4 August, 1962
Hearts Quicken Most When The Youngsters Ride
Biggest cheers may go to the biggest champions in the big Celebration ring at Shelbyville during Celebration Week, Aug. 26-Sept. 1— but the biggest heart-throbs are Celt by the most people when the youngsters ride. American Youth in the Saddle has become the most important single factor in the dramatic surge of the Tennessee Walking Horse to a pinnacle of popularity in show rings today.
This applies not only at the Celebration— but at horse shows throughout this continent. But at the Celebration there are more youngsters on more Walking Horses than is the case anywhere else.
For 1962 the Celebration offers in Walking Horse classes special events for riders 12 years old and under, 13 years old to 15, and 15 through 18 years old, and several other classes in which juveniles also normally compete— including Lhe pony championship.
America ' s greatest juvenile riders show in the Celebration— and how they became riders is quite a story.
Typical is the case of Doodles Thompson, Dallas, Tex.— who is riding Fair Warning on the front of this magazine. She is actually Virginia Lee Thompson, 14, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert F. Thompson. Her father is president of the Dallas Cowboys professional football team, vicepresident of Tenneco Oil Co., and prominent in other business firms.
Horse Threw Shoe In 1961
A year ago Doodles had been riding a Tennessee Walking Horse only six months— but she entered the Celebration. Il was her sixth show in competition. There were some 15,000 folks looking on that Friday nighL. The class was Juveniles Riding " Walking Horses, age 13 to 18.
Her horse, Go Boy’ s Image, threw a shoe. Doodles left the ring— wondering what it was all about. Other horses threw shoes but did not necessarily retire.
This year Doodles Thompson is back— with experience, with ribbons, and with one of the great horses of the land carrying the saddle for the girl to ride.
The horse— Fair W a r n i n g— has two times been a world champion for her sex; as a three-year-old, and a four-year-old. Last year the mare finished fifth in the Grand Champion-
Dooclles Thompson of Dallas ship of the World Stake. She was junior world’ s champion in 1959. She was also reserve champion mare of the world last year— ridden by veteran trainer C. A. Bobo for Mr. and Mrs. Joe Bales of Tliomasville, N. C.
Mr. and Mrs. Thompson bought Fair Warning in April, 1962— and Doodles is riding her mother’ s horse in the Celebration.
She and her father came to Tennessee in late May for a get-acquainted trip for Fair Warning. Doodles won the blue ribbon at the Lewisburg show in the Juvenile Riders Class. She took third place in the Shelbyville PTA Ladies Class— there being no juvenile event. She rode her Tequila at Midnight in that show— but after the show ended she circled the track in Fair Warning for practice, with Trainer Wallace Brandon of Little Rock directing the workout.
How She Got On Horseback
How was Doodles the“ typical " girl when she entered horseback riding. Here ' s how she told the Voice Editor it all came about:
“ I was 13 and began to beg daddy for a horse. At first he said ' no ' so I went around the neighborhood and urged parents to buy horses for their children. Soon all the other kids had horses but I did not. Finally Daddy said ' yes’ and we got a $ 350 quarter horse.
" I rode him bareback for about three months and was out at Mr. Garrett ' s stables. Mr. Garrett asked me to try a Tennessee Walking Horse. Daddy happened to come out that day and he saw me on that beautiful horse.
“ The very next day Daddy went to Circle T Ranch( owned by Mr. and Mrs. J. Glenn Turner) and bought Go Boy’ s Image for me. Later we got Tequila at Midnight. Then came Fair Warning.”( One of the great mares of this generation in Tennessee Walking Horse history.)
Doodles has ridden in shows from the Pacific Coast to Washington, all over the Southwest Circuit. At the Celebration her 18 months of experience will be far less than most youngsters of her age competing.
And this eighth-grade school-girl,“ who is good at everything she does ", is at the Celebration because her Daddy accidentally saw her on a borrowed Tennessee Walking Horse. That’ s typical of girls and typical of daddies. Also boys and mothers.
Young Veteran Jimmy Ellis To Show Sun-Sired Pony
A tall Alabama farmboy who rides high in the saddle on weekdays and helps direct Sunday School as assistant superintendent on Sundays, will bring to the Celebration this year a 5-year-old registered Tennessee Walking Horse pony that may well carve brand new history for the breed in the days ahead.
The farmboy is 17-year-old Jimmy Ellis of Orrville, Ala., son of Mr. and Mrs. R. F. Ellis, who owned Black Angel when she was ridden to the Grand Championship of the World in 1943 by Winston Wiser.
Jimmy was born 2 years after that championship came to his parents. At age 6 years he began to ride, He had been in the Celebration 11 times and has been“ in the money " every time— a most remarkable record.
Last year he rode his pony, Lhen 4 years old, to fourth place in the sizzling Championship Pony Stake at the Celebration.
His pony is Sun’ s Glory Boy, one of the few ponies alive today by the matchless sire— Midnight Sun— and out of a mare sired by Old Glory— who was the sire of World’ s Champion Old Glory’ s Big Man( 1949).
Unlike most ponies, Sun ' s Glory( Continued on Page 5)