fancy trucks that surrounded him and wondered if he would ever own anything so fine. Up front, he could see at least two top trainers who had won World Champioships at the annual Festival Horse Show and wondered if they had any two-year-olds.
Working feverishly to get Tiger Bay ready, Lonny was pushed to make the second-class. He had thought there was a Two-Year-Old Filly class but it had been scratched and they were all going together. It was obvious when Lonny got on his horse that the bay was excited. When he started to work him along the fence, a small crowd began to gather. He could see several familiar trainers’ faces out of the comer of his eye. " I wonder what they want,” he thought to himself. As the bay horse began to get used to the surroundings, he loosened up and really started to work. Lonny pulled up and pretended to fix the curb chain. He could see a small group of men talking to Mr. and Mrs. Tad Larson, who owned the horse and had just gotten to the show. Clucking to his horse he eased him from a flat foot walk into a good running walk. He felt good!
When he rode up to the trailer, several people came up close to see Tiger Bay. " That’ s a pretty good horse you’ ve got there, fellow,” said a big man with a cigar sticking out of the side of his mouth. Lonny smiled, trying not to be too impressed.
As the announcer called out, " Two-Year-Old Walking Horses, get ready. You’ re next and we are tying the Pleasure Class right now,” Lonny mounted the little bay stud. Mr. and Mrs. Larson came over and said, " Good luck, Lonny.” " Thanks,” he said. " By the way, what was that man with the cigar talking to you a- bout?” Mrs. Larson, interrupted her husband before he could say anything, " He wanted to know if our horse was for sale.” " What did you tell him?” asked Lonny. She laughed, and said, " We told him to talk to you.”
With this show of confidence on his mind, Lonny Barnes entered the ring with eighteen other riders on two-year-olds.
( continued next month)
THE COLUMBUS ALL-BREED SPRING SHOW
The 1966 show season for the Midwest got off to a fine start at the Columbus, Ohio, Annual All-Breed Spring Show, March 23rd through the 28th. Six states— Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York— sent fifty-five Walking Horses to compete in five classes- the Amateur being the largest with thirty-one horses in the ring.
Mr. V. G. GOCHNEAUR, Fashion Two-Twenty Stables, hurried home with fourteen blue ribbons from a very successful campaign on the Florida Winter circuit to participate, and took the Mare class with his good-looking Fashion Lady, and also Reserve in the Amateur Championship. His very successful stallion, Mr. Fashion Two-Twenty, was Reserve in both the Open and Championship Stake Classes.
DAVID WELSH, trainer for Leeswood Walking Horse Stables in Oaks Corners, New York, is fast demonstrating his ability to put together and keep in form a winning string, for Leeswood horses took the blue ribbons in the four events they entered. David won the Open on Go Boy’ s Rebel O; the Junior Class on
Mr. HENRY SNYDER’ s Sun’ s September Song; and the Stake on Mrs. LEE’ s Society Souvenir. Mrs. Lee had previously won the Amateur Championship in her first show-ring appearance on Souvenir.
ROBERT WHITNEY, Cox’ s Creek, Kentucky, was the judge, and did a most creditable job. LOUIS ARMSTRONG and his band performed nightly and helped to draw large crowds. The results of the show are listed elsewhere in this issue.
HOLLANDIA FARM SPRING SHOW
Walking Horses in and around the New York City area have been practically unknown for some years until the past March 20th, when they appeared at the Hollandia Farm Early Spring Show at St. James, Long Island, New York.
It was a small show, but aroused a good deal of interest and curiosity. Through the efforts of a great Walking Horse enthusiast, Dr. PHILLIP LEVITAN, of Smithtown, Long Island, three classes were arranged and about a dozen horses were on hand from Pennsylvania, Virginia, and New York. The number of horses in itself was not impressive, but it was a start. There was an amazing amount of publicity for the Walking Horse classes not only from local Long Island newspapers, but New York papers as welL Dr. Levitan was besieged with phone calls. The Walking Horses were given a thorough going-over by two vets and as A. S. P. C. A. official. One vet was sent by the AHSA, and the exhibitors were complimented on the excellent condition of the horses’ feet. This was extremely gratifying to the exhibitors, after the criticism that is usually heaped on the Walking Horses. It proves that this great and crowd-pleasing breed of horses can be shown effectively without going to the extremes which have caused so much criticism. There were three classes in the show— Amateur, Open, and Stake— judged by DAVE DAVIS, Maryland. Results were:
AMATEUR:( 1) Sun’ s September Song, Henry Snyder, New York;( 2) Go Boy’ s Virtue, Mr. William St. Clair, Virginia;( 3) Sun’ s Storm Warning, Mrs. CebemLee, New York. OPEN:( 1) Society Souvenir, Leeswood, New York;( 2) Souvenir’ s Star B., Mr. Guy Simpson, Virginia;( 3) Eldorado Kid, Mr. Guy Simpson, Virginia.
STAKE:( 1) Society Souvenir, Leeswood, New York;( 2) Souvenir Star B., Mr. Guy Simpson, Virginia;( 3) Merry Midnight S., Mr. Dave Stokely, Virginia.
Dr. Levitan held a meeting of the Northeast Walking Horse Association at his lovely home in Smithtown on the afternoon preceding the show. He and Mrs. Levitan hosted a buffet luncheon which was enjoyed by all, after which officials of the American and Northeastern Walking Horse Associations gave talks and showed movies to the many interested people who accepted Dr. Levitan’ s invitation.
It simply is not possible to give enough credit to Dr. Levitan, who gave so freely of his time to promote this show, to raise money, to line up horses to fill the entry list, to call his many friends and acquaintances to create interest in the undertaking, and to manage columns of publicity in the New York papers and Long Island publications. We need more people like Dr. Levitan in our business!
May, 1966 53