Holy Moses

The shed row in Mr. Tom’s barn at the training center is neatly raked in a herringbone pattern. Racehorses with gleaming coats hang their heads out over the stall guards. The help, all female, have welcoming smiles. The five-year-old gelding I had come to see had had 19 career starts, with four firsts, two seconds, and three thirds, in the money 47% of the time. In the last six months he had slipped down in class and was racing in $5,ooo claimers. His owner who bred him and cared a great deal for him, felt it was time to give him a new life, before he was claimed away, before he broke down. I love owners like that. I told the him so when he called me about the horse and asked me to go look at him.

“What’s his name?” I asked.

“Holy Moses,” he replied.  “He’s by Holy Bull out of an Affirmed mare named So Right.”

“That’s the BEST NAME!!” I told him. I meant it too.  A good, strong name that made me smile.  

When Mr. Tom unhooked the stall guard and I stepped inside, Holy Moses was facing the wall. The first thing that impressed me was his thick and lustrous tail. You rarely see a natural one like that. It was attached to a lovely blood bay rump. 

I lingered at the threshold. "Hey, Moses,” I said quietly. Years ago I had learned from my Andalusian stallion, Legado, that horses value their space and their privacy. We humans need to heed and respect that. I was new in my relationship with Legado. I had never had an Andalusian, an amazingly perceptive and sensitive breed. I had handled TB colts, but not stallions. As usual I was in a hurry to get through my barn day. I swooped up Legado’s halter and barged in. He was munching hay at the front of the stall. His head shot up, his nostrils flared and he whirled around showing me his fine rump, and cocking his right hind foot. Then he looked back at me and fixed me in with a stern paternal stare.

“RUDE dear girl! EXCEEDINGLY RUDE!” his look said. “Start over, please.”

So I did, backing up, shutting the door, and reopening it. “Hello, Legado. May I come in?” He peered at me. Then he tossed his head slightly, turned around, and walked straight up to me.  

Legado has taught me to be mannerly around a horse.

I have never forgotten that lesson.

I applied it with Moses. I stood at the front of the stall and waited for him to acknowledge my greeting. He stayed against the back wall but he did look at me. I took a took a small step closer and stretched out my hand for him to sniff.

His expression changed from defensive to surprised and he stepped in my direction.

“Would you like to come out of the stall so I can look at you, Moses?  Is that possible, Mr. Tom?”

“Sure Susanna,” he said. When he led  Moses out, I noticed that his feet had been freshly painted. I appreciated the attention to detail. The horse was in beautiful condition. 

Moses had raced the day before in a $5000 claimer and won. His ankles, although enlarged and knobby, had no effusion and only the right one had a bit of heat. I've seen ankles a day after cross country that looked worse. The tendons were smooth and tight. Like all racehorses when trotted out, he was skittish but I caught glimpses of good reach with his shoulder and his steps were even.

I put great stock in a horse’s eye. Conformation is important. Injury history is crucial. But the trump card that will make or break my decision of whether to take a horse on or not always, without fail, is the eye. Specifically what I see in there, and, as I have said many times, my gut reaction to it.

Moses had the expression of an infantry soldier, dutiful and guarded. This was a horse who knew and did his job, a horse that didn’t demand or expect much from people. He was told what to do. He did it. End of story. 

“What a good man, you are Moses,” I said to him in a slow voice. I let him smell my hand. “My I touch you?” He stared at me and then tolerated my slow scratching of his forehead.

Moses was in amazing condition the day that I first saw him at the track

When I stroked his neck, he flinched and raised it out of reach. His muscles felt like concrete. When I ran my hand down his back, he buckled slightly. Clearly this horse was sore. I knew why: his sacrum was maligned and he had cervical disks going every which way. I could tell that from how he walked. And things had been out for a while. That’s why he lacked at topline and and had developed a huge underneck muscle to compensate.

I went back to his head and stroked his forelock. His eye got soft. He sighed.

By the end of our first meeting at the track,
 Moses’ eye got soft and kind.

“I think he’d be a great candidate for the MMSC,” I said, “but first I would need a set of x-rays on those ankles first to see what’s going with him and what he can and cannot do.”

I got lucky. The owner sent me x-rays not only of the ankles, but of every joint! I forwarded them on to our vet, Dr. True Baker at Hagyard, and he got back to me right away. “Nothing to worry about.”

So Moses came to the MMSC. I was out when he arrived but as soon as I came into the office, I was told about his arrival. I went straight to the barn.

“What do you think of him?” I asked the interns who were with me.  

“He’s got no topline,” said one.

“And a huge underneck,” said another.

“He’s really nervous,” said Hannah, “but I think he’s cute.”

“Do you, Hannah?" I looked at her. “Then you’re going to be the one assigned to to the job of socializing him!” I told her.

I opened the stall door and showed her what Legado had taught me. I demonstrated how to stroke Moses always being mindful of where he flinched and how much pressure he could tolerate. Moses was stand-offish, his eye defensive.

“I call that the ‘Noli me tangere’ look, Hannah. Ever heard that phrase? It’s Latin meaning ‘Don’t touch me.’ Jesus said it to Mary Magdalene when she saw him for the first time outside of his grave. Your job will be to change his expression to a soft welcoming one.”

She looked dubiously at me.

“Oh, don’t worry. He will come around quickly. You’ll start seeing the change in a few days. In a month, he’ll be a different horse.

“How do you know?”

“I just know. I saw it in his eye. This horse has big heart. He wants to be of service. Mark my words, he is the most magnanimous horse in the barn. And he has the best name and the best tail in the barn to boot!”

Cheery bye,

Susanna

Why is lustrous highlighted?

Because it is  the Blog Word of the Day:

 Help us reach our goal of 112,000 total blog visitors this year! Join our Word of the Day contest and you could be entered in a grand prize drawing to win a $500 horse credit at the MMSC or a Breyer model of Secretariat signed by Secretariat’s jockey Ron Turcotte! Simply read the blog every Sunday and find the highlighted Word of the Day. Then write a sentence using the word and submit it to mmsc04@gmail.com for a chance to be entered to win! Please read the full contest details below before submitting an entry.

• Blogs will be posted on Sundays. A chosen word will be highlighted within each blog post.
• Sentences using the highlighted word must be emailed to mmsc04@gmail.com with the subject line “Word of the Day Contest”.
• Entries may be submitted each week following a blog post from the posted time through Thursday at 5:00 pm.
• Winners will be posted on the MMSC Facebook page each Friday following a blog post.
• Entries must include the highlighted word of the day. The word of the day may be used in other parts of speech other than the one used in the blog, i.e. the highlighted word in the blog may be "malleability" but entrants may use the more common form "malleable" in their sentences.
• Entries must also include the entrant’s full name (first and last) and email address.
• Entrants may submit more than one sentence for consideration.
• Sentences will be judged based on correct use of the word of the day, grammar and sentence structure, and creativity. 
• Sentences will be judged by the MMSC staff, including MMSC Director Susanna Thomas, MMSC Barn and Media Manager Catherine Flowers, and MMSC Office Manager Lori Tobin.
• Winners of each word of the day contest throughout the year will be entered in a grand prize drawing to win their choice of either a $500 horse credit toward an MMSC horse available for adoption or a Breyer model of Secretariat signed by Ron Turcotte. To use the $500 horse credit, the winner must become an approved adopter with the MMSC and follow all adoption policies and procedures.
• The grand prize drawing will be held at the end of the year after Christmas and prior to New Year’s Eve.
• Please note: The MMSC requires at least 100 distinct and individual entries in this contest in order to announce a grand prize winner at the end of the year.
• Disclaimer: This contest does not have a connection with Blogspot or Facebook in any way and is not sponsored, supported, or organized by Blogspot or Facebook. The recipient of the information provided by you is not Blogspot or Facebook but the Maker's Mark Secretariat Center.

True North

We all have an inner compass. It’s located in our gut which, like our brain is loaded with neurotransmitters. Our heads, however, are garrulous and weighty with their own self importance. Our gut speaks humbly and quietly. That’s why we often ignore it. At a steep price! Block out that inner GPS and you will deviate from your own true north, missing your destination. At best, that’s annoying and expensive. At worst, it’s heartbreaking and risky, especially when it comes to horses.  So I try to listen to that inner voice at all times.

But I get busy and harried. I worry daily about the MMSC’s bottom line. I see every invoice and strive to cut costs while maintaining the highest standards in all that we do with and for our horses. When a horse gets adopted, I feel an enormous pressure to get it shipped out so it stops incurring costs. Besides I have horses waiting to come in. I have people waiting for new horses. Grant donors want to see how many horses you have moved through your program in a year. Board members do too. (Or at least, I want the board members to be happy!) The voices in my head surge like a mighty chorus drowning out the inner small, still one despite my best intentions. This week was the perfect example. Thankfully, a horse and young girl came to my inner voice’s rescue, saving me from a disturbing deviation.

In early April we had a visit from a mother and her fourteen year old daughter who needed to make a transition from ponies to her first horse. The trainer came too to make sure that she got the absolutely right horse, a confidence building mount with scope. The young girl had been researching off track Thoroughbreds and was heart bound to adopt one. There was one at the MMSC that she had had her eye on Jazz Fest (“Jay-Z). In fact, based on what she had seen on the website, in her mind he was already hers. But as it so often happens, when she rode him, they had no karma.

So she tried two others, Double Minded (“Dublin”) and Pain Giver (“Rondo"). Dublin (left) was the perfect transition for a young person going from a pony to a horse, kind and reliable, but limited in scope. 

Rondo (right)  came to the MMSC fully schooled. He jumped 3.6" He did lead changes. He had been to shows. He came off the track as a two year old and was scooped up by a talented teenaged rider named Sam. They  grew up together over the ensuing four years. Once, out of school, however, Sam couldn’t give Rondo the time and care he deserved, so she gave him to her aunt who had a riding school where, Lilly, our interim barn manager, was working. On the surface it seemed a good plan: Sam could keep track of Rondo and ride him when visiting. But Rondo didn’t take to being a school horse. He is a sensitive, monogamous one-rider-only kind of horse. Multiple riders of varying levels flustered and annoyed him. He grew tense, defensive, and peevish. Lilly, Sam, and Sam’s aunt knew that he needed a different solution. So he came to the MMSC to find his new forever person.

As fate would have it, when the fourteen year old started with Rondo, the heavens opened up.  She tried valiantly to ride in the driving rain but when lightening flashed nearby, she had to give up. It wasn’t much of a trial.

I knew that. But I thought she rode him well, and despite horrible weather, he was very good with her, which was a really good sign.  On the other hand, Rondo had shadows. He had come to the MMSC needing emotional and mental stability. It would take time and finesse to bond with him. There was no telling when or how his angst or anger might resurge and be expressed. That made him a tricky fit for anyone, most especially a 14 year old girl. 

She would need to try him again, but that was hard because she lived twelve hours away on the East Coast. I had to wait another month before they could return to the MMSC. The trainer rode Jay-Z and all was well. The fourteen year old got on Rondo and all hell broke loose. He jigged, spooked, skittered and bucked.  She blanched, not because she was scared.  She was devastated, convinced that he had cast his die: He didn’t like her.

I turned to Rondo’s original owner, Sam, who had come that day to the MMSC at my request to help if need be. 

“Can you get on your horse and see what’s going on?” I asked.

“Sure,” she said.

Rondo was much worse with Sam on his back, bucking, lunging, and bolting.

She pulled him up promptly. “Something is not right! Maybe it’s this young ladie's saddle?”

So we replaced it with Sam’s saddle. I noticed that Rondo flinched when I touched the ribs on his right side. He kicked out when I ran my hand under his belly on the left.  I doubted Sam’s saddle would change anything. It didn’t. He was in pain.

“Let’s put him on the theraplate with the revitavet on his back,” I suggested.

Twenty minutes later, observing his calmer demeanor and softer eye after these therapies, I decided to have Sam get back on him with a bareback pad to gauge where we were. 

He was a different horse. Next we put the young lady's saddle on just to see if that was the deterring factor. No. He was the old Rondo. No antics. Willing. Kind.

“You want to ride him?” I asked the girl. She thought about it and gave a tentative yes. Rondo was a gentleman with her. But I was sure there was more to it as his behavior had been so abnormal.

“We have given him a reprieve, but I don’t think he's fixed” I told the trio. "I am going to call the chiropractor to see if he can come right now. If he can come soon, might you delay your trip back to the East Coast to see what he says?” I asked.

They agreed and waited until 5 PM. The chiropractor’s pronouncement came as no surprise: “He’s a skeletal train wreck!” Rondo’s ribcage was dropped and his sternum malaligned, as if he had received a blow to the back from a rambunctious playmate in the field. When his ribcage was jolted back into place, the horse let out a groan of relief that was audible throughout the barn.

“Leave him up tonight. Turn him out by himself for the next few days. Don’t ride him for a bit,” the chiropractor instructed.

After he left, the four of us sat on the floor of the shed row and talked about what to do next. The young girl wanted to stay the night and ride Rondo in the morning, but because of their tight schedule and the chiropractor’s instructions, that couldn’t happen. 

I asked if they could return the next weekend. That was out of the cards.

“How about if I send you some videos of Rondo when he is in good shape? Then maybe we can ship him to you if you decide you want him?”

We all settled on that. The girl fell silent, her face a study of worry and disappointment. I noticed, but let my brain override the observation. I was desperate to make room for new horses. 

So when the time was right--meaning when Rondo was in good shape, no rain, right rider, etc. we got the video and sent it on. Mother and trainer agreed that he had greatly improved.

 “I have to bring other horses in and begin reschooling them. I am behind schedule! I need the two horses out of here next week.”  They understood.

Then roadblocks began to surface. They couldn’t find a shipper. The timing was wrong for them because of a horse show. The expense of transit seemed too high. The worries about the fit of the pair surfaced. The trainer suggested a 60 day trial. 

I got frustrated. What was going on?   A “de-railed” feeling rumbled in my gut. Finally, it hit me! I had overridden my inner voice! 

So that night on my way home I called the trainer.

“Hey, I’ve had a realization. You and I both know that Rondo is a lovely horse. He has the scope to take your student a long way. She rode him well both times and he was good with her, despite the extenuating circumstances--the thunderstorm, the pain. It  could be a perfect fit.”

“Correct,” she said, matter-of-factly.  

“But I have left out a crucial piece in this process. I want everyone who adopts a horse from the MMSC to have pinwheels of excitement in their eyes. But that’s not the case here. Which is why you suggested a 60 day trial period. And why your aruswnr was so keen to come back to try him a third time.  I finally get it. I apologize. I was feeling harried by the MMSC’s needs. But what I feel and I need doesn’t matter. Only your student’s and Rondo’s needs and feelings do."

“Correct.”

“Please believe me when I say that my intentions are always to be horse centered. But the day to day pressures of running a non profit like this one where I am tending to sentient beings with daily needs and huge expenses wear me down. Taking the road less traveled is hard. Short cuts are enticing. I am tempted to settle. But thanks to my noisy gut, I realize it would be wrong of me to put Rondo on that long trailer ride without the assurance that this young lady is prepared to be his partner, come what may. Who wants to walk down the aisle on a 60 day trial?  I can’t do that to her or to Rondo.  She has to come back to try him again to make sure it's love. Do you think that can happen?"

“I’ll talk to them. Yes, that is what should happen,” she said.

I hung up the phone, in peace. Forget about the expenses, the grant numbers, or my pleasing the board. One has to fight the currents and winds to stay the course. By finally listening to my inner compass, I was, once again, heading true north.

Cheery bye,

Susanna

Why is garrulous highlighted?

Because it is  the Blog Word of the Day:

 Help us reach our goal of 112,000 total blog visitors this year! Join our Word of the Day contest and you could be entered in a grand prize drawing to win a $500 horse credit at the MMSC or a Breyer model of Secretariat signed by Secretariat’s jockey Ron Turcotte! Simply read the blog every Sunday and find the highlighted Word of the Day. Then write a sentence using the word and submit it to mmsc04@gmail.com for a chance to be entered to win! Please read the full contest details below before submitting an entry.

• Blogs will be posted on Sundays. A chosen word will be highlighted within each blog post.
• Sentences using the highlighted word must be emailed to mmsc04@gmail.com with the subject line “Word of the Day Contest”.
• Entries may be submitted each week following a blog post from the posted time through Thursday at 5:00 pm.
• Winners will be posted on the MMSC Facebook page each Friday following a blog post.
• Entries must include the highlighted word of the day. The word of the day may be used in other parts of speech other than the one used in the blog, i.e. the highlighted word in the blog may be "malleability" but entrants may use the more common form "malleable" in their sentences.
• Entries must also include the entrant’s full name (first and last) and email address.
• Entrants may submit more than one sentence for consideration.
• Sentences will be judged based on correct use of the word of the day, grammar and sentence structure, and creativity. 
• Sentences will be judged by the MMSC staff, including MMSC Director Susanna Thomas, MMSC Barn and Media Manager Catherine Flowers, and MMSC Office Manager Lori Tobin.
• Winners of each word of the day contest throughout the year will be entered in a grand prize drawing to win their choice of either a $500 horse credit toward an MMSC horse available for adoption or a Breyer model of Secretariat signed by Ron Turcotte. To use the $500 horse credit, the winner must become an approved adopter with the MMSC and follow all adoption policies and procedures.
• The grand prize drawing will be held at the end of the year after Christmas and prior to New Year’s Eve.
• Please note: The MMSC requires at least 100 distinct and individual entries in this contest in order to announce a grand prize winner at the end of the year.
• Disclaimer: This contest does not have a connection with Blogspot or Facebook in any way and is not sponsored, supported, or organized by Blogspot or Facebook. The recipient of the information provided by you is not Blogspot or Facebook but the Maker's Mark Secretariat Center.

ROLEX

Rolex is the the MMSC’s annual Armageddon. It’s probably the Kentucky Horse Park’s too. The entire park is rented to EEI—Equestrian Events, Inc. to put on the one and only international 4 star event in America. People stream in from across the country and around the globe. For four days the park teems with a crowd of over 75,000 - spectators, vendors, and security. Golf carts swarm on the roads like drones. In barns, grooms bustle tending to spectacular horseflesh primed like prize fighters, muscles taut, gleaming with health, power and possibility. They have a sobering task: to compete in a titanic triathlon of equestrian disciplines: testing their obedience and grace in the first phase of dressage, their athleticism and courage in the long and daunting cross country course, and their endurance and accuracy in the tricky stadium jumping portion. The reward is $100,ooo and a lovely Rolex watch. Nice, yes. But the true gain is the prestige - many have tried, few have succeeded in the last thirty plus years. Those who do become household names in the event world.

Phase one, dressage

Phase two, cross country

Phase three, stadium jumping

We didn’t have much time to prepare for Rolex this year. You know—the late start to our season, the snows, the monsoons, the Duchess of Cornwall (read my earlier blogs to get up to speed!). Then there was the Run the Bluegrass family day, the Keeneland excursion, throw in a board meeting, visits from Auburn University and the Royal College of Agriculture from England, an epidemic of scurrilous skin disease roaring through the barn, a slew of lost shoes, a bunch of abscesses, and you get the picture. 

But the show must go on. We get our horses as presentable and as schooled as possible. We assemble a small army of volunteers - a team in the barn, a team at our booth in the vendor arena, someone in the office at all times, someone driving the shuttle. It’s truly amazing to me how many people assemble when we put out the call for help. If you are one of them reading this blog, THANK YOU!

For years Felix, my 2006 Equinox, was our shuttle. May he rest in peace. He has been replaced by Jeremy, a 2004 Volvo XC90. Jeremy is quirkier than Felix. His dash flashes incomprehensible messages. His windows and moonroof leak. His rear seats refuse to budge. Nonetheless he is stalwart and serviceable. And the shuttle price is right: FREE. But this year he was shunned. No amount of smiling or explanations or even offers of Dove chocolates could sway the state troopers to let Jeremy run the mile and a half between the MMSC and our booth. This was grievous as Rolex is our biggest opportunity to showcase our horses and to get them adopted out. I tried using an alternate route that avoided the public. No go. I asked if we could rent a golf cart. Not for private citizens. I inquired about the KHP trolley. Booked. I made phone calls. Two actually. That’s the magic number my mother of “Trust But Verify” fame told me one needs to get to anyone you need. She was right. Two phone calls later we had the keys to a golf cart. Granted we had to pay for it (would anyone like to to make a contribution to cover the $590 cost? If so, go to www.secretariatcenter.org and hit “donate”), and it was small - four seats, although at one point we squeezed in nine souls. We got wet and cold running back and forth, but it was transport, and people came, as they always do in droves to look at and try our horses.

Intern, Maggie, was one of many manning the booth

The booth was busy too. People stopped to watch the videos of available horses, to look at the saddle pads, T-shirts, tote bags, and tumblers we had for sale.

They asked questions. They dropped money in our donation bowl. Many, many former adopters (I have been at the MMSC for eight years and have placed close to 300 horses in that time!) stopped by to show off pictures of their MMSC horses, to relay tales of their exploits, to give hugs and thanks for pairing them up with their best friend. It’s amazing. And humbling. There is nothing so satisfying as being of service to something bigger than oneself.

And then there were the inevitable snafus: The coffee pot didn’t work. The chocolates ran out. As we are always trying to make ends meet, we go through our inventory of donated stuff and sell what we are not able to use. This year, a vendor saw her product on our table that had been given to us by a board member two years ago and hit the roof. Speaking of the roof, the roof above our table leaked and doused us and our merchandise. Across from us was an empty booth crammed with vendor boxes and detritus. On the right we were hedged by a trio of commando-sized garbage cans. Not chic. Oh well. People still came. They still bought things. They asked about our horses and our mission. They gave hugs. All was well.

Sunday morning before the stadium jumping is usually a quiet time. Not this year. I am a big admirer of the Retired Racehorse Project, a non-profit that was founded four years ago to market Thoroughbreds in second careers. For the last two years, RRP has put on a “Thoroughbred Makeover’” that showcases what a TB can learn in a very short amount of time since it was retired from racing. In October the Makeover is going to be held at the Kentucky Horse Park for the first time. There were 250 entries to this event originally, which founder Steuart Pittman thought were unlikely to fill up. They filled up so fast that the RRP had to increase its available entries to 350. Those entries, too, flew out the door in a less than two weeks. Within six weeks of announcing the Makeover, every spot was taken, including some by us. (We have three spots still available!)

Rosie Napravnik talking about her RRP Makeover mount, Dare Me

Dorothy Crowell talking about possible choice of Carry Forward

Cathy Wieschhoff working with a possible Makeover selection

On Sunday morning we decided to showcase our Makeover Dream Team: Famed jockey Rosie Napravnik and Dorothy Trapp Crowell of international eventing fame. Rosie had already selected her MMSC horse—Dare Me and was going to tell the crowd what she liked about him and why. Dorothy was going to pick one of three horses we had for her. Event rider Cathy Wieschhoff came as well because a mare of ours had caught her eye. She, too,  joined the panel to talk about what she looks for in a horse. As did Steuart, a seasoned event rider and instructor himself.  

Over sixty people made it up to the Center, on foot, by car (no state troopers that morning), or crammed into our little golf cart that zipped back and forth. They watched Dorothy and Cathy work horses in the round pen and our riders in the arena while each professional talked about what he or she saw. They drank coffee and ate doughnuts, and looked at all of our available horses, and then, suddenly out of nowhere…THE TROLLEY ARRIVED in time to take people back to the show jumping arena for the last phase of the competition. Talk about a Godsend!

The rest of the day flew by.  Gold medalist German rider Michael Jung came in first on his mare FischerRocana. I never saw any of his rides, or anyone’s rides for that matter. The last spectators trickled out around 5:30. We broke down our booth, took care of our horses. Everyone was bleary-eyed and spent. We dribbled out slowly, one by one. Feet dragging. Yawning. Not talking much. I got home at 8:30 and was in bed fifteen minutes later. But Rolex is always like that, exhausting but exhilarating—unbelievably so. The amazing horses, the tumult of people, the old friends, the new ones, the flurry of adoptions, the ka-ching of sales, our soggy clothes, sunburnt cheeks, tired feet, dusty hair. It’s all part of it. And truly, I look forward to it every year!

Cheery bye,
Susanna 

Congratulations Michael Jung and FisherRocana!

Why is scurrilous highlighted?

Because it is  the Blog Word of the Day:

 Help us reach our goal of 112,000 total blog visitors this year! Join our Word of the Day contest and you could be entered in a grand prize drawing to win a $500 horse credit at the MMSC or a Breyer model of Secretariat signed by Secretariat’s jockey Ron Turcotte! Simply read the blog every Sunday and find the highlighted Word of the Day. Then write a sentence using the word and submit it to mmsc04@gmail.com for a chance to be entered to win! Please read the full contest details below before submitting an entry.

• Blogs will be posted on Sundays. A chosen word will be highlighted within each blog post.
• Sentences using the highlighted word must be emailed to mmsc04@gmail.com with the subject line “Word of the Day Contest”.
• Entries may be submitted each week following a blog post from the posted time through Thursday at 5:00 pm.
• Winners will be posted on the MMSC Facebook page each Friday following a blog post.
• Entries must include the highlighted word of the day. The word of the day may be used in other parts of speech other than the one used in the blog, i.e. the highlighted word in the blog may be "malleability" but entrants may use the more common form "malleable" in their sentences.
• Entries must also include the entrant’s full name (first and last) and email address.
• Entrants may submit more than one sentence for consideration.
• Sentences will be judged based on correct use of the word of the day, grammar and sentence structure, and creativity. 
• Sentences will be judged by the MMSC staff, including MMSC Director Susanna Thomas, MMSC Barn and Media Manager Catherine Flowers, and MMSC Office Manager Lori Tobin.
• Winners of each word of the day contest throughout the year will be entered in a grand prize drawing to win their choice of either a $500 horse credit toward an MMSC horse available for adoption or a Breyer model of Secretariat signed by Ron Turcotte. To use the $500 horse credit, the winner must become an approved adopter with the MMSC and follow all adoption policies and procedures.
• The grand prize drawing will be held at the end of the year after Christmas and prior to New Year’s Eve.
• Please note: The MMSC requires at least 100 distinct and individual entries in this contest in order to announce a grand prize winner at the end of the year.
• Disclaimer: This contest does not have a connection with Blogspot or Facebook in any way and is not sponsored, supported, or organized by Blogspot or Facebook. The recipient of the information provided by you is not Blogspot or Facebook but the Maker's Mark Secretariat Center.