Let’s get down to business

By Jack Davison

The last couple of weeks have been my most fruitful from a learning perspective, as I’ve been somewhat chucked in head first to the yearling prep. Mind you, that’s just how I like it – sink or swim sort of stuff. There is nothing truncated about the ‘prep’ over this side of the world, not by any stretch of the imagination, where there is so much attention to detail, it is astounding. As I illustrated in my previous article, presentation is paramount in this consumer capital, and you don’t want to be left on the shelf or be bundled off to the reduced to clear section! I think I can now fully understand why those in charge are ultra fastidious when it comes to their stock looking good at the sales. This is serious business after all and the bottom line is what really matters. If you were the boss and had invested a couple of million dollars on a batch of weanlings, wouldn’t you make sure that your yearling is being spit shined from head to proverbial toe to ensure that that half a million price tag doesn’t become obscured by that 75% off, special offer one?

I am settling in to my new role very well. I’m now running a barn, with twenty colts in it, all of which are destined for the September Keeneland sale. I lunge most of them, as they are only coming in to the secondary stage of prep but in the next couple of weeks they will charter unknown territory and be hauled down to the facility that is synonymous with Dromoland farm, around these parts. Prepping yearling’s is a meticulous, multi-staged process but the truth is that this very successful , pinhooking operation, owes a lot of its success to the installment of a swimming pool, specially built for exercising the yearlings. Such an investment is a true testament to the extent of the specialization involved in such a process. The benefits are obvious. Not only does swimming get the horses in tip top shape but the horses are not putting any pressure on their joints, whereas a horse walker would. The end result is extremely fit, toned and most importantly, sounder animals.

Being heavily involved in swimming the horses is a great thrill and it is one of the most enjoyable parts of the job. Swimming comes naturally to the horses and after the initial couple of days of walking into the unfamiliar wash bay, where they encounter the terrifying hose for the first time, before heading down the chute, sometimes admittedly with the aid of the lunging whip, into the circular shaped pool, it’s a piece of cake. I usually take up the rope at the head of the horse. It’s quite a responsibility because a nervous horse on its first visit may panic, try and walk on water and flip over. That’s a nasty scenario, which, thankfully, I haven’t come face to face with yet but it happens occasionally and I’m told that it is a matter of muscling the horse back out up the chute, in time enough for the horse to recover and empty its lungs. Touch wood, Dromoland have never lost one in the pool but it has happened over at another facility, which goes to show that it does happen. If you are wondering, yes, we even swim the yearlings that are worth a million dollars or more and no, they don’t wear lifejackets!

You can take that tense rope that I grasp and which is attached to the yearling’s headcollar as a strained metaphor for the tight rope that these pinhookers walk; from the time of purchase as a weanling to the time of the yearling sale, because take my word for it, you can easily go under. Well, on that note I’m off to celebrate ‘America’s Birthday’ (July 4th), in typical Irish fashion-any excuse. So, for today, you can beer me up and call me yankee!

Note: Pinhooking is the term given to the purchase of a weanling foal with a view to selling that horse at a later date at a profit.

By Jack Davison