From Abbie:
If you are reading this website, then it’s safe to say that you have at one time or another Googled the term “horse quotations” (if you haven’t, go do it. Right. Now.). Once you get past the clichéd phrases that are generally printed on posters with Arabians and rainbows and displayed in pediatric dentists’ offices, you will find that great thinkers have summed up nearly every feeling you can direct towards a horse. Winston Churchill once said my personal favorite: “There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man.” Churchill has been my favorite historical figure since I first stumbled across a listing of his famous quotations; no one else comes close in combining overarching virtue with Groucho Marx logic. His wit shared with his love for horses clinched my admiration forever.
Churchill grew up riding while attending school at Brighton; eventually he enrolled in the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst as a cavalry cadet. He didn’t qualify for the more prestigious infantry, and even turned down a later invitation so that he could continue to ride. At Sandhurst horses were his greatest joy. In My Early Life, his autobiography, Churchill wrote, “ I and the group in which I moved spent all our money on hiring horses” (Sound familiar? Who needs food anyway?). He placed second in the competition for the cavalry prize, a contest that tested random skills like jumping without stirrups and reins and galloping fences in the open. Based on the description, it’s safe to say that Churchill would have loved Eventing. Jumping without reins? So pony club. Try going through a coffin combination without stirrups AND reins; Eventers could definitely give the cavalry a run for its money.
While the cavalry taught Churchill his skills, it was racing that had his heart. He tried his hand at steeplechase, much to the dismay of his mother. After telling her about a near miss when his mount refused a fence, he grew wiser and entered his next race under a fake name. While stationed in India he kept a racing pony (yes, I did say racing pony) named Lily, who unfortunately never excelled. This led to a string of other ponies, forays into polo, and more races. Wearing brown and pink silks (imagine that one running around Burghley… would Devoucoux make a pink saddle?) Churchill rode a number of horses until realizing that racing wasn’t an appropriate occupation for an aspiring officer.
You know the rest. Churchill rose within the government, saved the world a couple times, said some important things, met some important people, and wrote his own place in history. And then, at age 75 (!) he bought his first real racehorse, Colonist II. Colonist became a popular figure and the most famous of Churchill’s horses, winning 13 out of 24 races and placing in five more. In the ensuing 15 years, Churchill owned 36 racehorses and 12 broodmares. He rarely missed a race, did not give them up until age 90, a year before his death. It’s safe to say he redefined the “end of life.” I can only hope to own 1 horse during my twilight years, let alone 48. If anyone knows his secret let me know. I’ll leave you with another quotation from My Early Life, as I believe sometimes we all need to remember it on the bad days. No hour is ever lost.
“Don’t give your son money; as far as you can afford it, give him horses. No one ever came to grief through riding horses. No hour of life is lost that is spent in the saddle. Young men have often been ruined through owning horses or through backing horses, but never through riding horses.”
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