Zmuda the Filly

Today we had such an AWESOME experience!  One of Richard's former students purchased a race horse and named her Zmuda in honor of Richard.  She is at Kenny McPeek's training center in Summerfield, Florida (which is a huge complex - look it up on their website, and then go to Google Earth to see the layout).  Since we're sort of in the neighborhood, I emailed McPeek Racing to see if we could stop by and meet Zmuda.

Kenny McPeek personally answered my email, and had me contact Dominic Brennan who works there, (he seems to head up the training schedule).  We arranged to go there today, and what an opportunity! These pictures just don't do it justice.

First, we had an hour and a half drive over there, through beautiful horse country. The weather was perfect; warm and sunny.

We got there, and there was a sign out front that McPeek Racing had won the 2020 Preakness, so we were at the right place.  I had to call Dominic to get the gate code, and then we were in!

A beautiful winding drive led us in, a few small homes on the left side of the drive, and a huge mansion overlooking a small lake on the right side of the drive.  The beautiful oaks with Spanish moss lined the drive up to the barns.

There are four barns with rows of stalls on each side of each barn, and then there are paddocks with small stalls where the horses can get out and stretch.

Zmuda is in the barn on the left, on the back side at the far end.

The track is to the left as we are facing the barns above.

The paddocks sit in front of the barns, as you're coming in to the facility.   There are probably 20 to 30 paddocks. (I didn't count them)

Mike checking out one of the horses. They all wanted attention!

We got out of the car, and started walking toward a group of people standing in between the barns, with the track behind them.  As we walked up, Sonny the yellow lab came up to greet us.  Then Kenny introduced himself, and the others who were with him, and then we met Dominic.  They were so kind and welcoming.

They walked us to the viewing stand and we watched the first group of horses training.

That's Kenny!

Dominic mentioned that Zmuda would be training in the next group, and told us where we could find her to get a close look at her.  She's in stall #10.

All of the horses have tags on their stalls with their name, birth date, and parentage.

And here she is:

She's beautiful - about 14 hands

Here she comes ready for her training session. Notice her left front foot is white - she's easy to spot on the track in the group.

On the track.

Zmuda is in the middle

In this one she's on the outside. Kenny is videoing the group.

Zmuda is on the outside in this short video (above).  I was expecting them to come around again, but they only went twice around the track.

After watching Zmuda on the track, we went to see the farrier working.  He said they only put front shoes on the young horses, and will put rear shoes on when they start racing.  I didn't notice that Zmuda had shoes on yet, but Kim said that Nick (the owner) had sent Richard Zmuda's baby shoes. After further research, I found that racehorses have aluminum shoes, because they are lighter.  That makes sense if you want to be fast!

Notice how shiny the shoes are

We went to see Zmuda one more time.  She had been hosed off, and was being walked around the barn to cool down.

And then she got put in her stall and got to have a snack. Hay!  Yum!!

I emailed Kenny to thank him for his hospitality, and he responded that it was his pleasure and to come back any time!  Kim and Richard - ya'll should plan a trip down here to meet Zmuda the Filly!!