Florence, Arizona

In his teens, in the 1950s, Tom Smith found himself atop the "world's wonder horse"—or rather, the second Champion. After a long day at the Junior Parada, singing cowboy star Gene Autry and other ranchers had asked the local teenagers to ride their horses back to the stables. Riding Autry’s golden Palomino, Tom raced the other boys. “The well-trained horse bowed, and I flew over his head,” he recalls. “I climbed back on.... The horse reared up on his hind legs in true Gene Autry sty