> I seriously suggest that you search the archives at www.vocalist.org for
> a short piece that I think was posted by Les Taylor (or was it Reg
> Boyle) concerning a racing horse called "Opera Singer". If you really
> want to do it, you can't compromise.
Actually, it was by Winston Purdy. Since it took me about an hour to find it
in the archives, here it is so no one else has to spend the time (Vocalist
server VERY slow today):
"Even as a colt, Opera Singer was fast. She was one of the friskiest
fillies the old trainer had ever seen. The owner of the stables agreed
and gave the order for her to be trained as a top race horse. "She has a
shot at the Triple Crown!" everyone agreed. During training, however,
the owner, wanting to hedge his bets, decided that she should have other
skills to fall back on and ordered that she should learn to pull a plow,
too. So two hours of every day were devoted to pulling a plow. She was
put in a team with a Clydesdale, who's big feet hardly dented the
freshly turned earth. Little Opera Singer got very tired pulling the
heavy plow and didn't know how her partner Clyde could keep it up, hour
after hour. The trainer noticed something else, too. Opera Singer was
slower in her training runs around the track. "Told ya she might not
have the right stuff to be a top racer," declared the owner. After six
more months of training, poor Opera Singer's performance on the track
had deteriorated so much that she was sold to a farmer in Pennsylvania
to pull his wagon to and from town. Every so often, alone in the
pasture, Opera Singer would frisk and try to run, like the old days. But
it was no use. She was not as good as she once was. The dream had faded
into the Dämmerungzone."
Jennifer
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