At the 1976 Olympics in Bromont, Quebec, Canada, the legendary Neil Ayer and a good number of other eventing enthusiasts utilzed home movie cameras as they perched in stands, clustered around cross country fences and roamed behind-the-scenes to document American horses and riders before, during and after the US Team's Gold Medal victories. This is an astounding 1.5 hour record of that event and an accomplishment of no small means by a handful of dedicated horsemen and women on behalf of their sport.

The Equestrian Land Conservation Resource, now commonly known as ELCR, was founded in 1997 by a group of concerned horse people who recognized that loss of open land is the greatest threat to the future of all equestrian sport, recreation, and industry. ELCR was founded with the belief that the loss of open land is a great and urgent threat to the future of equestrian activities throughout this country, and that there is a serious need to take action to preserve land for equestrian use. From its inception, ELCR has recognized that if equestrians are to be successful in the effort to stem the loss of open space, they must take two important steps: Embrace a land conservation focus by educating themselves with regard to key issues and processes related to land conservation, and by making land conservation part of the mission of equestrian organizations. Establish partnerships with individuals and groups outside of their own equestrian constituency, particularly with those groups that represent the conservation community.

On February 5, 1949, in Vina Del Mar, Chile, the world's record high jump was achieved by the Chilean Thoroughbred, Huaso, when he cleared 8 feet, 2 inches. This is an actual black and white film of the spectacular performance, achieved on the horse's third attempt. King's Own, another Thoroughbred ridden by Fred Wettach, actually cleared 8 feet, 3 and l/2 inches, but the performance was not accepted as a world record because it was not achieved in a public performance.

Huaso (1933 - August 24, 1961) ridden by Chilean Captain Alberto Larraguibel, set one of the longest-running unbroken sport records in history (60 years as of 2009.) Huaso was born in Chile in 1933, and was originally named Faithful. He started as a race horse, but never managed good results because he was too nervy and more than somewhat unruly. After six years of total failure, the horse was purchased by Chilean Army captain Gaspar Lueje, in the early 1940s, who thought he could be trained for Dressage. When Faithful was just starting his training he suffered an accident, impaling himself on the back quarter, and almost having to be put down. The horse eventually recovered, but acquired a slight limp in the left hind, which effectively put an end to any chances in that discipline. So, as a last option he was moved to Show jumping. Faithful still retained his potency, but nonetheless, he was still too nervy and difficult to control, so he wasn't showing any promise in that area either. One afternoon, while he was being trained riderless on the enclosure, he simply bolted and jumped over the surrounding wall, which was over 2 meters high. Casually, he was spotted by an Army horse master who happened to pass by, and who right away decided to purchase and destine him for high-jump. The horse was then taken to the Army Cavalry Academy, in the city of Quillota. There, the name was changed to Huaso and he was handed to Captain Alberto Larraguibel for training. He trained the horse for over two years specifically for the world record. He first targeted the national record, then the south-American and finally, the world one.

Leonardo da Vinci's "Gran Cavallo" was to have been one of Leonardo's greatest achievements, however, in 1498, an invading French army destroyed the clay pre-model finished by him at the age of 43 in 1495. In 1977 the National Geographic Magazine published an article entitled "The Horse That Never Was," describing Da Vinci's conception of the equestrian monument designed for his patron Sforza, and told the story of the destruction of his model in 1499 by an invading French army.
Art collector Charles Dent happened to read the article and dreamed of building Leonardo's Horse - Il Cavallo - and give it to the Italian people as a thank you gift for the treasures of the Renaissance. He assembled a team of Renaissance scholars, sculptors, metallurgists and individual and corporate donors and with his own funds as well, set out to make that dream come true. In August 1992, fifteen years after the NGM article, the Tallix Art Foundry succeeded in creating a full size model of Il Caravallo.

There are two videos represented here - both "home videos" - one showing the finished horse standing in Cultural Park in Milan, Italy, and the other of a presentation of the story of the sculpture. Nevertheless, these videos manage to show the scale of the status and provides insight into the extreme difficulty in recreating "Leonard's Horse."

Anyone who knows anything about cutting horses and the history of the American Quarter Horse is probably familiar with the name, "Cutter Bill," a recognizable name on many good Quarter Horse pedigrees.

Cutter Bill was sired by Buddy Dexter, whose claim to fame was that he had beaten the great Poco Bueno in halter. Initially used as a teaser stallion for Cauble Ranches' premier stallions, Wimpy P-1, Hard Twist and Silver King for two years, the horse earned more points than any other junior cutting horse in 1959 and went on to sire over 600 foals. Under Sonny Perry, Cutter Bill went on to win the National Cutting Horse World title as well as being the AQHA's Honor Roll Cutting Horse in 1962.

He died in 1983 at the age of 26.

This documentary was filmed in 1973, when the stallion was 18. The program was originally part of the highly-acclained American Horse & Horseman television series, starring film and television star, Dale Robertson.

Jay Trump was the result of a pasture breeding between his dam "Be Trump" who refused to load on the trailer to go to another farm to be bred and stallion "Tonga Prince" who was at the breeders farm waiting to heal up from an injury. The dark bay colt with a white diamond was foaled in 1957 and died at the age of 31 in 1988. He is buried at the finish line at the steeplechase track at the Kentucky Horse Park.

He was severely injured as a 2 year old when a jockey's whip hit him in the eye and he crash into a fence post. Moved to Maryland after being purchased for $2,000, he was trained as a hunter and dressage horse. Five years later, Jay Trump was in England winning the toughest steeplechase in the world at odds of 100 to 6. Retiring in 1971, he spent the rest of his years as field hunter.

This program was originally part of the highly-acclained American Horse & Horseman television series, starring film and television star, Dale Robertson.

This one and a half hour long program was filmed by Charles and Sally Lasater of Tejano Productions in 1983 in Houston, Texas. It includes the complete lecture and shoeing demonstration by Burney Chapman before the members of the American Farriers convention in Houston during that year. The master tape has long been lost, but recently a pristine VHS copy of the program was located, and the resulting digitized version is now once again available.

Burney Chapman is best known as the farrier who reintroduced the heart bar shoe for therapeutic use on foundered or laminitic horses. Until his death at the early age of 57 from a brain tumor, he was world renown for his work with foundered horses. For more than 30 years his practice was limited to the shoeing of horses afflicted with laminitis. From his home state of Texas to the royal stables of the Middle East, many hundreds of horses owe their lives to this man. He often flew himself from foundered horse to foundered horse in his twin-engine plane.

Born in Fort Worth, Chapman worked during college for the famous 6666 Ranch in Guthrie, Texas. A graduate of Texas Tech University, he was elected in the first round of balloting for the Kentucky Derby Museum’s "Horseshoer’s Hall of Fame" in 1993.

Chapman dedicated his professional life to educating farriers and horse owners, and was a popular lecturer. His client list was a veritable "Who’s Who" of worldwide horse breeders and competitors, though he enjoyed working with pet horses as much as champions. Horses in Japan, Qatar, Ireland, England, and many other countries benefited from his personal attention to laminitis shoeing.

This program was originally part of the highly-acclained American Horse & Horseman television series, starring film and television star, Dale Robertson.

Dale Robertson interviews Senator Thurston Morton, the then-president of the American Horse Council (1973) and Chairman of Churchhill Downs at the time about the goals and ambitions of the Council. Dale emphasizes the fact that the horse industry and horse people finally had a voice in Washington, D.C. It is interesting to listen to what Senator Morton has to say about the Council almost 30 years ago. Has the Council lived up to its expectations? The viewer can decide!

This program was originally part of the highly-acclained American Horse & Horseman television series, starring film and television star, Dale Robertson.