MSPCA-Angell names Blowen ‘Human Hero’
The former Boston Globe reporter who founded Thoroughbred retirement facility Old Friends of Kentucky, will be honored next month by MSPCA-Angell with a Human Hero Award. Michael Blowen, a longtime entertainment writer turned equine advocate extraordinaire, exemplifies the ideals of MSPCA-Angell founder George T. Angell, says the organization’s president, Carter Luke. Both Angell and Blowen were moved to get involved with equine welfare when they learned about horse tragedies, Luke says. The MSPCA-Angell was founded after Angell learned that two horses had been raced to the death; and Blowen founded Old Friends for pensioned racehorses when learning Kentucky Derby winner […]
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Undaunted by spills, horse and rider carry on
Alisa Gusterer knows first hand what Ralph Waldo Emerson meant when he wrote, “Riding a horse is not a gentle hobby. She has hit the dirt many times in the last year. But no matter how often the 17-year-old has been unseated by her bright, white Thoroughbred, she has climbed back in the saddle, even when all logic seemed to argue against it. “The first time I put my foot in the stirrup he reared and ran away,” she says. Many times after that, he left her on the ground to tear around the arena. “There was another time, when […]
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One at a time, 26 horses led from fire to safety
As a fast-moving fire swept through racehorse barns near a West Virginia track Monday, teams of trainers, track associates, and even people off the street who knew nothing of horses, converged to lead those they could to safety. Working in the dark, horse trainer Elizabeth Meehan said she had to feel her way to find halters and shanks to harness the frightened horses and lead them out. “It was pandemonium,” she said. “There were no lights on in the barn because all the power lines were down, and most of the horses didn’t have halters on.” When Meehan arrived at […]
