1962-Voice Of The Tennessee Walking Horse 1962 August Voice | Page 4

August, 1962
2
The Diana Stephens Story As Told By Her Mother
Cairo, Illinois
July 20, 1962
Dear Mr. Green:
I am writing quite a bit about
Diana—proud mother that I am—and
you can use whatever you'd like. I
know this material is too much but
take what you choose.
On Diana’s 6th birthday, July 7th,
1958—instead of having a party she
wanted to ride a horse. She had never
ridden even a pony before. We rented
a 20-year-old broke horse out at a
farm, which has some riding horses
and ponies.
I believe I rented “Maggie” for 8
hours. Diana rode all day—in bright
sun at all times and in the ring all
alone. To make the story short, she
rode “Maggie” 3 or 4 times a week
and just loved the old horse. She
learned all by herself to canter and
was posting some. We finally bought
the horse for her. The horse had a
nail in her foot. We discovered this
about 2 days later and among other
developments, the horse died. I doubt
if Diana ever forgot her.
We bought her a 14.2 (14 hands,
2 inches) pleasure pony in the winter
and she rode him as much as she
could. By summer (she was still 6
years old), she showed once in a local
showy pleasure class, and tied 3rd. We
then senL her up to Milan, Mo., to
“Annie Lawson Cowgills’ School of
Horsemanship.” Diana was deter­
mined to ride horses. We had sense
enough to have someone teach her
correctly.
She was to slay only 2 weeks but she
maneuvered 5 weeks out of us. Diana
learned fast and was a natural. She
spent her 7th birthday up Lhere. We
had bought her a beautiful 5-gaited
solid white 14.2 pony and she loved
her to pieces. Later during the Cele­
bration (1959) we bought “Miss Ster­
ling," a Walking mare, from Mrs.
Paul Randolph of Clearwater, Fla.
They made a good pair. Under di­
rection, 7-year-old Diana showed her
at Kennett, Mo. in an open class and
tied 4th.
She also owned “Mr. Frosty,” an
equitation horse. He was hard to ride
but she managed him pretty well. We
had our horses stabled over in Mis­
souri 16 miles from Cairo. So all in
all, we built a beautiful stable only
2i/o blocks from our home and named
it “Diana Stephens Stables.” We had
a trainer, etc., and we sent Diana and
Ronnie, our son who is 20 years old,
back up to Mrs. Cowgills. We could
hardly get either of them home.
Diana had shown "Miss Sterling”
at the Visitation Show' in St. Louis
early that spring and again w'on 4th
against Leon Hall, Dr. Dalton and
Mr. Burrow's, who were in the same
class with her.
Diana wanted a 5-gaited horse, so
with Mrs. Cow'gill behind her and
leaching her so well, we bought
“Modern Traveler,” the best Juvenile
5-gaited horse I’ve ever seen. She
shou'ed both Walking Horse and 5-
gaited all around here and won the
Juvenile Walking Horse Class at
Germantown (Memphis) —and also
came back and tied 3rd on her 5-
gaited horse. This was last summer at
age 8.
She w'on the H. H. Lovitt Trophy
in open class at Benton, Ivy. on “Mod­
ern Traveler” and also won the Juve­
nile Walking Horse Class on her
brother’s horse—“Little Man’s Treas­
ure”—not “Miss Sterling.” The last
mentioned horse had been quicked
(suffered an injury from a horseshoe
nail in her foot).
A l the Celebration (1961) she won
4 th in the 5-gaited but only 10th in
the Juvenile Walking Class (for rid­
ers 12 years and under). But Diana
had to show again her brother’s horse,
“Little Man’s Treasure,” and he just
wasn’t 1-2-3 as good a horse as “Miss
Sterling.” The trainer we had then
didn't think “Miss Sterling's" foot
wras well enough for her to show.
Diana had ridden both horses earlier
at the Springfield, 111., show and tied
again.
We changed trainers and had a
barn full of horses—13 here. We had
bought a 2-year-old filly that Jimmy
Waddell won first riding at the Cele­
bration in the 2-Year-Old Filly Class.
She is “Go Boy’s Shadow Rocket.” All
brought on because of Diana’s love of
horses. Our son, Ronnie, started rid­
ing and my husband also showed
some, but again, we had bad luck
with his horse as lie was injured in
a fall and later sold. (Edgar M.
Stephens is fondly known as "Cap”
among horse lovers and is regarded
as one of the great sportsmen in the
horse show world.)
Max Parkins