My Soapbox for Equestrian Writings
Trust a mare to understand social distancing. Trust a hungry mare to enforce it! Zelda has always been fiercely protective of her food. Curly must know it by now, but every day she tempts fate and inches close enough to grab a few mouthfuls of alfalfa hay . . . or dives in to check […]
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During this time of learning from my living room, I’ve been taking advantage of some of the free classes offered by David Thind. The David Thind Method focuses Feldenkrais techniques and neuro-muscular programming. But today he sent out a message with a link to a YouTube class . . . on belly dancing. Certainly [it’s] […]
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We’ve seen some pretty exciting rides from event riders who have lost a stirrup on course, but this ride by steeplechase jockey Hugh Morgan, is pretty incredible. After his stirrup leather broke after the first fence, he dropped the second stirrup, then continued on for three miles and 16 more fences. Watch the video below […]
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Cribbing is in Freedom’s DNA. He is not as bad as some cribbers: he can stand on a trailer for hours without cribbing, but without a collar, he will crib consistently. In fact the days before I ordered the Dare cribbing collar, he walked over to the fencepost near the gate and cribbed while I […]
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The Saudi Cup is the world’s richest race, offering a $20-million purse, with $10 million going to the winner. There were fourteen starters, but the race was billed as a dual between Pegasus Cup winner Knicks Go and G1 Malibu winner Charlatan. No one mentioned this to Irish-bred Mishriff, who put the pressure on down […]
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Much of the talk in the development of equine helmets centers around the rollout of MIPS technology. But there is another consideration when evaluating helmet safety: namely, should you go brimmed or brimless? In eventing, the helmet of choice is typically a jockey skull cap. This design has no built-in brim. Instead, helmet covers are […]
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Horses by their very nature, excel at forgiveness. Watch some herd dynamics and you’ll see that while there can be some very articulate discussions over herd dynamics or access to food, they are brief. Horse move on. They don’t hold a grudge. At least not much. Zelda is very forgiving. Even syringing ulcer medication into […]
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Tonight was wintry and cold, with about four more inches of fresh, powdery snow. When I fed dinner, around six, it was so dark that only Zelda’s white blaze shown out in the night. On cold nights, you might think of horses tucked into stalls, but ours live outside 24/7. They have a shed but […]
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