118 M AY/J U N E 2 017 U N TAC K E D
u Horsepeople At 15 And At 30
Blogger Alice Peirce has a hilarious take on life with horses, and she examined
how the situation looks vastly different depending on your age!
"At 15 your parents buy all your tack. (Amateurs) At 30 you're still using
the tack your parents bought you, but it's held together with scrap leather,
duct tape and disappointment. Your paddock boots have a tear where
the leather meets the sole resembling a gaping mouth when walking.
You know what your boots' mouth is saying? 'Kill us.' You ignore their
plea, and shut them up with some duct tape. Good as new."
You can read the article at coth.com/article/horsepeople-at-15-and-at-30 and also
read Alice's first, equally funny piece for COTH at coth.com/article/a-grooms-life
u First Field Without A Bridle? No Problem.
After a trailering accident that left her off-the-track Thoroughbred
Youmightbearedneck with a broken jaw, COTH blogger Michelle
Craig experimented to find a bitting solution that worked. She
usually rides him with no bridle at all, but foxhunting first flight with
the Piedmont Fox Hounds meant she wanted a bit more control.
Craig thought outside the box for a solution and had the time of
her life.
"He's made it pretty clear he was just waiting for me to figure
out this unique bitting thing, and I felt comfortable because I rode
in our trusty old neck rope that I know I can steer and stop in (we
have also hunted in this alone), but being able to have a bit he likes
means we can do so much more," she writes: coth.com/article/first-
field-without-a-bridle-no-problem
BEST OF WEB & PRINT
What's Hot On The Web
PHOTOS
COURTESY
ALICE
PEIRCE
PHOTO
COURTESY
AMELIE
KOVAC
MIDDLEBURG
PHOTO
u The Unruly 3-Year-Old Pumpkin Changed
Amelie Kovac's Life
When French-Croatian rider Amelie Kovac got the last-
minute call to ride in a symposium with Charlotte Dujardin,
she gave Pumpkin a clip job and a bath and shipped him
over. Little did she know that the dressage superstar would
fall in love with the quirky chestnut and offer to buy him on
the spot.
It wasn't the first time serendipity struck Kovac—she
bought Pumpkin off a hunch, and her belief in the sometimes
unruly and headstrong young horse paid off in a big way.
She also made bold moves with her own life, moving to the
United States, selling a horse of a lifetime and starting over.
Read more about Kovac: coth.com/article/the-unruly-3-year-
old-pumpkin-changed-emilie-kovacs-life
