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Good Morning,
It is the final day of November, 2011. It seems like the last 30 days have been extremely busy and filled with a variety of events. The month started with all of the Breeders’ Cup activities, races, and MY PARTY. (YIPPEE!) It ultimately wound down with an abundance of great racing around the country. Rapid Redux reached #20! Hollywood Park’s Autumn Festival, the competitive 2 year old stakes at Churchill on their closing weekend, and Aqueduct hosting races as the Cigar Mile, Remsen, Gazelle, and Demoiselle all added to the excitement. Many current and future stars performed with such style. Congratulations to all of the victors and their connections!
Additionally, the November HORSE SALES have been very active at Fasig-Tipton, Keeneland, and now Tattersalls in Newmarket. The quality of stock auctioned at these venues has been excellent…and the prices paid for these horses reflected such. People truly love our sport and want to be involved!
In reality, so much action constantly takes place in ‘the horse world’! There is always something new to learn, to study, and to enjoy! I truly believe this is what makes it all so enjoyable and intriguing to people! There is never a dull moment and the pace at which our sport functions definitely keeps you ‘on your toes’.
Santa Anita, ‘The Great Race Place’, as it is often called, opens the day after Christmas. Currently, their staff is extremely busy completing a number of maintenance projects. In the infield, they are installing a brand new high-tech video board. This BIG BOARD will measure 53′ by 29′ offering the best resolution available in technology today. New state-of-the art boards are also being placed in the paddock area to enhance the entire racing experience for the ‘on-track’ fans. In this photo, they are dismantling and removing the ‘old infield board’. All of this is actually a very specific and detailed process…but the workers are making great progress.
When completed…it should be amazing! HMMM! Perhaps they’ll show some videos of ME on it next season! Now that would be TOO CUTE!
Happy November 30th!
With Love,
Hugs to All~
Z
Linda in NJ
@Marlene Dodge: Is there a new update on the amount of funds collected.
Thanks.
signofthetimes
Dear Zenny,
Sweet dreams with baby foals jumping in your head.
So appreciate the updates on Santa Anita getting
Ready for Breeder’s Cup. Almost Christmas, at this time
Last year you were feeling snow on your hoofs for the
first time since you were a yearling at Winter Farms. Have
A restful night. XXXXOOO
Allie in Texas
@Tracy in NH ~ Thank you so much for the Backside 55 information. Cloud Man was such a good looking thoroughbred.
RIP Cloud Man. “Sleep well,Sweet Prince.”
Trina Nagele in So Cal
Dearest Zenny—I just voted for your receiving the 2010 HOY award as THE BEST horseracing moment of 2011—and I saw that you were way out front in the voting, with 47% of the total! High hoof!
@Elizabeth in New Mexico—THANK YOU for the link to vote for Z!
@Marlene Dodge—Thank you for taking time out of your busy workday as a firefighter to update us on funds raised so far to rescue horses from the Nevada feedlot who will otherwise soon meet a dire end. Here’s hoping you can come back with a full trailer of saved souls.
@Sandy (NE Ohio)—THANK YOU for letting us know how to leave a message using the “gift options” link on Paypal.
@Mary Hale, #1 New England Fan Annie B in MA, Janis and Kathy Baldwin in SoCal—Thank you so much for your donations and/or messages of support to Valley View in honor of Cloud Man. I’ll e-mail your messages to Marlene Dodge. For those who would like to send their own message, the e-mail address is valleyviewranch@gmail.com
@Kris— Marlene will put into her trailer only as many horses as she can pay the feedlot people for. She will buy the pregnant mare who is carrying “Little Cloud” and as many more as she can. The others will sooner or later be loaded and shipped to slaughter on a different trailer headed for Mexico.
@Shari Voltz—In the event you didn’t see the postings of the anti-slaughter petition sites, I’ll put them in an e-mail to you.
@Margaret, Brenda S, Jeanie, JAG, Jill, Gloria Jeanne, Ingrid Arnone, Gloria Harper, Barbara Grimaldi, Rosemary McCauley, PatB, Barbara Wood, Delrene, Christine in MI, Suzanne G (IL), Donna, M Kern, Alex Bowdoin, Sue Fredrick and Abigail in Montreal –We are with you! I’ve signed the petitions and will write.
@Sue Fredrick (again)—If Sen. Kohl long ago sold all his interests in Kohl’s, is he vulnerable to economic pressure in some other way, do you think?
@JAG (again)—Like Signofthetimes, I love the idea of the “John Henry Million” as the new name for the Arlington Million.
@Trisha—Great idea, Zenyatta Park!
Diana S
@All: I hope you read this when you wake up in the morning.
While the White House website http://www.whitehouse.gov says they prefer we contact them by email, we can also call. I think swamping their switchboard on Thursday and Friday is a “capitol idea”. The switchboard number is 202-456-1414.
And we can do it the old fashioned way with a letter. Let’s bury them in snail mail: The White House; 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW; Washington, D.C. 20500
Next, send this info, and the step by step from eastcoastkid above, to 5 non-horsey friends and ask them to do likewise. Let’s blitZ the White House!
diastu in tempe (EANDO)
Jan S. in Houston
Good
signofthetimes
A lovely Across the Board on Graham Motion
On HRTV tonight.
Kari Bussell/sending prayers & love from Tn.
Dearest Dottie,
You and all of the connections are in my thoughts & prayers.You are an amazing woman. Thank you for all you do to put a smile on our face, teach us,guide us, keep us together and for being you. I am so very, very grateful.
Dearest Zenyatta,
My Queen,I love you with every bit of my heart. I hope you and Tasty are nice and warm and having precious dreams of joy.
@All- I posted the article about horse slaughter to my FB page on Nov.22…(I am Karina Bussell on FB and you can check this out)I was one of the first to sign the petition and did phone calls… with that said…I beg of you not to turn this site from nothing but joy into nothing but horror…
Due to the fact I spoke out before…many have contacted me about how “turned off”..they are …while they agree with doing everything to stop it…they come here to escape the horrors of life…and there is the OTHER site as well as FB..for this….If you notice many of the regulars are absent today….and there are a some people who have never posted here all of a sudden posting nothing but this…I know some of you will be mad at me because of the emotions of this subject..Please remember that people are very much still grieving the loss of Cloud Man…and be respectful…or ignore me forever if you choose…I wish all of you nothing but joy.
Sue Fredrick - Wisconsin
@TRINA NAEGELE I wish I could tell you more, the only way I know of is to campaign against him next year for re-election….and I will. I think anyone from any state can write to him though, someone who posted above did. Hugs
Jan S. in Houston
Good evening Big Mama. Hope you are warm and snuggled up in your stall. :):):) Thanks for the daily info you post. You are really a smart cookie. ;) xoxo.
@Diane S. Thanks for the info.
nancy in nj
@Lisa in TN – what a beautiful post. thank you! @all opposed to slaughter – perhaps another argument we can use in contacting the crazies who actually passed this bill is the argument that we, the taxpayers, object strenuously to our funds subsidizing these plants which benefit foreign business interests. (that is what the bill allows: federal dollars to pay inspectors so the plants can operate). @ the shirreffs, barn 55 team and the mosses – deepest condolences on your loss. he will always be remembered fondly. dottie – as always, much gratitude for all you continue to do for us.
Diana S
@All: A couple of talking points on horse slaughter besides the obvious that it is NOT a “humane” ending.
Most of the horses going to slaughter (100,000 according to Canadian records) are NOT old and sick (who would want to eat them?) but relatively young and healthy (they are sold by the pound, afterall). They are the outcome of a throw-away society, pure and simple. Use them, have your fun, then dump them. Then breed some more. Horse over-population is as rampant as dog and cat overpopulation, but it is driven by greed, not ignorance. To that one senator who said, “It’s only 1% that are affected by slaughter” I say, maybe so – but even one horse dying that ugly and inhumane death is too many, and thousands is despicable!
To those who say horses are livestock, I say bunk! How many stockmen pet, groom, talk to, love on, and play with their “livestock”? How many develop an empathetic bond with their “livestock”? How often does a herd of livestock come trotting up to the rangeland fence to greet them when they walk up (even when it is not feeding time)? In the modern era, horses are companion animals and workmates, not “livestock” and they deserve respect and humane treatment.
Off my soapbox now.
Zenny: Thank you for providing this forum.
diastu in tempe (EANDO)
Barbara Wood (Texas)
Such excellent posts from everyone today. I do not believe for one minute that this diary was formed and that we are all meeting here with one voice in our grief and our desire to affirm life by accident. We are voicing our love for Zenyatta and reaching out to others who are not as fortunate. We are affirming the gift of LIFE. SO many good suggestions. Tomorrow I am going to call that TX Senator that I’ve been butting heads with for months over this issue. I’m going to challenge his aide to go to YouTube and watch a film of horse slaughter. (I never have because I don’t have to to know it is evil).Then he can see for himself what it is and is not. Then I’ll do the same with the White House (politely, of course). It is stunning to read comments from news articles not posted on animal welfare sites that people are uneducated about what kind of horses go to slaughter.I believe the average age is something like 4 years.
I cannot for the life of me see how Marlene can work a full-time job, drive that trailer, sleep in the truck, pick out horses she can place, and then have to leave so many because there are no funds. And then she goes back to her job, and the process repeats itself over and over. Now THAT is a heroine.
Zenny, YOU know we all love you so much. We are just putting our love to work in action. It is the best feeling in the world and an issue whose time has come. Who know but that we were brought to this point for such a time as this? Most of us can’t do the actual rescue work, but we can give the means to do so. Good night, sweet Z. Love you always…more and more.
Diana S
@Kari: I am sorry I’ve upset you, but it’s hard to stay silent when this blog allows so much information to get out fast and we needed to do that.
I will continue this effort off this blog and hope others will as well.
Thank you for taking the action you already did. My continued wishes for your health and happiness.
diastu in tempe
signofthetimes
Inside information on Arlington park, just watched Arlington
Million #1 with John Henry’s awesome win, lots history
About the track and track owners and the FIRE.
candi carter
I voted for you my dear ZENNY, good night and sweet dreams.Love xoxoxo!.
Carly Johnson (Daughter of Kimberly Potter Z's #1 fan in MT)
@Barbara Wood: No, I am not the new mother, that was my brother and his wife, thank you for all the prayers for them though.
Barbara Grimaldi/NJ
ANDREA: I’ve read many of Temple Grandin’s books–her description of the horse is just beautiful to read. She designed and had built a horse slaughter plant in Canada which is quite new. I can’t seen to find any news on it, but she followed the same principles she did with cattle slaughter houses.
JEANNIE: I wrote to John Holland of Equine Welfare Alliance earlier today about this development, asking him to orchestrate some kind of action by all of us (EWA has more than 225 horse advocacy groups under its umbrella) so we can raise a much louder voice. Here is what EWA just emailed to all of us and this is what John and Vicky and RJ suggest, and they make the same point as I have about those pointless White House petitions:
“We are all getting bombarded with email and phone calls (media included) asking what they can do to help.
Are you tired of faxing, calling and emailing legislators?
Are you tired of receiving canned responses?
Are you tired of getting the same results year after year because one legislator can stop our legislation dead in its tracks?
Are you mad because three committee members decided the fate of our horses in the recently passed appropriations bill?
Are you tired of signing never ending petitions that do absolutely nothing?
Are you mad enough to do something NOW?
Time for a change. Instead of hounding legislators that won’t speak up for the majority voice in our country, let’s go straight to the top – the president.
One call, every day, until we get a response. Light up those lines and don’t stop. Send to your groups, post on websites, facebook, tweet, toot and…. you get the idea!
One message [in your own words please!]
As a senator, Obama cosponsored legislation to ban the slaughter of American Horses and stop the transport over our borders
During his campaign, Obama promised to be a voice for Americans and our animals
-Ask/demand an immediate executive order banning the slaughter and transport to slaughter of American horses. Obama has the power with one stroke of his pen to end it.
That’s it. Nothing else – unless of course, you are asked questions. And don’t hesitate to follow up with a fax.”
ABIGAIL: PETA has many faces…on the one hand, it is petitioning the Jockey Club to start a policy of a savings account for all TBs starting at birth. And here, they are advocating horse slaughter in the USA because it is more humane than hard travel and terror, particularly if the horses go to Mexico. If anyone can ever figure PETA out, let us all know.
PAULA HIGGINS: As Equine Welfare Alliance suggests, don’t write Congressmen and Senators–instead call this president once or twice a day, and give those lines no rest.
Yes, this is not pretty stuff to discuss, but if we cannot discuss the peril our horses are in on this site, where else can we reach out to each other so that we can work together to make life better for these innocent animals. We have to do all we can to protect them.
Elyse Mach
I just sent $75.00 to the Valley View Ranch Fund and hope that it will be of some help. I wish I could give more, but every bit helps.
Our beautiful Z just got my vote for Best Horse Moment of the Year. Looks like she’s going to win this one, too!!
Next on the list is contacting the White House, Senators and Congressmen from the state of Illinois where I live. Horse slaughter is barbaric and inhumane. We need to stand strong and take action together against it…..now!
Love you, Zenny.
Peggy (N) South Georgia
@Dotty or anyone that knows. How is Cozy Rosy Doing? Would just love to hear some news about her.
Love Ya Zenny
Kari Bussell/sending prayers & love from Tn.
On a much needed lighter note…I stumbled across this video. It was done by a young fan from Switzerland who has posted here before.I really enjoyed it. It is a tribute to Zenyatta.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGMruwMLbQU
@Diane S- I am not upset with you. I I adore you and agree with the cause. I am just begging for balance…not a endless barrage of it …as it has been half of yesterday and most all of today…
Elizabeth in Oregon
I won’t be shopping at Kohl’s any more, and I’m *appalled* at the comment from some creep in Hermiston, OR, who can’t wait to start up a slaughter operation with his low-life friends. It makes me disgusted and ashamed to be an Oregonian where there are so many cherished horses as well as those needing support.
Delrene from Carlsbad - (California)
I thank you for the information re: Cloudman on Facebook. Of course I voted for Zenny – she is way ahead. I hope everyone has a restful evening especially you and TT.
It’s very cold for Ca and we are supposed to have some very strong winds come up overnight. Very different for our area.
Cynthia H./Where Zenyatta Danced
@Kari Bussell: Your words come directly from the heart. I wish that we had been able to maintain the tenor of the two diaries, which were so compassionate and uplifting. Consider the effort which Dottie has so generously made on our behalf these past few days, despite the fact that she must be heart-broken over the loss of the beloved Cloud Man. Her posts have been tremendously moving, and so full of tender regard for everyone on this site. I admire activists, and those having the courage to act on the power of their convictions, but please, cannot another site be established for political discourse, apart from Zenyatta’s?
Peggy (N) South Georgia
I will be contacting our representatives and Congressmen here in Ga. We all must do this. I can’t hardly bare to think of this terrible thing. And our president signedto allow horse slaughter to happen.appalling. This just hurts to my very soul. I’m worried about getting one horse out of Puerto Rico and look what we might be facing here. I’m saying Prayers very strongly.
Love Ya Zenny
Trina Nagele in So Cal
Good night , sweet Z, sleep tight till the morning light.
@Carly Johnson—I’m so sorry, I didn’t see your wonderful post earlier. THANK YOU so much for posting here and for your efforts to help horses. BTW, we love your dear mom!
@Elyse Mach—THANK YOU for your life-affirming donation to Valley View. I’ll include your name in my next e-mail to Marlene Dodge.
Germaine
@Kari Bussell: Thank you so much for the link to the Zenyatta tribute.
Zenyatta, you are so deeply loved. You have brought many of us from the depths of despair back to the many joys of life. Zen, you bring out the best in all of us.
Joan in Texas
@ALL
Several months back the subject of slaughter, Deputy Broad wsa discussed on this site. After complaints by regulars, a site wsa designed and started to work against the slaughter issue. EANDO, NDO is for the horse HBO followed form Mountaineer race track to a CAnadian slaughter plant.
From all the posts it is obvious that this issue has str
Michele M.
Thanks for the updates Zenyatta…I was sad to read about Cloud Man, my condolences to his team. Thank you for making me a race fan Zenyatta, you’re the best!
Joan in Texas
@ALL
Several months back the subject of slaughter, Deputy Broad wsa discussed on this site. After complaints by regulars, a site wsa designed and started to work against the slaughter issue. EANDO, NDO is for the horse HBO followed form Mountaineer race track to a CAnadian slaughter plant.
From all the posts it is obvious that this issue has struck a nerve. Please join us. We have made in roads into major groups, our name is getting out there and we work daily to stop slaughter. We on a daily basis work to rescue horses at risk.
We welcome you to join us, the objective
is to stop the slughter and work to educate the public, those who see one race a year, the Deby, who know little about the problems the horses who aren’t stakes horses face.
So please join us, we welcome your activism.
As always, love ya Z.