For years, since 1932, everyone has been wondering about how the racehorse Phar Lap died.

This is an article about what killed Phar Lap. I got this in a magazine and can't get the article online. So I have to type it out.

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Researchers, Dr. Ivan Kempson and Dermot Henry announced on June 19 in a press conference at Australia’s Melbourne Museum that the beloved Australian racehorse Phar Lap ingested a massive, fatal dose of arsenic approximately 35 hours before his death.

Phar Lap died in California on April 5, 1932, just days after his only North American race. The mystery of his death has defied resolution for more than 75 years.

Kempson and Henry first received permission to take six strands of Phar Lap’s mane in 2005. Preliminary results released in October 2006 suggested he had ingested arsenic, but there were no similarly preserved horses to compare results to (to determine if the arsenic was actually from the taxidermy process.) After additional funding came in from the Victorian Government, the final experiments were performed using hair samples from four newly available horse specimens preserved using arsenic.

Whether the fatal dosage was accidental from trainer Harry Telford’s homeopathic tonics (his recipes were known to contain arsenic and strychnine to simulate appetite) or from and intentional poisoning by an outsider is not known.

Groom, Tommy Woodcock, was serving as temporary trainer stateside, caring for Phar Lap while Telford remained in Australia, and Woodcock may have accidentally poisoned his beloved charge with the tonic. It has also been speculated for decades that bookmakers who would lose money from a horse that won so reliably did not want Phar Lap to continue his racing campaign in the United States and might have ordered his death.

Phar Lap was foaled in New Zealand, where he was purchased in 1928 by Telford. He went on to win the  1930 Melbourne Cup, Australia’s biggest race, and 37 of his 51 starts, including the Agua Caliente Handicap in Mexico (the richest race in North America at the time), before his death at age 5. His hide was preserved and is on display at the Melbourne Museum. His skeleton is on exhibit at the Museum of New Zealand, and his heart is kept at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra.

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 - Phar Lap's hide at the Melbourne Museum

 - a pic of Phar Lap during one of his races.

These are some pics. of famous race horses.

Enjoy!

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- Man'O'War

    - Seabiscuit

 - Secretariat

  - Barbaro

- Big Brown

- Da'Tara

JenMarie~*

• Eventing Highlights

"Three-day eventer Gina Miles carried the American flag during the Olympic opening ceremonies."

Gina Miles was the top American eventer, earning an Individual silver with her horse McKinlaigh.

         "Throughout the three-day eventing competition, American riders struggled. During the cross-country phase, Amy Tryon riding Poggio II took a spill on course, which eliminated the pair from further Olympic competition. Several days later, Tryon was admitted to a Hong Kong hospital for injuries she sustained during the fall. Poggio II was unharmed. "

• Dressage Highlights

"The big media story going into dressage competition was Japan’s Hiroshi Hoketsu riding Whisper. Hoketsu, 67, was the oldest equestrian to ever compete in an Olympic Games. But he has a long Olympic history. He competed for Japan in the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games at age 23, placing 40th in the show jumping competition. In 1984 he was a reserve member of the Japanese equestrian team that competed in the Los Angeles Olympic Games. He was 43 then. Hoketsu didn’t medal this time around, but there’s always 2012—he’s not ruling it out."

Courtney King-Dye and Harmony's Mythilus led the United States equestrians to a fourth place finish in Team Competition.

                    "Americans Steffen Peters aboard Ravel and King-Dye riding Harmony’s Mythilus advanced to the Grand Prix Special. Peters paid a special tribute to his teammate Debbie McDonald by dedicating the ride to her. “I dedicate this to Debbie and Brentina,” Peters said. “I feel so terrible about what happened to her, and I admire their performances so much.” Peters scored a 71.80% and landed in fourth; King-Dye scored a 70.80% for an eighth-place finish."

• Show Jumping Highlights

"American riders were favored going into Olympic show jumping competition. Two 2008 riding combinations, Beezie Madden aboard the 12-year-old KWPN gelding Authentic, as well as McLain Ward riding the 13-year-old Belgian warmblood mare, Sapphire, were all part of the 2004 Olympic gold medal-winning team, and they proved they could strike gold twice. The United States won Team gold again, helped along by fellow teammates Will Simpson riding Carlsson Vom Dach, a12-year-old Holsteiner gelding, and Laura Kraut riding Cedric, a 10-year-old Dutch-bred gelding. Canada claimed Team silver while Norway grabbed Team bronze."

Beezie Madden and Authentic will bring their hard-earned bronze medal back home to the U.S.

     "McLain Ward, who made it to the Individual finals, but didn’t medal, was happy with his sixth-place performance. “I wanted to win a medal and we tried our very, very hardest,” he said. “We gave it everything we had.” Kraut and Simpson didn’t qualify for the Individual finals."

For more Info. please go to:

 http://horsechannel.com/horse-news/2008/08/22/look-back-2008-olympic-games.aspx

JenMarie~*

These are some cool horse pics. that I had found.

Hope you all like them!

  ~ cool dressage horse!

  ~ a pole bender!

  ~ Beautiful!!!!!

  ~ Amazing!!!!!!!

JenMarie~*

American Steffen Peters aboard Ravel--turning up the heat on the Europeans.

 " Germany’s Isabell Werth riding Satchmo and The Netherlands Anky Van Grunsven aboard Salinero continued to battle it out in individual dressage competition this past weekend, but American Steffen Peters riding Ravel has turned up the heat. "

 "All four American riders are qualified for Individual competition later this week."

        

McLain Ward and Sapphire help secure gold for Team USA's show jumpers.

"It’s been a nail-biter throughout the Olympic show jumping team competition, but when the dust settled the Americans came out on top. The United States won the gold medal in the team show jumping event after a jump-off with Canada; Norway took bronze."

For more info:

http://horsechannel.com/horse-news/2008/08/18/show-jumping-claims-gold.aspx

JenMarie~*

Germany Reigns Surpreme

Also got this off the fourm I'm on.

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Television Coverage of the Equestrian Events at the 2008 Olympics

Date: Program—Time (EST) on Channel

Aug. 9: 3-Day: Dressage—2:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. on USA
Aug. 10: Dressage- 2:00am -2:00pm on USA
Aug. 11: 3-Day: Cross- Country— 6:00pm-8:00pm OXYGEN
Aug. 12: 3-Day: Stadium Team Gold Medal Final—6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. on OXYGEN
Aug. 13: Dressage—6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. on OXYGEN
Aug. 14: Dressage Team Gold Medal Final—6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. on OXYGEN
Aug. 15: Show Jumping—6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. on OXYGEN
Aug. 16: Dressage Individual – 5:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. MSNBC
Aug. 17: Show Jumping Team Gold Medal Final 1st Round—10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m on NBC
Aug. 18: Show Jumping Team Gold Medal Final Round— 6:00pm-8:00 p.m. OXYGEN
Aug. 19: Dressage Individual Gold Medal Final - 6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. on OXYGEN
Aug. 21: Show Jumping Individual Gold Medal Final- 10:00am- 1:00 pm NBC

Thoughts about who will win each event? Have any favorites you want to see? Whoes going to watch?

I got this from a fourm I'm on. It was pretty cool.

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1. Lorenzo: The Flying French Man:
http://canecorso.com/lorenzo.htm
~* wow!

2. Andreas Helgstrand riding Blue Hors Matine for the World Equestrian Games 2006 Freestyle Dressage :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKQgTiqhPbw

~* they won with flying colors!!! This defines dressage at its best and the relationship and connection dressage teaches...

3. The Horse Diary Movie:
http://www.americandreamhorses.com/the_horse_diary_movie_play.html
~* pretty neat.....

These are all sorts of quotes about Cass Ole from diffrent sites.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cass_Ole

"Cass Ole (March 6, 1969- June 29, 1993) was a Texas bred Arabian Stallion. Originally bred to be a show horse, he was National Champion in Arabian Western Pleasure in 1975, National Reserve Champion Arabian Ladies Side Saddle in 1976, and U.S. Top Ten Arabian English Pleasure in both 1975 and 1976. He won over 50 championships and over 20 Reserve Championships in his seven-year show career and was high point winner of the King Saud Trophy of the AHSA (now USEF) He is best known for his role as The Black in The Black Stallion and The Black Stallion Returns movies." 

- Cass Ole in the Black Stallion

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http://www.equinenet.org/heroes/black.html

"The Black Stallion was played in the movie by a beautiful and very smart Arabian stallion named Cass Ole. Cass Ole was also a show horse, and won ribbons and trophies in halter classes and English and Western performance classes.

He was truly a black stallion, but Cass Ole also had four white socks and a white star on his forehead. These white markings were dyed black for his role as The Black Stallion. The horse was trained "at liberty" for his work in the film. He wore no halter or bridle during many of the scenes, but watched a long whip the trainer held, and would come toward the whip or go away from it depending on how it was held. He was not hit with the whip -- it was only used to signal him." 

-Cass Ole- playing a role in a Black Stallion Film.