Have you ever watched certain performance horse trainers compete and think, “If I was a horse, I sure wouldn’t want to be in his string”? Or visit a farm and say to yourself, “If I was horse, this would be a great place to call home”?

E. Abraham Ola, a Florida farm owner and international racing consultant, gives horse owners pause for reflection “If I was a Horseman,” in the Final Turn department of the February 14 issue of The Blood-Horse. Ola’s commentary is fodder for thought whether you own racehorses or other performers and leaves little doubt that Ola is a horseman. Click here to read.

This same issue of The Blood-Horse also has a remembrance of Northern Dancer written by Terry Conway, based on interviews with Joe Hickey and Benny Miller, who worked for Winfields Farm during the famous stallion’s tenure there at stud.

Miller and Hickey both considered Northern Dancer, who was only 15.1 hands, to be unconventional for a Thoroughbred. “His conformation was not what you expected – short and blocky – like a Quarter Horse,” recalled Miller of the little stallion often referred to as the “Canadian bulldog.”

The article is not available online, but click here and here for two outstanding videos with clips of Northern Dancer romping in his paddock , and here for a close look at his recording-breaking 1964 Kentucky Derby win.