A horse can be a jerk?
May 19th, 2009, 8:46 am · Post a Comment · posted by kylew
Don’t ask why, but I wound up watching three hours of biographies of Triple Crown-winning horses on ESPN this past weekend.
What stands out the most from the shows? The range of emotion these horses apparently have, particularly the fact that 1977 Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew was apparently a real jerk.
“A typical schoolyard bully” was the general assessment of poor Slew, who was not given an opportunity to respond, though he has been dead since 2002.
I’m good with the concept that horses have personalities. I’m not sure I’m convinced they have unpleasant ones — unless humans get in the way.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the other horses (1948 Triple Crown winner Citation and 1973 Triple Crown winner Secretariat) featured on those shows had regal owners and therefore were regal horses, and that Slew’s owners weren’t so regal, and their horse was described as not-so-regal by the experts interviewed for the show.
Am I right? Am I wrong? Horse owners and/or racing fans, feel free to chime in.
