Crickhollow Farm

Preakness Day Tomorrow

Tomorrow the Preakness will be run at Pimlico, but more interestingly (to Arab lovers, at least) is that the President of the UAE Cup will also be run tomorrow at Pimlico.  It's a 1 1/16 mile race for Arabians, ages 4 and older, and offers a $75,000 purse.

I have no idea if it will be shown during NBC's coverage of the Preakness, but I'm under the impression that it's to be run much earlier in the day.  The e-mail I had from Arabian Horse Global mentioned  coverage "starting at 11:45 AM EST".  They tend to do live webcasts of things, so you could try watching there, if you're interested in seeing Arabians race.

William Fox-Pitt Wins the Rolex

Just watched the end of the Rolex -- lots of fun.  There were some very exciting rides.  I do wish they'd show more dressage and cross-country on the broadcast tv channel (I don't get the fancy sports channels on my tv package), but I'm glad that something of the Rolex is shown, at least.

William Fox-Pitt of Great Britain won (for the second time) this year.  I've always liked him.  It amazes me that someone so very tall can ride so very beautifully.  Even when he makes his horse look small, he never really looks out of place.  He won the 2011 Burghley Horse Trials on this same mount (Parklane Hawk), so if he can go on to win the Badminton Horse Trials  next weekend with him, he will have won the "Grand Slam" of Eventing (which Rolex offers a substantial prize for).  Too bad NBC is unlikely to show any of that on TV -- I expect they'll be too preoccupied with the Kentucky Derby. 

I'd rather watch Badminton, to be honest.  I find it rather ridiculous that the Rolex 3-day only gets an hour of time on broadcast (5 total hours when you add in what was on the premium sports channels), but the Derby, which only takes a few minutes to run, will get 3 hours of time on NBC alone, and a total of 14.5 hours all told across the NBC/Universal stations. 

I mean, I'm glad the eventing is on at all, but give me a break!  A flat race is nowhere near as exciting, imho, as the cross-country or stadium jumping phases of an event.  I'll grant that the dressage probably isn't that exciting for the un-initiated, but I'm pretty sure anyone can see the appeal of the jumping. 

And let's face it: most of the Derby coverage isn't about the horses at all.  It's about people-watching.  That can be sort-of interesting in short bursts, but there's only so much "oh, look at so-and-so's hat" I can take, and I really could care less about which horse is the favourite of which celebrity, most of whom I do not recognise and who know nothing about horses anyway.  Bah!

 

Anyway, to end on a more positive note...

It's probably kind of weird, but one of the things I really enjoy about having the horse events on tv like this are the Rolex commercials.  It's not like I can afford one, but the ads are just so beautifully done.  They're arresting, but also rather soothing.  Lovely watches, lovely horses, lovely music ... it makes me sigh and wish.  If more commercials were like that, watching tv would irritate me less.

 

Side note: I will be posting about my day at the Expo sometime soon.  I have to get my photos off the camera and see if there are any worth sharing, first.

Rolex Kentucky 3-day Event on TV

E-mail in my inbox this morning provided the following info on television coverage of the Rolex:

Saturday coverage will be from 10:00am - 12:00pm ET on Universal Sports and 1:30pm - 3:30pm ET on NBC Sports Network Sunday coverage will include a recap of the weekend and the dramatic conclusion from 2:00pm - 3:00pm ET on NBC

Horse Power

The Horse Power documentary that was on tpt last night was fun.  Martin Clunes packed a lot of different types of horse experiences into two hours, but I think the best part was his reactions to it all.  It's so nice to see someone who admits to not necessarily being a particularly good rider or talented horseman acting as a guide into the world of horses when he so obviously, unabashedly loves them. 

And, you know what?  That's really what it should be about.  Love.  I don't keep horses or teach lessons because it's going to make me money.  It's not.  I do it because I love them and because I want to help other people nurture their love and understanding of them.  I like sharing the joy I find in them with other people. 

Vacation and Reminder

I am enjoying a mini-vacation from my real job -- a four day weekend, starting today.  I'll be using the time to do stuff around the farm and run errands for it.  Aside from the usual chores, I need to give the tackroom a good clean and reorganisation while I can have the doors open & be dragging stuff outside whilst I sweep (& mop??).  The storage bay in the barn aisle also needs a good dusting, decluttering, and reorg.  I need to figure out where I'm going to store the pony cart this winter, too.  It's under the overhang outside the barn at the moment, but I don't know that I want it there all winter.  I  may see if it can go in the storage bay this year, as there's hay in its old spot right now.

I need to take stock of tank heaters, buckets, etc. and make a run to Fleet Farm if anything needs replacing.  I should have bought a spare tank heater this spring when they would have been on sale, but I didn't think about it then.  I'm pretty sure I only have one per water trough/bucket that needs to be heated this winter, which makes me a little nervous.  I like having an extra on hand.  They never fail when it's convenient to go get a new one immediately, and then there's the fact that they might not be in stock all winter long...  If I had more gumption, I'd build insulating boxes to place around the troughs, which would help the heaters do their job with less energy and be insurance against one failing in the middle of the night.   It shouldn't be hard, but I'd actually have to, you know, do it.

 

Reminder: tonight is the night that tpt will be airing Martin Clunes: Horse Power at 8:50 in the pip emma. 

Horses on TV

One week from tonight, at 8:50 PM of all times, Twin Cities Public Television will be airing Martin Clunes: Horse Power.  Their synopsis is a bit rambling, but it looks like it should be a fun show.  There will be two episodes in a row (the only two??), so if you don't want to stay up until 10-ish on a Thursday, get that video recorder fired up.  If you can't get tpt on your tv ... erm, sorry.  Maybe try your local public television station's website to see if they'll be airing it soon.  It doesn't appear to be on dvd yet, but possibly it will be at some point.