Some riders sit on a horse like you could balance an egg on their back and they wouldn’t lose it, or a saucer of milk and they wouldn’t spill a drop. They’re subtle and gentle. A cowboy type is what you want for a horse who’s really rough, kind of rank. Other jockeys are good with a stick — they can switch hands sticking while they ride. But a lot of horses quit if you hit them. There’s jockeys that have a hell of a hand and they bring them horses home with welts. If a horse is running full bore why do you need to stick him?

Jocks get thrown, get hurt, sometimes bad. When that happens, they can get chilly. They’re afraid to get on a horse. They have flashbacks. They have to prove themselves again and again. Everyone’s watching to see what they’ll do.

THIS JOCK PACKS, THAT JOCK PACKS

A little hotshot machine like a flat battery, two-pronged, pocket-size — a jockey will use it to shock his horse. He hides it down the front of his pants or in his silk sleeves with a rubber band. Machine riders think they can get every ounce of run out of a horse.

Track authorities shake you down if they suspicion somebody’s packing — you get suspended if you get caught. At the starting gate they make everyone dismount — pony riders, too. I wouldn’t carry a machine for a jock when I ponied, but some pony people would. They’d smuggle it in and pass it to the jock at the last minute.

It’s easy to tell if a horse is plugged in. When a horse gets shocked it swings its tail in a circle. We’d watch the replays and see a horse’s tail suddenly swing around and say, Gee, I wonder what happened there?

It’s a prominent thing at the cheaper tracks — or it used to be. This jock packs, that jock packs. You’d hear stories about the jock and his girlfriend — how he plugs her in when they’re having sex.

GRANDSTANDING

If something strange happens, riders say, Shit fire, save me some matches! They sing little jingle ditty things. They holler, Coming on the inside! or Whoa back! Sometimes a horse’ll throw his rider and come barreling at you when you’re galloping during workouts. Then they yell, Heads up! Loose horse!

In the early morning when it’s still dark with just a few lights up, you’ll be galloping down the empty track and hear thump, thump, thump, thump — hoofbeats behind you. It’s beautiful. And riders will stand straight up on their horses then — they call it grandstanding. They stand up and stretch out their arms and say, Thought I was a coyote, but I’m all right now.

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