Happy Saturday, everyone. I hope your weekend is going fabulously. Here’s what’s been making headlines in the horse world this week.
- This piece in the New York Times, which you probably already read because half of your friends shared it on Facebook. But if you haven’t read it, it’s an interesting essay about communicating with horses (not in a woo-woo horse whisperer way, but in the way that all riders do.)
- A carriage horse escaped and went for a trot down NYC streets last weekend. He was corralled by the police and reportedly suffered no injury as a result of his self-guided tour. This sort of thing does throw fuel on the carriage-horse-debate fire.
- Last week we mentioned that the NCAA had recommended dropping equestrian from the emerging sports list. Our writer Allison Griest took a closer look at the issue this week.
- In celeb news, Lady Gaga bought a $23 million equestrian property in Malibu. I have no idea if she actually owns or rides horses, and it’s difficult to find out because if you ask Google about it, you just get a bunch of rehashes of that one time she rode a dude-powered fake horse on to the American Music Awards red carpet.
- I have often said that I expect my cause of death will be being run over by a golf cart at a horse show. What is it with horse people behind the wheels of those things? You’d think they’d be extra cautious with all the horses and dogs around, but it’s like they think they have some kind of superpower when they’re in those wretched little vehicles. So it’s not surprising to me that when you have a horse show town like Wellington, the golf cart problem becomes serious.
- The Columbus Dispatch has been releasing videos throughout this year’s All-American Quarter Horse Congress, which has been pretty interesting as they’re horse-related, but designed for a mainstream audience. Here’s one about a professional bander/braider working at the show. (If the video below doesn’t play, check it out at the link.)
- Here’s another equestrian piece in the New York Times, this one about daughters of extremely wealthy people who have made a name for themselves on the national and international jumper circuit. I rolled my eyes a little at first, but reading it made me think that these young women, if born into a different life, probably would have been just like the rest of us: mucking stalls in exchange for riding time, happily agreeing to ride whatever half-dead or half-broke equine was offered to them, and working their butts off for a green ribbon at a local show. At least I like to think so.
- And finally, scientists have determined that comets smell like horse pee, along with other delightful scents like rancid almonds and rotten eggs. Basically, they smell like my shoes.
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