I'm not a big racehorse fan.  I don't sit glued to the TV, watching all the major and not-so-major races.  I don't follow who won what and when.  Mostly, this stems from not prioritizing something that I, at the base of things, disagree with.  I think any of us raising our own babies would give them the proper time to grow before tossing riders on their backs and pushing them distances.

/rant.

So, I know the "big" names in Archie's pedigree, but that's about it.  And I generally was just aware of them being good racehorses - nothing about what they tossed to their progeny or how well they bred or if they were assholes.

I've since learned that his sire, Ocean Crest, was imported to Turkey in 1999.  He'd been at stud for a year in Kentucky prior to Archer being ..made.  And he was the sire of the "Highest Earning Offspring" in Turkey from 2009 to 2010.  And he made over $270k.

There isn't much information on his mare, Tell It Over.  She grossed $17k and raced 32 times.  (Seems like a lot of running to me.)

But, going back, there are a few more names that I vaguely recognize:  Storm Bird, Northern Dancer, Nearco & Neartic, Phalaris, Native Dancer, Polynesian, Nashua and Nasrullah and Nearco (again), Princequillo (twice), Seattle Slew, Bold Reasoning, Boldnesian.  Even so:  I don't know these horses.  I can look at stats, but I don't know the history.

That's one of the things that I want to work on:  getting to know the horses whose blood runs through mine.  L. Williams credited one of those guys (Nearco?) to his propensity for being an asshole (she also figured out his tattoo!).  But who made him intelligent?  Who made him affectionate?  Who gave him those ADORABLE ermine marks on his hind socks?

(Most of this curiosity stems from a post I just read by Encore's mom.)

At yesterday's ride, after falling asleep on the couch surrounded by kittens for an hour and a half, I actually had the presence of mind to bring my little Polaroid that I use for videoing.  It's not super-duper quality, but it's sufficient.  Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to review it or edit it and the video, as stands, is about twenty minutes long.  And it isn't very wide-angle, so I'm in and out of the frame.  I did try to do transitions on screen and set it up to show the little crossrail we jumped.  Here's to hoping.

(Ps.  We lost our soccer game against my old, hateful team on Sunday.  And I got nailed in the boob.  Looking back, I should have head-butted the ball, but I'm not comfortable doing that yet.  Must work on heading balls.)