H.H.Money

There is an expression, "you can pick your friends but you can't pick your relatives." This expression seems to be most often applied to in-laws if we go by the many "in-law" jokes in circulation. Sometimes you get lucky and you end up with a relative who is also a friend. This is how it is with my sister-in-law and me. When we get together it's always the same - good conversation, a few laughs, just sharing our lives. It is always fun to share something new with her even if it's only looking around a shopping mall as we did yesterday.

My sister-in-law and I have quite different interests, but I still remember a joint venture of ours about twenty-some years ago that we thought might make us - perhaps not rich but - a few dollars. We bought a race horse together. Well, he was only a "$1000 claimer" running on the harness racing circuit at small race tracks in the Maritimes. But my sister-in-law knows horses and she assured me that H.H.Money (yes, that was his real name) had a heart as big as they come and with proper training and a great deal of TLC he would perform for us. With visions of future 1st place finishes still to come, we were excited.

Money was coming along well and he was showing promise until, alas, he broke a leg (and our hearts) and was out of commission for some time. Keeping a race horse who doesn't earn his keep is an expensive proposition and one that neither of us could manage. We had to see that Money was put comfortably out to pasture.

We still laugh when we think of our experience as race horse owners and we still say, somewhat ruefully, "well, if he hadn't broken his leg." If only.