Sunday Morning Time Travel

Wonderful news for overworked writers who don’t have time to maintain their blogs: British Pathé have uploaded their stock of vintage film clips to YouTube. As the old slogan of the British tabloid the News of the World used to claim, “all human life is there”, and quite a bit of horsey life too. So …

Whole Heap of Little Horse Links

An escaped German circus pony attempts to board a tram. A riding corset from the 1870s – you see how Skittles managed that waist. A new anti-slaughter feature film called Saving America’s Horses is underway in the USA, while a new government report looking at the negative impact of the effective ban on horse slaughter …

Schooling Over Fences

Willy Twiston-Davies (son of trainer Nigel) has just won the Foxhunters Chase over the National fences at Aintree at age 16 with the fittingly named Baby Run. I last saw Willy in action at the 2007 Charles Owen pony racing championships at the Liverpool course, where he was riding a 13.1hh pony called Sparky Boy. …

Class War in the Hunting Field

“On Saturday, I went out fox-hunting – seven hours in the saddle. That sort of thing always keeps me in a state of devilish excitement for several days; it’s the greatest physical pleasure I know. I saw only two out of the whole field who were better horsemen than myself, but then they were also …

Heavy Horse Week: Cart Horses in Bloom

The Liverpool tradition of May Day parades began in the 1850s when drivers of working horses and their families took to the streets in holiday spirit. By the 1880s the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and various promoters of heavy horse breeds had turned the parades into not only a free show …