Off a road and off another road...shopping strips, gas stations and drug stores disappear.
I stare out and see a horizon of blue and green and empty of what depresses me.
Having said that, I try to avoid looking at Andy's hat.
It's tailgating but this isn't parking at the Firecracker 500 where all come to watch a left hand turn.
There is such beauty in seeing a man or woman on a horse. Unlike most of traditions that are forgotten, the elegance of the pairing, I'm positive, will last forever.
I'll be dead forever but today I'm alive and I will suck all this in like a Partagas Lusitania.
It's a small crowd - Is that possible? Off the radar where crowds come only to promenade their Lilly P and get drunk while they selfie.
Pretentious free, it's all amazingly simple. Granted, the ethnic diversity is limited but it's so soulful.
A windswept soul. I once asked a tax attorney, what business could a man deduct everything and keep outta jail. "Horses," he said.
He added it went back to the early 19th century when business had a lot to do with horses.
And the laws just never changed. But people do.
Our horses are bits of plastic and steel but we can still fly a flag.
Still, can you ever look this good in a Toyota? Personally, I don't think so.
I love watching rich old white people.
Mostly because it beats watching poor white people. They like watching a 500 mile left turn.
When I bring a camera, I try to shoot what no one else is shooting. In this case -- the race.
For me, I love the sound I first heard at Keeneland almost 20 years ago. Hoof on turf and I know it sounds like it did 200 years ago -- 500 years ago -- 1,000 years ago. A forever soundtrack.
Sometimes I just want to close my eyes and listen to the horses, the wind, the cheering...It is traveling back in time when there was so much elegance despite poor plumbing and dentistry.
Special thanks to the Main Line Sportsman for the invitation & inspiration of the Pennsylvania Hunt Cup
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27 comments:
Best Tuesday morning present thus far...Thank you for capturing & sharing the beauty.
~M.
Wonderful stuff and good for MLS. For me, the cadence to your writing here is evoking Simon Scharma's Power of Art tv doc. Still waiting for The Trad to hook up with Muffy Aldrich. Get her away from all those swabbies in Annapolis. Barbour jackets and Bean Norwegian sweaters doing PLFs on DZ Sicily...seriously, it could be great!
What a wonderful day that must have been! And yes, there is nothing quite like an accomplished rider atop a majestic horse. Used to go to a number of events lie this with our mother years ago outside of Philadelphia.
Best Regards,
Heinz-Ulrich von B.
What a lovely day it must have been. I hope to keep this on my radar and attend next year. Other readers, what fun horsey events happen out here in the NY, PA, MA areas?
Thanks!
Great post. This lifted my spirits. Your writing is great tintin.
-Tim
Great images. The colours are so vibrant!
This is hilariously awesome!
M- Thank you. I miss your tweets.
Oyster Guy- Who the hell is Scharma? Without giving too many of my secrets away, I posted this listening to Kate Bush Running up that Hill...over and over and over...
Herr Von Boffke - Love your soldiers. Most impressive.
Tim- Thank you. The feeling is mutual.
Thanks, Alice- Always means a lot coming from you.
Just superb. Nothing better than an Autumnal steeplechase in good company. Did you go to the Whitemarsh Valley Inn [strong contender for world's best bar] to see the site of my singing episode?
ML
"traveling back in time when there was so much elegance despite poor plumbing and dentistry." Today is a better day because Tintin is, once again, at the top of his game. Thanks for this one John!
Douglas
Great post! Good family friends of ours actually own Foyle, the horse that won the HC. Great day!
BMOC
Andy is good company.
His hat is as bad as my choes.
Anon 15:57 You mean, hilarwesome. It's a new word. I just made it up.
M Lane- "Autumnal steeplechase." A perfect meter for the day. Thanks. We didn't go anywhere 'cept the back of Andy's truck--That was bar enough.
Douglas- Very kind of you. Thanks. Even though it won't fit on a t-shirt, I like it too.
BMOC- Congrats. I hope they'll be throwing a party. Thanks for finding the post.
Bro- That he is but he didn't bring any ginger ale and that was terribly upsetting...almost as much as your Donald Pliner choes.
Wait a tic…there was ginger ale! And yes that Phillies hat is pretty lame...
At the risk of sounding like some pimply Private blowing smoke up the arse of the Co. First Sergeant, your photos of and prose about this event would make any post I would offer seem like a silly diary entry with pictures. Once again…you get under and around the event in a way I could not and I have been going to this race since 1994. It was great having you there and sharing drinks and conversation and this post is just a wonderful bonus.
Speaking of wonderful bonuses….as I type this I am simmering a glorious pot of ham and lentil soup from the remnants of the Vermont cob-smoked ham we featured at the tailgate.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUsWss61dfA
Schama is a prof at Columbia. His tv work tends towards short almost drippy ( not choppy) sentences with telling insights. There is a pretension that is off-putting but if you can get past that it's good stuff.
Main Line- I never saw the ginger ale -- I guess it was the Islay that was in the way. I only saw what you probably did your first time. Outsiders always see more.
Oyster Guy- Thank you very much -- I remember him now. That's a wonderful episode on Rothko and the power of what I don't always understand...maybe because I know I never will.
Tintin, I think your remark on on not always understanding brings me right back to your bit on Kent Anderson's sixth sense. It all comes from and goes to the same place. Where exactly? I don't know, but I've seen it from time to time.
Oyster Guy- There were some experiments at Ft Bragg by Special Forces in the late '60s on soldiers who had better tuned senses for trouble. It's also a topic that comes up repeatedly in conversations with combat vets. There were those who could "sense" trouble better than others and that sense was respected by the others.
Geez, white people.
-DB
DB- You forgot rich & Republican. Hey, wasn't there a song by Rude Boy Slim, "Rich, White & Republican? "
Make that Root Boy Slim. Man, I'm getting old.
While we are at it, I better throw a Frisbee in Ms. Olive's direction. It's been a long time, no? She might be enjoying the colour (she is such a good speller) but I am seriously grooving on the composition of the 2nd last pic. Really, really elegant lines and weight/balance.
Barry Lyndon.
Tin Tin,
I attended a steeplechase recently too but unfortunately, there are no longer any 'timber' jumps at the Montpelier Races, only hedge jumps. -Still exciting!
I really enjoyed this post & pictures. I always enjoy seeing events like these that I've never been exposed to.
Some of my best-beloveds are rich old white people. They can have soul, only it tends to be murmured not blared. Thank you for your kindness to this population.
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