Adorable Horse-Rescue Girl

By Kitson

I love getting to me all kinds of horse people in my travels... check out this cute horse rescue girl I wrote about in Rescue Me magazine.

Barn Drama article in the Wall Street Journal

We have all been there. . .barn drama. Someone leaves in a huff, someone badmouths someone else's horse/trainer/barn manager. . .

Well, now this phenomenon is receiving national attention. Barn drama, reports Lauren Lipton in the Wall Street Journal, is an occupational hazard for barn managers. "There are overprotective owners who insist their animals be treated like porcelain figurines, and neglectful owners who never show up. There are "back seat riders," as some call them, who love to criticize other people's technique. Some freak out over a stray wisp of hay in the barn aisle. . ."

Another quote: "Give them a consuming hobby centered on a delicate, expensive living creature. Put them in close quarters, often with children and dogs that run amok, spooking the horses, and let the backbiting begin."

Sound familiar?

Park Police Paint

By Kitson

I snapped this shot of a Park Police horse (a paint!) while sitting at a red light on the way to the get my car inspected on Friday. I loved the horse's on-the-job expression in contrast with the grim Cherry trees (still on winter mode) and the sad, empty paddle boats bobbing in the Tidal Basin (no hoards of tourists or sunny days yet). That's the Jefferson Memorial across the water (it's man-made body of water that protects the National Mall from potential flooding of the Potomac River). Is it April yet?

Over the Fence

My editor at Young Rider and Horse Illustrated magazines recently asked me to blog a bit on HorseChannel.com, which is shortly to become HorseIllustrated.com. (I just noticed the nice promo which features my horse, Taff and my dog, Rex!).

As for the name, "Over the Fence," it refers to one of the things I like doing most at the barn: leaning on the fence and admiring the horses on the other side of it. This weekend, I wrote a bit about a new pony my boys have started riding. A few more pics here.

Eliza's horse, Sugar, gives us the busy signal.
Would love to come over and say hi but I've got grass to eat!

Max shares his carrot with Paddles.

Shares some of his carrot, I meant.

The boys asked about the marks on Paddles' rear. I told them ponies are like little boys, they get scrapes and cuts but it's usually no big deal.

Live Foal Cam at New Bolton makes ABC news

I'd also like to applaud ABC news here for using the term "mare," which is a bit inside baseball, but definitely makes the most sense here, rather than "horse." This delivery is particularly special because it involves in vitro fertilization. "My Special Girl's foal was conceived with a donor egg and the frozen sperm of a dead stallion, both from New Bolton Center. Her foal will be the first at Penn Vet," says the story on the ABC news website.

Foal cam is here.

Skijoring! What is it, and what does it have to do with horses?

Fortunately, the answers to both questions are in this New York Times article. (Sometimes I wonder if I should have another blog that is just Every New York Times Article That Mentions Horses.)

There's a great slide show and information about this sport--think waterskiing, but with horses--as well as discussion of its dangers and history.

Give a girl the right shoes. . .

An equestrian twist on an old saying: http://tr.pinterest.com/pin/366339750910287737/

Best Nail Polish Short Film I've Ever Seen

Click here to check out Lady in Black.

A Visit to Glenhaven Farm

By Kitson

It's not every day you drive by the birthplace of your horse by accident, but it happened to me. It involved a hasty u-turn, spilled hot chocolate in the backseat and a few complaints from my young passengers (are we home yet?). But there it is -- how can you just drive past the birthplace of your horse without stopping (even if it meant certain passengers missed an NFL kickoff on TV)? I couldn't, so we did.

A cruise down the driveway turned into a lovely visit with the farm's owner and resident Welsh Cob and pony breeder, Suzanne Moody. We had a grand time visiting with the beautiful ponies and cobs, admiring the farm's rolling hills and making plans to return in April when her next batch of babies will have been born...

These two Section B Welsh pony yearlings seemed happy enough to see us.

welcome wagon

Very cool, unnerving 1920s-era photo of horses and people dressed as skeletons

Sometimes I am just wandering the Internet as if I were wandering in a new city or something. I have a vague destination, but it is really more about what I could find along the way. Today it was a hunt for images of the racehorse Exterminator. That led to a site called Retronaut, and next thing I knew I was looking at an unforgettable image of an adult and child dressed as skeletons along with their horses. A hunt country Halloween parade? Check it out here.

Article about Sunny Hale, world's most famous female polo player

Here is another New York Times article. (I scan the entire world for articles about horses in non-horse publications so you don't have to.) Fascinating piece by Geraldine Fabrikant about a part of the horse world I don't know too much about--polo. The piece says that women are the fastest-growing part of the sport, so maybe it is time for me to take up the mallet. (Kitson, how do you think Sugar would feel about becoming a polo pony?) This is a profile of the wonderfully-named Sunny Hale, who is the most famous female polo player in the world. (Best detail may be about her mom, Sue Sally Hale, who played before women could play, so "disguised herself as a man by tucking up her hair, taping down her breasts and painting on a mustache. She played under the name A. Jones." 

Makes me sad to hear about a racetrack closing. . .

Just one less link of people to horses. . .here's a well done piece from the New York Times on the closing of Hollywood Park.

Fashion Models + Horses

A friend shared a link to this HorseNation post yesterday and I thought it was the funniest thing I have seen all week. I find it so distracting when catalogs models stand there all awkward when forced to pose with a horse.

Shania Twain Loves Horses

By Kitson

WOW -- what an entrance! Check out this video of Shania Twain and many of the horses she has worked with and loved.

The New York Times, Weddings, and Horses

The New York Times has had quite a bit of horsey coverage over in their Vows department. Check out this charming video about two equestrians who compete against each other, and are getting married, too. Their horses are beautiful, they are both good riders, I love the fiddle soundtrack, and they even cover the uncomfortable topic of watching someone you love do something so dangerous (jumping horses.) And also, check out this Vows piece about someone who declares she hates horses, and ends up marrying a polo player. (That one sounds like a movie. What happens when. . .)

Looking Forward to the Mine That Bird Movie; 50-1

Because of my obsession with Exterminator, the 30-1 longshot who won the Derby in 1918, I love a Derby longshot story. I am very pleased that there is a movie being made about Mine That Bird, the 2009 winner, called, appropriately enough, 50-1. It was mostly shot in New Mexico, and will premiere there. Calvin Borel plays himself, and Skeet Ulrich is in it too. The trailer comes out in mid-December and the movie comes out March 21.

Horses That Look Like Miley Cyrus

For so many reasons, I am probably the last person who should ever go on Buzzfeed. I always end up looking at way too many lists, and I am so pop-culture ignorant that half the time I don't even know what I am looking at. This, however, caught my eye. Yes, it is horses that look like Miley Cyrus. Flashback picture: Miley Cyrus riding horseback in 2009.

Sports Illustrated Longform Piece on Jeff Lukas

I'm a little late pointing this one out, but Sports Illustrated ran a really interesting longform piece about Jeff Lukas by Tim Layden. Here is the way you get into a story; Layden writes, "It’s a very different life from the one he once lived, when some of the wealthiest and most powerful men in America gave his father their money to buy and race thoroughbreds, and his father entrusted him with much of the work involved in developing those horses into wildly profitable running and breeding machines. But that was before the accident that almost killed him." Click here to read the rest.

Bill Hyers: A pretty good horse-picker

Today's Washington Post has an article about a campaign manager named Bill Hyers. As they do for many people, horses (these are Thoroughbreds) provide him with something outside the norm of his hectic and pressure-filled life. Beautiful photos, fascinating subject--a man who calls himself a pretty good horse-picker--and a great read.

Mt. Furball

By Kitson

A chilly day at the barn had me admiring the winter coats that Chico and Taff have been growing...

A peachy haflinger mountain of warm horse hair against a brilliant, cold Midatlantic sky today.

Taff is registered as black but...

My fingers were so cold I couldn't keep my iPhone steady, which resulted in Chico gaining and extra leg and some weird fur patterns in his hair.