One Hammer of a Heartbeat / Life on the backstretch Bd.1 (ePub)

He was a Thoroughbred racehorse, proud and noble, with the blood of champions coursing through his veins. Though he was a beautiful specimen to me, that noble blood coursed through the veins of a racehorse who was offered for sale at a thousand dollars and was purchased for eight hundred. He was not, and would never be a champion to anyone but me. When he strolled casually into my life in the early spring of 1987, I gave him a once-over and followed him to the barn. He had been to the backstretch before, already a veteran of a dozen races, already a winner. He plied his trade on the bottom rung of the claiming ladder at Playfair Race Course, a small racetrack in the Pacific Northwest. But he was one up on me; I had visited the backstretch previously but knew nothing about the life of a groom at the racetrack. This journal takes us from the day we met, Officer's Citation and I, through the spring and summer, and well into the crisp days of autumn; unforgettable moments spent on the backstretch. You'll meet my mentors, a cowboy named Marv and his brother Baldy, a pair of individuals with a pair of unique perspectives. They were great horsemen, and both knew how to tell a story. It was serious business, yet it seemed like the fun would never end. But the racetrack taught me the truth, and my horse taught me the truth; the story doesn't always end with a laugh, and it isn't always easy to accept the lessons learned. The events of this journal are remembered and told through the fading lens of history more than thirty years after the fact. Some of it feels like it happened yesterday. I was introduced to the sport of kings at the evil oval, and it is there I discovered everything can change in one hammer of a heartbeat. I entered the starting gate with the story of a little brown Thoroughbred horse; I will let you decide whether or not the race was won. Some recent days, when I dare to imagine what heaven might be, I can see a little brown Thoroughbred standing somewhere close to me, his ears pricked forward, tense, alert, and listening for a distant bugle beckoning him to the post once more. Conversely, on an overcast and gloomy day, I might find myself staring into the abyss only to see a little brown Thoroughbred staring back at me. I believe I have written a thought-provoking book; I tried to keep it entertaining enough to read, and interesting enough to keep you turning the pages. I think you will laugh, I know you will cry, and I hope you enjoy.