At a recent LOPE event, a well-dressed rancher approached me. He was a leader in the racing industry for many years and even ran his own breeding farm at one point. Fingering his cowboy hat, he squinted at me and asked, “You’re LOPE, right?” In response to my nod, he said, “You’ve been doing this [...]

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Most people think racehorses are difficult and nervous. Back when I rode in the Washington DC area, my barn friends didn’t like the ex-racehorses. They thought all off-track horses were crazy, hyper or pushy. There was little sympathy or understanding of the racehorse’s context, where it came from, what it was used to doing. Probably [...]

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There’s a great article about Barbaro in this month’s Vanity Fair – by one of my favorite nonfiction writers, Buzz Bissinger (author of Friday Night Lights). Although Barbaro’s story has a sad ending, I think of him as a bold, confident winner – even during his long rehab at New Bolton, you could his sass [...]

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