Nicole Schnell

Hello, hello...sorry for the delay in the post.  I've added new pictures on webshots for you guys to check out.  Only a little over 6 weeks left of the internship, and I'm getting a little sad it's all coming to close to being over.  Just to catch you up with what I've been up to the past few weeks...

Keeneland has been going on, and I've been able to get up there to watch the races a couple of different times.  I was able to make it up to see the big Blue Grass Stakes race.  I actually was able to fight the crowd and get a spot right on the rail to watch the race, so that was really exciting.  It was a really good race, 4 horses finished pretty close including a few of the top Derby contenders.  It was pretty exciting to get to see those guys close up.  I also watched a horse that was born on our farm that raced that day.  Midnight Lute, his dam is actually still a broodmare on our farm.  I gave her a pat for good luck that day, but Midnight Lute didn't live up to his favoring odds.  He finished 4th in his race that day.  I've got a few pictures posted of him as well.  Last Thursday we spent the whole day out at Keeneland as class time.  We met with a bunch of different people that day, trainers, jockeys, exercise riders, media personnel, and sales managers.  We toured the entire facility and got to stay to watch the races that day.  That was a lot of fun.  I even saw Gary Stevens hanging out around the track that morning while we were watching some of the horses work out.  He's the jockey who plays in the movie Seabiscuit. 

Back at the farm we've had a lot going on over the past few weeks.  We've started leaving the older mares and foals out at nights now.  The foals seem to be enjoying all the freedom, but they don't object too much to coming in in the mornings to eat.  We've had a couple of sick babies in the past couple weeks.  We have 2 foals we're currently treating for rhodacoccus, and we've got another couple who have had temperatures that we're monitoring.  A lot of breeding shed trips and grooming and pulling manes for shed runs.  I actually got to go on a run Sunday night to Darley, which was really exciting.  Darley is gorgeous!  It was later in the evening so all the stallions were up and in the barn and I got to walk around and see all the big guys like Bernardini, Holy Bull, Elusive Quality, Cherokee Run, and Street Cry.  Our mare was being bred to Henny Hughes who actually was bred by our farm.  His dam Meadow Flyer is still a broodmare on our farm.  Henny was a top sprinter and won quite a few races, so his momma's pretty valuable. 

We've had another wave of foals come.  They all seem to be doing really well, we had to give plasma to one who's IgG levels were a little low, but he's doing really well now.  We did lose another baby last weekend, and we lost the broodmare also.  It was a pretty bad dystocia from what I heard.  They couldn't get the baby out, and ended up having to euthanize both mare and foal.  That was sad.  It's really no fun when you lose one or the other, and it's definitely sad when you can't save either one.  I made it out to see part of a foaling last night.  The mare already had the baby halfway out by the time I got to the farm, but it was still fun to get to help out at the end.

I spent the day yesterday riding with our farm's vet.  That was a lot of fun.  It was cool to get to see what he does all day, and all the different farms that he visits.  He stays pretty busy during the breeding season.  At all the farms there were a lot of mares to palp and scan and it was fun getting to watch for the day. 

Derby is a week from Saturday!  We got our tickets at class Tuesday night, so I'm getting pretty excited about it!  It should be a lot of fun.  Again, I apologize for the delay in posting.  As things start to wrap up it?s getting even busier.  We?ve got presentations at the end of May that we?ve started working on, and our portfolios due about the same time, so besides working a lot, there?s been quite a bit of school work to keep up with too lately.  Take a peek at the new pictures.  I?ll post again soon.