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Netflix's ONE PIECE casts Joe Manganiello as Mr. 0 — Geeked Week 2024

Pirate...hunter. You keep saying that, but is that all you are? Is that all you want?

The Atavist Magazine’s July 2022 issue by Jana Meisenholder is a beautiful story about horses—ones that charge down a dangerously steep hill in a harrowing feat known as the Suicide Race in Omak, Washington.

The jockey with the best showing over four days earns the coveted title King of the Hill. There are men who have won once, twice, or several times, making them local celebrities. Omak sits on the edge of the Colville Indian Reservation, and the vast majority of riders are Native. Competing in the Suicide Race is a matter of pride: Many riders’ forefathers “went off the hill,” as locals say, and the event echoes Native traditions dating back centuries.

Read “King of the Hill” at The Atavist Magazine.

I heard that horsblr loves extreme horse events - see my recent string of posts about Skiijoring, or the Mongol Derby - so I thought I'd bring up another one: The World Famous Suicide Race.

This is a race that takes place in Omak, Washington every April as part of the Omak Stamede event. Most competitors are Natives of various tribes, as the racetrack runs alongside the Colville Reservation.

This race gets its name largely from the starting point: 50 feet of flat track leading up to a cliff, which stops at a river bank. The riders charge along the track, leap along down the cliff face, and plunge into the river before sprinting a last 500 meters into the stadium.

Despite the name, only one rider has died in recorded history since the 1930s, and the race is held numerous times every August, and only 23 horses have died in the past 25 years (in comparison, 189 horses died as a direct result of Thoroughbred racing in 2019 alone - although my source for that is an ARA so it with a grain of salt).

The race is not without safety precautions - horses are thoroughly vetted before and after; riders are required to wear life jackets; and each pair undergoes a series of three tests beforehand ensuring that they can swim and will jump down the cliff without hesitation in order to avoid pileups.

Most of the races each year are actually held at night, meaning that the horses hurtle themselves off a cliff and into pitch black water at the crack of a gun, while running blind.