Essays From West of 98: Wendell Berry at the Matched Horse Races
Considering the work of local culture through the prism of an old-timey horse race
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When you reference Wendell Berry every 14.5 seconds1 in your writing, it’s inevitable that others ask you for Berry reading recommendations. I am always honored to field such a request, because it usually means that people are interested enough in my writing to learn more about this Kentucky farmer/writer/poet who influences me so deeply. I recently recorded a Rural Church and State podcast on this very topic. I probably owe it to my West of 98 readers to do a special newsletter with a Wendell Berry reading list.
My reading recommendations may vary depending on who asks me and the particular angle from which they approach Berry’s work. However, every time I am asked, I mention the essay “The Work of Local Culture.” I do so because it is unquestionably one of Berry’s most powerful influences on my own life and work. I have referenced it several times in this newsletter for a reason.2
Nearly a decade ago, I was asked by the leaders of the Texas Cowboy Reunion to chair a new event called the Matched Horse Races. There are a few of these events floating around various rodeos, but it would be something new on the roster of events at the historic TCR. And yet, it wasn’t necessarily new at all.
As I wrote last week, the Texas Cowboy Reunion was intended to preserve the heritage of the cowboys who helped tame the West Texas frontier. On that frontier, a man’s horse was both a significant financial asset and a significant contributor to his capacity to live or die.3 Wherever two or more humans are gathered, a competitive spirit is liable to break out, so the importance of the horse lent itself to cowboys, cavalry officers, and others deciding to race their horses against each other. In the nine decades of Texas Cowboy Reunions that preceded the creation of the Matched Horse Races, I feel certain that the frontier’s competitive spirit spilled over into plenty of impromptu horse races on and around the TCR grounds. I am confident nobody ever gambled on those horse races, though. The horror!
This year’s Matched Horse Races were the 8th annual edition. We’ve had a few challenges thus far, creating these races from scratch. If a man was to draw up the most ideal time and place for a horse race, in order to draw the best crowd of spectators and racers, he would probably choose something other than the Saturday on July 4th weekend at 3:30 PM when the sun is blazing in an open field with no shade except that which you might bring yourself in the form of automobile, tent, or umbrella. But the TCR is about preserving the heritage of the frontier, not spoiling ourselves with creature comforts. This is not Major League Baseball, ruining God’s sport by playing it indoors in a soulless glorified shopping mall that they call a domed stadium.4 But I digress.
And the rain. Oh the rain.
In the prior seven years, we’ve had rain six times. We once had a giant thunderstorm the night before the race, partially wrecking our track fence, getting numerous vehicles stuck in the mud, and leaving me slogging around all day in rubber boots. On several occasions, a poorly-timed rain shower in the hours before the race deterred many would-be competitors. Last year, a four-inch rain on the morning of the race wiped out the race entirely. It is tradition in Stamford that it almost always rains during the TCR, but the Matched Horse Races seem to have created a particular magnetism. I advised some of the local farmers this year that we may start another horse race in August just to draw in a timely rain for the cotton crop. They think I am joking, but I am dedicated to improving the local economy.
This year, it rained again because of course it did, but the rain was fortuitously timed. A nice half inch dropped on midday Friday. It left the race track in outstanding condition for a final plowing. As I made the final preparations on Saturday morning, I couldn’t help but ponder “The Work of Local Culture.” In this essay, Wendell compares local culture to soil. A place that cares about its stories, history, memories, and people is a place in which the local community is nourished like the plants growing in a field of healthy and fertile soil. That soil welcomes the establishment of deep roots, which strengthen the community, hold the people there, and ensure that that the entire place is built to last. A community that lacks a local culture, or that which wholesale replaces its local culture with the same homogenous “culture” found on other televisions and computer screens across America, is a community whose soil is malnourished. Any farmer or rancher knows that unhealthy soil is more prone to erosion and in that same way, Berry observes that such a place is open to decay, exploitation and destruction.
But back to the horse race.
It was hot, but not unbearably so. Okay, it was very hot, but “unbearable” is a sliding scale at the Texas Cowboy Reunion. A record twenty-three horses duked it out in front of the largest crowd to date. These races are just what you think they are. We have a 500 foot straightaway track. The competitors ride their horses down to the starting line, with their backs facing the finish line. The starter drops his flag. The competitors wheel around their horses and sprint for glory. 12 to 15 seconds later, they cross the finish line at a dead run. As they slow down, we line up the next set of racers. The prevailing sentiment dubbed the 2024 race the best TCR Matched Horse Races thus far. The credit for that goes to the cumulative effort of eight years of work and a whole host of volunteers who worked hard to make it possible.
Berry’s quintessential example of local culture is “sitting till bedtime,” when neighbors would visit one another, sitting on someone’s porch or perhaps in their den, sharing stories about each other, their ancestors, and their place. The children sat and listened to the stories and then told them as they got older, unwittingly continuing the oral tradition of preserving local culture. We don’t do enough sitting till bedtime these days, thanks to that “culture” on those televisions and computer screens, among other distractions and exhaustions of modern day life. We should consider doing more of it. Sitting around talking about pop culture can be exhausting, at least for me. But sitting around and telling/listening to stories about family and community heritage? Give it a try. Even if you don’t think you know much, you might be surprised how much you do know and how enriching those conversations might be. You learn more about who you are, who your friends are, and why it all matters.
We should consider renewing more forms of local culture, too. Starting an old-timey horse race is a little bit of that. Even though our ancestors did not pass on the culture of horse racing through those oral stories here in Stamford, I feel like they’d be no less proud of us. The competitive spirit of frontier cowboys and cavalry officers remains on display in the form of barrel racers, calf ropers, and ranch cowboys with fast horses sprinting down a track on a hot Saturday afternoon in Stamford, Texas. Some memorable stories have arisen from the first eight years of the Matched Horse Races. Re-telling those stories is our own way of preserving and perpetuating that local culture. It is important, even if we sometimes just think it is a funny anecdote. Our ancestors told funny anecdotes too. They mattered. They told about the people and who they were. When we tell our own memorable stories, we do the same thing. Next year’s Matched Horse Races promise to be bigger and better, further building a new bit of fertile soil in the local culture of Stamford.
A community cannot exist on the fertile soil of horse racing alone, but it sure doesn’t hurt.
James Decker is the Mayor of Stamford, Texas and the creator of the West of 98 website and the Rural Church and State and West of 98 podcasts. Contact James and subscribe to these essays at westof98.substack.com and subscribe to him wherever podcasts are found. Check out the West of 98 Bookstore with book lists for essential reads here.
All numbers approximate.
The life-or-death nature of a horse as transportation is the source of frontier justice treating horse theft as the most serious of crimes, often more serious than crimes against a person.
Just to leave no misunderstandings, this is indeed a direct callout of the Texas Rangers and their decision to build an indoor baseball stadium. They are not the only offenders by any means, but they are the ones who wrecked my personal fandom.