W illard Rhodes recently turned 90 years old, but although he's on the cusp of the nonagenarian decade, the only concession he makes to being over 89 is that he arrives a couple hours later to work and leaves a half an hour earlier.

"I always said that I would never die in a rocking chair," he said.

Rhodes owns a real estate development company in Southern Pines. Besides his current business, Peacock Farm, Inc., Rhodes has owned a bank, a golf course, a lumber business, cranberry bogs and numerous other real estate development companies over the years.

He has no plans to retire.

"I think everyone has to have something to look forward to. I look forward to work," he said. "I don't have to work, but to me, it's fun. I love meeting new people every day."

His passion for work is only superseded by his passion for horses.

Rhodes is, by most accounts, the oldest living equestrian competitor. He still drives his pair of Dutch warmblood horses twice a week, and he competes in pleasure driving horse shows three to five times a year. Rhodes has won many championships throughout the Northeast.

"I'm very fortunate to have Jen Ozley working for me," he said. "She has been with me eight years. She is doing 75 percent of the driving now. She is excellent. She goes under my watchful eye. I'm careful not to criticize because with Jen, it does no good. To be honest, I don't have to criticize, she is that good."

Rhodes has been in horses long enough to know "good" when he sees it.

He's been involved in every horse discipline, beginning with Belgians in the 1930s. He grew up driving Belgian draft horses pulling logs out of the woods in Massachusetts where his father, Arthur Rhodes, owned a lumber business - the Sharon Box Company.

Rhodes eventually became involved with thoroughbreds. Ever the entrepreneur, he turned his interest in thoroughbreds into breeding, training and racing enterprises. Rhodes' best thoroughbred was a horse named Highland Penny, who made more than $1 million in her racing career.

A Favorite Breed

Rhodes eventually got out of thoroughbred racing and focused on his first love, the American quarter horse. Quarter horses are his favorite breed for a family.

"They are a solid, dependable saddle horse," said Rhodes. "In my opinion, they make a poor driving horse."

Rhodes has been involved with the the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) since the 1970s, serving in many capacities and eventually serving as director. He gravitated toward the AQHA finance committee, on which he has served since 1975.

In appreciation for the support Rhodes has generously given the American Quarter Horse Association over the years, the AQHA honored him with the Merle Wood Humanitarian Award in 2007. Of all the accomplishments in his long life, the humanitarian award means the most to Rhodes.

"To be able to be recognized for doing things for other people means a lot to me," he said. "The award is based on a contribution to humanity. I am very active in the youth scholarship program. It gives students something to work toward."

Since moving to Southern Pines in 1988, Rhodes stays involved with the AQHA but has also gone back to his driving roots.

Life Is Like Golf

Over the last 90 years, Rhodes has gone from using horses as a means to make a living to having horses as a hobby. His barn is only a stone's throw away from his house.

He still checks his horses every evening before retiring for the night.

"Horses are a way of life," he said. "We wouldn't know what to do without horses. We wake them up in the morning and come down to the barn in the evening to put them to bed."

So how does it feel to be 90?

"I'm surprised when people say how good I look for 90," he said. "How is someone supposed to look at 90? I don't feel 90."

Rhodes credits his philosophy about life with keeping him young. Even though he is a horse person, he uses golf as the metaphor for his advice to anyone hoping to reach their nonagenarian years.

"Life is like golf," he said. "Just keep on swinging and don't mind the score."