Reading List for Summer 2016

by VIVIAN You may recognize this list. We featured it last Christmas. All of these books are remarkable and if there's been anything published I would recommend more highly, I am unaware of them. Here they are in alphabetical order. All gems. You will be a better advocate for having read them. I guarantee! •…

Five great horse books that make a grand read, and a great gift

by VIVIAN Here are my top five recommended books on horses. I had in mind to wax a bit lyrical about these books but let's just get to it. They are great. They are grand. They are each groundbreaking in their own way. They teach us. They exhilarate us. Buy these. Read these. Gift these.…

When Horse Slaughter Comes to Town: Conclusion

When horse slaughter comes to town, environmental hazards, economic woes, and the stigma associated with the cruelties inherent to killing horses for their meat, are only a part of the price the community pays. THE horse slaughter industry is an insidious, brutal and predatory business that exists for one reason and one reason only. Horse…

Thoroughbred racehorses all traced to one 17th-century mare

Cross-posted from ABC News Blogs Written by NED POTTER All the great names in thoroughbred horse racing — from Secretariat to Man O’War, from Seabiscuit to Seattle Slew — they’re all related, and a team of geneticists has now traced their talent for speed back to a single ancestor. The “speed gene” that made them…

Horse hero Zenyatta helps distract the US during recession

Cross-posted from The Guardian Written by DAN GLAISTER More than 70 years after Seabiscuit took America's attention away from the Great Depression and the prospect of war, another hero has emerged to distract the nation as it copes with recession and the aftertaste of a bitterly divisive election. Zenyatta, a six-year-old thoroughbred mare, is unbeaten…