August 4, 2005

From left, Bob Peterson, his grandson Larry Peterson and his brother Mike Peterson with Drivin’ Miss Deja on the Petersons’ 30-acre horse farm on Hyde Road. Bob and Mike Peterson have been breeding and racing horses for more than 40 years.

Horses remain focus of life at Petersons’ farm

By Lauren Heaton

“She didn’t quite make it this time,” Mike Peterson said as he prepared his grey mare for a jog on the track behind the family homestead on Monday. “She only missed by a couple seconds, but she didn’t qualify.”

On the 30-acre Peterson farm on Hyde Road, life is all about horses. Mike Peterson and his older brother Bob have been breeding and racing American Standardbreds for over 40 years. Though neither is as active as he once was, Mike Peterson, who is 65, and Bob Peterson, now 73, are still mucking around the barns and getting their last few horses in shape for sulky races at this week’s Greene County Fair.

Mike Peterson took the grey mare, Drivin’ Miss Deja, to a qualifying race at Scioto Downs in Columbus on Saturday to get her ready for her debut at the fair. As a 4-year-old, her two-minute eight-second performance in the mile was pretty good but didn’t qualify her for the race at Scioto Downs. But Miss Deja got what she went for, preparation for a good show at the fair, Peterson said. She races Thursday, Aug. 4, at 7 p.m., at the Greene County Fairgrounds in Xenia. Her brother, Prince James, raced at the fair on Wednesday afternoon.

“She’ll go faster on race day when she gets a little company,” Peterson said. “Everyone goes faster when there’s other horses around. It’s more exciting for them and they really get going.”

The Peterson brothers grew up on a farm in Cedarville with their father, Marian Peterson, a horse trader with a knack for breaking the feistiest and most ornery equines. Bob Peterson remembers as a 5-year-old when a couple of wild mustangs from out West were sent to the farm because no one else in the area could break them. When they got a little older, Bob and Mike, as the middle brothers of nine children, also were expected to help break horses. And since they couldn’t afford saddles, they were instructed to do it bareback, Bob Peterson said.

Their father, a competitive athlete, spent his weekends racing with a cart on the street in front of their house.

Around 1955, the Petersons leased land with Antioch College professor Louise Soelberg at the southeastern edge of Yellow Springs and offered riding lessons to villagers. Five years later, Soelberg opened the Riding Centre at the same location, and the two brothers were pursuing plans for their own horse farm.

Mike Peterson moved to Yellow Springs in his early 20s and got a job on the Village crew in 1965. After Bob Peterson got out of the service, he tested military equipment for Paul Webb at Webb Associates for several years and then joined his brother at the Village around the same time. During their free time, the Petersons prepared the ground for a horse farm on the property they now own on Hyde Road.

They soon began acquiring and breeding horses for racing at the Greene County and Ohio State Fairs and at nearby licensed racetracks, such as Scioto Downs. The brothers eventually built a half-mile track on their property to train their Standardbred colts in the two traditional harness racing styles, trotting and pacing.

In the 1970s Bob Peterson quit working for the Village to devote himself full-time to his horses and travel to various racetracks in Toledo, Lexington, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Some of the horses were winning and making good money, such as Doug Special, who won nine consecutive races in the early 1970s and made $12,000 in one year, he said.

Mike Peterson continued to work for the Village, but he kept racing and providing needed competition for his brother. The two drew large crowds at area racetracks and came home with trophies, cash and a box full of photos from the winner’s circle.

“We always trained together, but when we got out there on the track, it was all business,” Bob Peterson said. “We raced harder against each other than anyone else.”

Mike Peterson admitted that his older brother was the more skillful driver, but that he was the best trainer.

By the early 1980s, the Petersons had nearly 30 horses and had involved everyone in the family in the farm. Bob Peterson’s children, Erwin, Divita and Tyron, were training horses, and his grandchildren bailed hay, cleaned stalls, and fed and groomed the horses after school.

It was a successful family affair, until one day in 1984 when one of the biggest barns caught fire and burned to the ground, killing 16 horses. The event was devastating, Bob Peterson said, and he lost his enthusiasm.

Peterson got a job as a bus driver and went to work as a carriage driver for B & B Carriage in Yellow Springs. The family kept racing horses for fun, always hoping for a revival, but it was never fully realized.

Now both Petersons are retired, and while Mike still races a little, Bob sold two colts last month, and he and his son Tyron, who lives on the farm, are breaking their last two yearlings. They hope to sell them in the fall, Peterson said. In his mind he is still 21, he said, but his body tells a different story.

“We still have a saddle horse, and I need a little help getting up, but I still ride every now and then,” Peterson said. “I live in Springfield now, but I’m here about every day because I can’t leave the horses alone.”

Much of the farm now belongs to the next generation of Petersons, some of whom live on the farm or help with the horses on a regular basis. Both Mike and Bob Peterson would like to see their children and grandchildren take up with the horses, refurbish the track and get the farm going again.

“I’m waiting to see what develops. I don’t want to push them into it, but some of them have shown interest,” Bob Peterson said. “I’ve got one granddaughter, Jayona, who’s a little fireball. She’s not bigger than a minute, but she gets right in there and helps clean the stalls.”

Bob’s grandson Larry Peterson, who graduated from Yellow Springs High School in 1993 and grew up working on the farm, said he has a keen interest in trying to get it going again. He lives in Springfield and is going to school to become a registered nurse, but he often helps his grandfather and his uncle with the remaining horses.

“You want to race some horses?” he asked his young cousin Alicia Lucas, who was hanging out on the farm on Monday. She didn’t seem the least bit interested in mucking stalls or riding horses. “I want you to start bringing your boots with you ’cause we need someone to race for us,” he said.

Though the farm’s future is uncertain, the Peterson brothers will keep doing what they love as long as they can, and they have plenty of memories to keep them going for a long time to come.

Though Bob Peterson won many of the races between them at Scioto Downs in the early days, five years ago, in one of their last big showdowns, the elder was overtaken from behind by his little brother on a horse both admitted had a lousy start but an unbeatable finish.

“Just when Bob thought he had me, I hollered at my horse, E.R. Medusa, and he took off,” Mike Peterson recalled. “The best times were when my brother and I were racing together. That’s what I’ll miss most, just me and Bob out there racing so I can dust him.”