tion, and the addition of ten more at a later date. On the 225 acre spread, Mr. Nichols has five good brood mare, all bred to excellent studs. BLACK RHYTHM, standing at Kibler Farms, has been bred to three mares, a MACK K Stallion was bred to one and RHYTHM’ S SHADOW was bred to one. He has two yearling colts on pasture and two coming two year old colts that Lonny plans to start in the spring. We should all be hearing more from the TRIPLE N FARMS of Mr. and Mrs. W. R. Nichols and their son Clark, who also shows horses and their young trainer Lonny Jones. If you hear someone say“ Lookout... here comes another Nichol Horse,” make sure they mean nickel or you may have to battle for the blue.
JACK PURSLEY STABLES
On the way to Mt. Orab, Ohio we stopped at an amateur Walking Horse operation owned by Jack Pursley. Jack has several good horses he is working. We saw SUN’ S RED VELVET, a blood bay two year old that has come on strong for him toward the end of the season. Jack is also working a two year old Sorrell stud colt for Mr. William Auxier that has excellent potential. There were several other Walking Horses on the place including several brood mares which have been bred. We hope to hear more from Jack Pursley later on.
CHAR-DEL FARMS
It is seldom that we include a stable operation in“ Barnstorming” that actually has no horses in training, but in this case we must make an exception. Our veteran Contributing Editor, Charlie Goldswig, who invited us to see his CHAR-DEL FARMS while we were in Ohio, was in the process of moving his Walking Horse activity to Florida and his horses were elsewhere when we arrived. Charlie has a unique approach to the Walking Horse business and his interest is strictly that of an amateur exhibitor. He has a beautiful place in Ohio v / ith a nice six stall barn with a most comfortable combination tack room and office, complete with pool table. We enjoyed
14 our visit to CHAR-DEL very much and will earnestly try to join Charlie and his lovely wife for some of the Florida“ Sunshine Circuit” shows in which he will show his Amateur Horse.
MEADOWLAKE FARMS
The best thing that can be said about Meadowlake Farms and the family of Dr. John Sawyer is that they have some top stock and hospitality is abundant. These people really love their Walking Horses and anyone who is fortunate enough to be invited to see their estate is lucky. Stables are abundant and horses are in vogue here. While visiting with the Sawyer’ s on our trip to Ohio we decided to break up the party and asked if we could see the horses. We were met with an enthusiastic“ I thought you would never ask.” At this point all the men and some of the women and youngsters took to the cool night air to go to the stables.
Trainer Herman Ingram was eager to show us some of the top Juvenile and Amateur stock in that part of the country, not to mention some of the best professional horses around. From stable-to-stable we heard such names as RING-A- DING-DING, SPUR’ S JUBILEE, MAID OF THE HILLS and TAR- ZAN, all horses of the Meadowlake Farms that have been ridden this season by Janie, Sally, Barbie and Dr. John Sawyer.
The only sour note to our visit was a brief jaunt to the highway to drive the family herd of Shetland ponies back to the farm. Even this appeared to be great fun to the Sawyers.
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We made a point to work a to the famous Kibler Farms ii our schedule while in the( area. Mt. Orab is just a few n from Cincinatti and we had pie time to see trainer’“ Whitey” Whitehead work s of his stock. This man is consul one of the best young trainer the business and after seeing horses in action we know \ Feature horse at the Kibler Fs is, of course, BLACK RHYT. the aged black stallion that been shown several years under the Kibler Banner. He was out of action most of this year but is reported to be ready to go to work
again. BLACK RHYTHM is fast making a name for himself as a breeding sire and he has been fairly active this season. RHYTHM colts are scattered all over this part of the country.
The Kibler Farms has sixty five head of Walking Horse stock on the 200 acre plus, spread, and twenty five are currently in training for the show ring. They have five outside horses in training.“ Whitey,” with the assistance of two excellent ground men, was busy working horses when we arrived. One of the best prospects we have seen in a three year old was MIDNIGHT TROUPER, a black MERRY GO BOY colt that was not worked as a two year old. This colt, with LAST CHANCE on his dam side, is owned by Mr. Kibler. Naturally we asked to see RHYTHM’ S RED FLASHER, the bold-going big roan stud that“ Whitey” showed in the Celebration. He is better than ever and poses an even greater threat for 1965. GO BOY’ S EASTER PA RADE, a four year old BLACK GO BOY stud was pulled out of his stall and parked in the crosstie without a word. As we looked this big horse over it was apparent that he was something special. He has been held back for two years waiting for him to fill out and mature. He has all the natural action and desire that is necessary in a top show horse and should be reaching a peak by spring. When“ Whitey” took this horse out on the practice ring he really came to life. He walks a turn like a motorcycle and never misses a lick.
These were just a few of the many horses at the stable that we saw before going to lunch with Mr. Kibler. After a most interesting luncheon meeting, at which we discussed the pros and cons of the overall Walking Horse business, we went by to say hello to farm manager Tom Bohl, and headed for Cincinnati and the Calico Farms of Mrs. Jacqueline Kroll.
VOICE of The Tennessee Walking Horse