget? Jeeesh.

Oh, and Lady is in for Wednesday at Churchill, on the turf, no less. They didn't write the race I asked for at 1 mile. They wrote it for 1 mile and 16th. I figure the 16th won't kill her. Got a different jock- a really good one with maidens- Aldo Canchano. Turns out our bug boy quit. He apparently felt a bit intimidated at CD and decided he's heading up to Turfway Park and getting an agent up there. I'm a bit disappointed but the same agent represents Aldo and actually asked to make the entry for me- this is the first time an agent wanted to do this for one of my horses, which basically means he wanted to make sure his guy is named on my horse. He told me Aldo would love to ride her. Yea baby! They liked what they saw and what our bug told them about her.
More about the race later.

I have a series of photos and video of Doodle going to the track. I sorted them sequentially (sort of) so even if the videos won't come through, these will.

While he was out there trying to get rid off Cowboy, Anne and I were hooting and hollering for him.

On the way to the track, he was ok until.....

Once he got him behaving better, Doodle did a wonderful job jogging and galloping.










Now tell me that horse isn't reaching! It is amazing what will happen when you fix a horse's feet!
This boy has suspension when he had none in the last 3 years. Just watching him makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. I actually stood out there, looked up at the sky and said "Thank You!" out loud.

After the warm up jog, we galloped, first nice and easy, then a bit faster, then easy again.
Ummm... that was the plan.

All went well, at first: First Round, nice and (sort of) easy:









Second round, a little bit faster. Right? Would have been great if Doodle had agreed. He didn't want just a little bit. He wanted a LOT bit faster:








"I'm going, I'm going, I'm going, I'm... HEY!!! I want to gogogogogo, stop that pulling!"



"Ok, here we go, I'm going, I'm going, I'm going, I'm going... don't you start that pulling thing again, you human!"



"I knew it! I knew you'd do it again! And you call me a common asshole, well, that's the pot calling the kettle black! STOOOOPPPPPP ITTTTTTT!!!!!"


"What is with this guy!!???? Let go of my mouth, you glorified poop picker!!!!!"


"Maybe I can duck out this way... ooop, nope, shit, he's taking all the fun out of this!"



And then the slow, boring round.....

And off the track we go!

This is where we turn around and look at the track, where did our "handiwork".

Turning back to the barn...



I know I'm handsome. You've never seen a better looking horse.


"Yea, umm, I don't know what you mean by "Cold". Get a grip. It's hot right now. I'm sweating a bit. Take that big ole coat off and get to work! Pick my stall! Wait, better yet, hotwalk me, yea, hotwalk me. That'll warm you right up."

Doodle is a happy boy these days. Not that he isn't happy other days... he's just a whole lot more spunky and misbehaved. I think Doodle is going to be running a race or two at Turfway Park.

Without those shoes!