1963-Voice Of The Tennessee Walking Horse 1963 September Voice

By Fred E, Friend The City-view Stables if Sam Pas chal; in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, are usually very quiet on Sundays, but on Sunday afternoon, September 8, 1963, the grounds were thronged by hundreds of visitors who were coming to con gratulate Sam Paschal upon the tre mendous victory which he had achieved the night before in the Grand Championship Stake of The Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration in Shelbyville, Tennessee. Also sharing in these congratulations were Mr. and Mrs. Fray Escue and their daughter, Nancy, of Covintgon, Kentucky. Mr. Escue is president of the Fray Escue Pontiac Company, which owns the 1963 World Grand Champion Walking Horse, SUN’S DELIGHT. Paschal’s Records In winning this championship, Sam Paschal has become the only man in the twenty-five year history of the National Celebration to win the World’s Grand Championship in con secutive years on different horses. Others have won in consecutive years on the same horse, but many veteran observers had declared that no trainer could win two consecutive years on dif ferent horses. Sam Paschal did what they said could not be done. In 1962 he had ridden EBONY MASTER PIECE, owned by Mr. and Mrs. Billy Hale, Gallatin, Tennessee, to the Grand Championship. In 1963 he won the same honor with SUN’S DE LIGHT, and thus owns a unique victory. Paschal also has become the only living man ever to ride three different horses to the World’s Grand Championship. In addition to EBONY MASTERPIECE and SUN’S DE LIGHT, he rode SETTING SUN, owned by M. M. Bullard, Newport, Tennessee, to the Championship in 1958. These three victories, in addition to the countless others that he has won through the years at the National Celebration and at all major horse shows throughout the United States have brought Sam Paschal to the very pinnacle of success in training and ex hibiting Tennessee Walking Horses. With the momentum of such suc cesses, Mr. Paschal may well go on to set new records for winning Grand SAM PASCHAL AT HOME — Pictured in front of the congenial doorway of his barn office in Murfreesboro, Tenn., Sam strikes a pose as if to say “come on in . . . you’re always at home at Sam’s stable.” Championships at the National Cele bration; however, he disclaims any in tention of trying to develop another horse right now in an attempt to repeat his victory in 1964. “For now”, the trainer said, “I have had my share of both the glory and pressure. Some day I hope to win the big one again, but next year I plan to take things a little easier. As a matter of fact, I would like to see my brother win the Grand Championship in 1964, and he has the horse that can do it.” (Donald Paschal rode GO BOY’S BLACK JACK, owned by Captain and Mrs. E. A. Self, Mobile, Alabama, to the Junior Championship on Friday night.) When questioned about the relative merits of these three champions and the other horses which he has shown throughout a career of thirty-seven years, Paschal replied: “Well, I have been told by a thousand people since last Thursday night that SUN’S DE LIGHT was the greatest horse that has been at the Celebration in twenty- five years, and I agree with them.” Escue Reaches Goal in Nine Months At this point Fray Escue, who bought his first Tennessee Walking Horse just a little more than one year ago, was asked how it feels to own a World’s Grand Champion. “At this point,” he said, “there really isn’t much feeling at all. I am still rather numb from the whole experience.” “I cannot help observing,” Mr. Escue continued, “how things have seemed to work out for SUN’S DE LIGHT. Last night, Mr. A. S. Dean, who raised SUN’S DELIGHT, told Mr. Paschal and me that he took the horse to Neal Branscum to put him in training on January 7, 1961; then January 7, 1963, two years later, after Mr. Paschal and I had traveled hundreds of miles to look at many different horses and size up the com petition which we thought we would TEWffiSUmWKG H0RSE

1963-Voice Of The Tennessee Walking Horse 1963 September Voice | Page 5