Horse Breeding
Smrt owns Fox Valley Farms in Marengo, Illinois, where he breeds, shows and sells rare Shire horses. At one time, there were only 50 of this breed left in the world. Smrt took an interest in them, shipped some to his farm and began breeding them. By the mid 1980s, their numbers had increased significantly, to the point that he was able to donate 40 of the horses to the Caisson Unit of the United States Army (used for parades and demonstrations).
Fox Valley Farms was used as a filming location in the 1986 film Nothing in Common, starring Tom Hanks and Jackie Gleason. Smrt himself has a small role in the film as "Mr. Egan".
Read more about this topic: Thomas J. Smrt
Famous quotes containing the words horse and/or breeding:
“Don’t worry about a sugar planter. Give him a horse and he’ll ride to his own funeral.”
—Curtis Siodmak (1902–1988)
“The breeding we give young people is ordinarily but an additional self-love, by which we make them have a better opinion of themselves.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)