1964-Voice Of The Tennessee Walking Horse 1964 January Voice | Page 13

INC H0RSE
JANUARY
ing, the stallion had received his
first acclaim in the 1930’s; but as
seven of the first eight Grand
Champions crowned at the Nation­
al Celebration were recognized as
the offspring of WILSON’S
ALLEN, he began to be called the
“Premier Walking Horse Sire” and
other titles of supreme praise. It
must be admitted that, in addition
to a virtual monopoly on Grand
Championships in the early days
of the Celebration, his descendents
dominated the Walking Horse
classes in all kinds of shows
throughout the 1940’s and that his
more recent descendents have con­
tinued to further the great repu­
tation of this very great sire.
Since WILSON’S ALLEN is not
known as a show horse (indeed,
the present writer has seen nothing
to indicate that he was ever
shown), his importance rests solely
upon his record as a sire. Several
years ago, a close student of horses
wrote: “there must have been a
medium of inheritance that gave
to this sire power to impart to his
get the fast running walk, long
stride and a particular gliding gait
in the running walk which is be­
lieved to have been inherited
directly from ROAN ALLEN F-38.
. . . through the blood of WIL­
SON’S ALLEN, there is the happy
blending of, Trotter, Pacer, Ameri­
can Saddle Horse and the true
blood of the Tennessee Walking
Horse. ... In any appraisal of
WILSON’S ALLEN, there can be
no question regarding his great­
ness as a super sire that trans­
mitted accurately the inherited
gait, the fast running walk, for
which the breed is named. . . .
Tennessee Walking Horse lovers,
and especially students of parti­
cular breeding, believe that WIL­
SON’S ALLEN will impart to his
offspring the power to reproduce
the running walk for generations.”
The far-sighted accuracy of these
estimates will be more apparent
from our look at the most famous
son of this famous stallion, who
during a long lifetime (foaled,
1917; died August 24, 1939) sired
some of the best Walking Horses
the world had seen up to that
( Continued on Page 15U
WILSON’S ALLEN, from a photograph made in the 1930’s(?) when WIL­
SON’S ALLEN was beginning to receive much attention as a sire. (Photo­
graph by courtesy of Harold Wise)
MERRY BOY, from a photograph made about 1941, when MERRY BOY was
approximately 16 years of age. (Photograph by courtesy of Margaret
Lindsley Warden)