A Self Portrait...

04 July 2017

I've Been

Watching a couple of horses on you tube and two full length films.

First Secretariat the perfect horse

Second Seabiscuit a not so perfect horse, or so the experts believed.

What did they have in common and why did the film about Secretariat do less well at the box office than the film about Seabiscuit? Hmm, Secretariat born into horse racing aristocracy and looking it from his size, strength and demeanor. Owned and bred by a fine horse racing family.

Seabiscuit also born of horse racing aristocracy perhaps not as high up the chain as Secretariat but high enough to have value, so why didn't he? He was smaller but he's not the first horse or person to be bigger on the inside. Seabiscuit was the fabled David against Goliath and maybe people loved him because we're all David.

never watch a horse race which is not to say I've not seen many I have, when I was a child the most TVs a family had was one and we all watched what our parents watched. Every Saturday and bank holiday my dad put an accumulator on at the bookies and so every Saturday and every bank holiday I saw horse races. I've seen Arkle, Red Rum, and so many others I can't remember

I don't think I ever saw Shergar race. By then I was an adult, working and definitely not available for any horse racing. My mum and dad watched him, Shergar won the only horse race they ever went to they had a grand day and mum boasted they stood right next to Shergar she was a big fan...

No, I never liked racing and I never failed to make my dislike very clear. It was my sister who took mum and dad to watch Shergar they both loved their day out and I guess I was indulgent about that particular Derby and then eighteen months later Shergar was kidnapped and murdered by the IRA...

I've watched the films about Seabiscuit and Secretariat. It seems to me Seabiscuit and Secretariat from either end of the tracks appealed right across all boundaries. One because he was so big, strong, powerful and confident and the other because he was not.

I love to watch video clips of both horses, I love the idea that we can all love something from either end of the spectrum, I love seeing both of them win, and I love the idea that there are people who love horses for their own sake as much as they love any other animal. My mum and dad did the murder of Shergar was a stunning shock to them

And, watching Secretariat and Seabiscuit reminds me of rainy Saturday afternoons and a bad tempered, ungracious girl...

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