I had the pleasure to show Belladora at Dressage at Devon where she earned 71.5% in Three Year Old Filly Materiale Class. Bella is an outstanding young horse for sale, owned by Diana Murphy. Contact Windrock Farm to schedule an appointment to try her.
Fox Hunting in Virginia is one of the most fun equestrian sports. I have been out on hunts with my brother Jim and sister Elise galloping through the Virginia country in the fall. Our grandparents were avid fox hunters in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and were such horse lovers that oats were tossed on them instead of rice at their wedding. There are more images from the photo archives. We all grew up in a family of equestrians, born in the saddle.
Diego, 16 months, has a very special bond with Dash, the oldest Icelandic Sheepdog at the farm.
As a result of working in film for nearly 4 decades, Rex Peterson has designed several products to make horse training more efficient and safe. The Neck Rope designed and made by Rex Peterson can be used for many purposes, including ponying kids on their first few trail rides across country. It is important to get out of the arena as soon as possible for the rider as well as the horse. You can see in this video how easy it is to control the pony when he speeds up or wants to turn the wrong direction. This method allows the kid to feel the independence of riding while having a safety line for any errors.
Does your horse have perfect ground manners? Does he listen to you and respond IMMEDIATELY to your request? Is your horse happy in his work? Do you cross train him to build up multiple muscle groups? Does your horse stop on command in any situation? If not, check out solutions to common horse training solutions.
Lilah looks on as RJ performs behind her, brother Liam talks to McCoy, Lilah practices for the Kentucky Derby, their dad,Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick will have to pen a song inspired by their new companions.
Brownie with Joa warming up for dressage.
Nate with Lauren warming up for dressage.
Here is the view from the grandstands at Keenland in Lexington, KY where Disney is filming scenes for “Secretariat”. Dean Semler (“The Cowboy Way”, “Appaloosa”, Dances with Wolves”) set up several cameras on the track to shoot various scenes of the movie. Dean is a master of using several cameras to capture several scenes with one set up. Hundreds of extras showed up to fill the grandstands for the shot of the Belmont win. Several horses portray Secretariat depending on the shot, some are better for the close up shots and others are fast runners. Randy Wallace (“Braveheart”) directs Diane Lane who stars as Penny Tweedy and John Malkovich as the trainer. Rex Peterson is the Horse Trainer working with Rusty Hendrickson, Horse Wrangler. Over 30 horses are being used for the film, with several stepping in to portray the uber-athlete Secretariat.