Wednesday morning after I run Brandy in the Kentucky Derby Classic, I’m heading north. It was 6 degrees at home this morning but spring is on its way and there is a lot to do at home. Except for a couple of snow storms it has been a great winter to run dogs here in Kentucky and they have all benefitted from the experience. It’s been rough on some of them as everything here seems to have a thorn on it. Dottie sliced an ear open, both Glow and Brandy have to have there tails taped to run them, and the worst injury has been to Spot. He got a very deep scratch on his cornea and has spent the last week crated here at the house. When the Vet re-checked it yesterday he said it was about 75% healed up which was good, but he suggested that I not run him Wednesday. The interesting part of the treatment was the use of Spot’s own plasma as an eye drop (along with two antibiotic drops, an anti-inflammatory drug, and something for pain). He drew blood from Spot last Monday, spun it down, and drew of the plasma. Considering the results, I’m impressed.
Thursday Lynn Mosely came up from Kingsport, TN and brought Wild Apple Molly McGee to me as she is headed back to New Hampshire for spring and summer camp. Lynn went to the WMA with me and the dogs and we ran everyone. Molly was the only one to have a find as she pointed and briefly held a single quail. Then, just to remind me that she and Dottie are still puppies they spent 20 minutes chasing meadowlarks around one of the large fields at the Farm.
Molly backing Dottie last summer.
One of the big question marks this winter was Dillie. She’s a beautiful dog that looks great running and on point but didn’t have a lot of experience when I picked her up on my way South. The plan is to see if she’ll make it as a cover dog. She still has a lot to learn but I’m hopeful that she’ll turn out well.
The dog that’s impressed me the most this winter has been my puppy Spot. Spot ran four times as a puppy and three times as a derby this winter. He was first in all four puppy stakes and garnered two seconds and a third in Derby stakes. He has really learned to take an edge and show well. If he can switch back to running in the woods with the some of the ease his sire Chasehill Little Bud has demonstrated over his long and illustrious career, he will be a threat at home this spring and especially in the fall on wild birds. The only dog that has out-birded him on the wild birds we’ve found this winter has been Brandy who is a full year older and carved herself a good record last fall in wild bird derby stakes with three placements in four starts.
Hopefully, the weather will break soon at home and we can get started on the new kennel. It’s going to be an addition to the existing garage that will allow for six raised runs on each side with sleeping boxes in the building. It’s something that I planned to do when we had the house built 13 years ago but there never seemed to be enough time and money to get it done.