My DREAM of creating a horse-friendly piano is on the brink of happening. I’ve been trying for over eighteen months to figure out how to do this. I’ve learned quite a bit. For one thing, the horses are happy to use their noses…lightly…to activate things. With this in mind I bought floor pianos made out of plastic. I learned another thing: the sweet spot for each note in the floor piano is too vague. The horses prefer instant gratification.

After begging and begging and begging Bill to create something I sort of gave up. He has a PhD in Physics and from where I sit (my degree is in English) I figure he should be able to dream something up.

Last winter a friend put his mind to helping me and came up with several ideas based on the floor piano. Although his ideas and two creations were neat, the old bug-a-boo of a funny sweet spot still haunted us.

A few days ago I received an email from a friend (someone we’d met over twenty years ago). He wrote that he was talking with some men he shoots with at a gun club. After years of knowing them he finally asked, “What is your job?” and the answer sounded familiar. He asked if they knew Bill and they responded, “Yes, he’s at the top of his field.” Our friend responded, “That’s fine, but how is he in his job?”

Moving right along…

With this “top in his field” information my hope was revived. I went to Bill, politely asked him to help create a three-note piano and he said, “Yes.”