The purpose of "The Far Turn" is to articulate the lives of the many and diverse members of the Horse Racing community, mainly at Mountaineer Park in Chester/ Newell West Virginia and mainly those who function on the "Back Side", but certainly not limited to it; the more diverse this "community" becomes, including racetrack management and officials, fans of racing who are limited to handicapping and "spectator" status- the better. Whoever you are, this website could be very useful in helping you understand aspects of racing that are ordinarily invisible and mysterious. I have even greater hopes for the existence of the site, but IF all it accomplishes is what I have stated above, I will consider it to be a great success.

My greater mission is to expand the scope of particiaption by racing communities all over North America; Thoroughbred, Standardbred, the Bushes and fairs, Quarter horses, Paints and Appaloosas, and whatever else we can dig up. We can learn a lot from each other. We can also assist in bringing forth a new age of transparency and cooperation among all the communities in racing. This can only produce a greater good for all of us, and especially for our raison d'etre: the horse. I am just starting here at Mountaineer Park because I have no operating capital and knowledge of the site will be Word-of-Mouth (and possibly viral email).

The half dozen departments I have planned so far, I will outline below. Please read what they are for and about, and choose where you want to go. Bear in mind that I have begun this website in March of 2005. I am the sole owner and proprietor. It will take me a year or so to get a foundation built. Therefore, only a few of these links are available so far. I want you all to see what I have planned however, for a very important reason; I need input to help me grow this website into something that is valuable and tons of fun for its users. Please join the forum and contribute your suggestions, especially if you are the first post-er! After all, you can't get anywhere without starting somewhere... This guide will change along with the site.

NEWS: This is to announce changes I have made or have to make on this site, and any promotional stuff The Far Turn engages in, such as sweepstakes, charity raffles, etc. I will be putting out a sporadic newsletter that you may sign up for, but if you don;t want to submit your email address, you will find the same information here.

BLOG: This is my personal BLOG, that I hope will prompt subjects to discuss in the Forums. I am a retired Jockey (1991- 2004). I now exercise Racehorses. I'm also writing it to offer a sense of the rider's point of view. What you read here is stuff about what it is like to be a jockey or exercise rider, and what it's like to share an intimate relationship with nature's greates beast, the horse. I would like to have a section for other BLOGgers as well, but I'm starting small since I have to manage this in my spare time, and can't master management of those Drupal and Joomla-style mutli-functional, mega-content sites.

FORUM

1) Prior to participating in any Forum, Read the Guidelines, and Disclaimer: I cannot stress this enough and could end up having to require people to create a profile before posting, if the guidelines get violated too much. Repeat offenders will be banned indefinitely and until further notice can only be reinstated with their original screen names, so keep your record clean. You can always talk to me about it, but I am not a pushover when it comes to behaving respectfully toward others' sensibilities.

No matter who you are you have questions and opinions. If you're on the "back side", you have them about management, if you're in management, my guess is you probably won't bother to post here, but in case you do (and I hope you do) you might be curious about how the members of the "the back side" interpret your policy. Take the opportunity to enlighten each other about the complexities of being in your respective positions. Outsiders, take it all in, and add your point of view. The forums will also be a vehicle for advertising your skills, seeking jobs and relocating, and finding employees, at until or unless the classifieds, other business and art pages begin to get used. If you have no racing experience, network with people who do and find your way into any aspect of the racing industry you are interested in.

2) You are solely responsible for what you write. Simply ranting is not permitted, nor is using real people's names without their permission. In lieu of obscenities, refer to the characters above your keyboard numbers to add more color to your posts. The Forum community is public- that means EVERYONE, including possibly kids whose parents could ban them from participating if it's too graphic. Find constructive ways of articulating your point of view. This is intended to be a place where anyone can discuss issues, share anecdotes, talk about horses or upcoming events, learn about racing history, and so on. Let's keep it that way. Again, READ the Guidelines prior to participating in the Public Forums.

Finally, I need help picking categories for the board, so please contact me at hoofstep@thefarturn.net or post ideas in the forums to get the ball rolling.

In the future, I may have an additional discussion board for private use by racetrackers, but I haven't decided whether this is fair or a good idea. Perhaps suggestions and requests will lead me to make a choice.

LIARS' CLUB: Send me your greatest racing stories to share with the rest of the world: Twice told tales and well known legends, facts, folklore, personal experiences; I will place in this department anything that tells something colorful about the world of horse racing. You will be credited with sharing the information or writing the submission. You need to include your contact information, including Name, Age, Address, Phone and email Address. Only your name or "pen name" will appear publicly, unless you request otherwise. Also, make sure you have proofread and edited your submission carefully, and that you are within copyright laws:

Do not take a direct quote from another source without properly identifying that source, or you run the risk of getting in trouble for doing so. You don't have to know exactly who wrote it- but you need to identify where you found it, or at the very least that you read it somewhere but you can't remember where.....and that it's not yours. The same holds for all photos and graphics, which you must have permission from the author of before you include them.

JOKES: This is pretty self - explanatory. Send me your horse racing jokes and I will place them here.

PHOTO GALLERY: Go to the photo gallery section and, provided it's about horse racing, create your own personal gallery and share away. I do not have a tutorial for this, but it is fairly self explanatory. If you have questions you should go to the Forum and find the category "How to use this feature", and post a query. Someone else, myself included may then offer you hints or help. Professionals and anyone else concerned with copyright: I have no idea how you can enforce copyright on any photos you share, so it's up to you to choose whether and how to deal with the issue. Sorry I cannot be of more help.

IMPORTANT: I believe there is a limit for the amount of space you can use. Please be kind and share: DO NOT create multiple user identities and use more space than you are allowed. If I catch you I'll bounce you off my site. You'll get beck in in time, but I'll mark you so others know you are dishonest.

The following spaces will be offered to racetrackers to share their other enterprises with the outside world (as well as with each other.

ART GALLERY: View Art & Artisanship by Racetrackers: This Gallery is reserved for people in the racing industry itself, to sell and share their art. VISITORS: Please spend some time here enjoying the offerings, and help support the people in the business who don't often have a living wage or health & retirement benefits. ARTISTS & ARTISANS: If you want to submit images of your art or other handicrafts, you have to work on the back side or in a front side job that limits you from making yourself public by other means (without spending lots of money).

BUSINESS GALLERY: Racetrackers' "Second Income": If you do anything for money besides work at the track, share it here. DO you sell on eBay? Are you a musician or DJ? Make tack? Repair Tack? Make jockey equipment? Web design? Re- school horses? remove skunks from people's cellars? Whatever it is, you can advertise here: You need to email me with a description of your business, a photo, and your business contact information. This service is free if you are helping to supplement your race track income and need to advertise. Note: the better edited and polished your ad, the faster it will get posted. Disclaimer: Items and services bought, sold and bartered through this outlet are the responsibility of the agreeing parties. If one person re- nigs and costs another valuable time and or money, I am unable to do anything about it. You need to protect yourselves, and you need to be honest and good to each other, otherwise this function will be dropped from the site. Also, good business conduct dictates that you pay any applicable federal state and local sales taxes: you have to spend money to make money.

Racetrackers' Free Classifieds: For Racterackers to sell used equipment. Also, if not from the track and have items of value to people who work on the track, use this board. NO commercial enterprise grossing more then 200 K, please. This is a place for people who need money to help them make it without having to pay.

Additional Departments for Everyone:

STORE: Books; Handicapping Software and games, gifts. (Coming Soon:) As soon as I get the shopping cart utility and my reaffirm my affiliate status with amazon.com, this will be available too. NOTE: you can help me out if you like my website, by going through my link to amazon.com to purchase from them. I get a few cents each time you click through me to get to them. UPDATEon the store: I have no reality on when I will, if ever, make this part functional.

I won't just be selling by way of amazon; I will have other stuff. Some items you will have to pay for by way of "Clickbank" which is a separate mall, and other items will be directly through my website: It is just going ot take a while before I get it configured and functioning properly on the site.

LINKS:

----- To other products: That is, stuff I'd like you to enjoy but don't have for sale here.

----To Chaplains By Track: Contact info for chaplains at North American racetracks: Chaplains- Contact me & Get on this list!

----Charitable Organizations: Donate to help retired racehorses, handicapped riding programs, etc.: Please submit your pertinent contact information and text or banner link to your website:

----Racing Associations: I will add to this list per request. Again, email me with all contact information, including URL, if any, and any review or info I can get about how fun it is to be there.

----Other sites of interest: Similar sites and other fun places to go

----For Kids: Places where kids can go to learn about horse racing, play fun games and have a safe time.