My Soapbox for Equestrian Writings
One of the most famous shots from old cowboy movies is the leap across the canyon for the movie Three Jumps Ahead, released in 1923, featuring Tom Mix and his excellent horse Tony. Mix, born in Mix Run, Penn., on Jan. 6, 1880, was Hollywood’s first Western megastar and is credited with defining the genre […]
Read More
For all of us Charlie Mackesy fans, the new short film based on The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse book is a must see. The short film, which debuted on Apple TV on Christmas Day, features an award-winning cast of actors, including Tom Hollander as ‘the mole’, Idris Elba OBE as ‘the […]
Read More
The Mustangs: America’s Wild Horses is a beautifully shot documentary that provides a somewhat rose-colored glasses view on the dilemma that America’s wild horses find themselves in today: namely, a fast-growing population that is competing for limited resources and under siege by ranchers, the Bureau of Land Management and unscrupulous dealers who ship the horses […]
Read More
Next up on the Covid-19 viewing schedule for me is the Nature program Equus: The Story of the Horse. I missed it when it first aired, but it’s still available to watch for free online. The relationship between man and his noble steed is almost as old as civilization itself. Ever since the mysterious beginning […]
Read More
Okay, if you’re stuck in your house and desperately looking for a riding fix, dial-up Ride Like a Girl on Netflix, sit back and enjoy the ride. There are no spoilers here. You know right from the beginning that Michelle Payne becomes the first female jockey to win Australia’s Melbourne Cup in 2015. After all, […]
Read More
Some days you just have to watch people riding fast. The legendary “cliff ride” in the Man from Snow River (1982) still stands as the most impressive horse chase scene in the movies. While many people assumed the ride was faked, actor Tom Burlinson (Jim) has confirmed that he did the ride himself. Burlinson wasn’t […]
Read More
What would you buy? That’s how much Rita Crundwell embezzled from the town of Dixon, Illinois over the 23 years she worked as the town’s comptroller. By day she was a civil servant. On her own time, she used that money to build a fantasy lifestyle replete with champion quarter horses, custom made saddles and […]
Read More
Mr. Ed, the talking horse, was a staple of my childhood. The series ran from 1961 to 1966 — so I must have watched it a bit later than that, but I was still young enough for it to be magical. And not entirely unbelievable. “A horse is a horse, of course, of course, and […]
Read More