Sometimes living in the country is more about pursuing something you love and having a country-centered environment for your child than trying to earn a living off of the land. Such is the case for Doug Grant and his 9-year-old daughter, Hannah. Doug has 10 acres in Akins, Okla., that he uses to maintain three horses. He and Hannah use the horses for trail riding and for her participation in the Sallisaw Showdeo every other Saturday for much of the year. The acreage is made up of natural grasses that Doug brush hogs and sprays as needed. Because of the type of grasses and the small acreage, he feeds his horses hay during the winter.
Doug said, “Buying this land when I first started out was the best investment I ever made for me and for my daughter.”
Doug is a useful neighbor to have because he earns the majority of his living as a farrier, and there are not too many of those around. He became a farrier after giving up a career as a jockey when too many injuries convinced him it was time to move on.
Doug was born in South Carolina and moved to the Stilwell area when he was 10 or 11 after his parents divorced. His mother wanted to live closer to family. Soon after he arrived, a cousin put him on a horse. Smiling at the memory, Doug said, “I was scared to death but fascinated at the same time. I was soon riding every weekend and loved it.”
By ninth grade Doug’s ability with horses combined with his small, slight stature caused someone to mention that he ought to be a jockey. The idea caught, and every day after school he went out to an old round barn where he learned to ride an exercise saddle on paint Quarter Horses. Then during high school he began his career by exercising horses at training farms with training tracks because he was still too young to work on an official track.
Doug said, “A friend, Jerry Reeder, had two Thoroughbreds he was training. I learned the most from him and those two horses. He also introduced me to other trainers, and I eventually went to school to get my jockey license. Doug made his living racing both Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses until 2007. Doug said, “Racing a Quarter Horse is like sitting on a 350 horsepower motor while racing a Thoroughbred is like running off across country.”
Doug remembers one particular AAA race he won after a heavy rain. Though the track was like a lake, he won by 30 yards, a huge margin for a Quarter Horse race. Doug said, “Miss Zella’s Touch exploded and seemed to be running on top of the water.” Then he added, “I really loved racing. It’s an adrenaline rush and the thrill is coming across the finish line first, regardless of the purse size.”
The year 2001 was turning out to be his best year ever when Doug had a serious injury that took over a year to heal. He had been shoeing his own horses already and decided it was time to make it a career. He went to farrying school and also met up with Kenneth Mulligan from Blue Ribbon Downs who Doug credits with teaching him the most. “Farrying makes me feel good because when I get done and their feet look good, I know I’ve done a good job.” Then he added, “My customers like me because if I say I’m going to do something, I do it or they know the reason why. I don’t make my customers wait, and I try hard to make the next shoe look better than the last.”
The real focus of Doug’s life is his daughter, Hannah. He said “Hannah must have been dropped straight from heaven because she makes parenting easy.” Hannah shares her father’s love of horses and rides a racehorse named Treasure that Doug retrained. Doug said, “Not every horse can be retrained, but once I gave Treasure a job, he settled down and became a good riding horse.” However, Hannah knows firsthand that horses need good care. She helps to clean the stalls and feed them. She also has to brush her horse before and after she practices barrel racing and pole bending in the cedar corral Doug built years ago.
While Doug may have retired from racing, he certainly hasn’t retired from horses. Doug said, “I was trying to get out of the riding business, but about a year ago I started exercising again and am riding more than I ever planned.”
