I’ve spent decades around horses in demanding sports, attended plenty of polo matches, and sold a few retired racehorses to polo players over the years. Polo can look rough from the rail: horses sprint, stop hard, turn sharply, and riders sometimes ride each other off the line while swinging mallets close to the horses. I …
Watch a polo match from the rail and you can see why people ask whether it’s dangerous: horses are galloping in close quarters, riders are reaching out of the saddle one-handed, and mallets and a hard ball are moving fast. It isn’t a quiet riding sport. Polo has a real risk of injury for both …
What is the highest horse jump? The world record is 2.47 meters (8 ft 1.25 in), set by Huaso ex-Faithful, ridden by Capt. Alberto Larraguibel Morales, in Viña del Mar, Chile, on February 5, 1949. Competitive Grand Prix jumpers clear obstacles up to 1.6 meters (5 ft 3 in). Many healthy riding horses can clear …
A dun coat gives you a natural starting point for choosing a name. Warm bay duns tend to suit earthy or western-style names, while grullas usually fit cooler, darker tones. If you start with color, let the coat guide the direction — but always make sure the name still sounds right when you’re calling it …
Our swimming pool is a pretty good distance from our horse barn, but we still get horseflies that come around, bite, and chase us. When they’re bad, they can drive the kids right back inside. If you’ve dealt with the same thing, you may wonder why horseflies keep biting and chasing you when there isn’t …
My son, who is a huge fan of polo, recently talked about the origin of polo at the dinner table. The discussion aroused my interest in the subject, so I decided to research polo’s history and find out how this game made its way to the United States. Polo originated in Central Asia with nomadic …
Maybe someone at the barn offered you the use of their paddock, your vet mentioned paddock turnout during recovery, or someone said they’d meet you at the paddock while you were at the racetrack. So, what is a paddock? A horse paddock is a small, fenced turnout area, often near a barn or connected to …
If you’ve ever watched a horse break down in a race and wondered whether the owner just lost everything, or you’re getting ready to put your own horse into training, you’ve probably landed on the same question: are race horses insured, and if something goes wrong, does the owner actually get anything back? Yes, some …
Could someone clone a Triple Crown winner—or the one horse you would give anything to keep? Before you start planning a genetic copy of a great racehorse, broodmare, or old favorite, it is worth knowing what the process costs and what that new horse can actually do. Quick answer: ViaGen Pets currently lists horse cloning …
A horse is a prey animal, so carrying a rider on its back is not natural — it is learned behavior built through gradual exposure, clear cues, and a relationship the horse accepts over time. This article combines equine research with more than 30 years of hands-on experience starting young horses in a Louisiana racing …