Yet Another Way OTTBs Win at Life…Falconry???

You may have heard that OTTBs are ‘flighty’…well this one definitely is!

Photo: Bill Thompson, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service/CC

UK rider Martin Whitleyshowed off his ‘hunt horse’ via his blog and the Retired Racehorse Project this week…but it’s not the kind of hunting that immediately comes to mind with a Thoroughbred.

Whitley uses his OTTB William Percival for mounted falconry at Dartmoor Hawking–and he is the only horse in the UK  used to hunt an eagle. Whitley is an experienced falconer who offers falconry days on his school horses for anyone else who wants to experience “The sight of a falcon diving down towards earth at over 100mph” or “Having a hawk stand on your fist, happily tearing at its food,” as described on the organization’s website.

Mad props to Whitley’s training skill, since I can only imagine how most horses would react to a bird of prey dive-bombing them from the sky!

Go Riding.