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 )