This Will Be Fun

I finally got to spend some time in a barn yesterday. It was only an hour, but it was a good hour. My wife and I jumped in the car and navigated "Road Construction Season" in central Minnesota and made our way down to Russ Rhone's training farm in Chaska, MN - about a 45 minute drive. It was a beautiful spring day today and with the smell of the first grass cut of the season in my nostrils we got out of the car and made our way to the barn.

Russ was there along with our trainer, Chris Riddle, and we hung out and talked, sized up One for Zetta and, as you can see above, she sized us up as well. She started training in earnest again yesterday when she galloped a mile and then another loping mile and a half today. As Paul Simon would say, she's a little "soft in the middle" right now, but her initial gallops showed in her an interest in her work and a positive mental attitude to the task at hand. It will take her a while to get into race shape, but she is game and Russ and Chris are two of the best.

While talking shop a bit, Zetta took a real shine to my wife. When Theri would stop showing her attention for a few minutes, Zetta would strain her head out of the stall trying to get her attention. Theri finally gave up and just let Zetta nuzzle. Horses apparently love my wife. Each one of them she has been around has fallen hard for her. I can certainly understand it, but it still is a pretty interesting phenomenon. This is one of the main reasons my wife hates the claiming game. I think she should just tell them to be allowance level horses and then she won;t have any worries!

As we continue to move forward with Tabby Lane, Zetta will keep on pushing forward as well and we should have two interesting stories to tell: one of an inexpensive claim that could amount to much, much more and one of getting a promising horse to the track to prove herself. There should be really interesting stories on both sides and I look forward to telling them.