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    'Tackling a horse is not a fool's job. Never forget that,' Danny Dooley had spoken curtly to Mark one fair morning when the younger man tended to take the exercise for granted.
     'Tackling a horse properly will save your horse's life and maybe your own. What if the two traces are not tied to the same length! How about the damage such carelessness will cause to your horse's breast! How about if the slides are not greased and the straddle shifts! You'll scorch your horse's breast for sure. What if you forget your bellyband and your horse bolts! I knew chaps that tackled horses and they didn't know a common bit from a running bit. Wronging a horse is as bad as wronging a woman. A good woman or a good horse will never let you down.  Remember that always and you won't go far wrong.'

                                 — John B. Keane  DURANGO

Listowel, Co. Kerry -- The annual Listowel Horse Fair is always held the first week in October. The square is filled with horses, buyers, sellers, vans, trucks, and the occasional lucky tourist. And you better watch where you step.  The John B. Keane Pub sits at the end of the square, a cozy place with walls covered with posters of the many plays and movies that sprang from the great man's stories of rural Ireland.  His widow Mary still runs the kitchen and is well known for her soup. We spent a pleasant hour there, enjoying hot tea and discussing the time the 1948 Kerry football team played for the all-Ireland championship in the Polo Grounds, New York City, USA.