by Bob Heyden

This story appeared in Horse Review from Dec. 15, 1926 with the headline: Sentiment still surrounds our sport, and sub-head: The love of the horse for himself alone, is still a ruling force in harness racing. The author was Marque.

I couldn’t resist, especially since it appeared 97 years ago this very week. I read it, reread, and I was struck by how little difference there was between then and today.

All quotes from Marque.

“The fondness for the harness horses very naturally is a heritage from the days when such horses provided both pleasure and utility; when the horse was a necessity to all classes and association with them began practically when one passed out of infancy. “

Who can’t relate to this one?

“When your father sat you between his knees in the buggy and let you play with the loose end of the reins, you chirped to the horse in your lisping childish way and imagined that you were really driving. But that day when your parents actually put the reins in your hands and you encourage the horse to speed up. You may have had experiences since that excited and thrilled you, but none compare to that most memorable incident.”

Timeless.

“Glorious days they were, with the horse as an intimate part of the daily experience. A major part aside from one’s immediate family. And it was early in our youth that the racing germ infected us; for, as you well remember, occasionally to meet the challenge of a neighbor boy we put our horses to the test of speed, receiving perhaps, when it was discovered, paternal chastisement and admonishment, only to repeat the experiment upon every possible occasion!”

Today, the Internet, lotteries, casinos, social media are all challenges for the sport of harness racing. Back then, 97 years ago, it was the automobile.

First, before the auto, “To leisurely go along God’s landscapes to delight our vision rather than to flash past them in an indistinct blur. To see the pace of which on a summer evening a couple out for a drive, the pace of which they asked the family horse, typifying, in a way, their own slowed-down lives, the result of age… So peaceful and contented they seemed, these old folk who had travelled life’s journey in company; and shared its joys and sorrows and in many instances had a horse to draw them that had seen such long service that he appeared to be one of the family and was regarded as such.”

Then, the advent of the automobile, in many ways replacing the mode of transportation for many.

“One of the most regrettable results of the general usage of the autos came into was the parting of children from their ponies. But why expect from the inanimate objects of steel, iron, wood and rubber (Or the “Tin Lizzie”) the happy, pleasant influences that emanated from the living companionable friend of ours, the horse?”

This article was written a touch less than a year away from the Dec. 2, 1927 rollout of the Model A, after 18 years of Ford dominance with the Model T.

“We of the older generation can also recall with delight the happy days we spent around the stables and barns in our youth and thereafter, before, like a plague of locusts, the blight of autos came to change the whole scheme of life and methods of living. Our horse was our pal, we told him our troubles (mostly imaginary, for youths ills are transitory); we surreptitiously sneaked sugar to feed our idol and the affection we bestowed upon them was equivalent to that which later we gave the damsel that we chose as our life partner.”

Love the horses… hate the business. This is almost a backstretch anthem. Maybe today more than ever. The sport then was nowhere near the business it is today. Still… we’ll read on…

This one never gets old.

“Close contact with the horses, the understanding of them and the friendship they inspired was bound to play a part in character building, teaching, as it did, self-control, kindness and care for such as depend on us.”

Nearly all in the business of racing for an extended stretch have either dreamed of, or actually tried to, do something else. (Jim Campbell heads to the Hall of Fame in 2024 not because of his ventures in real estate in the pizza business).

“I have tried other things and tired of them as means of amusement. I became lonely for the trotters and pacers. and the company of the people that follow them.

And what about breeders? Does this ring true in 2023?

“Deeper by far, and grounded to a greater degree of sentiment, is the feeling entertained by horses by those who go in for breeding them. The desire to breed trotters involves a spirit akin to that which marks family ties, a sort of paternal instinct, an affection that implies features which the mere ownership of horses fails to inspire. It has been my experience that breeders are the least and the last discouraged men connected with any angle of our pastime, for no matter whether or not their efforts are crowned by success, they are always looking forward to producing the champion of their dreams.”

Maybe the best paragraph came at the end.

“We would enlist many more recruits than we do if we were a unified body and were favored with an organization that would raise the plane and tone of our pastime.”

Holiday food for thought. Love for horses is boundless. From the industrial revolution to today’s constant strife, the horse remains every day’s pacifier. They are always there, a part of us and totally dependent on us. That goes both ways.