with my father’s second retirement, he raised, trained and raced thoroughbreds. from the hillside, we could see out over the ohio valley toward west virginia, not the kentucky view. dad bought land on a hill following an Italian’s advice that horses gain strength going from pastures of different levels. they climb for food, they gain strength. uneven ground produces strong legs capable of enduring quick changes during a race.

You have to count on the horse, since you can’t count on the track. — “Red”

Every morning, we would let the horses out to run. Every morning, they would run, not to the top of the hill, not directly to the pasture with the morning grass. No, they would run the fence-line around the bottom pasture, only coming to the center grazing pasture after a check of the fence. As an experiment I put up a fence line that cut the pasture, they ran their same routine, never figuring that the contained must always be smaller than the container. They ran toward the edges, long worn out, trampled and overgrazed before they would check the greener center pasture.

That’s a reason we ride them — “Red”

Horse sense maybe, but not monkey smart.