CRHA Hall of Fame

The farm of brothers Ivan and Lloyd Cochrane was located east of Port Perry.  Both worked at General Motors in Oshawa and showed Road Horses on the weekend and when they had holidays.  With the help of Merv Graham of Blackstock, who did their trucking, they would always take a least six horses to the fairs.  They were always able to recruit help and it was not uncommon to see three of their horses in a single class.  One of the three would be a good show horse, the other two were to road race.  Those that drove for Ivan included Ivan Sharp, Mac Hope, Jim Harris and Ross Thomas when he wasn’t competing against him.  The first team Ivan showed at the Royal was Don Lee D. and a mare named Goodwill Marge.  Ivan wheeled and dealed horses all the time.  His horses were nearly all bays.  Only sharp-eyed horsemen could tell one horse from the other.  One year at Peterborough fair, the Directors marked the hooves of the horses as to the ones which could show in the under 15.2 classes and over 15.2 classes.  The Cochranes were accused sometimes of showing the same horses in both classes.  By painting marks on their feet they couldn’t change horses.  As previously mentioned Ivan bought and sold horses.  He bought Canton Enac and Don Lee D. from Lorne Hoskin; Brownie Lee from Lou Thibaudeau; Mr. Remlap from Douglas Palmer to name a few.  He sold both Canton Enac and Mr. Remlap to Ross Thomas, Billie Castle to Les Lawrence and Stewart’s Away to Don Barter of Uxbridge.  He bought horses of the race track or from sales of other exhibitors, show them for a season or two and then sell them at a profit to eager buyers.  Ivan was a good horseman and could get the best from a horse.  He often bought bad mannered horses and trained them to be show horses.

Ivan showed at the CNE and the Royal from about 1960 as well as the fairs in his area and to the East.  A serious car accident took Lloyd’s life and after that Ivan cut down on showing. He had a sale andfrom then on raced a few horses and became a popular judge at many of the fairs.  When he judged the Ladies Class, you were asked to back up straight and go forward again in the same track, you were nearly always rewarded with a red ribbon.

Ivan was a fun person at the fairs.  He could relate lots of his horse experiences in an amusing manner.  He loved to dance and was often seen step-dancing when there was music.  Ivan played the mouth organ and was usually the start of a fun party at the CNE and the ROYAL.  How we miss those fine times now.