Pine Ridge Horse Farm

27/07/2024

Sorry I have to remove my page for know

27/06/2024

27/06/2024

At a dealer near you

27/06/2024

I’m 5’4” and this Burdock is taller then me
A horse owners nightmare

27/06/2024

We owned one of Secretariat’s great grandsons… looked just like him.. I hope that Eddie and Big Red are enjoying being reunited in the big green fields

Great Story.......♥️

Eddie Sweat died April 17 in a hospital not far from Belmont Park, where Real Quiet will attempt Saturday to become the 12th Triple Crown winner -- and third since Secretariat.

Sweat had endured numerous ailments, including a heart attack, open-heart surgery, asthma, leukemia and cancer of the stomach. Health insurance through his wife, Linda, a kindergarten teacher, paid his medical bills. But Sweat, on his own, possessed little.

He lost most of his cherished Secretariat memorabilia in a 1991 fire that gutted the Sweats' home in Queens. How he died virtually penniless is not clear. Friends, relatives and the two trainers for whom Sweat worked, Lucien and Roger Laurin, offered varying ideas.

"It really doesn't matter what happened to his money," said Danny Vogt, a longtime friend. "Whatever happened, Eddie came up empty."

Sweat certainly brought none of it into the world on Aug. 30, 1938, when his parents, Mary and David, had the sixth of their nine children. As Nack reported in his book, they were tenant farmers from Holly Hill, S.C. Eddie went to work early, after grade school, picking cotton, digging sweet potatoes and harvesting corn, soybeans and watermelon.

"At the age of 8, he was doing a man's work," Nack wrote.

As a teen-ager, Sweat went to work at the nearby thoroughbred training center of Lucien Laurin, walking the 2 1/2 miles from home. He dug fence holes and walked and groomed horses. He soon became Laurin's most trusted groom, cleaning out stalls, rubbing alcohol on horses' legs, wrapping their legs, giving them baths, brushing them.

Sweat began driving Laurin's horse van, transporting the runners from farm to track and track to track. And he wound up on the track himself, the backstretch, grooming Laurin's best horses.

In 1972, he rubbed Riva Ridge, who won the Kentucky Derby and Belmont. The next year, he rubbed Secretariat.

"I didn't get to rub Secretariat until he was 3 in Florida," Sweat said in a remembrance for the Kentucky Derby commemorative magazine. "Most of the people would tell me that I had that magic touch. But when I got him, he chased me out of the stall. I said, 'Well, I'll have to go back to my book now to figure out how to take care of this bad guy.'

"So the next day I go back in there, and he tried to hem me up in a corner, like he's saying, 'You don't come in here and boss me around!' I just had a little patience. I kept talking to him. Finally, he smelled me all over and said like, 'All right. It looks like I got to put up with this guy here. I might as well be a gentleman.'

"He come around and started liking me pretty good. He'd kick at me and bite at me if I was rubbing on him too hard. He never hurt me, though. After a while, I had him spoiled for carrots."

Nack, who practically lived with Secretariat as he raced into legend, befriended Sweat.

"He was one of those guys who was infinitely reliable," Nack said. "All the days I spent at Belmont Park visiting Riva Ridge and Secretariat, mostly Secretariat, he was there every morning. I don't remember him ever being sick a day.

"Eddie knew his craft. He knew exactly what he was doing. He was kind of the anchor of that team. Of all the people surrounding Secretariat, he was the most important, because he had daily, hands-on contact with the horse."

A way with horses

Sweat always said his greatest moment came at Belmont Park on June 9, 1973, when Secretariat won the Belmont Stakes, shattering records and entering a realm that few, if any, horses have entered.

"That's when I had tears in my eyes," Sweat said. "When he was coming down through the stretch there by some 20 lengths, all I was saying was, 'Don't fall down, boy. Come on home.' It looked like he heard me."

Lucien Laurin, Secretariat's trainer, retired a few years later. Then Sweat went to work for Lucien's son, Roger, and rubbed horses for him.

"He was a nice, quiet person," Roger Laurin said. "I don't think I ever saw Eddie annoyed. He wasn't the kind to fight horses. His thing was to try to win them over with kindness."

Was he an exceptional groom?

"I think history bears that out," Laurin said. "I don't think anybody won as many stakes races as Eddie."

Laurin said he provided his employees with a pension and profit-sharing plan. When he retired and Sweat started working for other trainers, Laurin said, Sweat turned his into an IRA that should have funded an ample retirement.

"Eddie was such a good person, he might have given it away, for all I know," Laurin said. "His business sense was nowhere near his horse sense."

But every payday, Laurin said, Sweat sent most of his money home to his family.

Vogt, Sweat's friend and exercise rider for Roger Laurin, said Sweat might not have received his due working with the great Riva Ridge and Secretariat.

"He told me he made more money off Chief's Crown [working for Roger Laurin] than he did off Riva Ridge and Secretariat [working for Lucien Laurin]," Vogt said. "A lot of times, grooms don't get what they're supposed to get."

Gaffney, who worked for Lucien Laurin as Secretariat's exercise rider through his last race before the Kentucky Derby, also wonders if Sweat was adequately paid.

"I know I was really never compensated for my professional services," Gaffney said. "Lucien told me, 'Stay with this horse. I'll take good care of you.' And I never was taken care of."

Lucien Laurin, in his 80s and recovering from a heart attack at his home in Florida, spoke briefly by telephone about Sweat.

"He was the best," Laurin said. "He was a great man, and he was a great worker."

Asked about his pay, Laurin said: "He got a good salary. That's all I can tell you."

Sweat's wife and two daughters living in Queens were vague about finances.

His widow, Linda, said Sweat lost much of his savings to the Internal Revenue Service for penalties and payment of back taxes. She said he had nothing left when he died.

"But my husband didn't complain," Linda Sweat said. "All he wanted to do was talk about horses. And everything was 'Big Red.' "

"Big Red," Secretariat's nickname, also laced Sweat's conversation with his daughters -- so much so, said Michelle Joyner, 27, "that we really didn't want to hear it anymore. He loved his horses. But he mostly loved Secretariat."

She said they took in boarders to help pay the bills. And when her father died, if the family had had to pay for his funeral, she said, "we would have been stuck."

The Jockey Club Foundation, which helps needy people in racing, paid for the funeral. And Roger Laurin paid for Linda Sweat and her two daughters to fly to South Carolina.

"It's a sad thing, a guy like that when he dies his family can't afford to bury him," said Gaffney, the exercise rider. "But I've been on a racetrack all my life, and that's the way it is.

"After a big race, they might give the winning jockey a new car. Heck, he's probably got five new cars already. Why not give the groom a new car?

"The jockey's been on the horse for two minutes. The groom's with him five hours a day, six, seven days a week. They're the people behind the scenes. They're the forgotten ones. That's the way it is."

At Sweat's funeral, little mention was made of his work or his days with Secretariat, his relatives said. But the program, under the heading "Life Summary," read:

"Shorty's life was the racetrack, working with horses, and he enjoyed every minute of it. [Secretariat] was one of the most famous race horses of all time, and Shorty was the most successful groom

"Today, Edward 'Shorty' Sweat is still regarded as the most dedicated and professional groomer in the horse-racing industry. His name can be found in all the libraries across the United States."

Joyner, his daughter, suggested flowers in the shape of a horseshoe -- blue and white carnations, the color of Secretariat's bridle and jockey silks.

"We buried dad in his blue suit," she said. "That was his favorite color. The funeral man fixed him all up, and he went to the grave with a smile on his face.

25/06/2024

25/06/2024

09/06/2024

Most people can identify with what is said in this video

Check out Serenity Farm Gypsy Horses’s video.

05/03/2024

★★★★★ hundreds of 5-star reviews

21/02/2024

Cows are enjoying the nice sun and balmy 28 degrees

21/02/2024

I’m not sure what’s going on with my page, this was for my barn and horse related information…. Now it seems there are some interesting ideas to follow but unfortunately I’m going to have to either close my page and rebrand it or sit here one night to remove non horse related topics… I’ve been putting together information to share that I’ve found useful in the equestrian world and wanted to share and post the beauty of my farm… Unfortunately, if I need to take down and restart I’ll lose a lot of important feeds …
Thank you
Marie

17/02/2024

08/02/2024

❤️🐾🐾

"A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead.
He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them.
After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight.
When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold. He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side.
When he was close enough, he called out, 'Excuse me, where are we?'
'This is Heaven, sir,' the man answered.
Would you happen to have some water?' the man asked.
Of course, sir. Come right in, and I'll have some ice water brought right up'.The man gestured, and the gate began to open.
'Can my friend,' gesturing toward his dog, 'come in, too?' the traveller asked.
'I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets.'
The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog.
After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road leading through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence. As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book.
'Excuse me!' he called to the man. 'Do you have any water?'
'Yeah, sure, there's a pump over there, come on in..'
'How about my friend here?' the traveller gestured to the dog.
There should be a bowl by the pump.'
They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it. The traveller filled the water bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to the dog.
When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree.
'What do you call this place?' the traveller asked.
This is Heaven,' he answered.
'Well, that's confusing,' the traveller said. 'The man down the road said that was Heaven, too.'
'Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That's hell.'
'Doesn't it make you mad for them to use your name like that?'
'No, we're just happy that they screen out the folks who would leave their best friends behind.'" Dogs are family ❤

~Anonymous Author and Artwork

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Osteo-MAX - Navicular

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Animal Alchemy Masterclass registration. Presented by Lynn McKenzie.

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