Thoroughbred Market in Doldrums
The market for even well-bred Thoroughbreds has suffered substantially since the global market crash of 2008. “The old million-dollar horse is now a $500,000 horse,” said Geoffrey Russell, Director of Sales at Keeneland. In the first session of the September Yearling Sales this year, the two highest selling colts went off at $1.4 and $1.2 […]
Horses Across the Country Are Testing Positive for West Nile Virus
Horses have tested positive for West Nile Virus across the country, and some state officials are recommending vaccinations even now for horses that have not yet been vaccinated. California, Florida, Kentucky, Michigan, Nevada, and Utah have reported recent cases, and the mosquito season has several weeks to go in many of these areas. Infected horses […]
Horses in Art at the Bruce Museum, Connecticut
The horse has been a romantic subject for artists for twenty-thousand years. That is when the oldest known cave painting of horses were executed. The Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut has mounted an exhibit of horses in art—“Saddle Up! Horsing Around at the Bruce Museum.” From Pierre Jules Mene bronzes to Eadweard Muybridge’s iconic equine […]
Bill McDevitt: Friend and Benefactor
Bill McDevitt, honorary whipper-in and benefactor of the Los Altos Hounds (CA) since 1963, passed away at his waterfront Sausalito home over the weekend. He will be remembered by his many hunt buddies and the numerous Masters he served, including Tom Harris, W.W. Mein, Richard Collins, Eugene Rettig, Mrs. Jay Foss, and Albert Schreck. He […]
New Evidence Pushes Back Earliest Domestication of Horses
It has long been thought that the domestication of horses goes back about five thousand years to central Asia. New evidence could push that estimate back by another four thousand years and change the locale. Among the remains of a recently discovered ancient civilization in the Arabian Peninsula was a three-foot tall bust of a […]
Red Rock Hounds to Parade at $25,000 Jumping Derby
The Red Rock Hounds are scheduled to parade at the 2011 Franktown Meadows USHJA International Hunter Derby in Carson City, Nevada on Labor Day, September 5. The “best horse and rider combinations in the country” are expected to compete over this beautiful course in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Hounds will parade around the […]
Promised Vote on British Foxhunting Ban “Dead and Buried”
A new generation of urban Tory has upset the countryside’s applecart. Notwithstanding Prime Minister David Cameron’s pre-election pledge to allow a free vote in Parliament on the hunting ban, twenty members of his party are opposed to revisiting the ban. Calling themselves the Blue Fox group, they comprise a younger set of MPs who are […]
Troubled Illinoios Racing Industry Gets Windfall
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan paved the way for a $141 million windfall to Illinois race tracks and horse owners when she denied the request of the state’s casino companies to continue holding the funds in escrow. The funds, earmarked for the racing industry pursuant to a 2006 law, had been collecting in the […]
Storms Wreak Havoc in Belle Meade Hunting Country
As the result of recent storms through Georgia, fifty percent of all the trails in the Belle Meade hunting country are blocked, according to Epp Wilson, MFH. Hounds and coyote are able to get through, but not horses. “There are more large trees down across our trails than I have seen in forty-five years of […]
Harry Miliner, Former Field Master, Loudoun West
Liz Callar photo Harry Miliner of the Loudoun West Hunt (VA) has made his final point and now resides in perhaps a better place. Harry finally succumbed to cancer on July 21, 2011. Harry came to hunting a bit later than many, not born of a hunting family (much like myself), but when he took […]