by Heather Wallace for Equine Info Exchange

The pounding of hooves echoed throughout New York’s Nassau Coliseum the last long weekend in April 2018 for the first Longines Masters New York presented by EEM, the final leg of the Grand Slam of Showjumping.

Founded in 2009, Longines Masters was created to bring together the greatest equestrians in the world's most elegant cities: Paris, Hong Kong and, in 2014—Los Angeles. In May of 2017, it was announced that in 2018, the third leg of event would move the prestigious Longines Masters from its established American home in Los Angeles to the Nassau Coliseum in New York, bringing the event and subsequent awareness from American coast-to-coast.

The seamless move to New York showcased the thrill of international showjumping to the East Coast audience that craves this most-elegant of equestrian sports. The weekend of April 26 - 29 was the grand finale, with total prize earnings up to 4,500,000€ (approx $5.3M USD at time of this posting)--over the course of the series.

Combining the sophistication of New York’s elite with the adrenaline rush of beating the clock over 1.5m fences, the event was more than a horse show: it was a social event of multinational proportions.

Luxury storefronts lined the Prestige Village including Hermes, Sam Edelman, Voltaire, CWD and of course, Longines. Visitors toured the high-end wares and fine art galleries while sipping champagne, listening to live music and mingling with top-ranked equestrian athletes from around the globe.

Read more: United States Duels Europe in the Longines Masters / Riders Masters Cup, New York, 2018

Going to the Kentucky Derby and don't have a hat? Good news! There is a great selection of hats in the gift shop at Churchill Downs!

We attended opening night of Churchill Downs on Saturday April 28^th and found these beautiful hats.

Read more: Derby Hats Galore at Churchill Downs

by Elizabeth Goldsmith

Wanted: Women willing to ride 100-120 miles per week through rural Kentucky, rain or shine, carrying library books to the state’s most isolated residents. Must provide own horse or mule and be prepared to walk if the terrain is too rough. Pay is $28 per month. Sound like something you’d like to do?

The Pack Horse Library initiative was part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA), created to help lift America out of the Great Depression. Illiteracy was a real problem. In 1930 as many as 31% of eastern Kentuckians couldn’t read, although most wanted to learn. They saw literacy as their road out of impoverishment.

In 1936, packhorse librarians served 50,000 families, and, by 1937, 155 public schools. Children loved the program; many mountain schools didn’t have libraries, and since they were so far from public libraries, most students had never checked out a book. ”‘Bring me a book to read,’ is the cry of every child as he runs to meet the librarian with whom he has become acquainted,” wrote one Pack Horse Library supervisor. “Not a certain book, but any kind of book. The child has read none of them.”

Read more: The Heroic Horseback Librarians of the Great Depression

by Elizabeth Goldsmith

Wanted: Women willing to ride 100-120 miles per week through rural Kentucky, rain or shine, carrying library books to the state’s most isolated residents. Must provide own horse or mule and be prepared to walk if the terrain is too rough. Pay is $28 per month. Sound like something you’d like to do?

The Pack Horse Library initiative was part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA), created to help lift America out of the Great Depression. Illiteracy was a real problem. In 1930 as many as 31% of eastern Kentuckians couldn’t read, although most wanted to learn. They saw literacy as their road out of impoverishment.

In 1936, packhorse librarians served 50,000 families, and, by 1937, 155 public schools. Children loved the program; many mountain schools didn’t have libraries, and since they were so far from public libraries, most students had never checked out a book. ”‘Bring me a book to read,’ is the cry of every child as he runs to meet the librarian with whom he has become acquainted,” wrote one Pack Horse Library supervisor. “Not a certain book, but any kind of book. The child has read none of them.”

Read more: The Traveling Librarians of the Great Depression

by Delores Kuhlwein

Author Carly Kade knows a thing or two about love, horses and handsome cowboys.

She breathed softly, and the shavings rustled as she blew breath. I dropped to my knees as I approached her. Reaching her neck, I placed my hand on her shoulder and combed the fingers of my other hand through her soft white mane. Her neck made a perfect U around my body, and I heard her sigh at my touch. I turned toward her, folded my legs inside the bow of her body, picked up her soft velvet muzzle, and lifted her head into my lap. Faith didn’t resist. She nestled into my crossed legs, and I stroked her white blaze, combed through her forelock, ran my palms over the triangular tip of her lovely brown ears, and wished I could stay in this moment forever. ~ Devon Brooke, In the Reins

Perhaps the most rewarding aspect of our infatuation with horses is the universal emotion of everything fading away as you lose yourself in your horse, a feeling that sends Carly Kade, Arizona-based author of the wildly popular romantic Western novel In the Reins, scurrying to capture her words inspired by time spent with horses. Often Carly’s notes are taken on the insides of her mare’s feedbags after a ride.

“I scribble down my thoughts while perched on hay bales, listening to the sounds of the horses rustling in their stalls,” she confessed. Many scenes in her books, and even the horse character “Faith,” were inspired by “Sissy,” Carly’s own Paint mare, I'm Gonna Kiss You.

You don’t have to meet Carly to get know her; as a fellow horse lover, you really already do.

“I will own horses until I take my last breath; I love them that much,” she said. “There is nothing more peaceful to me than the quiet bond between a woman and her horse, and I am happiest when I am in the saddle.”

Read more: Tell It to My Heart