President’s Day

No sight of any grass in the Bluegrass today.  I spent my day snowed in, thus I did not make it to the field trip I had in mind.  A shoveling neighbor declared we had 10 inches of the nasty white stuff as we dug deep.  Well then, Happy President’s Day!  So, what do our nation’s leaders have to do with horses?  More than I would have thought.  12 United States Presidents owned horses and 10 more rode.

Our very first American President, George Washington, was considered the best horseman of his era.  He owned horses and was involved with breeding.  He attended races in Virginia regularly.  The first White House stable was built in 1800.  Another was built in 1806 and then burnt in 1814.  John Adams had a horse too.  Thomas Jefferson was a breeder and attended most races at the National Race Course in Washington, D.C., located just 2 miles from the White House.  James Madison, James Monroe and John Quincy Adams enjoyed riding horses.  In 1834 Andrew Jackson, who owned many horses, had another White House stable built.  Martin Van Buren and William Henry Harrison enjoyed horse back riding.  John Tyler, James Knox Polk and Zachary Taylor owned their own horses.  Franklin Pierce was a rider.  James Buchanan was a fan of racing.  Abraham Lincoln had several horses die at a White House stable fire in 1864.  That stable was replaced in 1871 by Ulysses S Grant.  He had many horses and may be the greatest Equestrian in U.S. History.  He replaced the White House stables.  His favorite horse was Cincinnati, of sire Lexington.  Lexington was named for Lexington. Kentucky.  He set a record for the fastest in four mile Thoroughbred racing and many records as a lead sire fathering winners of the Kentucky Oaks, Preakness and Belmont Stakes.  This horse was dedicated after his death to the Smithsonian Institution and his bones travel to many museums, including time spent from 2010 to 2013 in Lexington, Kentucky for the World Equestrian Games.  He was in the first group of horses inducted to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame and is the image used on top the trophy vase for the Preakness.  His son, Cincinnati, was also memorialized artistically in many ways, including a large bronze figure at the Ulysses S Grant memorial in D.C.  Rutherford B Hayes, James Garfield and Ben Harrison owned horses as well.  Harrison added on to the White House stable in 1891.  Theodore Roosevelt owned horses too.  When he was President, he was offered a car, but declined saying, “the Roosevelts are horse people.”  Unfortunately, his predecessor, William Howard Taft, had a poor history with horses and he had the stables torn down in 1911 for an automobile garage.  John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson owned hoses too.  Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton were known to be horse riders.

I think, for the 2016 Presidential election, we need a candidate who wants to bring back the horses and the stable.  After all, Reagan put it best when he noted, “I’ve often said there is nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse.”