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and he would come to attention, fully alert looking for me. We had become good buddies.
With Bobbey’s horses at the farm, she became Eastex’s main caretaker. I just messed with him from time to time. One morning Bobbey called me out
to show me that two of the neighbor’s weanlings had gotten into Eastex’s pasture. There Eastex was standing guard, flanked by the two weanlings one on each side of him.
A real scare came one morning when I realized that during the night someone had busted through a fence in the neighboring subdivision and then drove through the pasture, breaking through the fencing at the other end. Thankfully the vinyl fence is extremely resilient and it had popped back into place. There Eastex was.
I caught the culprits when they drove by to check on the horse.
Somewhere along the line Eastex had injured his right eye and lost vision in it. It never seemed to bother him. I knew what it was like. When I was much younger, I too had lost my vision, but in my left eye. Eastex and I made a unique team.
Through the years Eastex had many visitors – horse people, politicians, neighbors and friends. He was a great ambassador to the sport.
In 2006, I sold my farm and Eastex moved a short way down the road to
Dee and Betty Rapers’ Belle Mere Farm. The Rapers were also honorary owners; they too had helped us get Eastex back to Oklahoma and took good care of him for the remainder of his life. I visited Eastex every time I passed by the Rapers’ place.
About eight months ago, I knew the end was coming. Eastex was showing his age. So my sister’s husband, who is a master stone carver from Poland, made Eastex a headstone.
On Thursday morning March 14th Dee called me at 7:45 am. I thought he was calling to invite me to lunch. The conversation quickly turned to what I had been contemplating for a while. He felt that it was time to put Eastex down. I told him that I would stop by in a
few hours to see him. I called Bobbey and she also came by. It was hard to see Eastex for the last time, frail and thin. I yelled out his name and he immediately searched me out. As I went to him he
One of the last pictures of Eastex, with Dee Raper of Belle Mere Farm and Andrea Golden
118 SPEEDHORSE, April 12, 2013
put his head under my arm very gently wanting to be caressed. He looked at me and I listened to him as I had when he was a two year old and I knew he was ready to go to that pasture in the sky.
Reflecting on Eastex has been a bittersweet dream. I remember like it was yesterday the day he came off the trailer in 1993. How beautiful and regal he was; almost black, standing over 15.3 hands with an impressive aura that totally captivated anyone watching him. He was a gentle giant who loved people and life. He had a streak of orneriness, which stoked his competitive spirit.
Eastex’s life didn’t turn out so bad after all. What a tragedy it would have been to allow the industry’s All-Time Leading Money earner in 1993 to be broken down as a result of an uncaring owner who had profited so greatly from this great Champion, only later to discard him once he had stopped making money.
Sometimes in conducting business we forget that we are dealing with an animal’s life. We owe it to our industry to be good representatives ourselves by honoring our equine heroes with good treatment and care. Speedhorse paid for the care of Eastex for over 20 years and it was the best money we ever spent. All of us have a favorite horse whether it earned a million dollars or not, and most often it was born and raised right in our own pastures.
How different my life would have been without Eastex. We forged a strong bond that I will never forget. He was my buddy and my favorite horse, after all. I didn’t own him when he raced, all I did – with help from a lot of honorary owners – was to allow this great testament to racing to live out his life in dignity.
Eastex was the industry’s horse. His gravestone says it all - EASTEX ‘A TRUE CHAMPION.’
Andy Golden