MagazineNewsHorse SportsHorse CarePeople & HorsesVoicesPhotos & VideosMarketplaceDates & Results
 

Blogs

January 30, 2012

The Reluctant Writer Eats Her Words

By: Chronicle staff

I had a love/hate relationship with the idea of Boyd Martin being our 2011 Overall Horseman of the Year. Not really so much with the idea of him actually being it—I was adamant that no one was more deserving of the title than he—but more with the idea of actually writing the story.

January 30, 2012

While Not Typically Beginner Safe, Thoroughbreds Can Do Anything In The Right Situation

By: Allie Conrad

“Beginner Safe” is not the description we use for most of our OTTBs. We do not market them to beginners and do not profess that they would ever be beginner-safe horses. At least that's what I thought when I first began this adventure. I've happily been proven wrong several times, but one story really made me think differently about Thoroughbreds and novice riders. Sometimes, there are exceptions to the “green + green = black and blue.” 

January 24, 2012

A Toad, $10,000 And A Terrible Road Trip

By: Jennie Brannigan

Well, the past week has been a bit of an exciting one for me, as I had some "unforeseen complications," to put it mildly, during what was supposed to be a routine trip to Ocala, Fla., and then on to Wellington for the PRO DerbyCross.

January 23, 2012

A Dose Of Winter Perspective

By: Lauren Sprieser

Greetings from a Jet Blue Airbus 320, from Dulles to Fort Lauderdale. I am returning to the Sunshine State from my first weekend home to teach, and I am seated next to a child with no volume control. I am blogging so I don't throttle the little beast.

January 19, 2012

Horse Show Ready

By: Lauren Sprieser

It's official! Midge is incredible. (That's been official for years, actually.) But what's really official is that he's going to be a Big Tour horse—we've entered his first I2 in mid-February, and he'll do the Developing Horse Grand Prix test at a schooling show two weekends before. Wahoo!!

Comments

oldhayesranch
1 week 4 days ago

Horse barn fires

I beg all of you to PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE stop leaving horses in wooden barns unattended. Its no big surprise what is going to happen if one catches on fire.The number of helpless horses being lost is staggering and makes no sense to me after people go to such extremes to care for them and then at the end of the day the horses are deserted in them. I live in Montana and have a few talented show horses and also own a wonerful old wooden barn with several large box stalls and NEVER NEVER NEVER leave horses in them. It is very easy to figure out what is going to happen if it catches on fire.
January 19, 2012

Some Emails Really Make Your Day

By: Chronicle staff

I’ve been doing this job for quite a while, sometimes longer than I like to admit.

I interview lots of people every year. I usually call and talk to about 5-10 people a week. Multiply that by 52 weeks a year, and that’s a lot of conversations. Sometimes, I get a quick note from someone I’ve written about saying thank you, or that they enjoyed the article. That always makes my day, because more often, if we hear a response to an article, it’s a complaint.

Comments

franjurga@gmail.com
1 week 5 days ago

The Power of Print...

Nice, Molly! You've made a great argument for the power of print: a piece of 8 1/2x11 white paper that's been through a HP printer doesn't look quite the same in your scrapbook or treasures trunk as does a copy of a horse mag with your name in print. I think horse magazines like The Chronicle who cover competition and organizations have played an important part in the psychology of horsepeople and the strength of competitions. There is something about seeing your name in print. Sure, it is partly vanity but it's something more: it makes what you're doing with your horse real. It's reinforcement. It really happened, and you know that sometime in the future, just like Marilyn, you will be able to look back at that page of that magazine and you will see what you've done, remember who you were the day it came in the mail, and know where you went from there. I hope there will always be people holding on to old issues of The Chronicle. I have a few myself.
January 16, 2012

Wardrobe Malfunction

By: Lauren Sprieser

This weekend was the first show of 2012 in White Fences, the subdivision in which I keep the horses. So I decided to hack Midge over on Saturday to school on the grounds. Naturally, that meant that between Friday and Saturday, the temperature dropped like whoa, and the winds picked up, and because he'd thrown a shoe he didn't get ridden Friday, and things were generally not conducive to good Dutch horse behavior. 

And Midge was a STAR.

January 12, 2012

January Means Cross Training And DerbyCross

By: Jennie Brannigan

Well, things are starting to heat up here at True Prospect Farm, as we’re getting ready to head down to Aiken. 

I was lucky to have a clinic recently with show jumper Lane Clarke, who flew out to help me and all of my amazing students last weekend as a good kick-off to the 2012 season. We were all impressed with the level of enthusiasm and attention to detail that Lane had when coaching all of us, and he helped me on all my horses, from a 4-year-old up to my advanced horses.

January 11, 2012

Dating Woes And Whoas Of The Single Equestrienne

By: Devon D’Angelo

Ladies, let’s face it. Finding a good man isn’t easy. It’s even harder when you’re a horse girl—harder than finding the right horse, I think. (My logic behind this is when you commit to a horse, you already know you will have to take care of them, feed them, clean up after them, etc., but you are happy to do it).

January 11, 2012

A Day In The Floridian Life

By: Lauren Sprieser

I'm up between 4:30 and 5:30, depending on the morning. Good mornings, it's 5:30. Bad mornings, I get a lot of office work done. I've never been a good sleeper.

Breakfast, brush my teeth, out the door. My Haygain is on a timer, so it starts and stops itself. Brilliant. At 6, I feed my delicious smelling, warm, steamy hay, which everyone promptly inhales. Grain's at 6:30. I clean stalls, fill water buckets and get ready to ride Fender at about 7:30.