Get Well Soon, Thoroughbred Rachel Alexandra, KY Oaks Winner!
The winner of the 2009 Kentucky Oaks race, which takes place the Friday before Derby, is in serious condition following surgery after foaling a filly. The poor horse suffered bruising of her smaller colon, and has undergone surgery to correct the problem.
Her owner, Barbara Banke said that they are just focused on making her as comfortable as possible after surgery. The doctors at Rood and Ruddle Equine Clinic, a well known veterinary clinic near University of Kentucky, can not determine her overall prognosis at this time.
The beautiful little filly, sired by Bernardini, was born Tuesday, weighing 140 pounds. She is healthy and has returned to Stonestreet Farm, where she will be tended by a nurse mare until her mother is well enough to return.
Rachel was named the Horse of the Year in 2009 after winning all but one of her races.
Yes, I know there is more important news, but we love our horses, here...
Thanks for coming by! Please send your good thoughts to this beautiful animal!
bitey will know what I mean when I say she never wore the number "2" on her colors...
Horse illnesses and problems always seem to be such a tragedy! They are so beautiful! Such good creatures, even when they try to buck you off!
We love our horses here, and this was a HUGE article in the Courier Journal here in Louisville. Remember, Y'all, Derby is coming!
Please keep Rachel Alexandra in your thoughts!
*Man, I didn't know how to categorize this! Should it be in sports? Pets and Animals? Streams and Fields? I did my best... I never thought I'd be writing an article about sports...
Though such powerful creatures, they seem to be quite fragile, as well...
I love horses too. It might be that you are in Kentucky and I live byBelmont! Horse country!
How very sad for this poor girl. I hope that things go well for her and she gets to see her little baby.
Isn't this amazing??? We're both with the horses! I hope that you get to buy one or two, for your family... They are so beautiful! Such magnificent, intuitive animals.
Every time I go to see the races, that first time around, when they thunder past, it is like a slow motion film, to me. I am so enraptured, it is like time has slowed, and I note every detail. Gosh, I love to watch them! I love to love on them, too, if they'll let me.
I, too, hope she gets to see her baby-- I hope that she lives through this... It's so sad! She is a truly beautiful animal. Everyone here is absolutely ILL over it. I hope they keep us posted, in the paper.
Thanks, Perrie, for coming by!
I'm so very glad to came to see me, Phoebe! Thanks!
Rachel is in my prayers-- a new mother without her baby! That's hard!! I think maybe seeing her baby may make her feel better, if she is at all able to do so...
I know they are doing the very best that they can for her...
May you soon be well and run with your foal.
That is so sweet, dear friend!
No word today in the news... I'm saying prayers for her.
I hope that poor thing comes through okay! Horses seem so powerful and fierce, but they are, in fact, very fragile critters. Maybe not the wild mustangs, but Thoroughbreds have been so inbred for so long that it really is a problem, and I have seen it discussed over the years about how it may be time to allow some out-crossing in order to strengthen the breed. All thoroughbreds are descended from 3 Arabian studs (let's see if I can recall them...): Darley Arabian, Godolphin Arabian, and Byerly Turk. I don't know the names of the original dams, but I do know that if there isn't at least one of those three studs in the pedigree, you cannot register a Thoroughbred.
Anyway, I really hope this fine mare will pull through!
Oh bitey, I hope so, too!
Golly, I didn't know that!
Man O' War was part Morgan, wasn't he? Was he, too, a descendant of those three horses? I find all this so interesting!
One thing we didn't get to do while you were here, was go to the Kentucky Horse Park. Oh, bitey, all the best horses are buried there... and they have a Museum of the Horse that is spectacular. Truly spectacular! They have retired race horses that live there, in peace. It's a great place...
It is quite possible that Man O' War was part Morgan... as long as the pedigree goes back to one of the three original studs, it can contain other bloodlines. For example, a Morgan mare might very well infuse fresh blood into a line.
The real problem with maintaining a "pure" line is that the more successful race horses retire to the breeding farms, and whether they are stallions or mares the success of their racing careers puts them in greater demand, thus creating a more inbred strain. That is why I find it logical that Man O' War may have had Morgan blood: he was super-successful, probably because of hybrid vigor.
Horse breeders have a tough job, especially when it comes to deciding who to breed with whom. You have to maintain the purity of the sire lineage while not contributing to the fragility of the ultra-purebred horse. Usually, it is the mare that has the hybrid vigor, because Thoroughbred pedigrees are traced through the stallion's line and not the mare's, although even the mare must also be traced back to the original Arabians.
Inbreeding is a serious problem in all kinds of livestock and pets... it serves a purpose in that it "fixes" a much wanted trait, but it also "fixes" and exacerbates the UN-wanted traits as well. It's very tricky to get the good and not also get the bad.
Glad I don't have to even think about it. I remember Mendel and his peas...
Or even worse, Bio 120 and those darn fruit flies... I killed 4 batches of 'em, and the 5th batch, they told me if I killed anymore when I put them to sleep to count them, I would fail the class. That last batch, I was so careful with my fruit flies, I was the one that got the chloroform! Nothing quite like attending a invertebrate paleo class when you have to count legs on a 400 myo fossil imprinted in mud... and can't see the parts.
Love you, dear bitey! Thanks for explaining things! They are all so very beautiful!
Oh, Dowsey... I am so glad I never had to work with fruit flies! I learned basic genetics when I bred rats for pets and shows... they make the learning fun, and actually easy. They breed so quickly that you can very easily learn in a few months exactly what you got and why you got it! I had many successful show rats and mice, and their progeny are all over the country (I haven't bred them in over 20 years, but I'm quite certain many today can trace their lineage back to some of mine).
Count 400 legs? On a fossil? Heck, at least it can't kick you with one or more of those legs! {{{{{Dowsey}}}}}
Golly, they only had 6 or 8 legs, but they were 400 million years old, and twisted...
I remember more about genetics from 8th grade. Magnum kept saying that Peep would have brown eyes, and I kept saying, HOW could he? you have blue eyes and I have gray eyes!
Peep has blue eyes...
I love you, dearest bitey-- I bet there are rats all over the country that can thank you for their good health and good looks!
For the ratties' sakes, I hope you are right!
Of course, you got it right about the eye-color... Peep has really nice eyes, too!
Bless their sweet hearts! I love little ratties!
Thanks, sweet bitey, I'll be sure and tell him you said so! (He just blushed...)
I just had a nice talk with our dear Ben. Golly, it is so good to see him! He's doing just fine-- they are picking out Susan's stone on Monday, and having a special ceremony on May 5th. I'm going to send a little gemstone to put on her grave. She loved gemstones so much!
Dear Ben. He is such a sweetheart!
This is her second foaling... (is that what you call it?) She has two offspring, a little colt by Curlin and this little filly, by (what did I say up there-- I can't keep it straight!)
I'm so glad to see you!
If you get inside info, please let us know-- I'm reduced to scanning the papers...
How wonderful, Merleliz! He was some horse.
There are several memorials to him, out and about in the state, but his grave is right there, in the Yard of Champions...
Thanks so much for your post! It helps to know what I thought-- that the emergency hospital is a good one!
I don't know about you, but having Peep just about bruised ALL of my innards. I just hope that she is going to be ok, and not get it all kinked up. Bless her heart!
Good news!!! She's in my prayers... They're so beautiful!
No problem to me, at all!!! I'm still in a learning curve, myself!
I remember that, after Ruffian broke down during the match race with Foolish Pleasure, there was a LOT of talk about how fragile the breed had become as a result of too much line-breeding/inbreeding. But, the talk died down and I don't recall anything being done to address the problem.
Phoebe, me too!
We see so many of them here, out in the fields. They are very delicate-looking, leg wise. I wish that they could do something to put a bit more strength in their legs, too!
Poor Barbaro, and Eight Belles...
Barbaro's head is buried at Churchhill Downs. And they have statues commemorating both horses.
There can be a lot of shadiness in the industry-- and lack of concern for the animals... But, for the most part, I think people love the horses... I hope, anyway!
THANK YOU for the update!
Poor thing! I hope she recovers!!
Even if she can't nurse her baby, would she recognize it, after a long rehab? I don't know enough about horses to know this...
Maybe she is one of those horses that shouldn't be bred... If it is as the risk of her life, then, perhaps it would be best to just let her be...
I'm thinking that is what they'll do, since the owner is so upset by all this.
Any mother would be upset by this! It doesn't matter if it is a horse or a person-- we all know how hard it is to 'birth a baby'!
I know exactly how you feel! I get up, go to the bathroom, get something to eat, sit back down and Peep has grown 4"...
Any news today, Monday Feb 18th?
Great news! Still praying!
Thanks for the update!!! I can't find anything in the papers here!
Wonderful, I sure hope she continues to heal and do well!
I love horses, it's still my kingdom to own one! One day when I win that illusive lotto! I took and edited this photo yesterday.
Wow, that's beautiful AND cute! Is that on a horse?
Take care and thanks, so very much, for contributing that wonderful picture!
I'm so glad, I just hope it continues!!! Thanks for the update, Shelby-- nothing in the newspapers here...
Thanks, Wendy-- last I heard, she was doing well, but there were still some hurdles to overcome... I hope she is ok, too!
Derby is coming! And Louisville is gearing up for it all-- what fun!