Riding No Matter What

About 8 weeks ago The Jock with Inez Karlsson

How does the construction worker prepare for his day? He watches the weather and so do I. Even though I wear the same kind of outfit each day and my hair is under a helmet, I still have to watch the weather before work to prepare for the day. Doing this keeps me from getting sick. Because no matter how bad I feel, even if I have a fever, and if it’s raining or burning hot, I still work.

I really enjoy working in cooler weather, not freezing cold, but cooler around 45 to 70 degrees. When it gets colder than that, it makes your whole body hurt, which makes work even harder. When it gets cold outside and to help fight off any illness I try to eat right, get lots of sleep, take vitamins, drink Pedialyte and take Emergen-C. When it is too hot I feel sick too, the sun is beating down on your without sun and that adds up fast.

When it comes to weather conditions in general, my least favorite is rain. Rain makes everything harder. It’s hard to see, move and ride the horse. Rain doesn’t really make you sick but when you’re getting cold your likely to catch a cold. When you add humid conditions to the mix, it makes it harder to see because your goggles can get so foggy. I like to wear one to two pairs of goggles on the poly and three on the dirt. If they get fogged up in the gates I have to keep pulling them down until the last horse loads. My reins can get so slippery when it is raining so I have to pay extra attention.

Arlington Park’s poly track does make it a lot easier to ride in all the different kinds of weather. When it rains a lot the track doesn’t get sloppy like other tracks. This makes it a lot easier to see during the race. Also, when it gets really cold the dirt tracks will freeze in clumps and those clumps fly back in your face as you are riding down the track. This can cause you to get hurt, see less distance down the track and your goggles can even break or crack open.

When I think back to incidents of weather factors, I remember one time at Hawthorne when the fog was pretty deep and it was dark out. We were racing on the dirt going on six furlongs and you couldn’t really see that far ahead. All of sudden as we came around a turn, there was a seagull flying right into us. That was kind of a scary moment.

Another element that not everyone realizes can be a factor in racing is darkness. Racing at night always makes it harder to see. Although, sometimes night time racing can be a good thing. You might be on a horse that isn’t real calm or tends to spook easily. Night racing can help to remove some of the items from their vision that might spook them during the day and make them calmer.

The one of the more dangerous weather conditions is in winter when ice gets under the dirt track at the starting gates. I have learned to be very prepared for when we leave the gates. I have to hold on and be ready in case my horse starts to slide.

Overall, I have learned you have to ride in all kinds of weather. You can’t pick and choose your weather and you have to work no matter what. That’s why I try to watch the weather before work to help prepare my body and mind for whatever weather element will be coming at me that day.