Nice New York Times piece on the family that bred Kentucky Derby winner Orb. Post-and-rail and lush pastures galore. Orb is the seventh generation descendent of a mare the family bought in 1926: truly the breeder’s dream (NYT) A restored cheese barge (they existed!) is the first horse-drawn canal boat to cross the Chirk aqueduct …
Category Archives: Australia
Whole Heap of Little Horse Links
I’m usually sceptical about “horses stolen for meat” stories (unless they come from Florida), but this one rings true. A Romanian has been arrested in connection with the theft of several draft horses in eastern France, allegedly for the slaughter trade. Some of the horses were already being raised for meat. (The Horse) The English …
Whole Heap of Little Horse Links
eBay, I don’t believe you. That never happened in my daydreams. Right, on with a long overdue HHLHL! I’ve been busy organising a research trip for book two but the horse world went on turning, and lovely people have been sending me links, so enjoy this extra special post whose diversity reminds me why I’m …
Is Your Book Club Ready for Foal’s Bread?
There’s a “slow food” movement and a “slow beer” movement, and now a “slow books” movement, launched by Atlantic writer Maura Kelly, calling for readers to “Read books. As often as you can. Mostly classics.” Me, personally, I’d call for a splinter movement: slow books for authors. Write books. Seldom. Make them good. Don’t rush …
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Books for the Saddle Bag
Books I want to buy and read: Sometimes it’s tiresome when publishers try to ape a successful book by buying similar titles, but sometimes that policy opens the best of floodgates: suddenly writers get the chance to work on projects that would have been turned down as uncommercial till a forerunner proved otherwise. Laura Hillenbrand’s …
Whole Heap of Little Horse Links
Ponies: the fatter they are, the naughtier they be. Thelwell proved correct by science. Cheap gelding clinics are becoming a reality in the US. Here’s one in California. Jane Smiley on National Velvet. A fell pony riding holiday in Lancashire. A swimming race for horses that commemorates a Venezuelan battle of 1819. A wild stallion …
If Wishes Were Horses: The Horse That Only I Could Ride
Well, this was a rum chapter. I really wasn’t anticipating that imaginary horses would end up linked to human ponies, but it turned out that they are, you could say, the same thing. The links for anything concerning ponyplay (the practice of dressing up in PVC horse outfits) are obviously for those over the age …
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Shetlands: The Source of Speed
Further research into the equine speed gene “C” has revealed a surprising conclusion, although I think it’s been misreported by the Irish Telegraph, which boldly claims that Dr Hill’s study showed that the speed gene entered bloodlines when the Darley Arabian, the Godolphin Arabian and the Byerley Turk were bred with native British horses, mainly …
Bros and (My Little) Ponies and Satanism
The “brony” phenomenon continues apace. Here’s a high school graduation speech inspired by the My Little Pony movies. Meanwhile, local TV in the US debates the moral content of the pink ponies: I freely admit to knowing nothing about gaming, but even I’ve picked up the fact that a marquee-name game called Skyrim has just …
Fair Hill, Fair Henny: Cross Country Through a Horse’s Ears
Ever exhilarating: take a ride round the cross-country course at the Fair Hill International in Maryland with the wonderful Henny and Peter Atkins of Australia. Henny (whom I wrote about briefly here) loves cross country, as you can probably tell by his ears, which are pricked all the way round. Atkins says he once saw …
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