Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Secretariat Was Never For Sale, But His Photo Is (and with a discount, too!)

Yes, yesterday's mystery foal photo was a trick, to get you into the spirit of the April 1 Holiday! Thanks to all the clever people out there who recognized The Great One in his youth. As Denise said, "The three white sox gave it away!"

Hats off Lynne Myers of Vettec, who was the first to email in the correct answer.

Tom thought he looked wormy and ribby. I actually liked the ribby part. In recent years, I think foals and yearlings are groomed (and fed) to lose their youthfulness as quickly as possible and develop a filled-out horse body, for their presentation to buyers. Of course now that steroids would presumably not be allowed in the yearlings sales, we won't have people saying, "I bought a yearling at the sale and he didn't turn out to be as big as he looked."

Secretariat was the real thing. Big, but balanced.

To celebrate his birthday, The Hoof Blog has a special offer for you from Secretariat.com, where this image lives. Leonard has graciously offered to give a discount to any Hoof Blog reader who would like to purchase a high-quality print of this foal image over the next two weeks; the photo has never been for sale before.

You can even have it signed by Mrs. Chenery. (She was Secretariat's owner--but you knew that!).

The image is 10x8 and would love very nice in a frame. Just go to secretariat.com and find this page:
http://secretariatcom.stores.yahoo.net/base.html
which shows both a plain photo (nice!) of this image or an enhanced poster-type image.

On the order form there should be space for a code. Enter the word OATS in the code box and Secretariat.com will know that you came from the Hoof Blog; you'll get a $5 discount on either item. The offer is good until April 15. The print would make a lovely gift or award.

While you're at Secretariat.com, take a look around. They have some lovely memorabilia--even castings of the nails from Secretariat's shoes worn in the Belmont!

So...since we have so many smart people reading this blog...what was the name of Secretariat's horseshoer? Like Man o' War's Mr. McDermott, this gentleman was sort of overlooked in all the books about Secretariat. He's another Lost Legend! Did you know that every shoe ever nailed onto Secretariat was saved, from his earliest shoes? And even the nails were kept.

One of Secretariat's shoes was given to then-President Richard Nixon.

And don't forget that The Meadow, Secretariat's home farm in Virginia, is being turned into a horse park, and there will be a vet-farrier center built in honor of Dr. Britt (Secretariat's vet) and our friend, the late Edgar Watson. Donations are being sought to build the center and you can help! Click here to read more about The Meadow and the building fund.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page).

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