Loading ...…and said the same thing to me yesterday – that back in the day some horses whould dislodge the bit , so a tongue strap was developed to prevent that . Unscrupulous types would lace that strap with cocaine just before the race and as a result had a winner .
My friend was a trainer , owner , driver (sulkies) and judge . He would take an injured horse , and rather than allow it to be put down , would buy it for pennies on the dollar , let the bone heal for a year or more while he gained the trust of the animal and retrained it with gentle caring . When the horse returned to racing it would do all it could to return his kindness . He never used the whip on his trotters and despised those who would lacerate the hind quarters trying to get more speed in the stretch .
Before COVID he found that one of his favorites (stolen from him by one of his kids) that he had not seen for thirty years , was on a retirement farm in Maine . He travelled from FL to see the aging horse and found it grazing next to a younger filly , hundreds of feet across open pasture . He stepped up to the fence and yelled “Sammy !” his pet name for the horse he had not seen in thirty years . The horse lifted its head from grazing , turned its head and ears toward him , and then raced to the fence to see the man he trusted , again .
Animals are not fickle – their love endures .