Page 80 - SpeedhorseMarch2021

by Diane Rice
In the thick of his racing career, Northwest breeder/owner Malon L. Cowgill loved being directly involved with his horses and the industry.
Some horsemen and -women in the racing industry are in it for the thrill of the win; some love breeding and raising the babies;
some enjoy the friends made along the way. But for Malon Cowgill, who says he raced “from Mexico to Canada and all parts between,” the thing he loved most was the hands-on contact. “Some guys might say I was nosey,” he says, “but I like the term hands-on better.”
Although he’s still involved in the breed- ing decisions, he now lets others handle the hands-on parts of his operation for him. “Those days are over,” says Malon, who’s now pushing 80 years of age. “I have a couple guys in Kennewick [Washington] who breed two or three horses each year and do the hauling as well as the training. I never did train, but I enjoyed hauling and handling the horses.”
A Horseless Youth
Malon was born to Malon H. and Margeri Cowgill in Seneca, Oregon, between Burns and John Day about 150 miles due east of Bend. One of many half-sisters and -brothers — none of whom were involved or interested in the horse business — Malon attended public school in Seneca — where he knew Lola, the girl who would one day become his wife — and then moved with his dad and family to a farm in the Columbia River Basin in eighth grade.
After high school, he spent two and a half years at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, attending classes two days a week and working three days a week to pay for it. He then joined
the Oregon National Guard and spent his tour, from 1961 to 1967, as an Army cook.
“When I found out they were going to put me into cook school, I was pretty disappointed because we were a tank battalion,” he says. “But I soon found out that the cook is the most important man in the army. Napoleon once said, ‘An army marches on its belly.’ We all like to eat two or three times a day, and good food is paramount to those in combat situations.”
After his stint in the Army, Malon married and went to work full time. He started as a pipe fitter and sprinkler fitter, then owned Cascade Fire Protection in Kennewick, Washington, a sprinkler installation and testing company for residential and commercial structures.
Malon and his wife had eight children while Lola and her husband had three.
After Malon and Lola each had spent about five years alone following Malon’s divorce and Lola’s husband passing away, Malon went back to Seneca on what he calls a nostalgia trip. “I stopped by to say hi to Lola’s sister, who still lived there, but she didn’t happen to be home,” he says. “I had a business card with me, so I wrote a little note on it asking how everyone, including Lola, was and left it in the door.”
About six months later, Lola wrote to Malon, asking if she could stop by and see him in Kennewick on her way to Spokane with a friend. “That was 30 years ago,” says Malon, “and we got married about a year later, in 1991.”
78 SPEEDHORSE March 2021
Photo Courtesy Oregon QHRA