It seems rather mandatory for a news blog to address the thorny subject of helping those who need it, to provide some ideas for Christmas. Why we think we are in such a good position to offer such advice is quite an enigma to me! However, as usual, there is a huge array of gifts
First, we must congratulate jockey Hollie Doyle for her award from The Times Newspaper Group in becoming the 2020 top female sportsman. Oisin Murphy, British Champion jockey of 2020 has been banned from race riding by France Galop for the use of cocaine. Almond Eye finishes her brilliant racing career with a win in the
There are four classical riding academies in the world and by far the most famous is The Spanish Riding School with their unique Lipizzaner stallions, based in Vienna, Austria. For very nearly 350 years, the school has reigned supreme and been the centre of ‘classic dressage performance’. The other three are also Europe based –
Little to get excited by this week sadly. Corona has seen the cancellation of all the major winter indoor events which is frustrating for all concerned, but with the latest news of vaccines becoming available soon with any luck, we may start to see the end of the decimation of the equine calendar. However, one
It was just before Christmas in 1935, that one of the world’s greatest show jumping riders was born in Brazil – Nelson Pessoa. He is a man who can look back on an illustrious career in the saddle, but what is not so well known is the fact that the breeding of the horses he
The last week has definitely seen the usual autumnal reduction of activity in the racing and sport horse competition, not there has ever been that much in the sport horse world anyway this year. There was a horse trials event in Tryon in the USA – a 4 star Long in which 53 declared for
World racing in 2020, like everything else in 2020 has had to make huge adjustments to its programme and organisation due to the Corona Virus pandemic. However, as we reflect on the flat season of 2020, it has coped really very well. Just as the season in the UK was about to start with the
While the protagonists continue their squalid arguments over who should be the President of The Dis-united States on January 20th 2021, in the republican state of Kentucky, the Breeder’s Cup series of races continued unabated this Friday and Saturday. In the sport horse world, the Bordeaux leg of the World Cup dressage and showjumping succumbed
The Melbourne Cup is the best known race run each year in Australia. Always coinciding with the end of the horse trial eventing season, the two events bring the reality that the end of another equine sporting year is soon to come to a close. Christmas, new year and then we start all over again.
With hugely higher Covid 19 cases reported every day and governments scrabbling around, trying to find a way through this most hideous pandemic, most of Western Europe is now in or about to be in lock down once again. Slightly different from the first lock down in that elite sports are set to continue but
