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[poliphilo]

Horse-racing comes near the top of the list of things I'm not the least bit interested in.

Having had that thought I've been asking myself what, if anything, might rank higher. Sudoko, perhaps? ballroom dancing? Train spotting?

We weren't a horsey family. My parents didn't buy their first horse until long after I'd left home and made a life for myself. Breeding and racing horses was their retirement hobby.

My father ran it as a business. I don't suppose he made money at it but I don't suppose he lost much either. He was too canny.

In the early years they were quite successful. The house is full of pictures of horses jumping over obstacles on their way to winning something or other. I resist the impulse to sweep them all away and replace them with pictures of family members.

The last ten years have seen steady decline.

Why am I not interested?

I dunno. Just not my thing. Nor my kind of people- rich folk with money to burn, chancers, gamblers, fox hunters, the royal family.

Up until recently I was living 200 miles away and didn't have to take any notice of what was going on. But now I get to see the bills. The two horses my mother still maintains eat money by the bale. One is in retirement. The other falls over hedges.

Comments

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I was once a pony mad child, then I finally achieved my ambition and owned a couple of ponies for just over 20 years. Eventually, I lost my nerve for riding on roads and once my daughter had grown up and moved away, I didn't really have anyone to ride with. A period of ill health gave me the final push to re-home my pony (see icon) and since then I have simply admired horses from a distance.

However, despite enjoying the occasional Dick Francis thriller, I have never been the slightest bit interested in horse racing and in fact have a lot of issues with it. Regarding costs, I kept ponies out at grass and had a shoestring budget; I shudder to think how much it costs to feed and keep a race horse.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I learned to ride when I was a kid. It was quite good fun.

The cost of maintaining a racehorse- at the lowest, humblest level- works out at about £1,600 per month.