Right, after your “state of the art” two speed auto and my three on the steering column we went on to better things.
Later, I had a ’68 GTO convertible with four on the floor. Even later, I bonded with a young and large thoroughbred gelding. The first time I had the guts to let him run as fast as he wanted he seemed to change gaits several times and I had vivid flash backs to the GTO. He seemed as quick as the GTO, and with an English seat that definitely got smaller as he accelerated it was one of the times I realized how quickly it could all end.
Happy New Year!
He was a nice-looking big chestnut, looked more like a TB than a QH (he was 7/8 TB, racing QH) not exactly big in the brains department but a good mover.
We were at a show in a crowded warmup ring one time and were about to get jammed in a corner - I lifted the reins and told him to 'get on' in no uncertain terms and gave him a pretty hard boot - and discovered he had a gear I didn't know he had. We breezed past the traffic jam like they were all standing still, fortunately I do (or did) a lot of situps so my upper body caught up to him after a sec.
Gave me a lot of respect for that dumb old boy.