Horse Stories
Celebrating the horse-human bond
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Do Horses Have a Sixth Sense?
By Kim Knutsen
Commanche, my horse of a lifetime, had many engaging characteristics, and one of the most endearing was his ability to anticipate my arrival, sometimes by several minutes. Can horses’ minds really reach out farther than they can see? When the horse and human are closely bonded, my experience is that the answer is clearly “yes.” Read more...
Fox Man Red becomes Justin
by Alice Kremers
In June 1993, when I was looking for a horse, my trainer called from Arapahoe Park racetrack to tell me she’d seen a for-sale three-year-old on the hot walker and did I want to buy him.
Me: “What does he look like?”
Trainer: “Big. Kind of unattractive.”
Me: “How are his feet?”
Trainer: “Pretty bad”
Me: “How are his legs?”
Trainer: “OK.”
Me: “How much is he?”
Trainer: “Fifteen hundred.”
Me: “OK.”
And like that, over the phone and sight unseen, I bought Fox Man Red—who was being sold off because, after recovering from a bad starting gate accident, he now wouldn’t get into the gate at all, and his track trainer was fed up with him. Read more...
Jigs: “I’m Not a Beginner’s Horse”
by Elizabeth Anderson
Eight or so months after I got him, a communicator came to the barn and I, a non-believer, thought, “Why not? It will be entertaining.” So at the appointed time, Jigs stood at the rail facing the communicator, who wrote furiously to keep up with what was coming at her. Every so often he would stamp his right front foot and simultaneously blow out air—something I hadn’t seen him do before (and haven’t seen since). When she finally put down her pencil, she sighed, looked at me, and said, “Well, he says he’s not a beginner’s horse!” Read more...