by Coconuts Bangkok

Every year, dozens of Thai Buddhists travel up the mountainous terrain in Chiang Rai province to watch Phra Kru Ba, the respected abbot and founder of Archa Thong Forest Monastery, bless the ponies in a ceremony called Bai Si Sukwan.

The Archa Thong Forest Monastery is known for the sight of Buddhist monks mounted on horses and the Dharma teaching of Phra Kru Ba.

The senior monk is a former Muay Thai fighter who has fought against the opium trade in the notorious Golden Triangle for the past 20 years by introducing Buddhism to the locals, bonding with the people via the practice of Muay Thai and his equestrian skills.

On the morning of the latest Bai Si Sukwan ceremony, locals dressed in white lined up with dry food in their hands as the famed Phra Kru Ba rode his horse down from the hilltop to accept alms from his worshippers.

“Who wants to get lucky? Raise your hands. Who wants to be wealthy? Raise your hands. Who wants to be safe? Now who wants to listen to Dharma?” Phra Kru Ba said to the cheering worshippers in a ceremony held on September 21.

Read more: Horseback Hero: How one Thai Monk Saves Animals from the Slaughterhouse with Buddhism

by Roger and Rhonda Adams

Our Journey began on a date that, we agree, neither one of us really liked the other person. In spite of that rocky beginning, on March 2, 2019 we will celebrate 40 years of marriage that has been full of life, laughter, adventures, sickness and truly learning the art of communication. Communication is the key to a Journey will lived.

Like so many other couples from different worlds, I was part of the corporate world, and Roger life was already in construction.

We were told early on in our marriage that—for reasons no one could determine at that time—we could never have children. We worked through our feelings, and thus began the life of riding horse and mules. Still, we knew that something was lacking: we wanted more for ourselves. Roger and I both had been reared in church, but had gone through a season of playing church. Our shared realization, that we were missing something, led us back to our roots, and to renewing our commitments to Christ.

Read more: A Team, Riding Out Life's Storms: 2RMules and Wyoming Saddlery

by Sue Weakley, photos by George Kamper

She may be little-known to the public, but this powerful woman is a major force in ending horse slaughter in America.

Victoria McCullough is soft-spoken, but in Washington, D.C., she’s acutely savvy and a born diplomat. She’s well-known inside the Beltway, sweetly twisting arms to end horse slaughter in the U.S. A horse rescuer with more than 10,000 horses and burros re-homed from the kill pen, she’s an advocate for recycling unwanted equines. The only child of the late Rexford Davis, founder of the country’s largest privately held petroleum company, she’s an accomplished pianist as well as the architect and engineer for her sprawling estate in Wellington, Florida. McCullough generally guards her privacy with the tough tenacity she shows in Washington—until Equestrian Living was invited for a glimpse of the home and stables she has lovingly restored and built. Welcome to the private world of Victoria McCullough.

The House
McCullough’s estate was purchased in 2012; renovations began the following year and have continued for three years and counting.

“It was for sale for years and no one would touch it, and I mean no one,” Victoria says. “In fact, Hunter Harrison (Double H Farm) said to me, ‘I think you are crazy to get that house. Kid, it’s the biggest money pit in the world, and the house is ugly.’” The house had lain empty for seven years while the South Florida weather fueled mold and mildew damage, but McCullough loved the light streaming in through the windows, the limestone flooring imported from France, and the building’s acoustics, so she overlooked the rest, recognizing the hidden gem.

Read more: The World of Victoria McCullough

At the Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event, April 26-29th, the rain from earlier in the week cleared in time for a perfect four days of showing, demonstrations…and of course shopping from a variety of amazing vendors!

We witnessed world class riders with their brave equine partners as they cleared and splashed through obstacles in Cross Country, performed Dressage with precision, and carefully cleared fences in Show Jumping.

Ultimately, in a nail-biting finish filled with gasps and thrills, Oliver Townend of Great Britain did the seemingly impossible: he beat Germany’s Michael Jung at the Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event.

Read more: Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event

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