Horse Sports

At the age of 19, Lara Prior-Palmer discovered a website devoted to "the world's longest, toughest horse race" - an annual competition of endurance and skill that involves dozens of riders racing a series of 25 wild ponies across 1,000 kilometers of Mongolian grassland. On a whim, she decided to enter the race. Riders often spend years preparing to compete in the Mongol Derby, and many fail to finish. Rough Magic captures the extraordinary story of one young woman who forged ahead, against all odds, to become the first female winner of this breathtaking race.

He’s racing cross-country, looking for a safe place to land. She’s dreading a future that was never her choice. They both want the same thing: to leave the past behind.

In this abridgement of River-Horse, the pre-eminent chronicler of American back roads - who has given us the classics Blue Highways and Prairyerth - recounts his singular voyage through American waters from sea to sea. Along the route, he offers a lyrical and ceaselessly fascinating shipboard perspective on the country and its rivers, lakes, canals, and landscapes.

Courtney Maum is thirty-seven years old when she finds herself in an indoor arena in Connecticut, moments away from stepping back into the saddle. For her, this is not just a riding lesson, but a last-ditch attempt to pull herself back from the brink even though riding is a relic from the past she walked away from. She hasn’t been on or near a horse in over thirty years.

Tilly Redbrow lives, breathes and dreams horses. The only thing missing from life with her adoptive family is a pony of her own. But on the day Tilly helps rescue a terrified horse from the roadside, her dreams begin to come true. She quickly forms a special bond with Magic Spirit, the beautiful grey horse that is now being cared for at Silver Shoe Farm. It's the start of a partnership with a horse that only she can ride to stardom, but they both have a lot to learn along the way.

In more than a century of American Thoroughbred racing, only 13 horses have won the Triple Crown (the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes, all won in the same season). Veteran turf writer and racing historian Edward L. Bowen takes us through the rich history of one of the most formidable and exciting challenges in all of sport. Bowen covers the trainers, owners, and jockeys who etched their names into the annals of thoroughbred racing, and the “lucky 13” who captured all three jewels of the Triple Crown, racing’s most prestigious prize.

Ten months after giving birth to her son, Jules is back on top. Or, she’s ready to be. She and Pete have traveled to Maryland in prep for the Chesapeake Three-Day Event, one of America’s toughest events, for the first time. A big win could be the perfect cap to her comeback season. Jules is where she belongs competition-wise, but there’s one problem: she’s in the wrong state. Because the fact is, Jules just hates Maryland.

In the horse riding world, your success is determined by how well you can control, understand, and harmonize with a 1,000+ pound animal that has superior strength, is faster, and has a better-developed nervous system than you. The way you overcome these strengths in a horse is to understand what the horse’s limitations are.

In the late 1980s, a spectacular three-year-old female racehorse named Winning Colors was being groomed for success under her famous Hollywood trainer D. Wayne Lukas and the billionaire owner of the San Diego Chargers pro-football team Eugene Klein. Meanwhile, three fun-loving gamblers Miami Paul, Dino Mateo, and Big Bernie believed that Winning Colors could be the unlikely female winner of the 1988 Kentucky Derby.

Learn about the US Triple Crown of Racing with iMinds insightful audio knowledge series. The Triple Crown is the most esteemed horse racing trophy in North America. The Triple Crown trophy was introduced in 1930 after a journalist suggested that Gallant Fox's triumph in America's three biggest horse races, the Preakness Stakes, the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes, deserved a trophy of its own. He suggested the name, the Triple Crown, after the British Triple Crown trophy.

With a show-jumping career spanning over 40 years, Nick Skelton is a legend in the equestrian world. No other rider has won so many major competitions on so many different horses, and he is as popular at Olympia and Hickstead as he is at Aachen, Geneva, Paris and Spruce Meadows. In 2000 Skelton was forced into retirement after he broke his neck. But following an amazing recovery, he came out of retirement in 2002. Now he tells the full story of his eventful life and matchless achievements.

When Lanfranco ‘Frankie’ Dettori arrived on British shores in 1985, aged just 14, he couldn’t speak a word of English. Having left school just a year earlier, he was eager to become a stable boy and apprentice jockey, following in the footsteps of his father. This was his first, but certainly not his last, leap of faith. Despite his slight size, Frankie’s impact upon the British racing scene was immediate and significant.

Though Jules has spent her adult life bouncing from one farm to another, it never mattered: home was always where her horses were. But now, newly engaged and pregnant, she is yearning for a place she can truly call home. Alachua Eventing Co-Op once felt like that, but the co-op board is making Jules’ life difficult again, and her good friend (and professional rival) Kit seems destined to take Jules’ spot as head instructor. When Jules’ doctor forbids her from getting into the saddle until the baby comes, Jules has a full-blown existential crisis. Who is she if she’s not on horseback?

Year after year, climbers return to the world's most difficult mountains. At these places, even the most cautious climber is vulnerable to mistakes, bad weather, and bad luck, which often leads to death. This collection offers harrowing accounts of extreme mountaineering and its potentially fatal consequences.

Own your first horse like an expert, regardless of your experience. Discover how to care for and nurture your horse, even if you’ve never set foot in a stable before. The journey from a complete novice to an accomplished rider is a meaningful and rewarding experience that simply can’t be rivaled. The love and affection between horse owners and their animals is astounding–it’s no joke when riders say their horse is their best friend.

Laura Hillenbrand beautifully renders this breathtaking saga of one horse's journey from also-ran to national luminary. Seabiscuit: An American Legend is an inspiring tale of unlikely heroes, a classic story of three embattled individuals overcoming the odds in the Great Depression.

Great Horse Racing Mysteries digs beneath the surface of some of the sport's most intriguing cases.

How do I stop my horse from being herd-bound? Is one of the most frequently asked questions I get from my blog readers and students. Because of this, I wanted to share my personal approach to dealing with herd-bound horses in this book and help you overcome this vexing issue. Herd-bound behaviors in a horse can range from annoying to outright dangerous and its outcomes can be detrimental to both your safety and your horse’s health. In this book, I have therefore categorized herd-bound behavior into three levels of severity, each with its own easy-to-follow protocol.

Have you ever watched your horse do something that defies human logic and wondered, “Why does my horse act this way?” If so, you’re not alone. Horses are designed to survive in the wild, yet occasionally the wires between domestication and instinct get crossed. Meredith Hill is back with her equine expertise

Detective Samson O'Brien is ready to settle down to a nice cup of tea, but it's not long before he's called on for help with a new case. In order to execute a recent will, solicitor Matty Thistlethwaite requires a copy of a death certificate for a young woman who died when Samson was a child. It should be straightforward, but things in Bruncliffe rarely are. Particularly when Matty insists that Delilah Metcalfe, with her wealth of local knowledge, works alongside Samson on the sensitive investigation.