Carson Kressley's got horse sense

Carson Kressley's horses will be at the Devon Horse Show this year, but he won't be.

The former star of "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" and recent "Dancing with the Stars" contestant is bummed he won't make the annual equine pageant, for the first time in about 25 years.

But his seven horses, some of whom are trained in Kentucky, while others live on his family's farm in Allentown, will make an appearance.

Kressley was in Kentucky with his horses on Wednesday, on a rare day off, visiting his version of children ("But I don't have to pay for college," Kressley said) before heading to East Falls' Philadelphia University on Thursday to talk to a room full of prospective fashion-design students about his experience in the business and his career. "Phila U. Fashion View" was set up in talk-show format with students like Casey Lamke, 22, chatting up guest Kressley. "Who is Barbara?" Kressley asked, referring to "The View" host Walters. "As long as no one is Elisabeth Hasselback, I hate her."

Dressed in cuffed dark jeans, a black blazer and Donald J. Pliner loafers covered in pewter glitter, Kressley talked about his Allentown upbringing. After the talk, he hummed the "Action News" theme song to prove his hometown roots, and referred to a visit to Wanamakers as "the greatest thing" for him as kid.

He peppered his answers with quips and one-liners. "You know what they say," Kressley said when answering a question about rejection, "when the world hands you lemons, add vodka."

Kressley still keeps in contact with his "Queer Eye" castmates and they try to get together whenever they're all in the same city. He also said that since "Queer Eye" landed on Netflix, there's been a renewed interest in a reunion, but believes it would be more of a one-off special than a full-on series.

As for his "Dancing with the Stars" stint, he learned from Nancy Grace that while doing the cha-cha you must wear two bras. "I still have post traumatic stress disorder from when popped out," he said.

Kressley's next big project is a live "Dancing with the Stars" appearance at the Tropicana in Las Vegas, where he said he'd be joined by the likes of Tia Carrere and Joey Fatone. He has a new line of clothing on ShopNBC and some new shows in development that will be fashion-focused.

His most recent show, "Carson Nation," aired on Oprah Winfrey's flailing OWN cable network. It was recently reported that Winfrey's network could lose $142.9 million in 2012, according to SNL Financial. "It's incredibly hard to program a network from scratch for 24 hours," Kressley said.

"Her whole mission is to put programming on that's inspiring and helps people. It's not shows about housewives that are fighting over whose Range Rover is bigger than the next. It's just starting out. It's going to take a long time." n

Contact Molly Eichel at 215-854-5909 or eichelm@phillynews.com, or follow on Twitter @mollyeichel. Read her blog posts at www.philly.com/entertainment.