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This has proven to be a really interesting issue. Let’s start with Lauren Giannini’s story on Tina Konyot, one of dressage’s most interesting riders, and her big black horse Calecto V who is defnitely turning heads.

Add on a profle by Erin Gilmore on Juan Manuel Muñoz Diaz and Fuego XII and we have a great look at the crowd’s favorite rider from WEG last October. Erin also visited with Courtney King-Dye, whose recovery is progressing after a near-fatal injury last March. Jan Westmark chatted with Walter Zettl who is still going strong in his 80s and then at the other end of the age spectrum, interviewed Isabelle Liebler, who at 15 is the youngest dressage rider profled in this issue.

Dressage not your thing? Meet Russ Sheldon, who is a moving force in California polo. Danika Rice caught up with him at Poway, where he is still reffng on Quincy, his 23-year-old polo pony. And another California connection is, of course, Sunny Hale who is very involved in the American Polo Horse Association. Danika got the scoop on this new association’s polo pony show, to be held in Florida this month.

We have a smattering of foxhunting, an interview with Sharon White for the eventers out there, and some fun columns. Ann Reilly’s column this month is a personal account of her challenges after a devastating injury.

Unwanted horses are on the increase, and we have for some time now been running a Second Chances story in most issues.

This month, we have three such stories – all a bit different, but in each case, it’s a story about one of the lucky ones: Frisky Spider, a Thoroughbred stallion with a caring owner who wants very much for him to have a new life; Toci and Koko, a pair of draft mares who spent years in a Premarin barn, and Rachel’s Dream, a barely-socialized OTTB who found a little girl to love.

Not all unwanted horses are this fortunate. Their fates are something we don’t really want to think about, or if we do, we’d like to put on rose colored glasses and hope that out of sight is indeed out of mind. Well, it isn’t. And it isn’t pretty. So please, please read “For the Love of Horses”. It isn’t easy reading for many of us, but Lauren outdid herself in presenting a clear picture of a very serious problem and the options of dealing with unwanted horses. For most of us, horses have crossed the line from livestock to pets or companion animals, and we all want their end to be a kind one. Just this month, my husband and I had to put Flynn down. He was in his early 30s and still had good weight, was eating, had his teeth and to the casual eye looked great for his age. But he was drinking buckets of water and having trouble evacuating because of a grapefruit-sized tumor covering his anus. He had begun scouring from having to force out manure. He also was a bit dim, mentally. We decided it was time, called the vet, fed him carrots and kissed him goodbye. It was a kindness, but not cheap. Not every horse is this lucky.

And for those that are not that lucky, we would like to see more humane options available to horse owners. Rescues are crowded; some are poorly run. Euthanasia is expensive. Personally, I would rather have the unlucky horses that do end up in the auction-to-

slaughter route put down humanely in America than have to make an arduous trip to the abattoirs in Mexico or Canada. It isn’t something we want to think about, but isn’t a short trip to a certain death better than a long one, without hay or water along the way? It would be a better place if all our unwanted horses were to go the way Flynn did, a mouth full of carrots in his own barnlot, but that’s not the reality for many horses.

So think about it. Try to put emotion aside and think about what really happens, not what you would like to happen in a perfect world.

Then read Lauren’s story.

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