Dan Patch, Phar Lap, Seabiscuit
Walking and Talking With Horses; Three Stars Who Communicated
The first three horses who come to mind when one thinks of walking and talking with horses -- communicating with a non-speaking animal -- are, perhaps, Dan Patch (1896-1916), Phar Lap (1927-1932), and Seabiscuit (1933-1947). These three extraordinary champions were, indeed, gifted, communicative horses.
Dan Patch, America's First Horse Hero
Indiana-bred Dan Patch (Crazy Good: The True Story of Dan Patch, the Most Famous Horse in America by Charles Leerhsen, 2008) was all the rage at the turn of the 20th Century. He was the supreme Standardbred, and not of the high society trotting associations of the time, but rather in the lower realm of the usually regarded second best harness racing group, the pacer. He was the pacing realm.
Foaled by pacing champion and champion sire Joe Patchen, and out of Zelica, Dan Patch was well pedigreed and named for his sire and his original owner, Dan A. Messner. Dan Patch was a pacing whiz. He clocked mile after mile under the 2:00 mark, each time eliminating more fractions of seconds, or whole seconds, until no trainers wanted to pit their pacers against him.
So he began to run against Time. That is, he raced against his previously clocked racing time, and paced behind Thoroughbred runners pulling carts who motivated him to catch them. He always caught up to the clock. Fans flocked to the county fair raceways to see him beat the clock.
And Dan Patch took his bows, too, serenely eyeing the cheering throngs. He was a treat.
Laura Hillenbrand Reintroduced Seabiscuit
Laura Hillenbrand reintroduced Seabiscuit to generations of Thoroughbred fans after his time in her supremely readable 2001saga, Seabiscuit: An American Legend. His story may be the single, most fascinating Thoroughbred story of all because of its astounding true events of how three men from three extremely separate backgrounds met one another -- his owner, Charles Howard, an automobile tycoon; his trainer, the lone Tom Smith; and the one-eyed jockey, John "Red" Pollard -- and formed a union that birthed one of racing's greatest champions, while weaving an unbelievable tale of comeback victory.
Australia's Big Red
In Australia, the Thoroughbred Phar Lap (Phar Lap by Geoff Armstrong and Peter Thompson, 2000) was so good that the regal members of Australian purebred mania tried to ban him from its finer races, and the local betting mafia tried to assassinate him before he could run in the 1930 Melbourne Cup, that country's equivalent to America's Kentucky Derby.
Unlike Dan Patch and Seabiscuit, whose connections had unusually close, communicative affections for their horses, the big (17 plus hands), lanky, red-coated Phar Lap had only one friend in the entire world, his strapper (groom), and later his trainer, Tommy Woodcock.
Phar Lap died prematurely in California before he could participate in his first American race from a stomach-intestinal colic of sorts which, at the time, could not be diagnosed. Woodcock was stricken for years after the horse's death, but he continued to train racers.
The riveting stories of all three of these wonderfully gifted athletes are on film, and chronicled in newspapers and books, so they never can be totally forgotten. A renewal of their triumphs every so often is a gift and required reading for every horse crazy fan.
