Did you know he really could ride?

Yup... I knew. He raises Saddlebreds, and he was instrumental in getting the western pleasure classes included at Saddlebred shows. They are known as the William Shatner Western Pleasure classes if I'm not mistaken.

Several years ago I toured a training stable in Lexington and one of his horses was in for harness training, it was pretty cool.

Wow...that is pretty cool! I never knew that, but it makes sense. I am hoping that someone from the UK can answer on here too. However, from what I know from friends from the UK, several factors contribute to this. One, per capita, riding is more popular there. Why? Well, the UK has more of a class system than the US. While in modern times this is breaking down more in the UK, especially the older the generation are more likely people are to follow "class rules," per se. Riding lessons/horses/riding is something that the upper class was always trained in. So, for instance, if you are from an upper class family, your children would have been expected to take riding lessons, especially still in the generation of william shatner and earlier. Still in the UK, you can note that all children of royalty, pretty much, are trained to ride starting at a young age--look at the princes.

So, anyway, if someone is older and from the upper clas or royalty in the UK, you can expect that they have probably had riding lessons--boy or girl.

Now, in the US, we follow wealth and not class and horses are not always considered a "must-have" for the wealthy. However, you still do see some wealthy, especially in the NE, who feel that their children should learn to ride, but in the US it is seen as more of a feminine sport, despite the numbers of top male riders.

So, that is my mini history lesson & take on the situation.

thanks for sharing that video! I am a secretely somewhat of a star trek fan myself--haha--no one knows except my closes friends. My mom also loves star trek--you'd NEVER guess that in a million years if you met her (hehe).

I'd rather consider myself a "well-rounded" person than dorky...hehe.

I watched that whole thing.

You know, a lot of people talk bad about start trek, i've only seen it a few times, but it's actually pretty good!

And he was a really nice rider, he had a great seat.

This reminds me of sometime last year when i was in Las Vegas. The Hilton hotel and casino in Vegas used to have a "Star Trek Experience" thing. It was awesome! THye had characters walking around and they would say things like "what is your mission here?" And they had all kinds of show memerobilia. It wasn't a convention, it was a permanant attraction and it was soooo cool. I bought a little Tribble while i was there :) But unfortunetly, they shut it down :(

Wm Shatner has been on the cover and inside articles of many horse magazines for years. I guess I assumed that the man could ride since I had seen him in the saddle. But I guess we all know what assume did once. lol The man really is multi tallented and does not mind making himself the butt of a joke.

Yup I did know, I used to show Saddlebreds and have read many articles on him, his Farm and Breeding program, I too am a trekie and also know that Patrick Stewart, Jean Luc Picard from Star trek Generations is a huge Arabian horse lover and rider.

Yes he is a horseman and is now married to a former horse trainer. He had horses before he met her. He is currently into showing horses in reining. He is a true horseman. When asked how many horses he owned, he replied that when you love horses, you never own enough.

Yes he also used to breed arabs i think (or maybe my mind is going).

The actor who plays Captain Jean Luc picard can also ride very well.

Me I'm a serious Trekkie so dispite my young age it have seen every episode of star trek going (except deep space nine as i hated that series) including the original series! which btw is still the best series ever!

*blush*

Dunno who William Shatner is. And I've never seen Star Trek.....

But that is cool to watch... maybe I'm just too young for this question. ;-]

That just adds another level of awesome to William Shatner!

warm air balloon! i could do it any day! that is one in each of those cool feeling to be up interior the sky so severe yet no longer enclosed like in an airplane. The ecosystem from up in a warm air balloon is magnificent too!