Mrs, Edith Puckett Route 4, Box 110 Tyler, Texas
TENNESSEE WALKERS IN TEXAS
EDITORS NOTE: We knew it would only be a matter of time before the Great State of Texas would be adequately represented in the VOICE It gives us great pleasure to introduce Mrs. EDITH PUCKETT as a new Contributing Editor from Texas. We would also like to add that her interest in the VOICE was fostered by our own BILLY JOE ANN ESTESS who writes " The Hi-Line from the Deep South." With such mutual interest in " spreading the good word about the Tennessee Walking Horse” 1 do not see how we can miss. Mrs. Puckett offers the following letter as a means of introduction to the Walking Horse World:
Dear Sir.
My family and 1 have always loved horses but did not own any until our son was about eleven yearsold. He saved his allowance until he had " almost” enough money to buy one. From that time on, we have lived and breathed horses. We gradually added to our herd until we were forced to move to the country to take care of them. After our son went off to college we cut down to five— three Tennessee Walkers and two Quarter Horses, which will always be our son ' s first love.
My husband and I are both active in the local saddle club— trail rides, play days, shows, etc., and our ambition for this summer is to attend every East Texas Horse Show and Rodeo Association Show- all fourteen of them.
We are indeed pleased with the opportunity to contribute to the national Walking Horse scene from Texas and request our readers’ support with news and views from the " Lone Star State.”
Many East Texans will have an opportunity to see Tennessee Walking Horses for the first time this summer. East Texas is primarily Quarter Horse country, but our beautiful Tennessee Walkers are coming into their own at last. We have an East Texas Horse Show and Rodeo Association, made up of clubs from fourteen towns in East Texas, and each club has a show every year. This past winter a few die-hard Tennessee Walking Horse and gaited horse lovers prevailed upon the Association to allow us to have one class each in their shows- so now we have a place to show ' our horses almost every weekend all summer long! One of the conditions placed upon the " high-tailed” horse people was for us to furnish our own judge for these shows at no expense to the host club. So, if any of you know of a qualified judge in this area who will judge two classes in one of these shows, for only car expense and our undying gratitude, please let me know. We feel that showing our horses in these shows will do more to promote the breed than anything that has happened lately. They cause more favorable comment and enthusiasm than the rest of the show combined, even from people who are seeing them for the first time. And our ranks are growing steadily.
We recently visited with C. C.( BOOSIE) WILLIAMS at his Cypress Acres Stables and from what we saw there, the Tennessee Walker will be taking over Texas before long. Boosie started this operation in January of this year by converting part ofhis one-thousand-acre cattle ranch at Harleton, Texas to raising, breeding and training Tennessee Walking Horses. He brought NEIL CLARK from Charlotte, North Carolina to be his trainer. Neil had his own stable in Charlotte and comes from a Tennessee Walking Horse family: his father, GARNER CLARK, rode Midnight Gold Sun to win the two-year-old futurity stud class at the Celebration several years ago, and his uncle, FRED WALKER, rode Midnight Sun to the championship twice. We think Neil will definitely follow in their footsteps. He is already bringing home Texas honors— he won the twoyear-old class at the Dallas Charity Horse Show this year on his Gold Sun’ s Walker.
Some of the horses in training at Cypress Acres are: Merry Boy’ s G. Sun, owned by KAY HARMON, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. ROGER HARMON; Sparkling Cavalier, owned by Tyler Mayor TOM CLAY; Cotton’ s Go Boy, owned by JULANE JIMMERSON, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. DELMER JIMMERSON; Don Juan, owned by JANNA ALBRITTON, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. ALLEN ALBRITTON; Haynes’ Roan Gobbler, owned by J. E. HAYNES; Big Bad John, owned by DENISE DODSON, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. K. W. DODSON; and a top mare contender owned by SAM and DICK FORD. These horses are already making their marks in the local shows: in the Tyler Youth Show three of the horses in training at Cypress Acres Stables took the first three places. And Kay Harmon’ s Merry Boy’ s G. Sun won first at the Gladewater Association Show, with Julane Jimmerson’ s Cotton’ s Go Boy taking fourth. We are looking forward to seeing all these fine horses in our Association shows, as well as many of the larger shows.
JIM BRENT of Greggton tells us that he has his former trainer HERBERT DAVIS back and that he is working, among several young horses, Clark’ s Tel Star that Jim recently purchased from OTIS CLARK of Tyler.
We enjoyed visiting with HERB MURRAY of Texarkana at the Gladewater Show. Herb was to have been the judge for our class in the show, but the show moved along much faster than expected and Herb arrived too late to judge that class. However, he did judge the pleasure class and the gaited horse class, and did a fine job.
June 12 was the big day for theState Walking Horse Show in Stephenville, Texas. This was the first annual show sponsored by the Texas Walking Horse Association and was under the auspices of the Stephenville Junior Chamber of Commerce. Complete results will be in the July VOICE. The address for the Texas Walking Horse Association is 2309 Glendale Drive, Waco, Texas.
14- VOICE of the Tennessee Walking Horse