1967-Voice Of The Tennessee Walking Horse 1967 April Voice RS | Page 14

mats They wear bright colors and wear stable name,
on their sweaters. They like to put chrome horses on the
hoods of their cars and Walkmg Horse license plates on
their'bumpers. They are immensely proud of the breed
they represent and want people to know they are in the
“Walking Horse business”
What type of people do we find in the Walking Horse
business? A survey would find that we cover a complete
scope of people from all levels of society.. We have some
genuine millionaires and many other rich people. We
also have a lot of wealthy individuals as well as a good
supply of us common everyday folks that have one or
two horses. The majority of people however, who are
active on a big scale in the Walking Horse business are
people described as the “new rich.” They are people wKo
have not inherited their wealth from the first or second
generation. They are people who have worked hard to
achieve a certain level of financial success and are eager
to spend it with people who appreciate them, especially
people in the Walking Horse business. We have a lot of
contractors and automobile dealers, doctors and business­
men and successful salesmen. Men and women who are
past generations that would frown on their activity as
being something other than “top drawer.”
I think there is something of value in this approach.
The Tennessee Walking Horse is the “SPORTS MODEL”
of the horse world and we should be proud of it. We
have learned also that almost everyone who owns a
Cadillac or a Continental either owns some sort of a
“sports model” or would like to have one. Lets sell them
all a Tennessee Walking Horse.
PRICING HORSES
SPORTS MODEL
Several weeks ago we got into an interesting discussion
with a friend of ours about just what “up-grading the
Walking Horse business” means. We have touched on this
several times in terms of cleaning up our stables, painting
our fences, and in general, getting better facilities. But
in this particular discussion we stumbled into something
that was vitally interesting to us and we would like to
share it with you.
The crux of the issue was whether or not wc wanted
the Walking Horse business, and the people in it, to
parallel the Gaited Horse and Hunter-Jumper segments
of the horse world. It was pointed out to us that the
Tennesse Walking Horse fits into a unique category' in
the horse business. It fills a gap that no other horse can
fill. The Tennessee Walking Horse is the “SPORTS
MODEL” o f the horse world. In terms of automobiles,
the Walking Horse is a Corvette, a Mustang or a Fire­
bird. He is not designed to be a Continental or a Cadillac.
He is not an imported version either. Everything about
him is solid USA. The Tennessee Walking Horse, and
the people who cling to him, are SPORTS MINDED.
They often prefer sports jacket material for their riding
Sooner or later we are going to become convinced
that our present approach to pricing our horses is pretty
far-fetched. Recently at a major sale we organized a
panel of experts to evaluate the horses that were brought
into the ring for sale. Our object was to look at these
horses from the standpoint of the buyer and determine:
(1) what he was actually worth (2) what category he
should be in (Pleasure or Show Horse) (3) Evaluate his
use in the catagory that he was in. Our results were most
interesting. After almost two hours of reviewing horses
in this sale we discovered several outstanding facts. The
estimated value of a horse in the “show horse” category'
varied considerably according to the individual. For
example: an average horse was brought into the ring.
We evaluated the horse as being suitable for a Ladies
Amateur or a beginners amateur in small shows. Our
panel of experts ranged from $500 to $2,100 in their
evaluation of the horses and it was determined that he
should not be bought for resale. He brought $1,825 and
the owner no-saled him stating that he had to have
nnr*
°
I he most notable thing that we discovered was the
fact^ that two-thirds of the horses that were represented
as show horses” or “prospects,” were actually suited for
pleasure use only. Very few of these horses carried top
ood lines and few of them were suited in conformation
or natural ability for show horse use. Many were no-saled
at prices ranging from $175 to $475, with the owners
stating that they had to have more money. Brood mares
m foal and brood mares with colts, brought about what
our experts expected, depending upon blood lines, age
and conformation.
(Continued on Page 18)
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VOICE of the Tennessee Walking Horse