“For the firat time saw the court as an animal with its own independent life and strengths. My father... our family... merely rode it for the time. Like a well-schooled horse, it colluded, allowing the rider to determine when to go, to stop. To choose direction and speed. Like a horse, it was more powerful than its rider and might choose at any time to disobey.”

“A horse can lend its rider the speed and strength he or she lacks, but the rider who is wise remembers it is no more than a loan.”

“Never a horse that can’t be rode and never a rider that can’t be throwed. (I’ll pass this off as my own, but I really stole it from my father, a cowboy and rodeo rider in his younger years.)”

“It's a lot like nuts and bolts - if the rider's nuts, the horse bolts! ”

“Why do you like show jumping?""... Beauty and excitement. The elements of trust, talent, training, love, and danger make show jumping a thrilling and aesthetic experience. It's really the ultimate test of two nervous systems--the kinetic transfer of the rider's muscle to the horse's muscle enables them to clear those jumps. And there's nothing like it--horse and rider forming an arc of beauty, efficiency, and power, like a double helix.""DNA,""Yes, DNA, the code to life.”

“By day, it was merely the Lane That Time Forgot; perfect for a bygone age when a pony and trap might have trotted merrily down to the village and back, but less suited to modern requirements and any car without a ‘thin’ button.”

“I sit astride life like a bad rider on a horse. I only owe it to the horse's good nature that I am not thrown off at this very moment.”