All My Daddy’s Horses: Wealth In The Showring

It should be no surprise to anyone in the equestrian sport that being a participant in the show ring comes with a lofty price tag: between the cost of equipment, horses, horse care, show fees, veterinarian bills, shoeing, and show clothes, you are already looking at an annual bill that would make the lease of a ferrari look like chump change.

Pictured: Moorlands Totilas, one of the dressage world's most expensive, and most talented performers. Image courtesy of Telegraph.co.uk.

In a recent article in Forbes, high-profile riders such as Georgina Bloomberg and Jennifer Gates are mentioned, both of whom compete at the Winter Equestrian Festival. An unnamed source mentions that because these girls are pampered and given tutors and funds, that riding is often “the only part of their life that they care about”. As an equestrian I take a lot of offense to that statement, and find it highly unprofessional that a journalistic source of information like Forbes would not name whoever made such an inflammatory remark. Furthermore, I highly doubt than any equestrian, celebrity or otherwise, only cares about riding competitively and nothing else.

So then they don’t care about charity work, the welfare of animals, or anything else except spending daddy’s money on their horses? Really?

Save The Date!

Hello! Anyone following this blog might remember me mentioning that there there is a major fundraiser coming up in April. Well, Goucher Unbridled would like to encourage all of its Maryland-based readers to save to date! Click the following image below for more information! Thanks!

Horses In Mountain Grove Can Rest Easy

With the recent lifting of the horse slaughter ban,  horse lovers everywhere have begun to grit their teeth at the prospect of living in a town where horse slaughter plants could crop up. One such town in southwest Missouri, Mountain Grove, angrily shouted down the prospect of one coming to their town on Tuesday, March 13, 2012. After Sue Wallis and Belgian company Chevideco (please be advised that images of horsemeat are listed on this site) approached the town with the prospect of opening a plant that could slaughter as many as 400 horses for human consumption. Met with outrage, Wallis has stated that she and Chevideco will look elsewhere and look forward to starting production.

Pictured is a Missouri Fox Trotter Stallion, a smooth-gaited breed which originated from the Ozark Foothills.

Its A Rough Week To Be A Horse: HBO’s Luck and History Channel’s Full Metal Jousting

Still shot from HBO's 'Luck'. Image courtesy of The Atlantic.

HBO’s horse racing series ‘Luck’ faces an unprecedented number of horse deaths on set, raising questions about the treatment and well-being of animals being used in filming. In previous productions, even one horse death was extremely rare, the last known horse to be euthanized during a productionwas in “3:10 to Yuma” from 2007: Luck has lost three horses.As a result, Luck will end its first season abruptly on March 25 after HBO has decided to pull the show entirely. Whether this was due solely to the loss of life, or in combination with its low ratings is still unclear.

Full Metal Jousting competitor,Landon Morris, having just struck the black horse pictured in the face. Image courtest of Warming Glow.

CLICK ‘CONTINUE READING’ TO READ ABOUT A HORSE GETTING PUNCHED IN THE FACE

Getting Back On The Horse: A Word of Advice

Greetings from Oranjestad, Aruba everyone!

Horses and motivational sayings have a long proud history in America. As Ronald Reagan once said, “There’s nothing so good for the inside of a man like the outside of a horse” Many famous equestrian idioms have been inducted into our daily life, however none have taken off quite like the saying, “When you fall off a horse, you have to get back in the saddle”, along with its many variations and adaptations. Though it is unclear who first said this motivational phrase (and when), it has served as one of the most universal motivational phrases for nearly every difficult situation: If we are to assume that ‘life’ had all the mannerisms of a horse, then we must ‘fall off’ all the time. Don’t believe me? Here are a few situations where this phrase works fairly well:

Lose your job? Get back in the saddle and ride it out.

Rough hangover from the night before? Get back on the horse.

Or take it from Sandra Bullock:

“I didn’t think I was ready to go back to acting, but that role was a great way to get back on the horse.”

(Actress Sandra Bullock talking about returning to movies after her divorce. (Associated Press))

Image courtesy of Laurel Hill Event Horses. Click to read their suggestions on how to fall safely from a horse!

It’s a Boy!

Fans of racing legend Zenyatta, Horse of the Year winner from 2010, will be pleased to hear that the queen of the track has just given birth to a healthy young colt (male baby horse)!

Image courtesy of ESPN.

Equestrian Fashion: What It Is And What It Isn’t.

As an equestrian, and a very stylish one at that, I would like to preface this entire post by saying that this article is not aimed at any of my close friends, colleagues, peers, or anyone I know well enough that could be offended by this posting. That being said, here is my most humble opinion of ‘equestrian fashion’.

Equestrian fashion is at its core a fashion perpetuated by mainstream equestrian culture. This encompasses everything from cowboy-looking apparel to equitation stylings, and every musing in between. Major brands such as Polo Ralph Lauren, Dolce & Gabbana, and Antonio Melani have become successful marketing the equitation-based styling as ‘equestrian fashion’, leading major magazines such as Cosmopolitan and Vogue to dub this look as ‘equestrian’. But what is equestrian clothing? What makes an article of clothing ‘equestrian’? At this point in the conversation, it is only fair for me to say that society’s fashion gurus and I begin to disagree.

Because clearly, sticking a giant horse next to a random chick in heels, automatically makes those heels 'equestrian'. Image courtesy of The Equinest