The reader can pick a title for this column: Horse Feathers, Horse Tails, Straight from the Horse's Mouth or He Went to See a Man About a Horse.

Any time my nosy little self would ask where Daddy had gone, my mother always said, "He went to see a man about a horse." And I always wanted to go with him just to see the horse. My earliest memory is of my father taking me out to the barn to see the horses, but, unfortunately, they sold them when I was 4 years old. So I don't really know much about horses, but stories about them have intrigued me ever since I first read "Black Beauty" and "Misty of Chincoteague."

Fashions are the highlight of the paparazzi world at the Kentucky Derby. Pictured are guests at the Derby Dayz event held at Oak Hollow benefiting Kidz Eatz.

Here we are right smack dab in the middle of the Triple Crown. The Kentucky Derby, held the first weekend in May, is followed by the Preakness Stakes two weeks later. The final of the grueling series for 3-year-old thoroughbreds is three weeks later at the Belmont Stakes. Horse races attract excited fans and are on many bucket lists. Fashions for men and women both seem to rival the horses for media coverage. And what about some of those hats that could be called outlandish in my opinion? Did you know that Way Back When everybody had a horse around here, there were horse races nearly every Saturday and holiday? In Daphne, one was held in conjunction with May Day, and one of the most famous racetracks was on the Booth property in Montgomery Hill, where descendant Claudia Campbell lives today.

There was even a horseback express in Baldwin County for four years. Oldtimer Charles Daniels wrote "Reminiscences of Baldwin County" in which he described his travel from Claiborne to Montgomery Hill in 1838 on the Southern and Northern Mail Route stagecoach. Montgomery Hill was crowded with people from miles away for the New Year's Day horse races and hiring event. Daniels doesn't mention wagering on the races, so I guess it was just a given.

DeSoto is credited with bringing the first horses to our area. The ponies of Assateage Island are said to be direct descendants genetically.

Daniels described the horse mail route between Stockton and Washington City contracted by the U.S. government. Riders were boys ages 11-14, including James, Simon and Jesse Hadley. The shortest leg of the line was a 20-minute run from Seven Miles Springs to Stockton to meet the mail boat. There were 90 horses used for trip from Stockton to Montgomery, and many died from exhaustion; at the end of the four years, only two of the original horses were alive. A locked rubber pouch tied around the rider's waist held letters not more than one half ounce in weight, costing 75 cents per letter to post.

More recent horse recollections from around the area include the McPherson's mining ponies grazing alongside County Road 27. Did you know that the world's smallest horse status was claimed by E.W. Cole of Magnolia Springs? Nira was famous enough to be featured in "Southland Sketches" by Walter Overton. The well-known monument to a horse is an obelisk right in someone's back yard in Fairhope. The obelisk, erected in 1929 in the yard of T.H. Mouton, commemorates the life of Old Prince and reads "FAITHFUL HORSE B. 1889."

Prince was probably one of those work or draft horses that was a necessity until about 1920 when automobiles became more affordable. Work horses were a must when cattle roamed freely in the woods. Cowboys had to round them up through thick forests until the fencing laws were enforced…that's another story for another day.

Polo Ponies graze in pastures throughout Baldwin County.

Another famous horse was raised by the Franklin Smart family in Silverhill, which has bred champion horses for more than a century. Leonard Smart recalls that one of the more recent winners was Hummer, who won the World Championship Barrel Racing title in 2009.

And now….polo "ponies" are among the most abundant around here. Even though called ponies, they are actually full-sized horses ranging from 15-16 hands and weighing 1,000-1,200 pounds. They are specially trained for the fast-paced sport, and a player must have at least two for each game. The manes are braided, and matches hosted by the Point Clear Polo Club in the spring and fall attract players from all over the world. Polo at the Point, a fundraising event, brings in fashions to match those worn by British ladies at the famous Royal Ascot course in June each year. Ladies' hats are shown off as everyone rushes to the field to step in the divots at halftime. The increasing popularity of polo has resulted in several other fields being developed, and a ride through the rural areas (what's left of them) is comparable to the horse farms near Lexington. We are rapidly becoming the polo capital of the South.

Does this make you want to go for a ride? If you stop when you see someone in the fields, I know they will be more than happy to tell you about their horses. So, "go see a man about a horse."