PBOTD 2nd November: Kim Ablon Whitney - The Perfect Distance

-
Today's book features a girl who wants to get to the Maclay finals at the National Horse Show.

I don't think the UK really has an equivalent of the Maclay. To compete, you ride in a series of Equitation classes, and if you qualify, can compete at the USEF Medal and ASPCA Maclay Championships. Equitation classes are a sort of cross between English working hunter classes, in which you're required to jump, and show jumping. The rider's style and abilities are what are judged, as well as how well the course is completed. Unlike English show classes, the horse's conformation isn't judged.


Taking part in equitation classes is aimed at preparing young riders for the technical demands of show jumping, hence the concentration on technique and style. The classes are tremendously popular, and so there's a definite concentration on Equitation classes in American horse stories. Today's PBOTD, The Perfect Distance (2005) is about Francine Martinez, whose equestrian life is on the wrong side of the tracks. Her father works as barn manager at one of the top show stables. Like the other girls who ride there, Francine dreams of winning the Maclay, but it's the last year she'll be eligible to compete (the upper age limit is 17), so the pressure is on.

It's a fine read, and still in print.

~  0  ~

More on Kim Ablon Whitney
The National Horse Show

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rollkur and the blue tongue

-
I've been meaning to write about this all week, but reading the exclusive in Horse and Hound about the controversy tipped me over the edge. For my non-horsy readers, rollkur is a training/warming up technique used by some dressage riders. It basically involves riding the horse with its jaw pulled in virtually to its chest, in order to increase suppleness. Patrik Kittel , a Swedish competitor in Odense was videoed riding his horse in this way. If you watch the video , you'll see the horse's tongue hanging out - blue. It takes a while before the rider notices this. When he does, he stops, puts the horse's tongue back in, and carries on. There are two things which bother me about this. Firstly, I am fully aware large sections of the dressage world, and some of its brighest stars, consider rollkur perfectly ok, but the FEI guidelines state this practice should only be for short periods, allowing the horse to rest. Patrick Kittel apparently rode the horse for two hou...
Read more

Archibald, don't eat the bedclothes

-
Image
My friend Louise sent me this picture today. It's from a children's book with the rather wince-making title For The Wee Ones. I thought, when I read that (because I read the message before I looked at the picture) that the picture was going to be a typical winsome production from the school of artists who think (or who are paid to think) that the child is a thing sent from God and a blissful thing. They had obviously never met a child, and certainly not mine. I should have known Louise better. The artist responsible for Archibald, don't eat the bedclothes slipped this one past the editors. Just look at the poor, broken Mother Rabbit. She knows she has not the faintest chance of being listened to, and poor thing, she is stooped in the way of a mother to whom this is just the lastest in a long line of horror; with nothing good to come. And Archibald is obviously the spawn of the Devil. Just look at those eyes. He'll have the bed after he's finished the bedclothes...
Read more

Dick Sparrow - 40 Horse Hitch, and Neil Dimmock's 46 Percherons

-
Image
Here's a clip of Dick Sparrow driving 40 horses. It's an amazing sight, particularly when the shot changes to show the team from the rear and you get the great incongruity of modern American corporate architecture as a background to the wagon and horses. I love the anticipation in the video: the sense of something amazing being just round the corner is palpable. Thanks to Christina Wilsdon for telling me about this world record 46 Percheron hitch (alas just stills) but you get the idea.
Read more