Foal Eleven; Better Photos of Foals 9 & 10; $1.2 million TB colt in Florida

The Coles (Darcy and Steve) spotted Chincoteague pony foal eleven on Thursday afternoon, 25 April.  The baby is a chestnut pinto out of the mare Dreamer's Gift, and was sired by either Ajax or Puzzle.  Sex is not yet known, and the mare is staying away from hiking and boating areas.  We'll have better photos soon....  Of the ten foals whose sexes are known, there are three fillies and seven colts.  Goldie's palomino, Grandma's Dream's bay pinto, and Danny's Girl Splash's bay pinto are all  baby girls.
   In other pony news, only Smooch and Bailey's Star - and Riptide - are at the Carnival Grounds on Chincoteague.  Smooch is there for some TLC - she needs to put on weight - and Star is there for her company.  Surfer's Riptide is currently in "Pony Jail" on Chincoteague because he keeps going through fences on Assateague, and taking his ladies with him.  This delights visitors, but causes traffic problems, as well as the possibilities of lawsuits should the ponies hurt anyone.  Of course, visitors are supposed to stay at least 50 feet away from the ponies, but most people believe they have special privileges and don't have to obey the regulations and laws of the Wildlife Refuge.  So Riptide is incarcerated, away from his ladies. He is a very smart pony; but he's wandered for so long that it's hard to know if he will connect the dots in his mind.

   The newest foal (# 11) - by Ajax or Puzzle, out of Dreamer's Gift

Foal 9 - colt by Wild Thing, out of Summer's Gentle Sea Breeze

Foal 10 - filly, by DLSII or Beach Boy, out of Golden Girl

And, down in Ocala, Florida, at the OBS 2-Year-Olds In Training Sale, Robert and Lawana Low purchased the colt pictured below for $1.2 million from Ron and Suzanne Fein.  The colt is sired by Liam's Map, and is out of the Bernardini mare Amazement....

Fire, Gunfire, & Horses

I was awakened by the beeping of a neighbor's smoke detector at 4:30 this morning; that was followed by the arrival of our local fire truck, with men in fire suits and axes running up and down the hall.  They couldn't tell me where the smoke was coming from - either unit 110, or unit 111 - just down the hall from me.  The alarm woke up Rodney, the man who raises birds next to me, and he called 911.  The fire department was certainly prompt; there were three units here within 5 minutes.  I heard Rodney turn on his exhaust fans and his Hepa filter unit next door, before the fire trucks arrived.  I turned on my two exhaust fans and cracked the rear window.  I heard the windows and patio doors of several neighbors open for fresh air.  Once I heard the men talking in the hall, I poked my head out, and asked where it was.  The fireman I asked said it was one of the two apartments, and that they thought the sprinkler system had put the fire out, as the smoke was subsiding and the smoke alarm had stopped sounding.  I laughed - which got a strange look - and told them that we don't have a sprinkler system or fire extinguishers; all we have are the smoke detectors...  They finally left about 5:30, and it was almost time to get up, so I just stayed up.  I'll need a nap to be sensible for the jury meeting tonight.
  Boulder made the headlines yesterday when one of our deputies shot a man who was holding another man hostage.  The hostage had a gun being held at the back of his head, and the deputy shot and killed the gun-holder at the beginning of the Doudy Draw trail head in Eldorado Springs Canyon. The car the men were sitting in had been reported as car-jacked, and the cell phone of the man being held at gun point was traced there.  I'm glad I didn't have to make that decision.
   The Ocala Breeders Sale, which I used to attend each year, had a record-breaking day yesterday, when a grey filly by Tapit was sold for $1.9 million.  She was a pin-hook; a promising younger horse purchased because the buyer could see potential.  The filly was purchased as a yearling for $335,000.  That meant a profit of over $1.5 million, subtracting the cost of feeding and handling.  Wow.
   The Kentucky Derby will probably be considered a wide-open race for all twenty entries, until someone crosses the finish line ahead of the others on May 2nd.  Besides the American top contenders there is a very interesting colt named Mubtaahij, a son of Dubawi.  The colt himself is Irish-bred, he is owned by an Arab sheikh, he is trained by a South African, and his jockey is from Belgium.  He is a handsome bay colt with three white socks.  He won the last two legs of the United Arab Emirates Triple Crown races in Dubai.  The American colts have never raced a full mile and a quarter; this colt has already won twice at that distance.  As a two-year-old, Mubtaahij defeated horses that were aged two, three and four years - he's already defeated his elders.  But, this is his first time racing in the United States and his regular feed is not approved for use in the US by the Food and Drug Administration.  How will he perform without his normal food and in another country?  Will he prove himself to be a super star?  And, one other thing to consider: Mubtaahij will run without the use of Lasix, which every other entry will be using....   Hmmmmm.  Interesting.  Very interesting.

OBS, Vikings, Weather

I have a neat little application on my computer that I turn on, and check, 3 to 5 times a day - it's from the National Weather Service, and it allows me to see the current conditions, as well as the forecast, for multiple cities at the same time.  I turned it on at 7 this morning, and saw that it was 28 degrees here in Boulder, 30 on Chincoteague Island in Virginia, 60 at Vero Beach in Florida, and 42 degrees and foggy in Gainesville, Florida.  I also have it programmed for Wichita, Kansas and for London, England.  I'm not sure why I feel the need to see the weather in all these places, other than I know what kind of weather my friends are having.  I think it has something to do with being quiet and not talking during the weather segments on the television news when I was growing up...  and, of course, one set of grandparents were farmers and the other set were watermen and fishing folk.  I understand very well that when Dad was the assistant superintendent of county roads, that he needed to know the forecast for the work crews - but we always had to be silent during the weather forecast, even when Dad worked inside at the University of Florida...  Oh, well...  This nice application pleases me frequently each day.
   The Ocala Breeders Sale of Two-Year-Olds in Training was a gang-buster this week.  Three colts sold for over $1 million each, ensuring that this was the best OBS event yet.  A colt by Malibu Moon sold for $1.3 million, and both a Tapit colt and a Giant's Causeway colt saw the hammer come down at $1.6 million.  I always went down to the OBS campus to see both the Mixed Sale and the Two-Year-Olds Sales, and I remember those visits fondly.  Our farm veterinarian, Bobby Anderson, was an extremely respected vet at the OBS, and he introduced me to two men I will never forget - Eugene Klein, owner of Winning Colors, and George Steinbrenner.  Bobby invited me to lunch with each of those gentlemen in different years - and it still seems very surreal to remember eating hotdogs beside the walking rings with them, discussing the points of certain horses.  Good, old memories.
  Tonight is another new episode of Vikings on the History Channel, and I'm looking forward to seeing if there is an actual meeting between Ragnar and King Ecbert of Wessex.  I also had a heart-stopping moment last night, when I was doing research on the PC and heard a voice coming from the television - I had NBC on, and Law And Order: SVU was on... or so I thought.  Because I suddenly realized I was hearing the voice of King Horik from Vikings, but he was speaking with a lilting Irish accent - I had to look up, and saw Donal Logue.  That comforted me.  At least I knew the voice and who it belongs to.  He was playing an undercover police officer, and did it very well.  He's raiding in England tonight, with Ragnar Lodbrok, so I will be thrilled to see him tonight.