Meet Apollo… He’s not Greek
Here's Chloe's new horse, Apollo, a Dutch Warmblood. He's a 7 year-old gelding and was imported from the Netherlands in June. We picked him up this past Thursday from the seller's farm in Loxahatchee. He's a bred and trained dressage horse. Chloe is ecstatic, obviously.
Chloe had gone about as far as she could with her quarter horse, Shela. A quarter horse is perhaps not the best choice for dressage, but obviously Shela was a starter horse for Chloe, and we knew that eventually she would need to move up to a warmblood. This is a big step up for her, but she worked hard, was dedicated, and certainly earned her way up to this horse.
At 16.2 hands, Apollo towers over Chloe.
A Great Day in Miami
My neighbor, Ron, and I made our annual trek down to Miami for a day at the race track and an evening ball game on August 6th. Ron's a Cubs fan and I'm a Cardinals fan, so we have our mini cross-street rivalry going on. This year we picked a Cardinals game, last year the Cubs... playing the Marlins, of course.
Ron is the handicapper extraordinaire, so between us we picked a couple of winners and both walked away with more cash than we arrived with--giddyup!
We arrived in time for the last two races at Calder, here's our pick for the 9th race:
My pick for the 9th race, Kairos.
Kairos at the finish, a winner.
Last (10th) race:
Ron picked the #9 horse, Nicholas Vision.
At the 16th pole, Nicholas Vision a winner going away as it begins to rain.
Why's everyone so happy?
So after a successful day at the track, we moseyed over to the Marlins' stadium for a bite to eat. We had front-row box seats which entitled us to the Club Level restaurant:
Ron goes off his diet with a Giant Dog...
It was a great day: Cardinals won, Pujols hit a home run, and Wainwright pitched a shutout. Here are a few visuals:
Albert Pujols hitting his home run.
Matt Holliday stroking a double.
Adam Wainwright getting ready to lay down a bunt.