Clearly Forego was one of the all-time greats and while I was nothing more than a fan, I did have some contact with his full-sister Foredate.

It would have been around 1980 or so, while I was working at Claiborne in Paris Ky. Foredate was a huge mare that had one eye, a mind of her own and after Le Fabuleux died, was the meanest horse on the 3,000 acre farm.

She was housed with the barren mares in the concrete barn down near Stoner Creek, and being a new (and green) employee I was assigned that barn. To get mares in heat lights and teasers (small male horses and ponies) are used and the mare's follicles are checked periodically by the vet sticking his arm into the mare and actually feeling for growth on her uterus. Thoroughbred mares are bred to the exact day if not hour of maximum conception.

My job was to hold Foredate with a shank and a twitch. The latter is a three foot long or so, three inch in diameter hickory stick with a small rope attached to the end. You stick your fingers thru the rope and grab the horses upper lip, pull it thru and twist until tight. Most horses will not move when twitched.

Doc then put his arm into the mare to check her and told me to tighten the twitch, which I did. A few seconds later he said "tighter", again I complied. At that point Foredate tried to kick Doc, missed but reared up and struck the twitch with her front foot knocking it against the stall wall with tremendous force. Doc, a very strong man, uttered a string of expletives picked up the twitch and struck Foredate across the back with all his might. Foredate didn't move a muscle and looked at him with her good eye as if to say "Is that all you got"? Both Forego and Foredate had very strong wills and thats what makes a good horse great.

Not to prattle any further, but both Foredate and Forego are by the South American champion Forli. When a stallion arrives at the farm where they will stand they are kept in their stall overnight. The next morning they are turned out in the two acre or so paddock where they will live out there days. EVERY employee on the farm lines the inside of the paddock and the stallion with a lip shank is walked around the entire paddock where he can see the human wall. Then he is taken to the center of the paddock where some alfalfa and sweet grain awaits. His handler, slowly takes the shank off and for the first time since a weanling the stallion is "free". Once they realize this they start running and the employees wave their hands and hollar getting the stallion to turn and after some ten minutes everything is fine and the stallion starts eating grass.

Not Forli!! He ignored the waving hands and hollaring voices, ran through the line of men, continued through a solid wire fence before plowing through a concrete wall then turned left on highway 627 with about fifteen yellow Claiborne vehicles in hot pursuit!! BBB