1966-Voice Of The Tennessee Walking Horse 1966 December Voice | Page 37

natural human jealousies sway you. Be fair, be honest, be
right and agree. You have seen faster horses, but you
have not seen more perfect execution of the running walk
gait than shown by the greatest champion of them all
Midnight Sun.
Midnight Sun was not only blessed with a great run­
ning walk. He was one of the best three gaited horses of
the breed. His flat walk was as bold as this gait can be
and he showed a canter like that of a pony, almost unbe­
lievable for such a large horse. This was before the days
of blister and weight. His gaits were natural. He did it
all with a natural foot shod with a number 4 keg shoe and
three nails on a side. His was not the oily, slippery, slid­
ing running walk. It was as deliberate as a church bell
tooling on a cold wintry morn. There was a finalitv to
each step that stamped each hoof print PERFECTION
spelled in full. His was not the fairy type of movement
in a moonlit dell. It was as a flooding mountain stream
rolling down a rocky gorge carrying all before it. His
great size, color and motion made his true gaits all the
more awesome. Not even one of his greatest sons, thrice
World’s Grand Champion, Talk of The Town, possessing
the greatest running walk of them all, could do it better.
The word perfection spelled in capital letters, leaves little
room for others to line up along side the King of Kings.
His stately cadence was measured in deliberate strides
that slapped the ground as a ton of weight is used to
swing and smack a building selected for destruction in
endless sweeps, methodically in rhythm, synchronized with
every muscle, nerve and sinew, with every throb of a mas­
sive heart pumping power throughout the body of this
gigantic animal. With all his strength and stature he was
controlled with a velvet touch. He was as a kitten and
with disposition that all owed throughout his lifetime little
children to step into his stall and pet him. Many had
their picture taken astride this magnificent animal. Mid­
night Sun probably more than any other horse typified
and characterized the Tennessee Walking Horse breed
whether it be in his stall that was his home at Harlinsdale
for 21 years, under saddle or performing his duties as a
sire, his disposition was as his gaits, perfection that left
nothing wanting. Any horse seeking to emulate Midnight
Sun’s quarter of a century of accomplishment will indeed
find a rough road to travel. It is improbable that you or
I will ever again behold another Midnight Sun.
Hoof prints of this great horse stamped in the sands
of time are forged as deep and true as horsemen will likely7
ever see. All this is not said in the heat of sympathetic
feeling due to the passing of this great horse. It is sai
because of a belief gained and engendered through the
best years of Midnight Sun as a show horse and as a sire.
I saw him make his first great show, and many believe it
was his best. It was at Murfreesboro in the spring of
t;'
I watched the late Fred Walker warm him up outside the
ring. Then he touched him with the whip and as be en­
tered the gate he circled the ring in the running wa
None had been a Walking Horse like this before because
there had not been another like him in all the years rom
the time Bald Stockings is said to have first done the run­
ning walk gait. Stroliing Jim was good, Haynes Peacock
was better, Melodv Maid and City Girl were also World s
Grand Champions before him and all were sire
y
premier sire, Wilson’s Allen, but Midnight Sun was hy
himself in the trueness of his gaits. If a Ju ge sa\
once in a show, he need not be checked again or
doing the same thing in the same great way t e n. .
,
arm,nr) 7An
i;^ * well oiled machine in rhythm ana
was
with all his massive power he brought one under a spell
that left you thinking this superb animal could travel a
night and a day at the running walk and never tire or
miss a beat. He literally shook the ground as he traveled
with each step proving in deliberate finality that no horse
before him living or dead had performed the gaits of the
Tennessee Walking Horse so true, so in form, so square,
so well.
Lead, weight, and other more disgraceful methods had
not yet come into being. He did it all by himself. Is it any
wonder that such a natural gaited Walking Horse has be­
come the greatest sire of the Tennessee Walking Horse
that the breed has ever known? For a sire, who would
not pick a natural horse every time? Not all sires have
that all-important power to transmit their true gaits to
their progeny. Midnight Sun had that power and had it
in abundance. Fie also possessed the size needed for a sire
for many small mares came to a stallion. He matured at
1,350 lbs. but still did not measure as high as he looked.
Sixteen hands was his height.
Midnight Sun was saddle made. His natural ability
was improved by hours and hours of patient and thorough
training. The late Winston Wiser of near Wartrace found
him in the fall of 1943 as a threc-year-old and a few
months later rode him over to Wartrace to the late Henry
Davis’ barn. Mr. Davis was so excited over the horse that
he told the Flarlinsdale boys, Wirt and Alex Harlin,
about him and they'- immediately bought him and Mr.
Davis moved him to Harlinsdale Farm in Franklin in Jan­
uary-, 1944. He was still a big gangly horse even at the age
of four and was not really ready for the show ring but he
made one show that year and that at the Celebration
where he tied second in the stud class and sixth in the
stake. I have my first memory of him in this show.
Quite a few wild guesses and tales have been whispered
regarding Midnight Sun’s breeding. All knew he was by
Wilson’s Allen, the greatest sire of the breed at that time,
and if not the last of his progeny, one of the very last, for
Wilson’s Allen died a few weeks following his mating to
the dam of Midnight Sun. Wilson’s Allen was by Roan
Allen F 38 by Allan F 1. First dam was Birdie Messick
by Allan F 1. Allan F 1, who was a standard bred, was
the foundation sire of the Tennessee Walking Horse breed.
Since the Tennessee Walking Horse Celebration began in
1939, the Wilson’s Allen strain accounts for twenty-two of
the twenty-eight World’s Grand Champions. Midnight
Sun’s dam was Ramsey’s Rena, a 15.2 bay mare. She was
by Dement’s Allen by Hunter’s Allen by Allan F 1. Her
dam was by a purebred registered trotter of Bow Bells and
Wcdgewood blood. The third dam was by John Coving­
ton’s Hal. The fourth dam by Galson who was a trotter.
Galson was an imported black German coach stallion. He
was a large horse, around 17 hands and 1,500 lbs. Mid­
night Sun’s size and he having the blood of Galson in his
veins prompted many to whisper Midnight Sun was out
of a Percheron mare. Coach horses of this breed and
others, mainly French and English, were imported to this
country in the early 1900s to produce carriage as well as
farm horses.
The late John A. Hendrixson of Manchester, Tennes­
see, bought Midnight Sun from the late Samuel M. Ram­
sey of McMinnville, Tennessee, as a suckling and had him
registered under the name of Joe Lewis Wilson. This
name did little for the big horse and as an actor or actress
needs a show name, Bell Ashley of Franklin thought Mid­
night Sun would be more appropriate, so it has been Mid-
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December • 1966