by Dan Rosenberg

At one time, we had a busy season and a slow season. Now we have a busy season and an insane season. But while December is still busy, it is as slow as it gets.

The long days and longer nights of the foaling and breeding season have blurred and faded in memory. The pace and the pressure have slowed. The midnight call is unexpected. The pressures of sales are over, and we are either celebrating our triumphs or licking our wounds tenderly while looking at the weanling crop with anticipation for next year. Either way, the money's all been spent.

The fields are fertilized, harrowed, aerated, and seeded, all with the hopes that the pasture will recover from the beating it took from the heat and drought of summer and that by April it will be lush and thick and green.

If there is any pressure at all these days, it is to finish repairing and painting fences, to paint barns and gates, or to finish that construction project before the weather gets bad. Mornings are cold and the horses love it, all running around with their tails up in the air just for the fun of it. There is not a prettier sight. Weanlings are in their new home, the yearling barn. It is sort of like getting out of grade school and moving on to junior high.

The mares have been rearranged according to status and foaling dates. Barren and maiden mares are in the light barn. Early foaling mares are in the foaling barn and already under constant observation. The later foaling mares are waiting in other barns until it is their time to move into the maternity ward. Stud fees have been set. Mating plans have mostly been made, and seasons have been applied for.

If you are going to take any vacation time, this is probably the best chance you will get because foaling and breeding are just around the corner.

Of course, there are always some worries. How am I going to fill those empty stalls? How am I going to keep up with rising expenses? And the nagging worry at the back of a manager's mind these days is mares aborting. We are in the last trimester now, which is when many abortions occur. I don't know why, but it seems in my experience that a lot of them occur on Christmas morning.

But more than anything at this time of year, there is hope and there are dreams. We are looking forward to the first foal of the year, the first crop of a new stallion, the foal out of our best mare who is in foal to a stallion who is as hot as can be. Our weanlings are turning into yearlings, and some of the ugly ducklings will turn into swans.

We have yearlings about to be two-year-olds, and all the people at the training centers are telling us, "They're doing everything right." Who knows what they might turn in to? We have two-year-olds turning three who either had great freshman years and are gearing up for big stuff, or they finally are coming together and overcoming all the little problems that plagued them.

Nobody at this time of year owns a horse with no talent. We're waiting for Keeneland in April. We can't wait to see the two-year-olds start and to find out how the freshman sires are doing. We're eagerly anticipating the Kentucky Derby (G1) preps and the Derby itself.

It has been said many times before, but I'll say it again. This game has a lot of disappointments and frustrations. This business is tough, and it will beat you down. But at the same time, it is all about hopes and dreams. Optimists and dreamers allowed only. Pessimists can't play. This is a great time of year, and I can't wait until next year.

Dan Rosenberg, owner of Rosenberg Thoroughbred Consulting, is a consultant to "Farm Management News" and a regular columnist