As a mother to three young globetrotters (Finn, Birdie and Poppy), nothing gives me more joy and pride than bundling up our wanderlust-filled family and taking them globetrotting. From a young age, our girls have been plonked on my reliable and dependable polo ponies or our two beautiful little ponies, Charlie Bubbles and Minty Magic. […]

Tanya McDermott is spearheading a new project by Harness Racing Victoria that aims to help Standardbreds transition to new lives and careers after retiring from the racetrack. Tanya very kindly took the time to answer some questions for us about her life by the track, the HERO project and some favourite memories. What is your […]

Breed name: Dongola, or Dongolawi. Country of origin: Sudan, Cameroon and Eritrea. Breed origin: The Dongola breed is believed to owe a lot to the Iberian horses that were brought to Egypt in the 13th century. Although this part of the Dongola’s ancestry is beyond doubt, the rest is up for contention. Some believe they […]

Whether working with gauchos in Argentina, cowboys in America or stockmen in Australia, there’s something about working cattle from the back of a well-trained horse that truly feeds the soul. And getting a taste of life on a working cattle farm is at the top of many globetrotters’ bucket lists! So to help you find […]

A Chilean huaso is ‘an excellent horseman with gentlemanly ways who identifies with the hacienda’ (‘hacienda’ is a South American term for a large estate – think an estancia, but bigger). Have you heard of gauchos? Huasos are the Chilean equivalent. Until the 20th century, huasos were far from gentlemen. They started off as bandits […]

The Guinness World Record for the highest jump by a horse was set by Captain Alberto Larraguibel and ‘Huaso’ in Chile, 1949. The pair jumped 2.47 metres! Formerly named Faithful, Huaso was born in Chile in 1933. After a failed racing career, a near-fatal injury crushing his new owner’s dressage aspirations and an unpromising start […]

Breed name: Chilean Horse, or Chilean Corralero. Country of origin: Chile Breed origin: The Chilean Horse is the oldest South American horse breed and the oldest registered stock horse in the Western Hemisphere. It descends from the horses who travelled with the Spanish conquistadors from Peru to Chile in the 16th century. Many who set […]

A ship the size of the Titanic needed some serious stopping gear! The anchor commissioned for the vessel weighed a whopping 16 tonnes, and was forged at Noah Hingley & Sons ironworks in Netherton, in England’s Midlands. In order to get the anchor to the Titanic, it needed to be transported from the Netherton ironworks […]

Jeans make great travel companions, even better if they’ll hold up to a day of horse riding and still look good enough to wear out to dinner or sightseeing! The trick to horseback holidays is to make our luggage work hard for us, and when there’s riding gear taking up precious space and weight, we […]

Name of breed: Hucul Pony, or Carpathian Pony. Country of origin: The Carpathian Mountains. In modern times, the area where they originated lies within Ukraine, Romania, Slovakia and Poland. Breed origin: The Hucul pony is a very old breed, believed to have been developed in the 13th century by crossing the now-extinct wild Tarpan horse […]

Long-haired horses have been revered throughout history. The first famous long-haired horse was a Percheron called Prince Imperial. First owned by Napoleon’s nephew, Emperor Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte III, Prince Imperial was bought by Jacob Howser, who took him to the USA to improve local bloodlines. Credited with having the longest forelock and mane in […]

The Kaimanawa Horse Muster is a biennial muster that takes place in the Kaimanawa Ranges on New Zealand’s North Island. The purpose of the muster is to maintain a population of around 300 wild Kaimanawa horses, which are not native to the Ranges but are allowed to remain because of their cultural significance. Kaimanawa horses […]

Name of breed: French Trotter (French: Trotteur français). Country of origin: France. Breed origin: The French Trotter was developed in Normandy, a northwestern region of France, in the 1800s as trotting races increased in popularity. Breeders crossed Norman stock with Thoroughbred, American Standardbred, Norfolk Roadster, Hackney and hunter-type bloodlines to create a horse with incredible […]

Copenhagen was a chestnut stallion of Arabian and Thoroughbred breeding who saw the Duke of Wellington emerge unscathed and victorious at Waterloo. But that’s not all there is to his story. Copenhagen’s dam, Lady Catherine, was the war horse of a brigade commander at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1807. Unbeknownst to her rider, she […]