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by Judith Martin Woodall
The narrow streets of lower Manhattan are an immediate and palpable history lesson spanning centuries of indigenous life, Dutch and British colonial settlement, the birth of the nation, and the growth of the modern city. Churches, graveyards––some long known, others only recently discovered––modest buildings, skyscrapers, statues, and placards marking every stage in the city’s history are repositories for our collective memory. They summon events, myths, and long vanished people; however remote from our own lives, whether the familiar, the new, the strange, or the vaguely recollected, they take up lodging in our minds and stay on.
Manhattan is a place of infinite adaptations. Historic districts and hundreds of landmarks honor individuals and places––some still famous, others not, and others representing ordinary life in a certain age and remarkable only for their survival but usually not in their original use. Warehouses and factories become artists’ lofts, hotels, and office buildings; offices buildings become apartments; movie palaces become churches; churches become night clubs; houses once built for a single family become shops and apartments.
Reminders of equine history dot the island. Masonry horse’s heads or horse shoes above windows tell us that a parking garage was once a livery stable.
Rows of two-story buildings, many now homes and specialty stores, were once carriage houses. Elegant, multi-story mansions, their relationship to horses not so evident, bear the distinctive wide entrances telling us they were once the luxurious private carriage houses where Manhattan’s wealthiest citizens kept their horses.
The facade of a giant armory where a militia cavalry unit once went through drills in its block-sized riding hall still stands on Madison Avenue, its motto, “Boutez En Avant” carved in the masonry.
A giant television studio on the Upper West Side was once the riding hall of the most famous riding school in America.
None of these is more evocative of the equine past than the Claremont Stables––the building’s official name in the National Register of Historic Places and the City Landmarks Commission.
It is not old by most standards, but when the multi-storied livery stable opened for business in 1892, only a couple of wooden structures stood on the block. Now part of a private school complex, the building was a home for horses for 115 years. Eighty of those years from 1927 until 2007, it was the Claremont Riding Academy, an institution beloved by thousands of New Yorkers and known to equestrians the world over.
Before the building acquired landmark status, an elegant black and gold sign, and faux wrought-iron gas lamps flanking the main doors, anyone driving by or walking down the street at night would see a neon glow from an older sign that read, “CLAREMONT” and in larger letters, “SADDLE HORSES.” The illumination sporadically failed on some letters, giving rise to unwelcome word formations and a little laughter from those who noticed. But passersby did not need a sign to tell them they were in the vicinity of a stable. The odor emanating from the building was apt to stop them. It was an earthy combination of dust and hay and animals and manure, a scent out of time and place in a modern city, malodorous to most, but dubbed eau de Claremont by patrons and staff.
Claremont was a slow down sort of place. Even the most hardened, in a hurry New Yorkers shortened their steps to cast a glance at the horses and the building. On a busy day in fair weather, the main doors were always open. The sight of horses and riders moving around the small indoor arena or preparing to ride out onto West Eighty-ninth Street to follow one-way traffic around the block to the bridle paths of Central Park attracted friends and strangers alike. Inside, voices high and low, loud and soft chanted instructions. There was always something to attract one’s attention.
A father and son, an older man who remembers when horse-drawn wagons delivered milk, a couple of teenage girls, a few more parents with children pause on the sidewalk to observe a dun horse hitched to the back of a pickup truck. A man wearing a heavy leather apron bends forward, lifts the horse’s right front foot and begins trimming the hoof. A stable hand returning from lunch sees the crowd, stops, and says to the farrier, “You should sell tickets.“ The crowd laughs and moves to the side, as a horse and rider step onto the street heading for Central Park. Eventually the bystanders move on, smiling and shaking their heads at one more unique experience in the life of New York City.
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All photos courtesy of Judith Martin Woodall.
There are more fascinating stories in our section on Recreation & Lifestyle.
Forage is the foundation of every horse's diet, so learning how to evaluate hay quality is one of the most useful skills an owner can develop. Most horses eat 1.5 to 2 percent of their body weight in forage each day, which means hay makes up the majority of what goes into them. When that hay is clean, well cured, and nutritionally sound, it supports steady digestion, healthy weight, and reliable energy. When it is dusty, moldy, or overly mature, it can lead to digestive upset, respiratory irritation, and lost condition, no matter how good the rest of the feeding program is.
The good news is that you can judge a great deal about a bale before it ever reaches your horse. Here is how to assess hay with your senses, when to go further with a lab analysis, and how to match the right hay to the horse in front of you.
Start with a simple sensory check on a few bales from the same load, opening them up rather than judging the outside flakes alone. Look, smell, and feel for these signs of quality:
A sensory check tells you a lot about how the hay was grown, cured, and stored. What it cannot tell you is the actual nutrient content, and that is where many feeding problems start. As the Oregon State University Extension points out in its guide to buying hay, look and smell matter, but they are only part of the picture.
Two bales that look identical can differ widely in protein, fiber, and sugar. The only way to know what you are actually feeding is a forage analysis from a testing lab. A report gives you the numbers that matter: crude protein, fiber measures such as ADF and NDF that reflect digestibility, mineral levels including the calcium to phosphorus ratio, and non-structural carbohydrates, or NSC, which is the combined sugar and starch.
Those numbers are not a luxury. They are essential for horses that need precision: hard keepers and seniors that need more calories, broodmares and growing horses that need more protein, and metabolic or laminitis-prone horses that need forage low in sugar and starch, generally under about 10 to 12 percent NSC. The University of Minnesota Extension explains how forage quality is measured, and the University of Georgia Forage Extension offers a clear walkthrough of how to read a forage report once you have one.
One practical tip: test each hay lot separately. A lot is hay harvested from the same field, in the same cutting, under the same conditions, so its nutrition is consistent within itself but can vary from the next lot.
Because nutrient content shifts from field to field and cutting to cutting, some owners look for a supplier that analyzes every lot before it ships. A lab-tested, consistent forage such as Ultra Premium Timothy Hay takes the guesswork out of it, since you know the protein, fiber, and sugar levels of the exact hay your horse is eating, load after load.
There is no single best hay, only the best hay for a given horse. Grass hays such as timothy and orchard grass offer moderate calories and protein and suit most adult horses in light to moderate work, along with easy keepers. Legume hays such as alfalfa are richer in protein, calcium, and calories, which makes them useful for hard keepers, performance horses, and growing or lactating animals, often blended with grass hay rather than fed alone.
Cutting matters too. A second cutting of grass hay is often finer and leafier than a first cutting, which can make it more palatable for picky eaters and show horses. Whatever you choose, match it to the horse's workload, age, and health, and make any change gradually so the hindgut microbes have time to adjust.
Good hay can go downhill fast in poor storage. Keep it dry and off the ground on pallets, allow airflow around the stack, and protect it from rain and direct sun. Use the oldest hay first, and stay alert for any bale that feels unusually warm or smells fermented, which can mean it was stored before it fully cured. Buying from a steady, reliable source protects your horse too, since a consistent forage means fewer abrupt diet changes and fewer digestive surprises.
Evaluating hay is a skill that pays for itself. Combine a hands-on sensory check with a lab analysis, match the hay to the individual horse, and store and source it with care. Quality forage is the least expensive and most powerful tool you have for supporting your horse's health and performance, one bale at a time.
By Delmar Ropp, Farmers Direct Hay. Delmar is a hay grower with Farmers Direct Hay, a family farm that grows and ships horse hay from the western United States and helps owners match the right forage to the right horse.
There are more informative articles in our section on Health & Education.
By EIE Editorial
Inspirational, energetic and mesmerizing,
For horse lovers and non-horse lovers alike, Robert Montano’s autobiographical one-man play SMALL, is indeed a true story of big dreams.
Montano’s captivating performance engages the audience like no one-man show we’ve ever seen.
SMALL chronicles Robert Montano’s life story starting with his growing up in Long Island, NY in a Puerto Rican family. He is awkward and height challenged, but saw small men look like kings atop horses when his mom brought him to the racetrack as a boy. On his paper route one morning, he learns one of his customers was a horseman at Belmont Park, where he excitedly agrees to arrive at 4AM to help with the horses. It is there he learned that his true calling was to become a jockey.
While it is customary to learn to ride in an arena on a slow, gentle horse, Robert was thrown into the deep end when a trainer had him jump on a racehorse one morning at Belmont.
It didn’t end particularly well.
Undeterred, Robert persevered and eventually became a professional jockey.
The play continues to chronicle the enormous challenges of the sacrifices it takes to be a professional athlete - especially a jockey where there are strict weight limitations and risks of death while racing, as Robert saw in horseracing. There were audible gasps from the audience as he explained in graphic detail his eating and workout routine to make weight. Now a tall 5’8”, he developed an eating disorder in order to make the weight of 105. After a dangerous episode racing a difficult horse, he came to the realization that a career as a jockey put his life at risk.
Spending the summer at Saratoga Racecourse as an exercise rider, he went to the then popular nightclub “The Rafters” and got encouraged when a pretty girl told him she liked the way he moved and they spent the night dancing.
That evening out was the impetus to embark upon a new career and ultimately, he wins a full scholarship for dance at Adelphi University, and pivots from one dream to pursue another
Equine Info Exchange got a chance to sit down for a one-on-one conversation with Robert after watching his play. He was colorful and passionate, and we learned that there is tack from actual jockeys on set: including a saddle from Steve Cauthen who rode Affirmed to the Triple Crown in 1978, adding to the authenticity of the play.
“The takeaway is that you can have second chances in life. I like to say that I’m ‘Rocky on the racetrack.’ You can have a dream and a goal, but if that doesn’t work out, where do you go from there? Dance did it for me,” said Robert.
He openly discussed his time in the summer working as an exercise rider in Saratoga:
“While at Saratoga, I got a bit of heat when my roommates found tights and ballet shoes. I was taking dance classes at Skidmore College and they started busting my b***s.”
“Breaking into dance was hard, but nothing was harder than my life at the racetrack where there are very long hours and no days off. It helped me build confidence that I could do anything.“
His new successful career, gave him the opportunity to work with such performance legends as Chita Rivera in “Kiss of the Spiderwoman” and Catherine Zeta-Jones in the movie “Chicago.”
However, he still has many connections in racing and appeared on “Talking Horses” with handicapper Andy Serling and former jockey Richard Migliore. He tells us about horsemen coming to see SMALL and being brought to tears.
He continued, “I feel sad about Aqueduct Racetrack closing as it’s part of history and that’s where I got my start. I watched Ruffian race there. I even have a tattoo of her on my shoulder with the words “Running to my own rhythm.”
“Although Aqueduct is closing, I will be attending the opening of the new Belmont Park on September 18th. The next day I’m getting married!”
We wish Robert Montano the very best and hope that his spectacular play can be performed in other cities for people to enjoy.
SMALL, a one-man play, Is written and performed by Robert Montano.
See it DAILY at the Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre at the Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 West 42nd Street, NYC until July 25th. Tickets can be purchased HERE.
There are more interesting stories in our section on Recreation & Lifestyle.
Kentucky Equine Research founder Dr. Joe Pagan discusses new research in performance horse health and nutrition with Balchem Animal Nutrition and Health for their Real Science Lecture series. Visit KER.
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