The Last Man To Ride Man o’ War Looks Back On A Lifetime With Horses

Natalie Voss 

...Carter decided his best bet was to demonstrate his trustworthiness to her father, Will Harbut, so early on Saturday mornings he would make the 1 ½ mile walk to Faraway Farm, where he knew Harbut would be tending to the great red legend Man o' War. Carter had already found work breaking yearlings at nearby Elsmeade Farm – a job he got through sheer persistence, hanging around each morning until an established rider was late getting to work. In the stallion barn at Faraway, Carter watched Harbut shine “the horse that could outrun the wind.” He'd watch him speak to the visitors who came from thousands of miles away to stare at Man o' War, and he'd see that it was Harbut who would ultimately spell-bind them with tales of the stallion's legacy, still in the making. Harbut would be featured on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post alongside Big Red a few months after Carter and Lill began riding the bus together. One of the things Carter noticed was that Will Harbut was always talking, even when there were no other people around but the pair of them. He talked to Red, but not in a way Carter had ever heard a groom speak to a horse. Harbut spoke to Red as if the horse could understand English, and it seemed to Carter as though he certainly understood something. When Man o' War dropped manure in the stall, Harbut would tell him about the extra work this created and ask the horse to move over so he could clean it up. The stallion would count off one, two, three steps sideways each time and wait for Harbut to come in with a fork. “He was talking to him like he was a person. I couldn't understand that,” Carter said. “I rode horses on the racetrack every day, but I didn't see people get horses to do things just by talking to them. And Man o' War was a stallion; he wasn't some ordinary horse.”

Harbut's relationship with Big Red was legendary, and Carter said it lives up to the storybook hype. The massive Thoroughbred, who Carter remembers weighing 1,250 pounds, was as gentle as an old pony in Harbut's hands. “They said he was chestnut, but when the sun shone on him, he looked like he was gold. The light would come right back off of him. If you stood there looking at him, he almost took your breath away. You'd go to walk away and you'd have to turn around and look at him again. You couldn't believe what you were seeing – a horse, looking like that,” said Carter. “Will Harbut, he was a gifted man to handle a horse. Man o' War was an unruly horse. He was by Fair Play, and all of them, especially the colts were high-strung, full of energy, even going to the post in the race. That's what Man o' War was, until Will Harbut got over to him,” said Carter. One day when no one was around, Harbut turned to Carter, who he knew had galloped horses on the farm, and asked if he wanted to get on the most famous Thoroughbred in the world. Carter leapt at the opportunity, and Harbut gave him a leg up, right there in the stall. “He said, 'Gensie, how does it feel to be on the mostest horse in the world?'” Carter remembered. “I said, 'Mr. Harbut to tell you the truth, I don't have words to express what I'm feeling. Words have left me. I'm just so thrilled. I've never been on a horse like Man o' War.' “He said, 'Gensie, you take this to your grave. Ain't but three people been on this horse – the exercise boy, the jock that rides him in the race, and Gene Carter.' “I said, 'I'll be darned.' I looked around and I said, 'Well where are the rest of the boys at who used to get on him?' and he said, 'Oh, they're all dead.'” Carter did a double take from up on the red horse, wondering whether the stallion had helped put them in their graves...MORE 

Watch this video to hear this story and more, plus some good pics of the horse:

 https://youtu.be/nRLGBv4idtA