Christie
Woodard of Yallambee Stud has written a great piece of editorial detailing what
goes into preparing a draft of yearlings for sale – from training the staff to
dealing with randy colts and transforming 'feral' late arrivals into sale ring
stars.
Christie
Woodard - Ah, yearling preparation. It might appear to be a timely subject, but
realistically this is relevant year round.
First off, the popularly held belief that yearling preparation is an eight, 10
or 12 week process is pure fallacy as far as I am concerned.
To my mind it's a much longer period than just those last few weeks where
everyone appears to scramble to get the young horses up to scratch for the pomp
and ceremony of yearling sales. In reality, all we should be doing is putting
the spit and polish on these youngsters for their big day. (Pictured a General Nediym colt from Zibiza that made $170,000 at Premier last year for Yallambee).
The way I view it, much of the job is done before the youngsters even "come in"
to the stables for their sales preparation.
It's about how they are reared and
what has happened to them from foal to preparation (or to the breaker for those
bypassing sales): corrective farrier trims, diet, social life, paddock
conditions, health, foundation education … these are just some of the issues
that are considered and undertaken before the yearling even enters the very
daunting stable life of sales preparation.
OK, now forget about pedigree – that's on the page and not much you can do
about it. This chat is about how we put them in the ring and what we need to do
to get them there.
Click here to read on.
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