Saturday, August 13, 2005

You Know When It's Freezing When........

you open the door to the refrigerator to get the milk out and your hands feel warmer inside than outside????

Seriously, it has been very, very cold here at Massie Lodge with it being - 4 this morning at about 7am. I had a very serious argument with myself when I woke up.... Do I...

Stay Under the Doona ... ?
Get Up and Help Evan ... ?
Stay Under the Doona ... ?
Get Up and Help Evan ... ?

After making an agonising decision, I compromised with myself and decided to stay under the doona until I drank my cup of tea and then got out (all rugged up including scarf) and stoked the fire and made Evan a hot breakfast.

Brrrr. Its taken all this time (the middle of August) to actually get to winter! Go figure.

Once again I find myself sitting here thinking about all the comings and goings here at Massie Lodge and my thoughts turn to an incident that happened on friday that really needs airing.

Track Work Riders........

Our beautiful Sunny went up to Pauls on Wednesday (no, the truck company didnt call), and Paul has not been able to get any of the track work riders to work her. WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH THEM???? Even Paul's own girl , turned her nose up when asked to work Sunny around the Bull Ring at Toowoomba Turf Club. Ok, that was enough for me to get worked up (funnily enough, it does take me some pushing to get worked up....) but this was ridiculous! Sunny is as placed as... is quiet as a mouse.... and how the hell is she to be prepared for the Ready to Runs if no one will work her???? Why is it that they are so scared to ride the young ones? You would think that Jockeys would not have a sense of fear when it came to riding any horse? How are the young ones supposed to get educated if no one will ride them?

As you can probably tell, (sorry I digress, but iam looking over my computer screen now and at the moment Iam seeing Queenie galloping past, tail in the air.... oh and there is a buck..... squeeling as she flies past... anyone want to put her into work? Probably wouldnt get anyone to work her as she is "TOO OLD") I am pretty annoyed with this situation... actually it doesnt end there.

I thought I would get on the phone and see if speaking to anyone might help. First stop Toowoomba Turf Club. No. No response there, I was told to ring Queensland Racing. Ok, I make the call and wonder what the reception will be from the State body. First off I speak to the "Receptionist - type " person. Now, he takes my enquiry personally and gets very upset with me and fobs me off to another person. This other person gets on the phone and I can tell by his demeaner how he is going to treat my enquiry. Obviously, with the contempt that he feels that I deserve. Lucky for him that I was in "Telstra" mode and not in attack mode.

Basically he said to me that he "understands" why no one is riding the youngster as they are trying to keep themselves free of injury. If that is the case, how come other youngsters are being ridden who are out and out lunatics? I said to him thats just crazy, how do the youngsters learn how to become racehorses? He didnt like my response and went quiet.

I asked him did he know of any one who might be able to do the track work... and he said no... and I said to him... "We are paying good money per day to get our horse trained... and no body will bloody ride her, what is wrong with the lot up there???"

"Now, now Mrs. Robinson, there is no need for you to get upset and angry"

UPSET AND ANGRY??? I thought I hadnt even reached "Upset and Angry", although "Upset and Angry" was fast approaching.

"Leave it with me and I will see if I can find someone to help you out" he said.

Yeah, yeah right. Like hell.

Grrrr. Double Grrr. Boy did that get me riled up.... but I was most surprised at my control of my temper... (not that I have one...)and after hanging up from the gentleman, left the office and went for a walk in the arctic temperatures of Toowoomba to cool down.

What is wrong with these people? Perhaps its like most areas in this industry... cliquey? Surely if this is the case, why isnt there room for newbies in the industry?

One of the main reasons I gave up showing my dogs was because of the "cliqueness" that was rife in that area. It didnt matter if you had a champion dog ... the thing that mattered most was who was holding the leash!! AAArgh!

Hmmmm. I dont know where this all ends... why cant people just help other people when they need some help? Obviously its too much to ask, especially in this industry where its trainers against trackwork riders/jockeys, American Shuttlers against the Colonial Boys and so on.

Life. Always look on the bright side..... Hah!

Helen.


No comments: