Going to the Kentucky Derby and don't have a hat? Good news! There is a great selection of hats in the gift shop at Churchill Downs!

We attended opening night of Churchill Downs on Saturday April 28^th and found these beautiful hats.

Read more: Derby Hats Galore at Churchill Downs

by Elizabeth Goldsmith

Wanted: Women willing to ride 100-120 miles per week through rural Kentucky, rain or shine, carrying library books to the state’s most isolated residents. Must provide own horse or mule and be prepared to walk if the terrain is too rough. Pay is $28 per month. Sound like something you’d like to do?

The Pack Horse Library initiative was part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA), created to help lift America out of the Great Depression. Illiteracy was a real problem. In 1930 as many as 31% of eastern Kentuckians couldn’t read, although most wanted to learn. They saw literacy as their road out of impoverishment.

In 1936, packhorse librarians served 50,000 families, and, by 1937, 155 public schools. Children loved the program; many mountain schools didn’t have libraries, and since they were so far from public libraries, most students had never checked out a book. ”‘Bring me a book to read,’ is the cry of every child as he runs to meet the librarian with whom he has become acquainted,” wrote one Pack Horse Library supervisor. “Not a certain book, but any kind of book. The child has read none of them.”

Read more: The Heroic Horseback Librarians of the Great Depression

by Elizabeth Goldsmith

Wanted: Women willing to ride 100-120 miles per week through rural Kentucky, rain or shine, carrying library books to the state’s most isolated residents. Must provide own horse or mule and be prepared to walk if the terrain is too rough. Pay is $28 per month. Sound like something you’d like to do?

The Pack Horse Library initiative was part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA), created to help lift America out of the Great Depression. Illiteracy was a real problem. In 1930 as many as 31% of eastern Kentuckians couldn’t read, although most wanted to learn. They saw literacy as their road out of impoverishment.

In 1936, packhorse librarians served 50,000 families, and, by 1937, 155 public schools. Children loved the program; many mountain schools didn’t have libraries, and since they were so far from public libraries, most students had never checked out a book. ”‘Bring me a book to read,’ is the cry of every child as he runs to meet the librarian with whom he has become acquainted,” wrote one Pack Horse Library supervisor. “Not a certain book, but any kind of book. The child has read none of them.”

Read more: The Traveling Librarians of the Great Depression

by Delores Kuhlwein

Author Carly Kade knows a thing or two about love, horses and handsome cowboys.

She breathed softly, and the shavings rustled as she blew breath. I dropped to my knees as I approached her. Reaching her neck, I placed my hand on her shoulder and combed the fingers of my other hand through her soft white mane. Her neck made a perfect U around my body, and I heard her sigh at my touch. I turned toward her, folded my legs inside the bow of her body, picked up her soft velvet muzzle, and lifted her head into my lap. Faith didn’t resist. She nestled into my crossed legs, and I stroked her white blaze, combed through her forelock, ran my palms over the triangular tip of her lovely brown ears, and wished I could stay in this moment forever. ~ Devon Brooke, In the Reins

Perhaps the most rewarding aspect of our infatuation with horses is the universal emotion of everything fading away as you lose yourself in your horse, a feeling that sends Carly Kade, Arizona-based author of the wildly popular romantic Western novel In the Reins, scurrying to capture her words inspired by time spent with horses. Often Carly’s notes are taken on the insides of her mare’s feedbags after a ride.

“I scribble down my thoughts while perched on hay bales, listening to the sounds of the horses rustling in their stalls,” she confessed. Many scenes in her books, and even the horse character “Faith,” were inspired by “Sissy,” Carly’s own Paint mare, I'm Gonna Kiss You.

You don’t have to meet Carly to get know her; as a fellow horse lover, you really already do.

“I will own horses until I take my last breath; I love them that much,” she said. “There is nothing more peaceful to me than the quiet bond between a woman and her horse, and I am happiest when I am in the saddle.”

Read more: Tell It to My Heart

by Gene Fowler

Standing in front of Frederic Remington’s 1889 oil painting, A Dash for the Timber, at Fort Worth’s Amon Carter Museum of American Art, I am reminded of the words of a California friend. “You’ve got to see these things in person.” I’d written him about a new book about a West Coast artist we like. The book is nice, he allowed, but you’ve got see these things in person.

Boy howdy. Riding hell-for-leather and pursued by a Native American war party in Remington’s seven-foot-wide piece, the eight desperate horsemen of A Dash for the Timber seem a split-second away from stampeding off the canvas and right over the viewer. Seeing the painting is visceral. Even New Yorkers were spellbound when the work debuted in 1889.

My friend’s gentle dictum resonated again as I beheld The Medicine Man, Buffalo Bill’s Duel with Yellowhand, In the Wake of the Buffalo Runners, and other paintings by Charles M. Russell at the Amon Carter and the Sid Richardson Museum, the latter located on Sundance Square in Fort Worth, aka Cowtown. The richly-shaded, long-range landscapes and vast, big country skies of Russell’s original canvases draw one in as no mere reproduction may.

The august Texas folklorist, J. Frank Dobie dubbed Remington (1861-1909) and Russell (1864-1926) the “Titans of Western Art” in 1964. Former Amon Carter curator Peter Hassrick, who jokes that he got out of Texas as soon as possible so that his kids would not “tahk lak Tayxuns,” says that late 19th and early 20th century aficionados of frontier art were often either “Remington people or Russell people.” I would liken the double-barrel matter of individual taste to the popularity contest among singing cowboys a half-century later, when silver screen and T.V. shoot-em-up devotees would often swoon and root for either Gene Autry or Roy Rogers.

Read more: Remington and Russell – The “Titans of Western Art"

The American Equestrian Trade Association (AETA) trade show was held January 27- 29, 2018 at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, PA. The mission of the AETA trade show is: “to unite and advance the community of equine trade businesses by delivering education, trade shows and services designed to sustain, support and grow a strong equestrian industry marketplace.”

The team at EquineInfoExchange.com had the honor of being included on the media panel. Think “Shark Tank” but horse related and a bit friendlier. New products were introduced from both new companies and those already established, as they gathered together to share information about the exciting developments being brought to the market.

Here's a photo slideshow, so you can see what it was like to walk through this exciting event.

Here are the new products presented to us at the media panel. We were thrilled to be at this event!

Sterling Essentials

Sterling Essentials is based in the Pacific Northwest and offers gentle, non-irritating, effective Leather Cleaners and Leather Conditioners that will keep tack in mint condition for years. Specially formulated to match the pH of leather, Sterling Essentials’ products reduce premature tack degradation, helping protect your tack investment. All products are developed with the well-being of your horse in mind, so the cleaners and conditioners are animal friendly due to the use of gentle natural food grade ingredients.

Read more: AETA Trade Show Features New Equestrian Products and Designs

If you are considering locations for a vacation this year, Ireland should be at the top end of your shortlist. The European country has a long and rich history with horse racing as many of the leading thoroughbreds in the world have a link back to the Emerald Isle in their breeding. Today, there are 26 racecourses across Ireland. Here is a look at the leading five tracks you can visit on your trip to Ireland.

Curragh

Based in County Kildare, the Curragh is arguably Ireland’s most important racecourses on the flat as it holds all five of the Classics in the country, including the Irish Derby which was won in 2017 by Capri. Some of the best Group horses from around the world visit the course each season - therefore, the quality of racing tends to be high. The opening meeting of the year takes place in March and the course hosts race days through to September.

Read more: Choose Ireland for a Vacation This Year – Ireland's Best Racecourses

by Heather Wallace

Breeding Excellence into Dutch Sport Horses

There is not an equestrian worldwide who has not heard of the KWPN Warmbloods. Their intelligence, athleticism, character, and technique are renowned in the world of show jumping. “Golden Genes”, a documentary film from Annette van Trigt Productions and 2017 Film Selection for the Equus Film Festival, provides a behind the scenes view into breeding practices of sport horses in The Netherlands.

“Show jumping horses bred in the Netherlands are some of the best in the world. It is no coincidence that foreign riders won gold and silver medals in the Olympic Games of 2008 on Dutch horses. This is big business and passion”. Golden Genes

From the perspective of five breeders, three of whom are in their 70’s, we see an array of methods and best practices but one focused goal- the breeding excellence of this horse. Some breeders have a more monetary focus, while others have seemingly a more emotional approach to their horses, but most are a combination of both. Tom Vullers sums it all by saying breeding is “80% knowledge and 20% intuition”.

The primary difference in the breeding of sport horses from race horses is using artificial insemination and embryo transfer rather than live cover. To be registered for The Jockey Club it is mandatory for the thoroughbred mare to be inseminated by live cover. As a result the desired thoroughbred traits are slower to be bred into new generations and studs may charge higher rates for breeding rights.

Read more: “Golden Genes: The Secret of Dutch Jumpers” Film Review

by Bonnie Marlewski-Probert

We’ve all met those couples. The wife is horse crazy and the husband thinks the whole sport is nutty or it is the husband who spends all his free time in the barn and the wife doesn’t understand the attraction to smelly animals that slobber on you every chance they get!

When I initially met my husband, I knew that he had no experience around horses and didn’t have any feelings about them, one way or the other. I saw that as an advantage because he didn’t hate them YET. In order to encourage his interest, I invested in a secret weapon (mint flavored Tic Tacs). I had little boxes of those things all over my house so that when he came for a visit, I was ready. I would invite him down to the fence line and ask him to shake the plastic box that the tic tacs come in. Since all the horses knew what that was, he could stand safely outside the field fence, shake the little plastic container and a whole herd of horses would come charging to see him and they would happily stay at that fence line as long as he was willing to provide the little mint treats. Of course, I taught him first how to feed with a flat hand (last thing you want to do is have him lose some fingers!)

Read more: So, Your Spouse Doesn’t Love Horses?