I SUPPOSE you would have to be a little bit mad to do horses, wouldn’t you? If you were sane, then you wouldn’t do it. It’s a complete addiction. The early starts, the late nights, the disappointments, the elation. And yet it’s completely justifiable. My wife tells me I am obsessed with horses. She might be right.

I don’t come from a horsey background. We don’t know where it came from. My grandfather used to work them in the field, and my father used to go get the cows on a pony. That is my only familial connection to horses.