Here’s an inspirational story about an occupational therapist teaching South African street children to ride horses.
The horse has had many roles in our society, some of which have been replaced by technology (eg., transportation, war, food) … however some of the horse’s most important roles in human lives remain vital. Horses are wonderful therapy, as [...]
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Last weekend I visited our local Boston racetrack, Suffolk Downs, for an instant trip back in time. The white fences, the green landscaped infield, the mixed scents of horses, concessions and people, the growing excitement as a race approaches … it was a scene both nostalgic and modern.
Festivals and horses are an ancient tradition. Milling [...]
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It doesn’t make sense, but (horse) Show Jumping is one of the world’s youngest professional sports. Organized jumping is barely 100 years old. It was not known that horses could jump large fences until the 18th Century, when fox hunting was threatened by the Enclosure Laws that fenced previously open land.
A century ago we seemed [...]
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I recently watched the live video feeds from two major international jumping events, The Syracuse Invitational and the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto. The horses look great, the riders are skilled, the competition level is high and humane. Both are well-run by innovative management.
The only lack was in the Announcing. Show jumping is like [...]
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Our relationship with the horse predates literacy, but both tomb relics and modern records agree that most of history’s leading societies possessed the highest skill in horsemanship. Clearly there is more to a horse than meets the eye.
Equestrian skill was important for prowess in battle, and advantage could be attained by advances in horse care, [...]
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The Legend of the Great Horse traces horsemanship from its earliest beginnings. The premise of the story is that Meagan, a horse-interested teenager of modern day, is whisked back in time to relive history … on horseback. As she travels in “jumps” from the earliest days of man’s association with horses, Meagan and the [...]
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In researching Eclipsed by Shadow and the other books of the Great Horse trilogy, it became clear there is a universal equestrian literary tradition. From the ancient Greek General Xenophon’s Anabasis, one of the earliest surviving works of journalism, through chivalric literature to Romantic novels to pulp westerns and up through today, horses have been [...]
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It’s hard not to notice the disdain with which some sports watchers treat Dressage. They give silly quotes to media people that produce articles like: “Olympic dressage events leave Hong Kong’s horse racing fans yawning.”
Well of course they are yawning. You don’t get your Olympic thrills through eventing dressage, which is only more interesting than [...]
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In writing Eclipsed by Shadow, I researched the history of the original Olympic Games and their relation to horses. The original Olympics were a religious ceremony, and were as much a poetry contest as a sporting event. The equestrian events were considered an athletic poem. They were a major focus of the original Games.
We have [...]
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