An ancient hippodrome has been discovered in recent months at Olympia. This seemed a topical post given the imminent start of the Olympic Games.

Archaelogists have been continuously excavating the site since since 1875 and the discovery confirms historic writings about the racecourse from the 2nd Century AD. However it had been assumed that the remains had been lost as a result of floodings in the area.

Recent research has found that horses do learn bad habits from other horses, such as crib biting, weaving and box walking. Approx 5% of horses have such problems and the research proved that the risk of a horse developing such problems is significantly increased if a neighbouring horse has such a problem.

We had a horse with such problems and were always concerned that the other horses would pick this up, particularly the youngsters but this didn’t happen. Maybe because our horses were mainly kept outside for much of the day and so weren’t standing in stables for extended periods.

The Horse Exhibition in New York City is open from May 2008 to January 2009 at The American Museum of Natural History. It has been well advertised in the press and I’m planing to go in the summer months. Ticket prices range from $22 for adults to $13 for children.

I would be very interested in hearing visitors views of the exhibition, particularly any recommended must-see highlights.

Another experienced lady rider was killed recently in an eventing competition in Ireland and this was about a month after an American male rider was seriously injured eventing. I am very sorry for Karen Rodgers family and hope that Darren Chiacchia makes a full and speedy recovery.

The statistics are that nine riders were killed in competition in 2007 and twelve in the last 12 months. In my view this is far far too many and this problem has been allowed to continue for far too long. I would like to think this number could be reduced to zero but don’t think the sport can realistically be made totally safe. It was also reported that a common theme does appear to be rotational falls.

I couldn’t help but notice the story about a horse visiting an ailing owner in a Hawaii hospital. Apparently a friend thought it would help his ill friend to have a hospital visit from his favourite horse. Cats and dogs are prohibited from visits but I don’t think anyone had thought to include horses in such a ban. They managed to make it to the second floor before they were turned back. If that wasn’t bad enough, the friend had taken the wrong horse.