( Continued from page 10 ) walking ability . I wanted him to be big and strong and powerful with a lot of heart and stamina , 16 at the sacrifice of natural walking ability . We hands or slightly under . I wanted top conformation , short back , long neck , good head , and four must breed to guard and protect this natural inherited head-nodding walking ability with all strong legs . I wanted him to look like a Stud and our strength , with all our might - else we could act like a Stud ! A pretty big order , it was ! well end up with manmade gaits and no inherited " Believe it or not , I found my dream colt in the natural walking ability , and this could well be the 1963 Harlinsdale Farm yearling sale . He was # 1 funeral march - the last rites - of the world- in the sales catalogue , selling under the name of renowned Tennessee Walking Horse !
Sun ’ s Square Deal . I bought him and changed his
" When I get to Tennessee for Celebration Week , name to Sun ’ s Midnight Duke . He is line-bred I spend several days at Harlinsdale Farm watching the yearlings that are there , which I am found in this colt greater potential as a sire than
Midnight Sun with 62j4 % Midnight Sun blood . I
interested in . I watch them being led on horses , I had even hoped for . I resisted the pressure to I watch them in the barn , I watch them when show this colt , principally because I am getting they are being shown to prospective buyers , and into this breeding business rather late in life , and I endeavor to find out about the background of am a man in a hurry . From the very beginning the yearlings , particularly with reference to the this colt showed great natural walking ability , natural walking ability of their ancestors . The and the very knowledgeable and experiences Mr . yearlings not at Harlinsdale Farm that I am HARLIN HAYES is riding him to further develop interested in , I go to look at and to look at their this inherited natural walking ability . It is a dams and grand dams , if there . By sale time , I great compliment to the Duke that Mr . Hayes am pretty well decided on what I would like to would be interested in riding him , and a further have , and have been very fortunate in getting compliment that Harlinsdale Farm would have them . Many buyers with more experience , and him enter the stud there . Anyone interested in with a sharper eye , would not spend all this seeing this colt work in his natural walking gaits energy and time in looking . Being a perfectionist , should contact Mr . Hayes to get his daily riding I have to do it the hard way . schedule .
" Besides these ten young Midnight Sun mares , " I thoroughly investigated the dam ’ s side of I have bought 3 top young mares by Midnight Duke ’ s pedigree , especially the bottom line - the Mack K . They were bought as yearlings to be dam line - and I checked with the people , mostly line-bred to Midnight Sun . Two of these I bought old-timers , who had either owned or ridden these from Mr . A . S . DEAN by the hardest . They are dams at a time when riding was the chief mode out of dams that are full sisters to the dam of of transportation , and every one of these mares Sun ’ s Delight and Johnny Midnight . The . other were top natural walking mares . This makes me young mare by Mack K is out of FULTON even more confident that this young sire will be FRASER ’ s well-known old Wilson ’ s Allen mare , able to pass on his own inherited natural walking and my young mare is now in foal to Midnight ability with these dams behind him , and we all Sun . I also have a full younger sister to the dam know Midnight Sun ’ s unsurpassed ability to sire of Sun ’ s Delight and Johnny Midnight , and she natural walking horses . was bred to Midnight Sun . This mare came out " Mrs . Wilder and I have chosen the name of the J . GLENN TURNER close-out sale . ELKHORN STABLES for our breeding establishment , and we are registering the name . Our
" In 1960 I bought a fine young mare , Lindy Lou Long , to use as my personal saddle mare . foals will be given a name including Elkhorn , She was such a good brood mare type that I bred such as ' Elkhorn Beauty ’, for example . In this her to Midnight Sun . Her first colt to sell at public auction , and also my first , brought $ 5,000.00 for our stables . The name Elkhorn is famous in
way , we hope to establish a permanent identity at Harlinsdale Farm yearling sale last September . His name is Design of Midnight , and he went forks of Elkhorn Creek meander around through
central Kentucky history for the north and south
to Mr . CHARLEY CORLEY , Tulsa , Oklahoma . A the world-famous horse farms , where the thoroughbred , the standardbred , the gaited horse , full yearling sister will be sold at Harlinsdale Farm sale next September , and we think she is and now the Tennessee Walking Horse gather as good as , if not better than , her brother at strength and substance from its celebrated limestone water .” this same stage . You can see I have a real challenge to maintain this price level .
" To eventually head up my stable of top young mares , I have been looking for several years for just the right young stallion . I wanted him to be
We sincerely feel that , with people such as Mr . and Mrs . WILDER active in the Walking Horse business , we can look forward to continued advancement
by Midnight Sun , and I wanted him line-bred for the breed . We appreciate their interest in allowing us to present this story about them and their Walking Horse activity . with as much as 62y2 % Midnight Sun blood . Since I put much emphasis on the dam side , I wanted him to come from a line of top natural walking mares . I wanted him to have inherited natural
APRIL , 1965 37