Brilliant Mrs. W shines in schooling ring
Stat Box Race name: Brilliant Mrs. W New Name: Bella Sire: Lil’s Lad Dam: Campaign Worker Age: 6 Color: Bay with a star Amanda Archibald wanted something small and inexpensive when she went shopping for a horse last year. “Most horses,” she explains, “were too tall or really expensive.” She found the winning combination—a 15.3 hand mare at the right price—just 50 miles south of her New Hampshire barn, at Suffolk Downs in East Boston. The horse, Brilliant Mrs. W, was the first she met during a visit last October, and none of the others she met during that trip […]
Share this:
In a flurry of snow, a new horse arrives
Stepping off the trailer into a swirl of snow from a storm that had threatened all day, the ex-racehorse emerged through rising steam as though descending from Mt. Olympus. In a flash Kimberly Compton DiCostanzo decided to name her new horse Zeus. Called Kinney up until that moment, the Thoroughbred got a new name, new home, and future career on New Year’s Eve last year. At the same time, he added a warm, soft presence to a barn recently bereft of DiCostantzo’s eventing champion Midnight, who succumbed to colic just days before. So when her 22-year-old champion died on Dec. […]
Share this:
Retired racehorse project unveiled
In Steuart Pittman’s experience, Americans love racehorses. They’re just unsure about the rest of it: are the horses “abuse victims” on the track and after they retire, are they suitable for riding by anyone other than daredevils? The longtime trainer and breeder at the storied Dodon Farm in Maryland seeks to demystify the racehorse through a new initiative. The Retired Racehorse Training Project offers clinics, symposia, lectures and apprenticeships to showcase these “proud athletes” who, yes, enjoy track work and later make ideal partners for myriad riders—even those “old ladies at foxhunts” who trust their ex-racehorses to never “put a […]
