impressed with the showing you made last week and has convinced us that we should leave the horse with you.” Little Joe, who was not supposed to be listening, let out a chuckle, causing the men to all turn to him. " You think that’ s a good idea, Joe?” asked Lonny. " Yassuh, Mista Lonny. If you can’ t win it with him, nobody can,” he said, to the amusement of the other men.
As soon as the big yellow Cadillac pulled out of the driveway, Lonny got on the phone. " Honey Bun, if you want to see six thousand dollars, you better get down here to the barn.” He hung up and called Mr. Larson at his office. " Mr. Larson, we just sold half of your horse to three of the biggest men in the business. Come by the house tonight and I’ ll settle up with you.” by Charles Barry Sanderson
Lonny had been waiting all day for the arrival of his visitors from Middle Tennessee. About two in the afternoon, Little Joe came running into the barn and said, " Mista Lonny, they’ s a big yeller Cadillac cornin’ up the road to the barn.” Lonny looked around to make sure- that everything was shipshape. He wanted his stable to look really professional for these men. He had heard about them and knew that they had all owned some top horses before.
Lonny was sitting behind his desk when they opened the door. " Come on in... I’ ll be with you in a minute,” he said. He came out to shake hands with his cigar-chewing friend and was introduced to two other men. " This is Lonny Barnes, fellows. He’ s the young man that upset some of the big boys last weekend over at Duraville.”
After working several of his better horses for his visitors, Lonny called to Little Joe, " Go get Tiger Bay out, Joe... I believe they came to see him.” They all laughed. Joe pulled the bay out of his stall and led him to the cross-tie. The three men gathered around to give a keen eye to every feature of the colt. As Lonny bitted him up, taking his time with every strap and hook, Little Joe put the saddle on him. Tiger Bay had been groomed three times already that day and really looked the part of a show horse. The bright new green-and-white blanket that they had on him didn’ t hurt anything, either. They had just gotten it back from the saddle shop the day before, with the name " TIGER BAY” printed on the side.
Lonny worked Tiger for about thirty minutes. He really didn’ t work as well as Lonny had hoped, but he thought, " They never do right when you want to show them off.” The three men looked him over very carefully. They checked the tail to see how it had been set, as well as checking his feet and mouth. After studying the pedigree papers carefully, the man with the diamond stickpin finally said, " Lonny, we have heard your proposition. Our only worry, and don’ t take me wrong, is whether or not you can get the job done in the big ring.” Lonny smiled, and wished he had his whittling stick to cut on. The man went on, " However, our man here was very much
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" Little Joe,” he said, " we just might make it after all!”
The Lonny Barnes Stables was doing quite well for itself. Since opening for business in the early spring, they had come up with one top contender for the Annual Walking Horse Festival and several other good Saturday-night show horses, and had three better-than-average Amateur riders. In addition to having all but four of his twenty-four stalls filled, Lonny had managed to pay his bills and buy a pretty good used six-horse van. As August rolled around, Lonny was very much aware of the upcoming National Walking Horse Festival. He had showed his bay two-year-old six times since they had sold a half interest in him, and had not yet been defeated. His competition had been the best, but still there were two or three other horses from other parts of the country that a lot of people were talking about. One thing Lonny lacked at this point was confidence.
He had been contacted by several of the national horse magazine representatives at horse shows and one had even been to his stable. He was really making the news with his little bay stud, and this helped a lot. Lonny had talked with the horse’ s owners about promotion on the colt and was told to do anything that he wanted, and to send them their part of the bill. He and Mr. Larson had decided to get some action pictures made about the middle of the summer, and they turned out pretty well. Then they decided to run three ads on the horse in the magazines before the Festival. When the first issue had come out with their ad in it, Lonny gathered in the office with the others who were interested and looked his ad over. It said in big print, " A TOP CONTEND ER... TIGER BAY... Lonny Barnes, Up.” Lonny looked at it again and again. The picture made his horse look bigger than he really way. Lonny thought to himself, " They say he swells up when I show him, but I didn’ t think he got that big.” He read the copy underneath the picture and checked the list of owners. He had to admit that he was pretty pleased. Little
Joe, looking over their shoulders, was saying, " Mista Lonny, dat little hoss look like ol’ Triple Treat hisself.” Looking through the magazine, Lonny was sur-
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