AQHA Virginia Classic

 The 2013 Virginia Classic AQHA show was held April 10-14 in Lexington, Va., at the gorgeous Virginia Horse Center. The show boasted 6,600 total entries, although folks around the grounds could be heard talking about their disappointment with a light turnout. The weather was gorgeous, although perhaps a little windy on some days. Judges were Randy Alderson, Nancy Swarm, Andrea Simons, Tina Anderson, Laura Gilmer, Doug Huls, Louis Hufnagel, Daren Wright, Dolly Chayer, John and Betsy Tuckey, and Tanya Green.
Jay Starnes and Zip By Machine won the Hylton Maiden Three-Year Old Western Pleasure, and MWS Sevens Are Hot and Ryan Cottingham won the Harris Versatility Challenge Class. Find stories here about the winners:  

https://www.youtube.com/v/rYep3UxOJcw?version=3&f=user_uploads&c=google-webdrive-0&app=youtube_gdata

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Animal Kingdom to have surgery

Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom will have surgery for a fracture in his left hock, his owners announced Wednesday.

The 3-year-old old chestnut colt was out of training after a small fissure was found in the hock two weeks ago. X-rays were retaken this week and a larger fracture was found in the same area. Surgeons at New Bolton Center near Philadelphia will place a screw in the hock to compress the fracture.

Animal Kingdom is expected to return to training in time for the Dubai World Cup in March 2012.

Powerful storms damage barns at Churchhill Downs

Powerful storms that charged through Louisville damaged at least nine barns at Churchhill Downs racetrack, and several horses were reported to have been running loose at the track.

The National Weather Service was tracking a possible tornado near the track at 8:10 p.m. Wednesday, and Churchhill Downs officials said that a tornado touched down briefly in the track’s infield. There is no live racing at the track on Wednesdays. However there are simulcast betting on races from other locations at the track. There were no reports of injuries to people or the 1,400 horses stabled at the track.

Thursday’s live racing card has been canceled.

A real horse whisperer

The documentary film “Buck” is creating a stir in and beyond the horse industry as a must-see film this summer. It won a Sundance audience award this year and will open on Friday in New York and Los Angeles, 

Buck Brannaman, a former rodeo perfomer who lived a rough life as a child and used those experiences to help shape him as a horse trainer, was one of the primary people that the lead role in “The Horse Whisperer” was based on. He now conducts clinics across the U.S. featuring his natural horsemanship style to training.

The movie will open June 24 in Charlotte, N.C. I full list of movie openings can be found on the film’s Facebook page. There is also a place where you can request that the film be shown in your area.

The film is receiving several good reviews, including from the Los Angeles Times who wrote, “The film is deeply moving yet never maudlin in telling this hard-knocks-but-hope-infused story.” It got a few not-so-great ones too, such as “much of the movie — too much of it — is just Buck in the corral, riding, working with ropes and flags, conditioning a horse to behave” from the Orlando Sentinel.

Barpassers Image dies at age 27

Leading quarter horse sire of performance horses, Barpassers Image, died at age 27.
Born in 1984, by Barpasser and out of Tee Command, he was a Superior western pleasure horse with wins at the Texas Classic Futurity and the Tom Powers Futurity in 1986, and was a Top 10 finisher at the World Show in 1988.
Some of his most noted offspring include Invitation Only, Barpassers Cody, and Barpassers Glow.