by Bonnie Marlewski-Probert

We’ve all met those couples. The wife is horse crazy and the husband thinks the whole sport is nutty or it is the husband who spends all his free time in the barn and the wife doesn’t understand the attraction to smelly animals that slobber on you every chance they get!

When I initially met my husband, I knew that he had no experience around horses and didn’t have any feelings about them, one way or the other. I saw that as an advantage because he didn’t hate them YET. In order to encourage his interest, I invested in a secret weapon (mint flavored Tic Tacs). I had little boxes of those things all over my house so that when he came for a visit, I was ready. I would invite him down to the fence line and ask him to shake the plastic box that the tic tacs come in. Since all the horses knew what that was, he could stand safely outside the field fence, shake the little plastic container and a whole herd of horses would come charging to see him and they would happily stay at that fence line as long as he was willing to provide the little mint treats. Of course, I taught him first how to feed with a flat hand (last thing you want to do is have him lose some fingers!)

Read more: So, Your Spouse Doesn’t Love Horses?

by Patricia N. Saffran

After the first night of the September 2017 Rolex Central Park Horse Show in New York City, we interviewed Rob Bick of RBC Show Horses of Smithfield, North Carolina, a nationally recognized top trainer and rider of Arabians, and winner of the Arabian Western Pleasure Pro/Am class, presented by Aljassimya Farm.

“I had a lot of fun on PA Kid Khan. He’s a Palmetto Arabians farm-bred stallion from Timmonsville, South Carolina. He’s an amazing horse. He made me look good,” says Rob Bick of RBC Show Horses of Smithfield, North Carolina, winner of the Arabian Pleasure Pro/AM on the first night of the five day show at the Rolex Central Park Horse Show on Wednesday, September 20, 2017. Mr. Bick continues, “I started training Kid Khan as a three year old and he’s been trained exclusively at RBC Show Horses. Nobody else rides him except me and our office secretary once in a while for the amateur in the combined pro/am class, Janie Heslep. He picks up every little move or shift of my weight. If I talk he knows what I want. The noise and distraction of Central Park didn’t bother him. I brought him up where I eased off the pressure when he was going correctly and he has a feel now for what I want. Kid Khan is very trained. His transitions are effortless, like shifting gears in a Ferrari. He has a high tail and a short back so it’s easy for him to gather himself underneath my weight. When he moves he has a floating action. I had nothing to do with that – God made him that way. I only use light plates on his front feet and no shoes on the back feet. I’ve ridden a lot of horses but not a lot like Kid Khan. He’s special - he’s the horse of a lifetime. I love him.”

Read more: EIE Exclusive Interview with Rob Bick, Winner of the Arabian Western Pleasure Pro/Am Class in the...

by Patricia N. Saffran

Saturday night, September 23, 2017, Olympian, and other top international three-day-eventing riders, CCI 4, entered Wollman Rink for the first time for Arena Eventing and the audience cheered on the pairs of competitors with wild applause. With dressage competitors canceling just 2 ½ weeks before the start of the show, Mark Bellissimo, CEO of Equestrian Sport Productions and International Equestrian Group LLC and show president, Michael Stone, discussed the situation and decided to try the new format of arena eventing. It had already been tried in the UK and Devon this year but mainly with movable show jumps and fixed cross country jumps in separate areas.

Mark Bellissimo decided to combine them for the small arena in the Rolex Central Park Horse Show (RCPHS) and asked eventing designer, Captain Mark Phillips, to design a safe but challenging course. The result was a rousing success with Ryan Wood (AUS) on Alcatraz and Dominic Schramm (AUS) on No Objection racing, cutting corners, and jumping to first place for Team East Village. Thrilling the audience with their second place finish were Holly Payne-Caravella (USA) on her speedy Thoroughbred, Never Outfoxed, and Boyd Martin (USA) on Kyra for Team Times Square. Making their appearance for the first time in the New York City with borrowed horses were William Fox-Pitt (UK) on Indian Mill and Oliver Townend (UK) on Prince Renan for Team Chelsea. Mr. Townend had just won the Burghley Three Day Event CCI 4*. In Central Park the pair finished third.

Read more: Rolex Central Park Horse Show 2017 Inaugurates an Exciting New Class – Arena Eventing

Waterford Crystal’s rich heritage spans centuries, with origins that date back to 18th century Ireland. Traditional cut crystal originally crafted by Waterford Artisans represents the roots of the brand. Over the years, developments of new and innovative techniques have pushed the boundaries and bring ever-growing recognition for Waterford Crystal.

Each sport has its great events and championships, and each has its great trophy to mark them. And in many sports around the world, these great trophies originate with the craftsmen of Waterford Crystal. Though these craftsmen devote maximum attention to every item they create, few things give them more satisfaction than working on a trophy for a world famous sporting event- especially as such prizes challenge their creative and crafting skills to the limit.

Waterford Crystal has created trophies for sporting events in golf, tennis, horse racing, rugby, sailing, snooker to name just a few.

BUDWEISER IRISH DERBY

The single finest event in Irish Racing – continuously run for more than a century. This is the richest race in the Irish season. Ireland is synonymous with horse racing and therefore with the Irish Derby. This race is an unbroken tradition of racing at the Curragh of Kildare for more than 100 years.

The Curragh Race Course commissioned Waterford Crystal is 2008 to produce a trophy, we then pioneered a new hand-painting technique using platinum to decorate this new crystal design.

The Irish Derby has been firmly established as one of the worlds leading international races and in recent years this showpiece event has become synonymous with the world’s best racehorses, glamour, fashion and first class entertainment.

Read more: Waterford Crystal's Rich Heritage: Horse Racing Trophies

by Patricia N. Saffran

An exhibition at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, Saratoga Springs, NY
Racing’s Greatest and America’s Oldest: Selections from the Tony Leonard Collection, 46 photos are on view July 21, 2017 for at least one full year.

“Historically, I don’t think there’s a more important collection of Thoroughbred photographs in the world because of the era that Tony’s photos represent,” says Bobby Shiflet, one of the owners of the Tony Leonard Collection of over 500,000 negatives and photographs. He is also the owner of Frames On Main, an art and photography gallery in Paris, KY. He continues, “Tony took his photos during the Golden Era of racing. He photographed Triple Crown winners Secretariat, Seattle Slew, and Affirmed and other famous horses like Alydar, John Henry, Cigar, Sunday Silence and Mr. Prospector. He loved to drop over to Claiborne Farm to photograph Secretariat, the Elvis of horses, in his paddock, not just on race days.” Hall of Fame jockeys Chris McCarron, Chris Antley, Jorge Velasquez, Pat Day and many others were Leonard’s subjects and are included in the exhibit.

Read more: EIE Exclusive Interview with Bobby Shiflet on the Renowned Tony Leonard Collection

by Kimberly Gatto and Victoria Racimo
Review, by Marion E. Altieri

On August 16, 1977, Elvis Aaron Presley left the building, for good. When he died, he left a legacy that was so big—so iconic—that, like the man, himself—the Earth was too small to contain it, or him. It was hard for anyone on this planet to wrap our heads around the concept that The King no longer stood on this Earth. Elvis, like his lore, simply could not die—so the harshness of this reality was like a bolt of lightning to the Collective Unconscious of the entire world.

Even the sadness into which The King had fallen in his latter years could not take the tarnish off all that he had achieved, and all he had become. So his death was especially hard for those who just knew in their hearts—that The King was still inside there. Still the man with whom the world had fallen in love in the 1950s. Still, and always—Elvis.

Without going into specifics or writing a theomusicological dissertation, we can note here that Elvis’ talent, drive and yes—his underlying sadness—became the foundation of both his international (intergalactic?) fame and his personal quest for internal, quieting peace.

An extraordinary book, All the King’s Horses: the Equestrian Life of Elvis Presley, will rock ‘n roll (be released formally) on August 14th, 2017.

Read more: All the King’s Horses: the Equestrian Life of Elvis Presley

by Marion E. Altieri for Equine Info Exchange

The Nederlander Theatre in Times Square sets the stage for a glimmering, elegant romp through the lives, challenges and rivalrous relationship of the paint-and-powder world of two of America’s most dynamic businesswomen. Before post-modern cool and neon-colored eye shadows replaced the quest for actual beauty—Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden were taking on the men in the American cosmetics’ industry, and winning. They literally painted the town, red.

Fighting tooth-and-nail against both each other and, simultaneously against an establishment that dictated that men knew more about women’s needs and women’s beauty than did women, themselves—Rubinstein and Arden refused to go away, refused to lose, refused to concede.

War Paint, the hot new musical about the dynamic dua, stars Patti LuPone as Rubinstein and Christine Ebersol as Arden. Both Lupone and Ebsersol have been nominated for a Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical. The timeliness of this production is quite obvious: at this point in time, western culture has become more about glitz than about bringing out underlying beauty. Visually-loud and obnoxious, party-girl make-up and colors are slapped on—effects that rival Times Square’s own visual cacophony.

It’s about time that big-shouldered women from this era were recognized and celebrated—but none is more deserving than horse racing’s own Elizabeth Arden.

Read more: Elizabeth Arden: Thoroughbred Owner, Breeder, Healer

When you think of the Kentucky Derby you think of two things: big horses and big hats. Women’s hats. There are plenty of other big racing days, but none of them in the United States are associated with the millinery grandeur the same way as this longest consecutively running sporting event on the first Saturday in May and began in 1872. The first editorial mention of hats at the Derby was in a 1926 edition of Time Magazine. It wasn't much of a mention, and was stuck in the middle of an extremely long, convoluted sentence describing the start of the race. “… hats and parasols and a foam of faces…”

For those of you who are new to the sport, the Kentucky Oaks is run the day before the Derby. Unless otherwise stated, most other races including the Kentucky Derby are open to both genders. Although, the general public is probably not as familiar with it, it too is a “hat” affair.

The Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby were founded at the same time by Colonel Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr. in 1875. Thoroughbred racing, which started in Europe, set the trend as a fashionable event across the pond, and those attending adhered to the trendy styles of the day. However, it has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride in America: in the beginning stages of American racing, women had a tendency to think the racetrack may not be the proper place for a lady. Meriwether, with the help of his wife, decided that they should present the experience as a picnic outing, which would require what is called “full morning dress” for both men and women. For women it was not overly formal, but respectively presentable. For men, it was job attire. Hats were more in the style of simple bonnets to keep the sun off women’s delicate white skin, as tanned skin was considered to be a lower class attribute, for those who worked in the fields.

Read more: The Kentucky Derby and Its Hats

by Patricia N. Saffran

The most spectacular scenes in the live-action remake of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, 2017, feature stunning horses and a variety of carriages.There are many breeds and crossbreds represented and each horse is turned out to perfection. Emma Waton as the heroine, Belle, rides the svelte white Philippe, and Luke Evans as the villain, Gaston, rides the black Magnifique.

Philippe, Magnifique and the other horses in the movie come from Steve Dent, based outside of London in Buckinghamshire. Mr. Dent is one of the main sources of horses, carriages, armor and stunt riders to the film and TV industry. Steve Dent’s carriage supervisor for the movie, Haydn Webb, also has a custom wedding and events business in Berkshire which he characterizes, "We at Haydn Webb Carriages pride ourselves in presenting our original carriages exactly as they would have looked at the height of Edwardian elegance. From the horses’ carefully oiled hooves to the beautiful silk top hats of the liveried coachmen, the quality is in the detail."

Read more: EIE Exclusive Interview: Haydn Webb, Carriage Supervisor to Disney’s Beauty and the Beast