The National Sporting Library & Museum in Middleburg, Virginia, is hosting an evening with Josh Pons on January 15. A third-generation horseman and owner of Country Life Farm, he is also a two-time Eclipse Award-winning writer and the 2024 Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award winner.

The focus of this event is Pons’ recent book “Letters from Country Life: Adolphe Pons, Man o’ War, and the Founding of Maryland’s Oldest Thoroughbred Farm.” In its pages, he explores a century of life inside the horse business, writing from inside the fences of Maryland’s oldest Thoroughbred farm.

Thousands of letters

In 2016, Pons discovered thousands of letters from his grandfather Adolphe Pons’ life in the Thoroughbred horse business. The son of a French cook in the Gilded Age mansions of banker August Belmont II, Pons immigrated to New York City at the age of 5 in 1888.

In time, he became Belmont’s personal secretary. He also played a major role in Belmont’s breeding and sale of one of the most famous horses in history: Man o’ War. During the Great Depression, Adolphe left New York and bought a hundred-acre horse farm in Maryland, naming it “Country Life.”

In expanded form, Pons draws upon the popular column he wrote for three years for BloodHorse magazine. Readers are invited along as he unearths long-lost voices of Gilded Age tycoons from century-old letters, telegrams and their images in never-before-seen photos. The result is an epic story set against the backdrop of World War I, the Great Depression and World War II.

A fascinating chronicle, both the book and the presentation offer a fresh look at the Golden Age of Horse Racing and how the past influences our present.

Program schedule

5–5:45 pm: Cocktail Reception

5:45 pm: Author Discussion (Book Signing to follow)

NSLM programs sell out quickly! Tickets are available here while they last.

Members Ticket: $20 (including book, $45); Non-Members Ticket: $30 (including book, $55)

About the NSLM

The National Sporting Library & Museum traces its roots to the National Sporting Library, which was founded in 1954 in Middleburg, Virginia. It is dedicated to preserving, promoting and sharing the literature, art and culture of equestrian, angling and field sports.

Today, the NSLM Library houses 20,000 volumes, historic periodicals dating back to the early 19th century, over 80 archival collections and an outstanding variety of antiquarian titles dating back to 1523.

The Museum’s collection has grown to over 1,300 objects, including paintings, sculptures, works on paper, trophies, weathervanes, dog collars and other ephemera. Two major temporary exhibitions are held during the year in the larger galleries, while the Vine Hill galleries host additional temporary exhibitions and a rotation of permanent collection artworks.

For more information call (540) 687-6542 or email [email protected].