New Year and Birthday Celebration!

Hi Friends!

I hope everyone had a happy New Year!  It was hard for an old guy like me to stay up past my bedtime to celebrate, but I was told that the horses were getting pretty rambunctious around midnight!  Of course they were excited about the turning of the New Year, but January 1^st holds a special place in many of our big horsey hearts.  Can you guess why?  I’ll give you a hint…it has something to do with horse racing and many other breeds of horses that compete!

You see, January 1^st is the birthday of all racehorses in the northern hemisphere!  (For the racehorses “down-under”, it’s August 1^st!)  Don’t be mistaken however, that’s not to say that all racing foals are born on New Year’s Day.  Regardless of what day a horse is actually born on, it is considered to be a year older on January 1^st.  Even if a horse is foaled on December 28^th, it would be considered a year-old within 3 days.  As a result of this system, breeders will often try to have foaling dates in early January in order to have a competitive advantage.  This way, when January 1^st rolls around, the horse will be as close to a “true” yearling as possible in terms of physical maturity.  This system helps keep things simple when grouping horses together by age for races and competitions.  So remember to celebrate HORSES as you celebrate the New Year!

Happy Birthday to ME!

For MY birthday, my owner brought me a very special treat; my own horse-sized candy cane!  Someone must have been reading last month’s blog post to know how much I adore those minty sweets…it was gone in a matter of minutes!  Well friends, I’m off to plop down and take a cat nap…all this celebrating can sure make a guy tired!