I come from a horse-loving family. My dad raised, trained, and raced harness horses. As a hobby while I was young, and then as his profession once he retired from the day-job. Horses filled my early life. Their care, their health, their breeding, their potential…
I never learned to ride. Standardbred aren’t riding horses, and it was standardbred colts and fillies, geldings and mares who filled my world. Running horses weren’t Dad’s thing, but he never missed the Kentucky Derby. The first Saturday in May was an occasion at our house. Not that we lived in Kentucky. Nope. We watched the Derby via the wonders of television from our living room in Oklahoma, but Derby Day was a festival of the Horse God, nonetheless.
Dad died over a decade ago, but today I felt his presence. He would’ve loved watching Mine That Bird come from behind and blow past the anticipated leaders. What a perfect race…and his youngest grandchild was present to witness it in person!
Yep. This post’s for you, Dad! It’s Derby Day, and it was a doozy of a horse race.
