Mary Lou and Lady Rebecca Purves at Happy Valley Racetrack in Hong Kong	Lady Rebecca Purves is now a co-owner of Shek O Prospect shown here as a yearling

10/21/01

Kindergarten Class is still in progress. However, due to some unanticipated construction by others, we can't get a trailer in so, that part will wait a bit. More to follow.

10/20/01

Griffin Place Summer Sales Crew

Left to right: Jose Jacobo, Terry Griffin, Daina Bell, Jayne Arnold, Melissa Lucas, Lanny Fairbanks, Sam Ellis, Mary Lou Griffin, Victor Avila-Ramos,Becky Goad, Devin Griffin, Megan McBride & Venessa Koehn

10/18/01

I've sold two mares, part of improving the band, but off course Where's Will out of Noname Justfame won his race. But I've sold Noname and No Lost Action. I'm going to Keeneland and see how the sales go.

10/17/01

Yesterday was one of those terrible days only "horsepeople" could understand. Doris said that both Shek O and Campanita are sick. Campanita may need to go to the clinic (hospital in layman's terms). Bold Magestrate aborted her Pine Bluff foal. We found her in the field with the fetus. Of course we did an autopsy and sent in tissue samples but there was nothing abnormal looking. I can't help but wonder if it has something to do with the KY mare syndrome. We may never know.

Today is a little better. Doris called and said that Campanita is much better and Shek O is wild. However, now I have the flu.......

So it goes.

10/09/01

The "Kindergarten Class" has begun.  

Each fall, after all the foals are weaned, we put them through what we call our Kindergarten Class.  For about three weeks, we bring them into the barn and work with them individually.  Beginning lessons are learning to tolerate stall confinement, learning to lead without the "butt rope", and learning to be groomed.  Then, we progress to teaching them to go to the round pen and lounging.  Here we are very careful not to do too much circling, as we are not conditioning them, only teaching to work without other horses around them.  We also introduce the chiffney bit, the lip chain and the twitch.  The last week we teach them to load in the trailer.  When they complete the program, we want them to enjoy being handled, to trust people, and to be comfortable doing whatever it is we ask of them.  

Graduation Day means giving them a ride in the trailer to the other end of the farm. From then on they live outside in the yearling pastures until it is time for them to be sales prepped or go into race training.  That doesn't mean we don't handle them.  We scratch and pet them and give them a good look twice a day when they come up for their grain.  We also bring them into the yearling barn for a few days prior to every scheduled trimming.  All in all we feel that our program works well for us.  Our foals are allowed to play and interact with each other in a very natural way.   They get the exercise they need to develop as athletes, and they remain civilized enough to handle safely.

9/19/01

In this time of crisis, those of us the own and raise horse can derive great comfort from them. Remember the worlds of a past great statesman

"There is something about the outside of a horse, that is good for the inside of man"

7/31/01

Our American Chance filly out of Deputy Belle had to be put down yesterday. The ankle wouldn't fuse due to a small bit of infection which the vets at WSU couldn't resolve. We tired.

7/30/01

Our mares are all home from KY. They are both barren. Unfortunately both Outofthebluebell and Atoyac got caught in the "Year of the Catipillar" and they are barren. If we are lucky enough to have them cycle in heat, we will culture them to make sure there is no infection.  Cozzene's Angel and her filly are both doing great. We are very pleased with her Aggressive Chief filly. She is in foal to Out of Place.  Bold Magestrate was the first home and is in foal to Pine Bluff

5/21/01

Atoyac is being re-bred and so is Cozzene's Angel. Outofthebluebell is being worked on to clean her up and get her healthy. We won't even try to rebred her this year...just hope she is OK.

05/16/01

It continues to get worse, Rings A Chime has lost her foal too!  But to offset the bad, Deputy Belle had a filly.

05/15/01

We all read the stories in the Blood Horse and Thoroughbred Times, but think we are OK here in Washington, but  a lot of breeders move their horses around to various stallions as we all try to upgrade our operations. The toxins in the grass claimed  the foals that Outofthebluebell and Atoyac were carrying. But to add to the uncertainty and sense of wonder and mystery that surrounds our business Cozzenes Angel had a normal filly by Aggressive Chief Friday the 11th. Bold Magestrate is still in foal and we are shipping her home. We've started her on "Mare Guard" the product that should bind up the 'toxins'.

04/26/01

New Ali's Pearl Photos

04/24/01

Demons Begone x Gallently Happy colt
Owners: Mr. & Mrs. Bill Standish

Cahill Road x Tempered Dawn colt

Cahill Road x Decidedly Nattilie filly at 10 days

4/22/01

A new filly out of Decidedly Natalie by Washington's Leading Sire Cahill Road. Foaled 4/10/01.

Owners:  Bear Creek Meadows, Mr & Mrs C. Arnold

3/24/01

"Leading lessons"
When I first started raising horses (back when things were still black and white as my daughter says), I thought the best way to get a mare and her foal from one place to another was to lead the mare and let the foal follow.  Well, I quickly found out that the foal didn't follow.  At least it didn't follow if there was something scary or something more interesting to look at in another direction, or if it just felt good and couldn't stand to poke along.  The answer I thought must be to have another person get behind the foal to encourage it to follow.  Well, that didn't work too well either.  Better, but not well.  So, I did some reading and some talking to other breeders and learned about the "butt rope".  Very simple.  The idea is to run a lead rope around the rump of the foal and then lead it alongside mom.  So, with the foal in one hand and the mare in another one handler can get along quite nicely.  Most of the time.  There are still the scary, and the interesting, and the "can't stand to go this slow on a cold morning" times, but mostly it works really well.  Once in a while if things really deteriorate, the handler simply lets go of mom and settles baby down.  Mom doesn't go far.  I have used this system now for 25 years and would never go back.  Every once in a while someone will compliment me on how well our foals lead and behave.  This is usually followed by "we can't lead our foals because we just have too many. ".  I smile. I can't do it any other way.  It would just take too much effort, and too many people.

Sydney "the dog" providing the leading lesson

3/23/01

"Ain't it purdy?"
When I was a student at CSU in Colorado, I had the greatest summer job ever.  I worked on a ranch in the Rockies and I was able to trail ride up in the mountains.  On one of the overnights, our neighbor and guide took his five-year-old daughter, Sassy, along.  We rode all day and we were all tired, but toward late afternoon we got to the top of the ridge and took in an absolutely magnificent view.  We were all "ohhhhing and awwwwing".  Little Sassy took it upon herself to stand up on her saddle so she could see even better.  We all held our breaths hoping her horse wouldn't move, but she was completely unconcerned.  She just stood there and said, "Ain't it purdy?"  Couldn't have been said better.

Today was one of those "ain't it purdy" days.  Sometimes you just have to stop and remember how lucky you are.

3/21/01

Follow this link to an article in the Enumclaw-Courier Herald to read more about Griffin Place.

3/20/01

Lady Of The Mile, a Griffin Place resident, is in foal to American Chance. Lady Of The Mile is owned by Ken Alhadeff and she is the dam of the Seattle Slew filly Elttaes Slew.

3/2/01

Elttaes Slew stops playing long enough to let her owner, Ken Alhadeff, admire her

Ken Alhadeff and Ali's Pearl. This is a Vigors mare that Ken named for his daughter. She is a broodmare now and this year was bred to Jazzing Around.

2/28/01

EARTHQUAKE!
Everything is fine here at Griffin Place after the earthquake.  I was very glad we had just finished our vet work.  I was also very glad I was at home and not on top of the Space Needle or on one of the bridges.

The horses ran around for a few minutes, but then they quickly settled down.  My cat on the other hand took about four laps around the house with claws fully extended and then literally started to climb the wall.

I admit to a racing heart myself. This was better than morning coffee (even the Seattle kind) for a good wake up!

2/26/01

Yearling Sale Entries
Already it is time to enter our yearlings in the WTBA annual summer sale.  This is the premier sale in Washington. In addition to our own yearlings, we accept a select group of yearlings to sell as agent for other breeders.  We anticipate a very strong consignment again this year. In May we will start preparing our young horses for the sale, and we will post regular updates on their progress.

Right now however, they are still just playing and growing, and they have that rather "Wooly Mammoth" look to them. The following guideline for summer sale yearlings was sent out to consignors in another state, but it applies equally to Washington.  It is a useful tool for trying to decide which yearlings to enter in the sale.  You could take it one step further and use it as a guideline for which mares to breed and to whom, to get the summer sale horse.

Yearling Sale Guidelines

Pedigree guidelines for accepted yearlings

1. The pedigree needs to suggest that the yearling has potential to run competitively in quality races on major racing circuits.

2. Ideally, the sire would be one of the national or state leaders, and the dam would have produced several top racehorses.
   

Not acceptable

1. Yearlings whose dams have produced a number of horses without producing a very high quality runner.

2. Yearlings by unproven sires who were not top level runners themselves, and out of only moderate quality mares.

3. Yearlings out of mares whose female families are lacking in quality black-type runners.
   

Conformation guidelines

1. Yearlings should be without major conformation flaws, especially such serious ones as back at the knee and offset knees.  These two defects generally get worse with time.  Any yearling accepted to the sale, that develops either defect with age, which results in a severe change in conformation, should be withdrawn from the sale.

2. In addition to generally correct conformation, the big, good looking, well developed, athletic yearlings are historically sought by buyers.  Small, immature yearlings do not sell well at a summer sale and are better marketed later in the year.
   

So, before we enter any of our yearlings, we take a good look and decide which fit the summer sale, and which would be better off in the winter sale.  I might add that we have had success selling both places.  Sometimes it is better to be a standout in the winter than a "barely got in" in the summer.

2/26/01

Elttaes Slew by Seattle Slew out of Lady Of The Mile, owned by Elttaes Stable.We are very pleased with this filly. She is a nicely balanced very athletic filly with a good attitude.

2/21/01

Nurse Mares.
I received a call today from another breeder who needed a nurse mare.  We have one named "Holly", but she is not in foal this year so, I couldn't help.

When tragedy strikes and a mare dies, the best thing for the foal is to find a surrogate mother.  We call these "nurse mares".  There are about six professional mares in western Washington that are kept for this purpose and then rented out when there is a need.  They are selected for ease of "grafting".  In other words, they are mares who readily take foals that are not their own.  Often, the daughters of these mares make good nurse mares too, and they are highly valued.  Believe me, when you need one, you will think that they are worth their weight in gold when they nicker to your orphan foal.

Sometimes the orphan foal is grafted on to the nurse mare along with the nurse mare's own foal.  This is a tricky graft unless the nurse mare foals close to the time the orphan is born.  We had access to a nurse mare ready to foal the same day we lost a mare a couple of years ago. In that case, we captured the allantoic fluid from the nurse mare, rubbed it all over the orphan, and put the orphan in the stall before the nurse mare got up.  She looked at one and then the other, and let out a big sigh.  She knew.  Good old Annie had raised two together before, so she knew what she was in for.  Bless her heart, she took them both and raised them as her own.  Annie is owned by Blue Ribbon Farm and was awarded a "Lifetime Achievement Award" in 1999 at the WTBA Awards Banquet.  She had at that point raised 19 Thoroughbred foals in addition to her own.  What a gal!

The other option is to wean the nurse mare's foal and then give her the orphan, but we don't do this until the nurse mare foal is at least 2 months old.  Then the nurse mare foal stays in with the other mares and foals and they do just fine.

The Washington TB Farm Managers Association has a nurse mare network coordinated by Debbie Pabst. If anyone in this area has an orphan foal, or looses a foal and would be willing to let their mare help an orphan, you may contact Debbie Pabst at (253)-862-9076. She volunteers her time for this important service.

2/18/01

Today we transfused a foal.  Fortunately, we rarely have to transfuse foals since we have been testing the colostrum.

Foals get all of their initial immunity from the mare's colostrum.  They must ingest this special first milk within hours of birth.  We test the antibody level of each mare's colostrum immediately after birth using a colostrometer.  If the antibody level is low, then we give the foal donor colostrum, which we have collected from another previously foaling mare.  We routinely collect a small amount of colostrum from all but maiden mares so that we can use it for just this situation.  

When the foal is about 12 hours old, the veterinarian sees it for the first time.  A blood sample is taken and an IGg test is done.  This tells us if there was adequate passive transfer of immunity.  If there was not, then we immediately give the foal more donor colostrum.  Since there is a narrow window of time that the foal can absorb this colostrum, if the foal still tests low, then we have no option but to do a transfusion.  Nowadays we use a commercial product that is derived from plasma from hyper-immune horses and screened for transmittable disease.  

This is a judgement call.  We might not have needed to do the transfusion but when in doubt, we all sleep better if we have done the best job we can for each foal.

2/13/01

Tommy Teaser.

Tommy is probably the most important horse on the farm.  He has lived here the longest.

Tommy is a teaser.  What's that?  Well, it probably should be termed "teasee", but his job is to talk to every mare, every day during the breeding season.  From his reaction to the mare and the mare's reaction to him, we can determine what the mare's status is.  Is she in estrus? Is she out?  Sometimes it's not all that clear, but Tommy surely is an invaluable aid.  

When Tommy thinks the mare is "showing in", we have the veterinarian ultra sound her ovaries and uterus.  We also do a speculum exam and cytology to make sure there is no infection.  

Based on the information the veterinarian gives us, we "book" or make an appointment with the stallion to breed the mare.  Typically, the veterinarian will do more than one exam to fine tune the exact time the mare should be bred.  After breeding, the mare is examined again for ovulation. This will tell us if she needs to be bred again, when to check for pregnancy and whether or not we need to look for twins.  Twins are not good, but I'll leave that discussion for another day.

Anyway, Tommy LOVES his job.  Tommy has been bred to Holly Nurse Mare and we are hoping that Holly is in foal.  Soon we'll know.  Tommy does have several foals around. One is a second-generation teaser and the rest are 4-H ponies.  Did I say that he is actually a large pony?  We think he is Welsh or part Welsh, but we don't care.  The mares respond to him, and that's what's important.

2/11/2001

We're out of here!

2/10/2001

WTBA Annual Awards Dinner see Awards for Griffin Place results

2/8/01

Washington grows some of the finest timothy and alfalfa in the world. So high in quality is this forage that it is routinely exported to breeders in Dubai and Japan. The yearlings demonstrate their appreciation for Mary Lous' fine quality hay

8/4/01

You'd think these guys had never seen a dog before. Sydney at work!

02/03/2001

This appeared in the Letters to the Editor of the Blood Horse:

"Dear Editor,

Thank you for running a recap online of the speech by the Aga Khan at the Thoroughbred Breeders Association Awards Dinner in London.

I applaud the Aga Khan for sounding a warning about too many mares being bred to certain stallions. When shuttle stallions are breeding 300 or more mares a year, and non-shuttle stallions are breeding 150, even 175 or more, then we have to be very concerned about how these large books will affect the future of the Thoroughbred.

We already know how it will affect the market. As a small market breeder, I have always had to choose my matings carefully, but now I find myself also selecting stallions based on the number of mares in their book. I can see that unless a yearling is in the top 10% or so of a stallion's crop based on quality of pedigree and conformation, the breeders do not have a chance of breaking even. Add to that the uncertainty of the market and it becomes a real challenge to make a profit for the mare owner.

I also think a big "thank you" is in order to Seth Hancock of Claiborne Farm, and farms like his that are holding the line on the size of their horses' books. I admire Claiborne for its restraint.

I call on The Jockey Club to consider limiting the number of mares being bred by any one stallion in any one year. The number could be 80, 90, 100, or better yet, 50 or 60. Perhaps this would be judged a restraint of trade; perhaps it would be judged good husbandry. However, in the long run, I think it would be best for the breed as well as best for the breeders.

Mary Lou Griffin"

1/28/01

Two more foals. A filly out of Banchory Jewel by Basket Weave owned by Tom and Wayne Wenzel (Round Table Racing) foaled 1/26/01 at 1:00PM. A filly out of No Lost Action by Son Of Briartic owned by Griffin Place foaled 1/27/01at 7:00PM.

1/1/01

According to the Jockey Club rules, all Thoroughbreds turn one year older every January 1st. So the weanlings are now yearlings no matter when they  foaled last year.

Always trying to impress the girls, the colts are doing their best to show off. The rough and tumble play helps foster the competetive edge needed to be a good racehorse.