The Call of The Shedrow

By: Bill Galvin
Illustrations By: Elaine Macpherson

Have you gazed along the shedrow at the horsemen and the horses
Have you wandered to the railing at the Nation’s leading courses?
Have you often had the feeling that you own a horse, and still,
There is something sorely missing …. a gap you just can’t fill?

Have you ever watched a guinea with mucksack on his back?
Have you sometimes looked with envy at the riders on the track?
Have you often wished the hotwalker were you instead of he?
Do you long to bunk in a tackroom bed as a gypsy and be free?

Have you oft espied a guinea and thought how sore you lack?
And gazed in admiration as he snuggly fit the tack.
On occasion have you wondered how he keeps those dapples shining?
And long to do the things he does . . . is this what you are pining?

Although you are a man of wealth, would you really like to know
How the man who tends your equine friend is going to treat his bow?
And what will he prescribe and treat for your charge’s tummy ache,
And what endearing words for him when he runs and wins the stake?

Do you look at your colourbearer as he stands there in his stall,
And feel that you’re inadequate, ‘cause you don’t know him at all?
Do you long to work upon his coat with rubrag and with brush,
And pack his feet with care each day to ease the pain of thrush?

Are you wont to leave your shiny desk, as they say, ‘just pack it in’,
And learn to ply a blister to the colt who bucked his shins
Do you really yearn to ‘get under one’, arise to turfdoms heights,
Rub on tendons ‘till your arms ache, and snug those lily whites?

Do you relish the thought of pulling manes, or braiding tails for mud,
To apply a ring or cage, what e’er, for some big ornery stud.
Would you like to pull the caps off for the baby in the barn,
Do you long to break the yearlings that you have up on the farm?

Would you rather be a hotwalker and journey to the left,
Bet your case deuce on the big hoss, with no eatin’ money left,
Would you not trade your millions, just for a little while,
To walk, or rub or train one . . . or gallop one a mile?

Would you gyp about the bull rings and hustle for the feed,
Would you ship to the Big Apple ‘cause you think your horse has speed.
Would you gamble on a gamble, a plug with four bad wheels,
Be banned for over-zealousness - then return and make appeals?

Would you take a cripple on the cuff and nurse him to a race,
Go without your evenin’ meal when you bet and blow the race.
Would you hustle for the jock’s mount and whether win or lose,
Have a little extra for a jug, some cheap but potent booze?

Would you like to be a racetracker, just for a year or two,
To struggle and to lead the life that many horsemen do.
To sleep in shakedown beds at times, whenever the going’s rough,
Yet take the chance to live it up, when things just aren’t so tough.

It’s only a thought I offer you, yet would most not beguile
To leave their fancy offices and join us for a while,
To struggle and to triumph, and always grasp at glory,
Re-write a chapter of their lives … into a horseman’s story.

Bill Galvin is a Canadian horse racing historian, author, publisher, educator, horseman and former racing official and publicist.

The above is an excerpt from the equine best selling book by Bill Galvin, ‘ballads of the turf and other doggerels’. It is available at exclusivelyequine.com, DRF.com(Classics), info@horse-canada.com, amazon.com, and at many major North American racetracks, book stores and libraries.