1964-Voice Of The Tennessee Walking Horse 1964 January Voice | Page 18

JANUARY
TEli^|^wjHj(|NG H0BSE
LESLIE WHITE!
BREEDER OF CHAMPIONS
By Fred E. Friend
Leslie White, Route #1, Wil­
liamsport, Tennessee, grew up
with Walking Horses on the rolling
hills of his native Maury County,
where he still lives; and this life­
long love of the breed has led Mr.
White into a prominent position
among the recognized quality
breeders of the country.
For the past fifteen years he has
been specializing in the careful
selection of a band of outstanding
brood mares and the studied
matching of these with some of the
most renowned sires in Tennessee.
As a result of this selective breed­
ing program, Mr. White has pro­
duced year after year a consistent­
ly high quality of colts. At pre­
sent he is supervising seventeen
brood mares and some fifteen colts.
Each of these seventeen mares has
been carefully chosen for her
bloodlines and for her quality as an
individual. In determining quality
in mares, Mr. White looks for
general conformation and good
size; in determining bloodlines, he
relies upon the major strains that
have brought the Tennessee Walk­
ing Horse to its present excellence
as a breed. Most of these major
bloodlines are represented in his
band of mares at all times, and the
band of mares is constantly being
improved by the purchase of
proven producers and the sale of
those who do not measure up to
Mr. White’s exacting standards.
In addition to all this attention
given to his broodmares, Mr. White
studies carefully the stallions
which will best cross with his
mares to produce outstanding colts.
He regularly breeds several mares
to MIDNIGHT SUN and SUN’S
BIG SHOT; and he often breeds to
SUN DUST, MIDNIGHT MACK K,
and STATELEY’S GO BOY. In the
opinion of this expert, it pays to
breed to the best available stal­
lions, for a quality-bred colt not
only upgrades the breed but also
usually rewards his breeder by
commanding a premium price.
Mr. White usually sells his colts
as yearlings, often entering them
in the Harlinsdale Farm Sale and
the Murray Farm Sale. Among the
many fine colts raised and sold by
Mr. White in recent years are: GO
BOY’S TROOPER, shown by David
Welsh as a two-year-old and later
sold to an owner on the West
Coast; SUN DUST LACEY, shown
by Floyd King to the Reserve
Championship in the two-year-old
Filly Class and to sixth in the two-
year-old stake at the 1963 National
Celebration (Solitude Stock Farm
has bought SUN DUST DEBBIE,
a full sister to this filly, for its
entry in the two-year-old classes
of 1964); BELLE’S KNIGHT, suc­
cessfully shown as a two-year-old
stallion in 1963 by Carl Edwards;
SUN DUSTER, in training with
Billy Brantley at Battleground
Stables, Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia;
MACK’S BELLE, a fine two-year-
old filly bought by Mr. R. D. Keene
at the October, 1963, Murray Farm
Sale; SUN DOCTOR, a two-year-
old stallion that shows a remark­
able resemblance to his renowned
sire (this colt was bought at the
1963 Harlingsdale Farm Sale by
Mr J. W. Dotson); and SUN
DUST S SCOOTER, a very promis­
ing two-year-old stallion owned bv
Mr. James Wallace.
But Mr. White’s real pride and
joy now is SUN’S LINDA W tbv
MIDNIGHT SUN out of ANNIE
ALLEN T); this beautiful chestnut
was Champion Weanling Filly in
the 1963 Futurity of the Tennessee
Walking Horse Breeders and Ex­
hibitors Association of America,
and expert observers are predict­
ing a great future for her when she
goes under saddle. She certainly
has the quality and the breeding
of which champions are made.
Although his horses take much
of his time and receive much of his
attention, Mr. White enters into all
the activities of his well-operated
farm with vigor and enthusiasm
He and Mrs. White, the former
Elizabeth Kinzer, also enjoy their
family, especially the grandchild­
ren. Their son, Robert White, his
wife and their two children, ’ live
near by in Columbia, from which
Robert travels as a representative
of Schering Drug Company. The
White’s daughter, together with
her husband, Dr. Jack Handcox,
and their five children, now live
in Orleans, France, where they
serve in organizational missionary
work for the Baptist Church. Mrs.
White recently visited them for
several weeks, and Mr. White is
considering a short visit before
they return to the United States.
Mr. White is a respected citizen
of his community and the sincerity
and the integrity of the man are
readily apparent from even a brief
acquaintance with him.
“The future of the Tennessee
Walking Horse lies in better
quality animals, produced by in­
creasingly selective breeding”, Mr.
White declared when asked to com­
ment upon prospects for the Walk­
ing Horse business. “Although we
are producing better conformation
and more fineness than ever be­
fore,” he emphasized, “we must
continue to select and retain as
breeding stock only those stallions
and mares which prove that they
can be produce colts that are both
beautiful in appearance and true
in their gaits. Since the mare sup­
plies one-half of the traits of the
colt, we must be sure to choose our
dams as carefully as our sire