PRINEVILLE – In bright morning sunlight, jockey Joe Crispin took a dark 4-year-old filly named Knight Siege around the track for her first steps in the direction of official racing.

They both enjoyed it. In one explosive burst of speed, the filly showed her good breeding, and Crispin showed the incredible skill that has made him a sought-after jockey wherever he goes.

Crispin loves riding race horses. He has been a top rider at the Crooked River Roundup Pari-Mutuel Race Meet this week – he had six wins during the first two nights – as he has been in many previous seasons.

And breezing the spectacular filly is just one of the many things he’ll do on a typical racing day, which generally starts at 5 in the morning and extends late into the evening.

Crispin will be busy tonight, as he is scheduled to ride in each of the 10 races during the final night of the Roundup’s annual four-day horse racing event.

First race post time is 7:15 at the Crook County Fairgrounds in Prineville.

Crispin is not one to sit on the sidelines for long. Currently nursing broken ribs and a broken toe, Crispin has the kind of poise and self-control that have helped him repeatedly face challenges and rise above them.

A special kind of calm seems to flow right out of him. He has grace on the ground and in the saddle. Sit with him for half an hour and you’ll understand why horses want to win for him. Watch him ride and you see a craftsman at work.

”When I’m on the back of a horse I feel no pain, I feel nothing but peace in my heart,” he says. ”It’s like when the starting bell goes off, it’s fun. It’s the greatest feeling I’ve ever had … I just feel the air, the wind, the power of the horse, and I know what I have.”

Born in South Dakota, and raised in Texas and later in Galt, Calif., the jockey now makes his permanent home in Dallas, Ore., with his wife, Cathy – who also is his trainer – and their daughters, Brittany and Serena. At home, Crispin will break young horses for local breeders and trainers. But he enjoys staying busy and likes riding at the races.

”Everybody rides a horse a different way,” he observes. ”But I ride to win, no matter what. I could be dead last, I don’t care. That’s my feeling. The horse shows me his ability, and if I feel the horse is overdoing it, I make the adjustments.”

According to Crispin, he can get ”stressed out” driving in traffic or in a crowd of people, but never on the back of a horse, never in a race.

”I’m at peace,” he says.

Figuring out how to let the horse win is part of the skill of the jockey, Crispin explains.

”If you don’t let the horse do his job, you’re just going to make him feel bad and pretty soon he won’t run at all,” Crispin observes. ”If they get dirt in their face, pretty soon they won’t like it. But if they get to the front, they get that feeling and they like it.”

Near the school he attended in California were stables. Crispin started earning what he calls ”lunch money” at the stables when he was about 12 years old, and soon thereafter he began to demonstrate a natural talent as a rider. He was racing by the time he was 16.

Crispin has worked with many notable names in the racing industry, and he appreciates the good breaks he’s gotten.

”I’ve had a lot of chances,” he says. ”I try to keep raising myself up.”

Because he was raised on ranches, at one time Crispin thought cowboying was the only way to go – and bull riding was a favorite event. But then the racing bug bit. And now, years down the road, his love for the sport of racing sustains him.

”I just love the horses. That’s what I love,” he smiles. ”I have no preferences riding quarter horses or thoroughbreds.”

Crispin has, in fact, even raced mules, and he was the first jockey to win at an official mule race years ago in Southern California. But don’t tell his beloved race horses that. They know only that he understands them and has that rare sense called ”horseman’s intuition,” which he has developed through much hard work and many hard knocks. He broke his neck several years ago when a horse’s leg snapped underneath him.

Even that injury did not deter him for long.

”People like the way I ride,” he says, grinning. As he nods at a friend who commends him for his rides the night before, it’s easy to understand his popularity.

Staying humble is part of his plan.

”Joe’s perennially one of the top riders at the Prineville meet,” observes Doug Smith, director of racing for the Crooked River Roundup. ”I expect he will end up being the leading rider. He’s respected by horsemen because he gives a good ride on the horses. He’s a very knowledgeable, very bright young man.”

Dana Burnett can be reached at dana57@quik.com.