Bobby Griffith and His Love of Horses
~ story and photos by Bob Gustin
When you start a conversation with Bob Griffith, it’ s hard to tell where it might wind up. You might start talking about auctioneering school, for instance, and wend your way through Texas saddle makers, New York snowstorms, nuns on golf carts, Willie Nelson, medicine, politics, yard sales, high school sports, NASCAR, boyhood memories, Halloween, truck drivers, fishing, various state fairs, firewood, poker, old rodeo posters, and dogs. He’ ll also tell you about negative folks he calls“ professional againsters.” In between will be some advice on where to find a good restaurant and some insight on your neighbors.
But always, a constant theme will be his love of horses.
Griffith, 71, runs Bobby G’ s Tack and Saddlery at 3872 State Road 135 South in Brown County, but that’ s just the latest incarnation of a long and varied career.
He was born in Whiteland, Indiana and grew up on a dairy and beef cattle farm in Johnson County.“ I was always interested in animals. Before I could walk, Dad bought me a pony. He bought my first horse when I was six,” he said.“ One time I had 19 of them.
“ Horses are just like people. If you treat them right, they’ ll treat you right.”
After high school( graduating class, ten boys and three girls), he went to auctioneer school in Kansas, and a cattle school in Missouri. He was a fast-talking smooth-selling auctioneer for a few years, and showed some cattle at state fairs. He did some odd jobs, and spent some time as a horse trainer in New York and Oklahoma. Along the way, he says he did“ every job there is” in the horse racing business, from cleaning stalls to being a valet and groom.“ I worked my way up from the bottom,” he said, at racetracks from California to New York.
30 Our Brown County July / August 2016