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Gosh, there’s a lot on this blog about racing and horse shows.
For a lot of horseless riders and horse-lovers, one way to keep horses in their lives is to watch competitions.
As travel budgets tighten, watching events on TV or online seems to fill the bill. The Internet has turned into a virtual competitive arena.
We can can watch historic or recent races on YouTube. We can take in excepts of Olympic equestrian action. Or we can watch full events. Horse shows are available via live streams. Some are viewable for free, but others are presented as pay-per-views.
A couple of readers thanked me in the early days of this site via email for posting the link to the Olympic coverage schedules. Even though I had assumed that word had gotten out to the interested.
So, I like to keep my readers happy by keeping us up on the events on the Web and TV. I’ve talked about the Breeders Cup, the Olympics and the Kentucky State Fair, especially in reference to how and where they can be viewed.
I don’t mention other big shows, like the recent Washington International Horse Show, because there’s no option to keep up with the action, unless you attend. If you live in the D.C. area, within easy driving distance, you probably saw news stories about it anyway.
Why so much about certain disciplines?
Anyway, I tend to write often about thoroughbred racing and saddle seat competitions because that’s what I’m most familiar with. But I’m eager to learn more about others.
I grew up in rural northern Kentucky. We lived in what was then tobacco-growing country, but a lot of people owned horses and showed them at county fairs. It wasn’t just “rich people,” either. Riding and showing, from saddlebred and walking horse classes to western timed events, was a popular hobby for the middle class.
As for racing, my mother occasionally took me to Turfway Park when it was Latonia , and “over the river” to River Downs in Cincinnati.
Plus, I grew up halfway between Lexington and Cincinnati, about a 40 minute drive each way. A nice daytrip was a drive to Lexington, KY, to the thoroughbred breeding farms. Back then, you could pick up a map to the horse farms, just like the legendary “Maps to the Stars’ Homes” that you see in Los Angeles. You would drive up to a farm’s gate, a groom would tell you if they were accepting visitors that day and you’d go in. Or you’d drive on to the next one.
That was before the Kentucky Horse Park opened in 1978. I’ve heard that some visitors at the farms weren’t as polite as we were, so many farms are now closed to visitor tours. But some remain. In future posts, we’ll talk about touring the farms of Kentucky’s Bluegrass.
As a result, I like to follow horse racing, too. I love the Triple Crown coverage in the spring. Had I not accidentally bought tickets to Equus for Breeder’s Cup Saturday, I would have been home watching the races. But I was able to watch them later, thanks to our DVR.
A lot of horse people have mixed-if-not-dim views about equestrian competitions because cheating and some conditions of the sports can be hard on the horses. Competitors in various equestrian disciplines are implementing reforms to make events safer for all participants.
The Pegasus Galaxy is Vast
The bottom line is this — the world of horses and the activities inspired by them is wonderfully vast.
Once the competitions wrap up toward late autumn, we’ll return more to culture and stories. And I’m eager to look into activities with other breeds.
In the meantime, though, I don’t want my horseless horse-lovers to miss any opportunities to watch horses in action on TV or on the Web.
Tags: horse racing, horse shows, Kentucky Horse Park, Olympics
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