I always find it amazing how a simple song on the radio can transport you back to a time in your life that you had forgotten.
I was shopping in the supermarket the other day when Bette Midler started singing the song The Rose slowly and softly over the shop speakers. As I wandered through the fresh fruit and vegetables I recalled one early morning when I was riding track work for a local racing stable. I was never going to be jockey, mainly because I wasn’t good enough and I was always gong to be to big, still I was useful for riding the slow muscle building work required to prepare a young horse for its racing career. I had had a terrible run of spills that had shaken my confidence a bit, but you know the old saying if you fall off a horse you should get straight back on.
It was a cold foggy morning and the sun was just about to rise. The boss had legged me up onto Chancell , a filly I was starting to despise because she pulled like a train and made every bone in your body ache . The boss knew I was nervous and as he walked me out to the track he reminded me to hold her with a piece of cotton, but to be ready for the tone. “Sing to her” he said and relax . As we did our warm up lap of a slow trot I could feel her start to fire and I started to panic. The track was deathly silent and her ears were starting to twitch nervously as if she was getting ready to let rip .
“Sing to her “he said but what? I don’t really know the words to a whole song, not a song long enough to go around four laps. Quickly I remembered the song the rose we had to learn it to sing at school, so I started to sing.
As I started to sing in the slow, soft tones that the rose is sung in I could feel the filly come back under me and settle, but I was running out of breath, its difficult to sing and hang on for dear life . The fillys ears pricked up again and she started to quicken, I started to sing faster , she started to pull harder and then finally with every bone in my body breaking she broke free and we were galloping down the straight with me singing the rose like it was being played on the high record speed of 78 instead of 331/2 .
About fifteen laps later we returned to the stables to face the wrath of the boss .
claire hanrahan, 2 months ago
thats a great story hughsy you have real talent :)