Adelaide HOTWALKING?!!

HOTWALKING ADELAIDE?!!

Before anyone begins thinking hotwalking means "lady of the night," uh...NO.🤔  

Rather instead think horses...  

Back in the 1970's as I was finishing up my Theatre Scene Design program I suddenly found myself a bit detoured by my first spine surgery when I was at the age of nineteen.  Unfortunately complications during surgery necessitated my learning to walk again.  Yet true to my indomitable spirit I did, even inspiring a few others along the way too.

During this period since I had been unable to work I desperately needed income so I could finish school.  And keep my horse Selah.  I just had to find temporary work in the midst of all this near school.

At racetracks one can almost always find work and be paid each day too, by working as a hotwalker.  You see racehorses are exercised or worked each morning beginning around 3-4am.  Backstretch life comes alive early every day.

Usually while horses are being worked grooms and other staff are mucking out the empty stalls while each horse is out.  Grooms are also very busy saddling up each horse getting it ready too.

After a horse has been galloped it gets hot.  It must be walked to cool down which is when hotwalkers are needed year round.  It may first be sponged down a bit to remove sweat, then hotwalked for thirty minutes or longer.

Those without experience with horses never last long.

As I have touched on here before, a horse immediately knows if a hooman is inexperienced and it will always seize the moment to either escape or to show the hooman a thing or two.  Horses can be very good at this.

Obviously when I showed up at 3am one morning, Chuck was first shocked to meet someone shorter than jockeys are, then had concerns if I had any ability handling a horse.  I came prepared.  I brought a photo of me riding bareback as always at full gallop on Selah my horse.

Chuck told me later he still had concerns about my being able to handle young Thoroughbreds...that is until I was given my first one to hotwalk.  A feisty colt with only a leadrope.  

I am going to let dear Chuck, the best backstretch boss one could ever have tell you what happened next.

"'Dere I wuz watchin' Miz Adelaide cuz I wuz afeard dis job might jus be too much fer her an she shor enuf 

sho-ed me!  That dere colt lifted her right on up!  We rushed ovah dere.  Heah she wuz calmlay hangin' in thuh air holdin on to thuh haltere askin us tuh hand her thuh leadshank with thuh brass chain."

"So whut did ya do?"

"I han-ded her dat leadshank!  An do ya know whut?  While she wuz still hangin in thuh air she took dat chain, hooked it on thuh haltere neah thuh colts ear, den putz it in itz mouff den thru de othah side of itz haltere jus lak a pro an BAM!"

"Whut happened?!!"

"She had dat colt in her powah!  An she walked it!  Nevah had anothuh problum wif it!  Nevah saw enythang lak dis in all muh yeahs a doin' dis.  Dat laydah shor has thuh Magic, I tell yuh."

After that any reservations Chuck had about my being able to handle these horses were blown away.  He saw me handling them very gently, yet with a kind firm hand only as needed to help remind them I was in control.

One morning around 8am a man named Sherrod showed up seeking to hotwalk. 

Chuck told him, "Son, fuh one thang ya gotta sho up heah by 3:30am tuh do dis werk.  An ya sho caint come heah duh-ressed inna shirt an tie cuz dey will git 

ru-unned!  Why ya come duh-ressed lak dat heah?"

"Well why not?!!  How dirty can one get walking a horse?"

"Son, why is ya needin tuh werk heah?"

"Not that it's any of your business, I kind of got in trouble gambling and need money."

"Son, has ya eveh walked a horse befoe?"

"No, but if that midget and you black people can do this, I sure as hell can and I'll do it even better too!"

Instead of having Sherrod tossed out on that Chuck told him to go get a horse out of a stall and walk it over to where we were.  In that stall was a filly.  

Have I mentioned yet about the large carts loaded with manure from cleaning the stalls?  This one hadn't been taken to be emptied yet.  Some of it was quite fresh.

Sherrod barely got inside that horse's stall when it lunged at him riping a huge section out of his shirt with its' teeth.  Unfortunately for Sherrod, when he backed up to save his body from having the same fate as his shirt he fell backwards into the horse manure.  DEEP into the manure.

Lucas who was near, first closed the stall to keep the filly from getting out, then gave Sherrod a hand freeing himself from his stinking predicament.  It was terribly difficult to keep our composure even if he had it coming for being so rude.

Still we gave him clean towels to remove some of the manure.

A contrite Sherrod decided the job just wasn't for him, then even mumbled something about wishing us all well as he left.

Interestingly none of the rest of us ever had a problem with that horse.

I fit right in with the backstretch gang and so loved my time with them all.  Worked there for nearly two years as I finished school.  But the time came for me to do my theatre internship and begin my career.

The guys so would have loved it if I could have stayed but certainly understood why I needed to move on.

So your hotwalking Adelaide became Scene Designing Adelaide.