Thoroughbred Logic, Presented by Kentucky Performance Products: Doing the Best I Can

“When temps plunge into the negatives, wind chill cuts well below that, and we have more horses than stalls, you have to get creative… and a flexible and endless amount of energy, also known as: stubbornly doing the best I can.”

Welcome to the next installment of Thoroughbred Logic. In this weekly series, Anthropologist and trainer Aubrey Graham, of Kivu Sport Horses, offers insight and training experience when it comes to working with Thoroughbreds (although much will apply to all breeds). This week ride along as Aubrey shares her logic on how doing the best we can is all we can do…

I realized last night that if I had a racehorse, inevitably its name would be DoingthebestIcan. That would fit within the Jockey Club naming rules of 18 characters including spaces (“Doing The Best I Can” does not work as it is 20 characters total) and hey, that name doesn’t seem to be taken. But yep, that would be pretty accurate to life, these horses, and this damned winter.

No one ever said having livestock, training horses, or succeeding in this business was easy. In fact, pretty much all anyone says is that it is doomed. When I first started out, having quit academia and hung out my shingle as a full time trainer, I was commended for not going under in the first six month, the first year, during covid, and after five years. No one was too worried about what success looked like otherwise — just that you were stubbornly and surprisingly still there.

Bruce (Scotty Silver) makes the best of a snow day at Kivu Sporthorses in the currently great white north of New York. Photo by author.

Academia was oddly the same way. During my first year ABD (All But Dissertation) on the Tenure Track Market, I received 10 interviews. My advisors and the other professors in my department were congratulatory. That’s a good amount of attention they all told me. And when not one of those yielded a job they reminded me just how great it was to even get those interviews. I squinted and wondered what odd world they lived in where acknowledgement and survival did not need to be linked.

Here, especially in this winter (my second winter running a farm in the Finger Lakes Region of New York), survival is what it is all about. When temps plunge into the negatives, wind chill cuts well below that, and we have more horses than stalls, you have to get creative. Comfort for the horses is paramount. And survival for a sales barn of Thoroughbreds requires creativity. And all require a flexible and endless amount of energy, also known as: stubbornly doing the best I can.

Ducky (Return the Ring) shows off his solid citizen side letting me walk him out in a cooler and with a cup of hot tea in feels like negative two degrees. Photo by author.

Things take longer. Water in particular. Buckets break — sometimes one after another when it’s cold enough and you have not perfected the hammering method that effectively clears the ice but does not damage the plastic at the same time. Night check now means around 10 or 11 so that there’s enough fresh water til morning. And that means endlessly running more buckets of fresh water to each stall. With hoses freezing in real time, your arms and core get really strong walking buckets everywhere on the property.

Making the best of a smaller arena while turnout paddocks are set. Here, Oats (Otis by the Cape) works on his 20-meter circle skills and is incrementally learning to move his shoulders out into the bend. Screenshot from video by Lily Drew.

Warm mash in lidded tubs must come from the house, so the Subaru (which handles the snow far better than the truck) becomes the hauling vehicle. Snow must be cleared — at least enough to get to the manure pile. Temporary stalls and arena paddocks need to be built in such a way that riding is still possible and everyone can fit in the barn when temps dip too low to be out at night even with tons of blankets, adequate shelter and wind break.

The only critter who doesn’t dislike winter that much is Walker. Photo by author.

Very little of this is new to anyone who works in livestock. None of it is new to folks who manage barns in the winter up here. Each day is simply a question of what new fresh hell you’ll encounter next and a question of how stubbornly and creatively you’ll work to figure out the problem and keep everyone not just alive but happy. I can’t tell you how much hay string has gone to work in the barn in the last week…

Polo (Overtime Charlie) and Mo (Motown Blues) having a stellar time in the new arena “paddocks” set up to keep these kids warm at night. Photo by author.

I thought I might end this article with a set of hacks for the winter. But turns out, I don’t have a lot of hacks. I mean besides sleeping a little less, working harder, and figuring out the perfect layering order so that you’re mobile but warm-ish (which currently looks like: tank top, silk shirt, merino wool quarter zip, fitted down jacket, snow bib overalls if doing barn chores and not riding, then heated vest, Carhartt jacket, knit mitts, turtle fur neck gator, head band, beanie, gloves if absolutely necessary.

Yep, I love winter.

Frankly, I think the best way to more than survive the winter would be to a) move back south or b) have endless income, build an additional barn, and hire full time help.

In the meantime, I’m enormously grateful for any and all the barn help I do have. Lily Drew featured here helping bring in. Photo by author.

But, I’ll take each day where the water is still flowing from the hydrant, where the horses have left the fence alone during turnout, where I manage to knock out a few productive rides despite the chill, and where the horses are comfortably resting when I come to check on them.

Night check: Good boy, Moose (Gallant Star). Photo by author.

And like everything else with this business, every slump, every economic hiccup the market likes to throw at us, every vet bill, and logistical challenge … this too will be stubbornly ridden out, figured out, and dealt with simply by doingthebestican. Here’s hoping, like always, that stubborn determination is enough to get through the next week of cold hell and then through the rest of the winter.

If you don’t find me in the barn, I’ll likely be dead asleep in front of the pellet stove.

To folks up north, hang in there and go ride if you can. And to my southern friends, enjoy the sun and whatever warmth the winter throws your way. I’ll be over here scheming how I can turn this whole doingthebestican thing into a month in Aiken next year.

About Kentucky Performance Products, LLC:

Is your horse coughing? Does he have nasal discharge? Unfortunately, wintertime environmental factors, such as spending more time in a stall, can aggravate respiratory symptoms this time of year. Research trials conducted at the University of Georgia demonstrate the benefits of AirWise in supporting a return to normal airway function. Formulated using a synergistic blend of high-quality, potent antioxidants and micronutrients, AirWise sustains a healthy inflammatory response in your horse’s airway and supports optimal respiratory and immune function.

Ask your veterinarian about AirWise.

Kentucky Performance Products creates scientifically proven supplements for your horse. Our supplements provide solutions to the everyday challenges facing your horse. The horse that matters to you matters to us®. Learn more about KPP at kppusa.com.