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 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…
Did you know that the first ever motion picture featured a horse and rider? In 1873, Leland Stanford, horse breeder and founder of Stanford University, commissioned Eadweard Muybridge to photograph his prized trotter, Occident. In doing so, Stanford wanted to settle a long-disputed question: does a horse have all four hooves off the ground at…
In May of 2018, the world witnessed the spectacle of His Royal Highness Prince Harry and American actress Meghan Markle’s wedding. And while the wedding was just beautiful, to myself and no doubt all the other horse-mad people out there, the carriage procession through Windsor afterwards with the stunning horses and their shiny armour was…
The first female jockey to win the iconic Melbourne Cup was the talented Michelle Payne back in 2015. Her trusty steed, Prince of Penzance, won by half a length to make Michelle the first female to ride the winning horse in the 155-year history of the Melbourne Cup! But her road to the top of…
Juego del pato, more commonly referred to Pato, is the national sport of Argentina and is a game played on horseback that combines elements of polo and basketball. It was invented in the 17th century by gauchos whose playing field would stretch from one farm to the next! So how do you play? Teams made…
