Niki's Farm

10/18/2023

Shout out to my newest followers! Excited to have you onboard! Morgan McDonald, Russell Martin, Zach Pilcher, Tory Martin, Scott Kick, Nicholas Madon, Jamie Kendrick, Kenneth Ashley Black, Brett Buttram, Patrick Huether, James Smith, Jack Robbins, Clay Hicks, Chad Pettyjohn, Matt Barnwell, Will Rose

10/15/2023

🥊 Cus was also big on affirmations. He had a book called Self Mastery Through ­Conscious Autosuggestion by a French ­pharmacist-psychologist named Emile Coué. Coué would tell his patients to repeat to themselves, “Every day in every way, I am getting better and better,” over and over again. Cus had a bad cataract in one eye and he would repeat that phrase and he claimed the phrase had made it better.

Cus had us modify the affirmations for our own situation. So he had me saying, “The best fighter in the world. Nobody can beat me. The best fighter in the world. Nobody can beat me,” over and over again all day. I loved doing that; I loved hearing myself talk about myself.

I was this useless, Thorazined-out n***a who was diagnosed as re****ed, and this old white guy gets ahold of me and gives me an ego. Cus was such a deep guy. No one ever made me more conscious of being a black man. He was so cold, hard, giving it to me like a bitter black man would. “They think they’re better than you, Mike,” he’d say. If he saw somebody with a Fiat or a Rolls-Royce, he’d look at me and say, “You could get that. That’s not the hardest thing in the world to do, getting wealthy. You’re so superior to those people. They can never do what you are capable of doing. You got it in you.”

Cus wanted the meanest fighter that God ever created, someone who scared the life out of people before they even entered the ring. He trained me to be totally ferocious, in the ring and out. At the time, I needed that. I was so insecure, so afraid. I was so traumatized from people picking on me when I was younger. I just hated the humiliation of being bullied. That feeling sticks with you for the rest of your life. But Cus gave me confidence so that I didn’t have to worry about being bullied ever again. I knew nobody was ever going to f**k with me physically.

speaking in his autobiography ‘Undisputed Truth.’

10/15/2023

'I had what it takes to become a fighting man, and despite parental objections I went into it because I felt that I could lick any man in the world and I went out to prove it to myself. That's what I mean when I say the initiative in youth is gone today. The kids won't train. They hate the extra work they must perform to condition themselves. They think more of women and the pleasures they can derive from life than reaching the goal of every fighter's ambition- to reach the top. And there's only one way that can be done- the hard way.'

- Jim Jeffries

02/27/2023

A legend 🖤

Man o' War was known for being a sour horse, inheriting his dam's high-strung temperament and his sire's fiery disposition.

During his retirement at Faraway Farm, Man o' War befriended his groom, Will Harbut. Will and "Big Red" were opposites. Will's melodic voice and calm demeanor helped sooth the horse. Every day, Will Harbut would fed, water, hand walk, and groom Big Red. He mucked out his stall and bathed him when the horse needed it. When it was time for Man o' War to fulfill his stud duties and make the trip to the breeding shed, it would be Will Harbut whom would walk him there and back. The two spent all day with each other. Will was the first and the last person Man o' War saw every day.

When Will Harbut died in 1947, Man o' War was distraught. The horse began to fade, riddled with sadness. He passed away less than one month after his groom, listed as an apparent heart attack. Perhaps his heart was so broken that he could no longer stand to be alive without his best friend.by Champions of the Track

01/21/2023

06/30/2022

Just some of our babies through the years. Some of them are not with us anymore. But we have the memories still and these pictures 🖤