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RICHARD CHAMBERLAIN’S LIFELONG MISSION: Turning People On To Horses
by Diane Rice
There are many ways to skin a cat, as the saying goes. And when that “cat” is defined as lighting the fire of fascination with horses in others, Richard Chamberlain has, indeed, skinned it by sharing his personal passion — article after article, year after year.
Rich has rolled his talents and loves — horses, history, writing and travel — into a gigantic, glowing body of his life’s work. It’s a body that shines brightly on the industry he has devoted
his life to. And it has opened the world of exceptional horses — particularly racing Quarter Horses — to many who have read his work.
Whether Richard’s writing recounts racing, bloodlines, the western lifestyle or other topics involving horses, his work ethic, extensive research and pride in a job well done shine through in the finished product.
“As a writer, that moment, all too rare, when you come up with a phrase – you slam an adjective up against a noun and create
a metaphor that shimmers — that’s what I love,” he says. “If it involves horses, I’m all in.”
LIGHTING THE SPARK:
His Childhood
Rich grew up with two brothers, four sisters and the beef cattle that replaced the milk cows on what had been his grandfather’s dairy farm near Cameron, Texas, where his dad taught him to work.
“Dad and Mom droughted out in the 1950s and we had to move to town,” Rich says. “Dad did whatever it took to put food on the table: He owned a drug store and a gas station, sold parts at International Harvester and Chevrolet dealerships, and finally ran the tax offices in
Cameron and Waxahachie — he busted his tail to feed his family. He was my hero.”
Rich’s uncle continued to work the farm,
so naturally, Rich’s spare time was spoken for.
“I started driving a tractor in fourth grade,” he says. “I was so small I could stand on the clutch and it wouldn’t move. I’d have to grab the steering wheel from up under with both hands and force the clutch down, and that way I could shift gears. Basically, I’ve worked ever since.”
In addition to his work ethic, the spark of Rich’s horse passion was kindled on that farm. “I’ve always loved horses,” he says. “But when I was very young, we got rid of them. Dad always said horses ate but didn’t produce.”
FANNING THE FLAME:
His Young Adult Years
Rich knew entering college that he wanted to write. “I knew I’d have glasses so my first career choice, as a Navy pilot, was out,” he says. “That was long before ‘Top Gun.’
“But my high school English teacher had told me I had talent for writing,” he adds. “I actually had people in my class who wanted to trade me $20 and the paper they’d written if I’d give them mine — and back in the ’60s, that was a lot of money — but I never did because I liked what I wrote.”
That teacher’s encouragement brought back a memory of the farm that helped steer him toward writing. “Around first grade,
on a cold, wet day, I was feeding a bunch of cows in the dark early one morning,” he says. “I weighed like 40 pounds. My rubber boot came off in the mud and I was carrying two buckets of feed I couldn’t put down without
them getting muddy. I had to work the rest of the time with my muddy foot in a boot. I thought, I am going to college and get an education so I can get out of here!”
After high school, he started his freshman year at Texas A&M, then enlisted in the Army before being drafted in 1972. The Paris Peace Accord was signed in February 1973, three weeks before he was scheduled to leave for
Viet Nam. It was a generational blessing: In August 1945, his dad was in the Navy at San Diego, preparing for the invasion of Japan when the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and his grandfather was with his infantry unit in New Jersey in November 1918, prepping to ship out for the trenches in France, when the Armistice ended the First World War.
While in the Army, Rich discovered another of his great loves: travel. “I was in the MPs and one of my jobs was to take prisoners from one post to be tried on the post where the crime had been committed,” he says.
During that time, he stoked his horse passion by riding hacks on a farm near Fort Lewis, Washington, outside Olympia. “Most of my buddies went once and were so sore they never went again; I just loved it!” he says.
When his two years was up, he returned
to Texas A&M on the GI Bill and majored in agricultural journalism. “I couldn’t believe I could get paid for writing about horses!” he says.
While at A&M, he took every horse course he could, including a 1 1/2-hour lab riding horses twice a week. He also joined the polo club, although he wasn’t on the team due to being left-handed. “Whatever involved horses, I was right there,” he says.
44 SPEEDHORSE August 2020