1968-Voice Of The Tennessee Walking Horse 1968 January Voice RS | Page 86

the never-ceasing routine for one of these little horses
was 25 miles out over a rough trail through the jungles
one day, and then back the next. At the far end he got
no food but leaves from the breadnut tree. These little
horses were used for polo in Belize. B. H., and strange
to say when excited and in play I have never seen one of
them attempt to fall into saddle gaits. I had occasion to
ride a great many of these little horses while there; and
as I have almost lived on or behind horses here for a
number of years, have been in intimate association with
them. I found a great many traits especially in the
temperamental ones, that I had long been familiar with
in some of our Tennessee saddle horses.
As near as I have been able to gather, the Bigby stock
Company imported three bunches in three successive
years. But on the other hand I have succeeded in tracing
very few of our notable pacers to these Spanish mares.
Mattie Hunter 2:12 3/4, our first great pacer, had for a
second dam one of these Spanish mares owned by Maj.
Geo. P. Webster. However, the next generation appar­
ently would refer to them at times as mustangs; so when
it was found that a good horse traced to them, his breed­
ing became unknown. In this connection might be men­
tion Bay Tom Jr. 2:30 and his son, Duplex 2:17 1/4,
who have always been put down as “dam unknown”. Col­
lateral evidence indicates that this blood was not pro­
moted, and later evaded by the breeder for pacing speed,
except as pertaining to the two above named horses.
Now to return to the four Copperbottoms—Morrill’s
Nolan’s Day’s and Clardy’s. We find that by far the most
notable were the former two.
Morril’s Copperbottom, who figures in some of our best
pedigrees, was the fpunder of the Slasher family. He
sired the gray horse, Mountain Slasher, who sired Point­
er’s Slasher, who in turn got Granbery’s Slasher. Moun­
tain Slasher was a showy, dapple-Gray horse, and out­
sold McMeen’s Traveler in the same sale of Cornersville
when he was purchased by Capt. Sam Pointer, who later
became the breeder of Hal Pointer, Star Pointer etc. Mor­
rill’s Copperbottom, like his sire., Old Copperbottom, was
a chestnut or liver roan. Aside from being a great saddle
horse, he was said to have speed at the pace.
Nolan’s Copperbottom came on just a little later than
Morrill's, and as speed at the pace about this time began
to figure in the saddle horse rings, he became prominent
through his races under saddle with Brooks, the sire of
the trotter, Bonesetter
At that time the grandstand at the old fair grounds
west of Columbia, where Mr. Ed Geers started out as a
trainer, was constructed in the form of an amphitheatre.
The inside or ring was 300 feet in diameter, or about
300 yards around. It was said that Brooks had as much
speed as had Nolan’s Copperbottom, but that he would
knuckle and make breaks on the turns, while the latter
was very steady and would always win. Nolan’s Copper-
bottom like his sire, was also a chestnut roan, about 15
hands high and very mu scular. We encounter him gen­
erally as the sire of mares, but speculation based on over­
whelming circumstantial evidence, would award him
much of the credit given to others.
Interviews with older inhabitants, covering a period
since my childhood has brought forth the fact that Mc­
Meen’s Traveler was and still is the outstanding horse
in the creation of the best qualities found in this strain
of horses. Such was the prominence of his potency that
anything by him was sought as superior to the best by
any other sire. It was said that he never got a bad one.
and so great was the demand for his sons as riding horses
by those able to own one, that very few of them were
left entire.
McMeen’s Traveler was a real red sorrel, with one
white ankle behind, 15 hands, one inch high, and very
muscular. Such was his finish that it is said he was
always taken for a thoroughbred when standing still, but
his saddle gaits were perfect and distinct and he could
outpace any horse of the decade. He was bred by Neeley
McMeen on Carter’s Creek, Maury County, and foaled in
1849. When he was a yearling Mr. McMeen moved to Mis­
souri then to Illinois and Kentucky, carrying this colt
with him. He was away about five years when he re­
turned to Maury County, bringing this colt back with
him; and a few months later we find him in an auction
sale along with Mountain Slasher at Cornersville, Mar­
shall County.
Represenatives of the Bigby Stock Company attended
the sale for the purpose of securing Mountain Slasher.
They ran him to $1750, but he was bought of $1800 by
Capt. Sam Pointer of Spring Hill, Maury County. Failing
to secure the dapple gray, Slasher, they then bought Mc­
Meen’s Traveler at $1500, which in the years to come
proved most fortunate. Little is known of the breeding
of this horse further than being by Sugg’s Stump, son of
Stump The Dealer, son of Timoleon. But as far as the
writer has been able to ascertain, Sugg’s Stump and
Stump The Dealer were one and the same horse. In
either event both were Thoroughbreds and handled by the
small man over same period of years. It was claimed by
some that Traveler was a half Copperbottom; but if so he
must have been out of a mare by the old Copperbottom
brought over from North Carolina in 1843, as he was
foaled in 1849 and could have gotten it only through a
young daughter of the former, there being no Copper-
bottoms here until his advent.
In Wilder’s Raid of 1864, McMeen’s Traveler with six
or eight of his two and three year old sons were carried
North. Traveler was then 15 years old, and so great
was the disturbance over losing him that Mrs. W. J.
Webster (grandmother of the writer) who was quite a
horse-woman, rode ten miles over to get Maj. Ben Harlan,
who was a Union man, to go with her and overtake the
raid, and intercede with Gen. Wilder to give up Traveler,
who was too old to be of enduring service. Together they
went as far as the Maury-Marshall line, where they found
old Traveler dead on the roadside. This fact knocks in
the head the one time discovery that he founded the Blue
Bull family in the Middle West although several of his
sons carried off in the above mentioned raid were later
found doing service in Illinois.
Capt. Lee tells me there were 47 horses by McMeen’s
Traveler in Forrest’s Cavalry, and that not a single one of
them was lost during the War. And that although they
carried some age at the close of the War he saw several of
them sold at very fancy prices. He refers especially to a
12 year old gray gelding that was sold for $1,000.00 in
gold. In Major Brown’s correspondence I find many
unique references to great achievements by the sons and
daughters of Traveler. Among them is a letter from Mr.
T. B. Bond of Nashville, who carried away the prize at
Columbia in 1867 with his gray Traveler mare. He says
86
Voice of the Tennessee Walking Horse