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Fred and Linda Alexander
Fred and Linda Alexander
by Diane Ciarloni
Fred Alexander of Anthony, New Mexico was a painfully shy, six-year-old kid the day his father, Joe Alexander, told him to get in
the truck.
It wasn’t a new truck, and neither was the horse trailer hooked up to it. But both vehicles were serviceable and, certainly, sturdy enough to make the drive to Laredo, where Charles Alexander, Joe’s dad and Fred’s granddad, lived.
“We were going to pick up a mare,” Fred recalled. “Her name was Marylou and my granddad had raced her. I don’t remember how it happened, but she was blind and she had a scrawny, wormy-looking baby named Lucille at her side.
“I was supposed to help load them. Part of my instructions from my dad was to not let
go of the rope on the mare, no matter what happened. I didn’t. Not even when she spooked and bolted. I held on to that rope, while it peeled the skin off my hand. Later, Dad asked why I didn’t let go!” Duh! The kid was doing what he was told – no matter what happened. Fred laughed softly when he said, “My dad had a huge influence on me.”
Charles Alexander ran cattle, but he also had some especially fine horseflesh pass under his hands. He lived in match race country, and prime horses moved through the area on their way to building a legacy.
“My dad had a huge inflfluence on me.” – Fred Alexander
A Good Life
FALL 2022 13
Courtesty A&A Ranch