Horses
All the excitement about the upcoming movie Seabiscuit has reminded me of my youthful love of horses.
Like many girls when I was young I loved horses. I was very lucky to have parents who were able to get me lessons and feed my hobby. I never had a horse of my own, instead I only rode ‘school’ horses that were hardly prime horseflesh.
My very favorite school horse was a broken down Polo Pony. To this day I dream of buying another Polo Pony – they are great horses that have a lot of pep, are really well trained and love to be ridden.
On the other hand I had a friend whose family was in the horse racing industry. She had her own horse that was a broken down racehorse – in fact it was a grandson of Secretariat. No matter how great that bloodline was… it did not make for a very good horse. The horse suffered from the classic problems of a thoroughbred - mostly, it was just stupid and skittish.
I have to admit that as I read the book Seabiscuit I thought a lot about that horse and how what makes a horse great is it’s heart much more than bloodline. To this day I would take another broken down polo pony over a thoroughbred with a great bloodline.
As an added aside… I can not believe how great the racing shots look in the trailer. I am also really impressed by Toby McGuire riding on a racing saddle with the stirrups in your armpits. I was lucky enough to ride my friends horse on the warm up track once and regardless of how good of a rider I was (and I fancied myself pretty good) as that horse gained speed and I was perched on that tiny saddle it was SCARY!
All the excitement about the upcoming movie Seabiscuit has reminded me of my youthful love of horses.
Like many girls when I was young I loved horses. I was very lucky to have parents who were able to get me lessons and feed my hobby. I never had a horse of my own, instead I only rode ‘school’ horses that were hardly prime horseflesh.
My very favorite school horse was a broken down Polo Pony. To this day I dream of buying another Polo Pony – they are great horses that have a lot of pep, are really well trained and love to be ridden.
On the other hand I had a friend whose family was in the horse racing industry. She had her own horse that was a broken down racehorse – in fact it was a grandson of Secretariat. No matter how great that bloodline was… it did not make for a very good horse. The horse suffered from the classic problems of a thoroughbred - mostly, it was just stupid and skittish.
I have to admit that as I read the book Seabiscuit I thought a lot about that horse and how what makes a horse great is it’s heart much more than bloodline. To this day I would take another broken down polo pony over a thoroughbred with a great bloodline.
As an added aside… I can not believe how great the racing shots look in the trailer. I am also really impressed by Toby McGuire riding on a racing saddle with the stirrups in your armpits. I was lucky enough to ride my friends horse on the warm up track once and regardless of how good of a rider I was (and I fancied myself pretty good) as that horse gained speed and I was perched on that tiny saddle it was SCARY!
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