Rustic Ridge dies in barn fire, his spirit lives on
At the final 9 p.m. barn check, all was well. By 9:59 p.m., all was catastrophically wrong. A fire so hot it melted a piece of farm equipment spread like wildfire through the gorgeous Michigan stabling facility, claiming the lives of nine horses in its wake, including a Thoroughbred ex-racehorse that nobody much believed in at first, but who, under his owner’s patient tutelage, was becoming quite the Sporthorse. Since the Aug. 10 blaze at the WinterSpring Dressage facility in Carson City, Mich., Kimberly Bench has been coping with the loss of her cherished ex-racehorse Rustic Ridge. Memories of the […]
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Q&A: Pam Mansfield on the horsey literary life
Sometime after Pamela Mansfield lost her longtime job in 2000, she worked up the pluck to ask a fellow rider about possible freelance writing opportunities. The rider happened to be the editor of Equine Journal at the time, and soon Mansfield was writing about everything from executing the correct reining stop, to tidying up the barn. And, as she rewrote her own career, she was able to cover some of the most exciting equestrians and horses in the sport. In this week’s Clubhouse Q&A, Mansfield discusses a few career highlights, and her beloved Morgan, who is now 32. Q: From […]
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Mean and Lean is barefoot and happy
“Hey, this horse is dancing!” Curious to see what the onlooker meant, Dawn Willoughby made her way down the aisle of the barn to peer in at Mean and Lean. Dancing? Well, not exactly. He was indeed putting on a show, hopping and jumping and craning his neck, but if ever there was an animal who hated being confined, this was it. “He wasn’t dancing at all! He was weaving, and very elaborately,” says Willoughby. “I’ve never approved of stabling—I don’t think a horse belongs in a box—so I figured I’d better take him.” Willoughby, who had taken to wandering […]
