Leon C. Harden

Leon Harden was born in 1938 on Bayou Bartholomew near Dumas, Arkansas. He attended 14 schools before graduating high school in Sutherlin, Oregon. He held a variety of jobs over the years as a farm hand, service station attendant, truck driver and logger before enlisting in the Army where he served two years in "The Old Guard" at Ft. Meyer, Virginia, performing ceremonial duties, then three years in Army Aviation ending with a tour in Germany with the 8th Infantry Division. Subsequently, he worked as a salesman, and independent business man. During the latter period, he and his wife owned and raced Thoroughbred race horses for 28 years. He was fascinated by the magnificent animals and the personnel who cared for them and trained them. His book is patterned after the people he's known in the horse racing industry.