Mr. Charlie Williams-Harness Racer

Mr. Charlie Williams-Harness Racer
"Creekside would like to acknowledge Mr. Charles Williams in honor of Black History Month. Mr. Williams is 86 years young and a community member from Ahoskie, North Carolina who has been Harness Racing since he was a young boy.

Creekside has a picture of Mr. Charles Williams and his horse at that time "Southampton Linda" hanging in our hallway from September 25, 1949 from the Atlantic District Fair Ground here in Ahoskie.
The day this picture was taken Mr. Charles Williams and "Southampton Linda" were winners of the Free Fall Trot with a time of 2:03.

Mr. Williams still races and is such a wonderful friend to our residents of Creekside. In his spare time he comes to visit residents and tells great stories of races he has been in. Mr. Williams also brings a horse at least once a year to visit the residents.

The resident and staff of Creekside would like to thank Mr. Charles Williams for his friendship, love and history he shares with everyone at Creekside".
Image credit: The Accordius Health at Creekside Care FB page-posted Feb 10, 2020
We thank #CultivatorBookstore for sharing this Black History!
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USTA Profile: Charlie Williams
Tuesday, November 24, 2015 - by Charlene Sharpe

If you’ve been to a fair south of the Mason-Dixon Line, chances are you know Charles Williams. The soft-spoken octogenarian, known to friends as “Red Eye” or “Brother Williams,” is a fixture at small-town harness racing festivals.
He doesn’t have a large stable and you won’t find him atop the driver’s standings, but his horses, whose gleaming coats are accented by bright red saddle pads and bandages, are hard to miss.
Williams, at 82, is a horseman who truly loves the Standardbred horse.

“Make them feel safe and loved and you can do anything you want,” he said.

The Virginia resident traces his affinity for harness racing back to his childhood, though unlike many in the industry he did not come from a harness racing family. Instead, he came from a big family—one big enough that he often found himself overlooked or in the way.

“There were 13 of us kids,” he said. “I had a twin sister and she passed when I was four months old. My father passed when I was 4 years old. The others didn’t have much time for me.”

Comic books kept the young Williams entertained. He was entranced by the stories of cowboys like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. It was the horses they rode that particularly interested him.

“The horses were looking so good it put it into my head,” he said.

He was captivated enough that when he was 7, he made his way to the local fairgrounds—at that time the Tidewater Sportsman’s Park--for the weekend matinee races. He quickly developed a relationship with trainer Frank Albertson, the man who gave Williams the moniker of Red Eye. Decades later, it was a nomination from Albertson’s daughter that earned Williams the Harness Tracks of America Caretaker of the Year Award in 1998.

“After school I was there,” Williams said. “On weekends I was there.”

He’s worked with Standardbreds ever since. Though it was always a hobby he enjoyed, for the past 20 years it’s what’s kept him busy. Upon retirement from the Newport News shipyard, where he worked for 35 years, Williams has spent his time traveling to fairs and tracks like Ocean Downs and Colonial Downs to race. When asked if he thought he’d still be training and driving horses at 82, Williams replied with an emphatic “yes.”

“I just love ‘em,” he said.

Williams’ stable currently consists of one trotter and one pacer. While he admits that his low budget and willingness to give any horse a try often leave him with horses most would consider rejects, Williams does the best he can with them. And while they’re not world champions, Williams takes pride in his work when the Standardbreds do their best.

“I love for horses to perform well,” he said. “If a horse is racing good he’s getting everything he needs—good feed, good care, the right shoes, the right equipment. It’s almost similar to an automobile. In order to get anything out of it you’ve got to have it in top condition. That’s what I try to do.”
He works on a horse the hard way, through trial and error. He starts by simply giving the animal plenty of time and care and goes from there.

“If you ask questions you’re going to get all kinds of answers,” Williams said. “No two people are going to tell you the same thing about a horse. I do the searching myself.”

Oftentimes the home remedies he learned as a child working for Albertson are enough to get a horse back on track. He recommends a concoction made of mullein leaves—Williams said he finds the plant, which looks like “a tobacco leaf with frost on it,” along a span of railroad track—for sore knees. Williams uses something he calls poke salad for horses with ulcers.

“You’ve got to brew the stuff on the stove,” he said. “It’s got big leaves with blueberries. Once you get the broth you put some ginger in it. If a horse has a bad stomach it’ll straighten him right up.”

Williams, who’s made it a point to keep a handwritten book of remedies, has also got a number of recipes for salves and colic cures. It’s not unusual for a local horse owner to call him for help when they’ve got a problem.

“They call me when they can’t get a vet,” Williams said. “A lot of times they won’t come out if it’s late and if they do they’re going to charge you an arm and a leg.”

He recently helped a man with an aging show horse that was having stomach trouble. Williams said the horse, whose ribbons adorned an entire room in the barn, was a nice-looking chestnut.

“It ain’t the money,” Williams said when the grateful owner offered to pay him for his time. “I just love horses.”

A desire to share that love with his community is what prompted Williams to join forces with municipal officials to bring harness racing back to the Atlantic District Fairgrounds in Ahoskie, North Carolina, this summer. The fairgrounds, which are privately owned, had been quiet for years. Williams and another trainer stabled their horses there, but little else went on at the historic site.

According to Amy Braswell, executive vice president of the Ahoskie Chamber of Commerce, the property has been passed down through the generations and the group of people who retain ownership of it now know little of horses or racing.

“They’re investors,” she said.

It took a horseman like Williams to bring harness racing back to Ahoskie.

“Mr. Williams is a trainer and he’s well-known,” Braswell said. “He’s the kind of person people come to for advice.”

Williams used his harness racing contacts to convince some horsemen from the region to make the trip to Ahoskie for a summer matinee. He advised town officials how the site would need to be fixed up before the event.

“They did everything we asked,” Williams said. “The place looked better than it did the first time I came down here in 1949.”

Braswell said the event, meant to be a tourist attraction, came about through teamwork, with assistance from town employees, chamber members and individuals like Williams.

“You got the sense of it being a community effort,” she said.

The work paid off, as the well-attended event gave many in the area their first glimpse of harness racing. They enjoyed a festival-type atmosphere, complete with an opening parade and carriage horse competitions in addition to the racing.

“It was a lot of fun,” Braswell said, adding that she hoped to see racing at the fairgrounds develop into something like a steeplechase, with food tents and vendors for the fans. “We want it to grow.”

She credited Williams with helping get the event off the ground.

“We really appreciate Mr. Williams,” she said. “He’s a delightful man and such a gentleman.”

For Williams, reestablishing racing at the Atlantic District Fairgrounds was simply a chance to bring life back to a dying facility. During a year when he lost his brother and then had his home burn to the ground, it was something positive for him to work on. He doesn’t want to see the stables and grandstand sit empty year after year, he wants to show townspeople and tourists alike the joys of racing.

“I know what it takes,” he said. “I’m the last of the older guys around. I’m the one keeping it going.”
#BlackHistoryMonthDay42 2020 #Bhm365 #HarnessRacing #AhoskieNC #CharlieWilliams #horses #teachTheChildren #education #Irememberourhistory #nchistory #horseracing

Source: http://xwebapp.ustrotting.com/.../templ.../hoofbeats.aspx...