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Originally Posted by rastajenk
Well, wouldn't you have to know some horsemanship skills in order to judge others? How many times have you wrapped an ankle, jogged several in the morning, adjusted feed schedules, or anything else that might be considered "horsemanship?" It's not the same as, say, recognizing a talented football player without having played that game. There's so much more in running a stable that you'll never know or care about. All you know about is deep-pocketed owners.  |
You don't need to know how to wrap an ankle, but if you watch video tapes carefully, watch the spots trainers enter, how their horses look in the post parade in the coat and flesh, seeing what equipment they wear, seeing how straight they stay, seeing if they switch leads on cue, see if they have been taught to be game ,seeing how they react to kickback and so on and so forth. You don't have to be a "trainer" to know how to evaluate the "finished product".
As far as "running a stable" goes, a lot of that is hiring the help, paying the help, keeping things organized, keeping the barn clean, entering the horses, picking their next races, talking to jocks, calming down owners who are worried about their money, etc. There's a LOT that goes into it that's NOT "horsemanship" so trainers get a TON of credit for just keeping things in check. Nobody works harder than Wayne, he's the first guy to the track in the mornings and he's probably missed less days at the track than we can count on our 2 hands, he's a 365 guy.
