Page 20 - Allen Gwinn: Horse Racing on the Ice

ISSUE : Issue 19

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1978/6/1

some time after that. I was just letting her jog, going back. Sometimes make her walk if it was possible, and this time she was jogging along. He was an elderly man, that fellow. He had his horse • she was a pacer. I guess he thought she was going pretty lively and he came up back of me. When Goldie heard hira coming • another horse coming behind her • she took off. Well, she went away so fast that when he got down I was waiting for him. And he said. "She doesn't trot • she flies!" That finished him. He didn't pull irt anymore. Goldie came from P.E.I. Her mother was a farm horse but a real good roadster. And they bred her to a horse called Gold Clip. And he was pretty fast. When I bought her she was 2 years old. Only small. But boy, she turned out to be a wonderful animal. Work at anything. And she got to be speedy. I think there was nothing ever on the har? bour that could beat her. But the last horse I had came from Boston • and there was speed in her but there was something wrong. She'd just get going for a quarter mile when she'd go off her feet and gal? lop the rest of the way. (They weren't allowed to gallop?) No, no. That was ruled out. They'd keep hobbles on them to keep them from breaking into a gallop. If you forced them in hobbles they'd break into a gallop but they'd have to come out of it right away or they'd trip themselves. (Why did you stop racing on the ice?) Some of the ones that used to drive horses passed away. I sold mine on account of no one to race with. And since the horses are not here to race, very seldom you'll get ice that's fit to race on. It's a fun? ny thing. Seems like God prepares for any? thing that's being used, and when there's no one using it it don't come. We used to get clear ice for 3 weeks at a time. Now, if you get a day • the snow or something comes up and spoils the ice. We stopped in the early '50s • and I don't remember a winter...well, I do just one. We got 3 days good ice • but not on St. Patrick's. But you wanted to get ice to practice on. An animal standing in the barn all winter, you'd want to practice him before racing. And it was real nice for the people to come and watch the race, meet one another from one end of the country to the other. And never any betting They were doing it just for the sport. Preparing Aubri and Lora Lee; Hector MacDougal ready for the start; Goldie; Allen Gwinn today. Our thanks to Lori and Dennis Cox, Salmon River, who interviewed Allen Gwinn. This article won Second Prize in the Cape Breton's Magazine Contest in Local History. Our thanks as well to Mrs. Audie Morrison, Cape North, for help gathering photographs. Clothing Hardware STEDMAN'S Cheticamp Gifts Souvenirs All Rooms Overlook Sydney Harbour Vista Motel King's Road, Sydney, N.S* RBSERVATI(??I NUMBER: 539-6550 Zenith Number: 079'0, Anywhere in N.S. SUBSCRl BE Iagreatgift bluenose (Magazine Box 580, Port Maitland, N.S. BOW 2V0 Please send a one year's subscription to: Nairn KddJit&& One yaax - {'ouA '4ae'. Sumnzn., ToJit, l'lntzn., Sp/Ung. In Canada - $3.50 VoA.

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