Own The Moment had her first start at Alexandra Park on Friday night 20th January 2023. It was a massive milestone for her, as she is a rescue from a much worse fate because of her behavior issues in the cart.
She was previously given up on as a 2yo because she refused to go around the track and would buck and put the boot in, so her previous owners decided to finish with her. I took her on as a 5yo after 3 years in the paddock, and she pretty much looked like a broodmare, big and fat. She had a lovely nature on the ground so I decided to try and save her and give her a second chance.
I took her slowly and gained her trust. I practice energy healing and communication, and used those skills to help me figure her out. The biggest thing that kept coming up in her readings was the crupper was the problem. So, with heart in mouth, I proceeded to try her with no crupper on, and from day one with no crupper, she has been good as gold in the cart. Every time I tried to put the crupper back on, she would misbehave and want to pull up in the running, and tuck her bum down to buck. Crupper off again, and no trouble, happy to do her work.
The energy healing side of it, I can feel heat around her dock when I put my hands there, so perhaps she injured her tail as a youngster and the crupper aggravates the area, or it’s a memory thing. Physically to touch, her tail appears fine, I can’t find anything wrong with it, doesn’t seem broken or crooked, it appears she is just very sensitive to anything touching the underside of her tail.
Fast forward to Friday night, her first start. Well, back to her old ways in the preliminary, I thought we weren’t even going to make it to the start, with her threatening to buck on several occasions, then it dawned on me, the problem was likely the number, being stiff PVC and covering a large area of her back, I hadn’t thought to desensitize her of this prior to race day . Luckily she got over it after a couple of laps, and as a precaution I took over overcheck up a couple of holes, and pulled her tail tie as tight as I could so she couldn’t get her bum down to buck.
She raced very green, a bit slow away, panicked a little and pulled with the horses around her. She didn’t know how to quicken when the speed went on at the 400m and finished at the back of the field, but trotted all the way, and was the last to pull up down the back strait. She didn’t know the race was over bless her, and wanted to go another lap, so I was happy with her first start. 🙂
