Secretariat's Belmont Stakes 1973

My family has a history with horses.  My great-uncle, Earl Knisley, trained throughbreds.  I used to go visit his barn at the back rows of Santa Anita, Hollywood Park, and Del Mar.  He used to walk his horses down to the ocean there at Del Mar and let them splash in the water.  I still have a couple of photos of him in the winner's circle with a couple of his horses.  This would have been in the late 50's and early 60's.  I also had an ancestor (I can't remember which one now, at 5:00 a.m.) who bred Morgan horses.  And, my own first cousin, Cindy, had a horse and showed him when she was in high school.  Then, my other cousin, Valerie, is an accomplished horsewoman herself and paints many of her beautiful paintings of horses.

But, NOTHING prepared me for the 1973 Belmont Stakes and Secretariat's run in that race.  I remember watching it at my grandparents' house in Arcadia with my newly-wedding husband.  It was one of the first horse races he had ever seen.  I'd seen a lot of races at that time and I'd been to the tracks myself, but I'd never witnessed a horse moving like Secretariat on that day.

In case you missed it, this was posted on Facebook this morning:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfCMtaNiMDM  I still get chills watching it, don't you?

Quad and family~Sunday Stills Challenge~060910

Quad is such a goofball!  Did you know he is a great-great grandson of BOTH Secretariat AND Affirmed?  His color comes from his dam, certainly not his sire!  But, alas, in 7 races, he never won.  Fortunately he was retired to TB Friends and he came to me from there through the generosity of a fellow blogger.  I can't wait to drive up to the ranch this morning and visit with the horses.  I also need to check on the remainder of Sunni's tail as Quad is now chewing on it...hmmm...  Sunday Stills Challenge for June 9, 2013. To visit Sunday Stills Challenge (and this week's challenge was horses...), please go to:   http://sundaystills.wordpress.com/

Roses up at the ranch~Today's Flowers~060813

I can't grow roses.  Every rose that I've ever planted has died.  So, I admire and appreciate my neighbor's roses and these roses, which are up at the horse ranch.  My parents used to have a rose garden and my dad would often take his little trailer out to get a trailer load of horse manure for them, but I just can't grow roses!  :-(  I've tried bare root ones, I even got some beautiful, healthy ones from my old school one time (they ALL died), I've tried live ones...all my rose adventures have ended in failure!  Anyway, these are all blooming up at the ranch now and when I go up tomorrow, I'll take more photos of them.  Aren't they delightful?  Today's Flowers for June 8, 2013.  To visit Today's Flowers, please go to:   http://flowersfromtoday.blogspot.com/

What's happening at my bird bath? NOTHING!

I've wanted a real bird bath for YEARS.  I've made a couple out of clay pot bottoms, letting the hose drip, drip, drip into the container, and birds DO like that.  They also appreciate me leaving the hose on in the front yard, which has NO grass.  I have too many trees out front for any kind of grass...So, when the mountain hardware store had 3 birdbaths a couple of weeks ago, I bought one and brought it home.  Alas, the birds don't use it.  They completely ignore it.  Does anyone have any advice?  It's a plastic one with sloped sides.  My cosmos plants do seem to enjoy it and one blossom rests in it constantly.  The cosmos do attract hummingbirds, so I see them flying out there a lot, but I've never seen a bird use the birdbath...???  I have now removed the branch that I had lying in it, since maybe that was intimidating the birds?  Does anyone have any advice?

Quad has done it AGAIN~~

Yup~he's back to chewing on Sunni's beautiful, long, thick tail!  Is this boredom or a mineral deficiency?  Poor Sunni isn't going to have much of a tail to keep away the summer flies!   :-(

California poppies~Today's Flowers~060213

There are a couple of patches of these beautiful California poppies up in our local mountains and I drive by them each time I go see the horses.  I'm heading up there this morning to give them their wormers and to check on them.  Last weekend I saw a raven in the road, so I stopped to see what he was feeding on, and it was a gopher snake (dead).  I've seen 4 snakes now on the road while traveling up to the horse ranch.  Tis Spring!  I hope these flowers are still there.  Even the mountains have had high temps lately.  Today's Flowers for June 2, 2013.  To visit Today's Flowers, please go to:   http://flowersfromtoday.blogspot.com/

Saturday catch up

Just catching up on some photos from last weekend's stay up in Pine Cove.  Pine Cove is a community next to Idyllwild, which is up in our local San Jacinto mountains.