The Legend of the Great Horse

The World Equestrian Games are a great opportunity to introduce more people to modern horse sports … since the history of horsemanship is the background of The Legend of the Great Horse trilogy, a ‘tour’ following the sports of the WEG through history might be interesting to readers:
The Sports of the World Equestrian Games Represent [...]

Horses have been with mankind since before we began the journey of civilization, and watching horses is one of mankind’s most ancient pastimes … yet modern equestrian sports are surprisingly young.

One of fascinations of equestrian sport is that half of the athlete stars are horses. There is a long list of top mounts that have become recognized by the public for having special ability, charisma and personality.
The Legend of the Great Horse trilogy (second volume to be published in the summer of 2010) incorporates the [...]

The European season of World Cup Show Jumping opened today in Oslo, Norway.
The World Cup is an extensive series of indoor qualifiers across the globe, leading to the Finals in April.
It is an interesting odd fact that horse jumping is a  young sport: the ability of horses to jump with a rider was not discovered [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

A new review by Mara Dabrishus of the blog Whitebrook Farm mentions Incitatus, a famed Roman chariot-racing stallion favored by the third Emperor Caligula (24-41 AD) to the point of obsession.
The book passage mentioning Incitatus comes during a visit to the strange library of Mrs. Bridgestone, an eccentric woman who has made a collection [...]

Naufragia was the name Romans gave to crashes during a chariot race, the shocking pileups of man, machine and thrashing horses. Naufragia is the latin word for “shipwreck,” which conjures the shocking destruction and tangled ruin that so dismayed—and ultimately delighted—the screaming spectators of the Circus.
Naufragia was ultimate disaster, an end not only to hopes [...]

In our modern society we have celebrity athletes of different sports, but this is not simply a continuation of historical tradition. Rome was the society that first grew athlete-superstars was Rome. After their collapse, Europe endured a period of centuries known as the Dark or Middle Ages in which there were no celebrity athletes. It [...]