Video promo for CBS “Undercover Boss” – Churchill Downs COO
Other tracks may be hosting Kentucky Derby prep races. On this coming Sunday night, the CBS show “Undercover Boss” will take us to Churchill Downs for a look behind the scenes. Or under the spires.
Tags: Bill Carstanjan, Churchill Downs, horse racing, Undercover Boss
Video of Life is Sweet sleeping in
Wakey, wakey. 
You know the terms. “Morning people” and “night people.” “Larks” and “owls.”
Tags: backstretch, John Shireffs, Life is Sweet, morning people
"I'm ready for my close-up"/Photo by Rhonda Lane
Friesian horses galloped their way into popular culture in the 1985 movie “Ladyhawke,” and they’ve majestically stood their ground in cinematic imagination ever since.
So much so that I’m often amazed to see which historical period a Friesian horse will end up in next.
And I often wonder just how historically accurate their appearance might be?
Tags: 300, Alexander, Friesian horse, Friesians, Horse Movie Drinking Game, Ladyhawke, movie horse, Spartacus: Blood and Sand
I still like to check out the horses in the paddock andthe saddling area. Keeneland, yes, but not the horse mentioned in the article/Photo by Rhonda Lane
Check out my guest post at Miami Mitch’s comprehensive sports tip site Sports Chat Place.
Because I have a crazy good tip for maximum fun for a day at the racetrack.
You can make bets that would shock my dear departed mother.
And maybe even clean up big. Because, sometimes, those longshots do come in.
Even if you don’t ever intend to bet a horse race, check out the article because it’s a fun read, if I say so myself. You’ll see stuff about some of my past trips to the track, along with my childhood system for helping my mother make her picks.
FWIW, if you’re into what I call “people sports,” take a trip around the rest of the site, too.
Tags: betting longshots, horse racing, Miami Mitch, Sports Chat Place
In the world of “horses and culture,” the passing of best-selling, award-winning thriller author Dick Francis has been a Very Big Deal.
If you usually read updates to this blog through an RSS feed reader, then you’ve missed all the links I’ve found and added to my previous post, the Dick Francis tribute.
Tags: #NameUSrace4DickFrancis, Aintree, Dick Francis, horse racing, horse racing novels
Associated Press video obit for Dick Francis
Perhaps you’ve heard, perhaps you haven’t, but honored and beloved jockey-turned-author Dick Francis passed away at the age of 89.
The London Telegraph’s website has a thorough obituary on Francis. Sarah Weinman, mystery author and crime fiction commentator, has posted a list of blogs referencing Francis’s passing.
Sarah’s post amounts to a virtual wake (Be sure to click on the on the link to Janet Rudolph’s blog for a charming story about her meeting with Francis.)
For more obits and tributes, see below.
Tags: Dick and Felix Francis, Dick Francis, Dick Francis mysteries, Dick Francis mystery novels
World Championship Blacksmith Competition/Massachusetts Equine Affaire/Photo by Rhonda Lane
Outside under a big yellow tent at the Massachusetts Equine Affaire trade show was a World Championship Blacksmiths competition.
Farriers from all over the US competed. The rules and whatnot are explained in the video below. Generally, everyone competing has an hour to make a specific kind of horseshoe.
Tags: blacksmith, blacksmith competition, Equine Affaire, farrier, Massachusetts Equine Affaire, World Champion Blacksmith Competition
Affiliate links, etc. ahead, but they’re still safe to click. Full disclaimer below.
Cover photo by Barbara D. Livingston/Photo courtesy Eclipse Press
Barbara D. Livingston’s horse photography inspires many of us horse enthusiasts. Her 2002 book Old Friends is the source for the name of one of my very favorite equine retirement facilities.
So, when Eclipse Press offered me a chance to review her book (more about that later), I was excited and awed. I also wondered if I weren’t too much of a fan-girl to offer a good review.
But I also realized that the book could serve as a good research resource, if not an inspirational tool, for writers.
Tags: "Horses in Living Color", Barbara D. Livingston, book review, coffee table book, equine photography, horse book review, horse photography, horses for writers
I had another post ready to go today. But a story came into my Inbox, and I must speak up.
Mounted police units all over the US tend to be the first cutback in municipal expenses. Boston’s, the nation’s oldest, closed last year. Other smaller cities have dropped their units.
But what has me so riled up about the dispersal of San Diego’s small herd of police horses is that they’ll be sold at auction on a police surplus site.
Think about it. This is not the Keeneland Sale or Fasig-Tipton or Tattersall’s.
But a public auction in a venue usually reserved for confiscated material.
Is this a fitting retirement for officers of the law?
Tags: Alex Brown, Boston mounted police unit, horse auctions, kill buyers, mounted police unit, San Diego mounted police unit
Even if you only follow horse racing for the Triple Crown, you’ll get a laugh from this gag.
Video of Conan O’Brien’s horse skit OR if the TV Network in Question throws a fit and takes it down, you might be able to see it here on the My Seattle Pets blog. And this version posted on a Chicago Sun-Times blog is on the more-approved Hulu.
Tags: Conan O'Brien, Double Eagle Ranch, Mine That Bird, Snuggie
