GONE RIDIN'

Since little bro got sprung from babysitting, Saturday, we three C's will be out and about lookin' for sights unseen in Tennessee. I'll take pics of Nate droppin' his bike this time.

Wide Band Response: Farmer Tom

1)I don't know about the XL125.

2) I mowed 6 days ago and will be spraying Monday.

Sorry took so long to respond.

Mainstream Fiction Authors Shouldn't Preach

I red alot. Sometimes. I go on binges of 3 to 5 novels and then won't read anything but blogs and Drudge for weeks. One of the effects of having read so much is that I am continually looking for new authors for fresh material.
There is no fresh material in my favorite genre: military fiction. I began reading military fiction when I realized SF had gone to the tree huggers (Micheal Crichton excepted) and so escaped to the alternative of battlescape prose.
Alas, these have become formulaic with the authors not-so-subtley preaching one social issue de jure after another and the protaganist being a white male of redneck perspective.
I guess it figures considering the crap our military academies fill young leadership with these days. The officer corps is where most of the military fiction (thriller) authors started and some never shook off the brainwashing. The services must be gettin' relly good at it.
The last book I read was called TYPHOON by Robin White. Preachy as hell. Women in the service. Women in SUBMARINES. What an idiot. Red October rip off.

Rumors and Legends

There is a rumor going round these parts that a certain champion stud aptly named....W'ell just call him GZ, made an honest attempt with good progress to kill a certain highly acclaimed "natural" horseman called in to work on his aggressive tendencies. The 'natural' horsemanship movement has done a lot to increase the general horse owning population's grasp of equine psychology and how we can relate to our equine partners, but it only goes so far. A racehorse is a different animal from a quarterhorse. Thoroughbreds can be extremely aggressive. We are taught that horses are basically cowards and tussle to determine a herd order. They don't care who is in charge; they just need to know who it is. Well, some DO care; they mean to be in charge no matter what's before them.

Horse people are wont to exaggerate about horses almost as much as fishermen are about fish, so take that with a grain of salt, but I've been hearing tales of this critter for some time now. Things like using tranquilizer dart guns to get close enough to him to work safely......

Personally, I heard a man that has handled thousands of horses tell another (both men at the top of their profession) visiting the stall where the beast resided not to go in there.
"He'll kill ya'."
The second fella thought he was exaggerating so the other restrained him until he understood the situation was serious. Deadly serious

Barbaro Down. Sucks.

It seems the Triple Crown has become an insurmountable obstacle lately. Whether or not luck, some dumbass not seeing to the proper operation of the gates, or a pure wild eyed wanna-kick-somebody's-ass stud bangin' hell out of everything in sight brought on the injury to the bones making up Barbaro's pastern joint (near as I can tell from the bullshit the vet had to say) I don't know, but I am getting tired of seeing these babies (they aren't much more than that) hurt at every turn. If they don't kill this horse I'll be shocked.

How about we race five year olds. Horses would be stronger. More sound. They could actually have a career. Racing would be well served with some continuity from year to year, training could take place over a longer span of time, the physically unfit could be weeded out, and times would come down. Why can no one run with Secretariat? After 35 years of advancement in equine nutrition, training, genetics, and care and while human performance records are broken daily, it seems.

I'm not sayin' horses should not be trained in their early developement - there is research to suggest that early training done properly actually initiates strengthening of equine bone structure and connective tissue. Perhaps, though some thought should be given to letting the developement of stonger bones continue before we let them stampede over a race course with their buddies.


Update:

Richardson outlined Barbaro's medical problems: a broken cannon bone above the ankle, a broken sesamoid bone behind the ankle and a broken long pastern bone below the ankle. The fetlock joint — the ankle — was dislocated.

Folks, that is bad. The sesamoid bones are two bones wrapped in connective tissue at the back of the fetlock joint and together they provide a fulcrum for the propulsive forces transmitted to the foot by the Deep Flexor Tendon. Think of it as a bridge on a stringed instrument. It takes a lot of tension to break that thing, and it will complicate the chances for recovery. No one has said if the bones were simply fractured or actually displaced.
Remember horse racing is a business and they may decide his insurance is a better bet than his breeding prospects. Let's hope the owners take off the accountants hat and put on their horseman's cap.