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you some stock in a new corporation .”
Mr . Wells added , “ Lonny , how much money do you feel that you stand to make this year ?” He stammered for words and before he could answer , Mr . Wells added , “ And how deep in debt are you at this moment ?” Lonny thought to himself . . . “ If they only know !”
Lonny had no reason to doubt the integrity of these men . He know them all by reputation and knew that they had been in the business for quite a while . With a note of pride , he took his books out of the desk drawer and opened them up . “ I have a good local man looking after my books ”, he said . “ But I ’ ll have to admit that I don ’ t know a whole lot about what he is doing . I just keep up with everything like he says and he makes out my monthly bills and helps Helen and me with our check book ”.
After going over his books carefully , Mr . Wells said , “ Lonny . . . I ’ m a pretty good country lawyer and know something about books . This man has messed you up a little bit .” Lonny looked startled and said “ what do you mean by that ?” “ Well , in the first place , you haven ’ t got enough insurance for your stable . . . and in addition to that you haven ’ t kept accurate records on your show expenses and other costs of running your barn ”. He added , “ If Uncle Sam ever came in here to look these over , you might be in trouble ”. As Lonny cast a curious eye down at his open ledger , trying hard to appear knowledgable of its contents , Mr . Wells said , “ don ’ t worry about it too much , Lonny , your biggest problem is that you don ’ t know how much money you ’ ve made this year ”.
Later , as the car neared the end of the road toward the highway , Lonny stared at the cloud of dust and muttered to himself ... “ I wonder what they really wanted ?”
ON THE MASON-DIXON LINE by Janey Sawyer
Fall has come to Ohio and we are getting some delightful weather to work the horses . We just got back from the Kentucky Walking Horse Celebration after attending the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration two weeks before . Betty Sain did it ! and I sure can say that there could not have been a nicer person win it . Even over a hotly contested challenge by some of the best trainers she sure showed that “ Shocker ” could do more of it and for a youngster he could sure use himself . I believe that Claude Brown expressed it to perfection when he said , “ that horse of Betty Sain ’ s must be from Texas — everything he does is big .” It was especially fun to watch Betty Sain since we had driven out to see her Merry Boy stallion , Beach Dust , a few days before she had won the first class . Both myself and my family enjoyed one of the nicest visits we have ever had in Tennessee . This sure ought to put the boys on their toes for next year .
NEWS FROM MONTANA by Pearl Tompkins
The county and regional Fairs have come and gone , and we have made a few small steps forward in the progress of our Walking Horses . This year at Kalispell we had six registered foals in the foal class compared to ONE just three years ago . At that time the foal took the blue ribbon from her part blood competitors but lost the trophy in the Grand Champion class to a half blood gelding that TROTTED . The judge was an acknowledged Quarter Horse man who had probably never seen a natural running walking colt in his life before .
The Fair Boards who hire these judges certainly cannot be blamed for these things happening , because they cannot be expected to hire a different judge for each breed of horses .
However now that we are getting enough entries to fill our classes the need for qualified judges has become imperative , because we owe it not only to ourselves but to the people who come to watch these horses judged .
Among them are prospective buyers who have heard maybe a little or maybe a lot about these fabulous Walking Horses , so they come to see for themselves just what kind of a horse he is . When the judge places a trotting or a pacing horse over a natural running walker it doesn ’ t do much good for the breed .
It is time for us to make a real effort to bring in a licensed Walking Horse judge for our Fairs next year , because a very great number of people come to see the horses , and after all it takes people to make a market for our horses .
Looking at the situation from another angle we can see where it would be most unwise for owners of proven top horses to enter them in halter classes and take the chance of having them place below some horse which the judge took a fancy to because he reminded him of Peter McCue . This has happened in other places , lets not let it happen here .
What it all boils down to is that unless we keep our quality up and keep striving for improvement , just as Mr . Dement and Mr . Brantley did many years ago , then our horse is going to be trotting and pacing down hill instead of walking off from the rest of the crowd with his easy mile eating running walk .
It is up to us as individuals and our organization to help our Fair Boards bring in dedicated and qualified judges to help us know what to look for and therefore know the goal for which we are heading .
We need all the good horses we can round up and we have to see that they get a fair shake in ALL competition , halter as well as performance .
Unless we can accomplish this then all the work , time and money this organization and we as individuals have made over the last few years will be for nothing .
Our Association had its beginning in Nov . 1961 and it
was started because a few people who owned Registered Walkers could see what a tremendous future these horses had and our one and only aim was to keep and promote this horse which those dedicated and far seeing gentlemen m the South had spent their lifetimes to produce , and right here is a good place to hand a big bouquet of roses to en Green , because without him we would never have been able to know and appreciate this horse as we do . bix years ago he asked if we would ride with him for the
next our years , well Ben the four years are gone and I for one am still riding even though it is a stock saddle , and J intend to keep on giving the Walking Horse the best ride I ve got in me , in the saddle or out of it .
68 ^OICE of the Tennessee Walking Horse