1968-Voice Of The Tennessee Walking Horse 1968 July Voice RS | Page 21

• •he's been therel
Occasionally it becomes apparent
that there are some among us who
have more than a passing knowledge
of the Tennessee Walking Horse.
Most of us are relative newcomers
to this breed and, at best, our knowl­
edge of the past is nothing more
than "book-larning.” When we are
fortunate enough to spend some time
with one of these individuals, we are
more appreciative of our breed and
the strides that have been made in
reaching the national popularity we
now enjoy. Such a man is Mr. Ben
Howell of Memphis, Tennessee, who
founded Ben Howell & Son Saddlery.
When it comes to the horse business
in general and the Tennessee Walk­
ing Horse in particular . . . this man
knows, because "he’s been there.”
Eighty-seven years ago, Ben How­
ell was born on a farm near Friend­
ship, Tennessee. As he grew up he
developed a love for horses and
mules, and spent his younger years
raising and training them. After fin­
ishing Southern Normal Business
College in Bowling Green, Kentucky,
he tried several lines of work — pro­
fessional baseball, the grocery busi­
ness, telephone lineman — but came
back to his "first love,” livestock.
Mr. Ben first operated a mule barn
in Humboldt and Trenton, Tennes­
see, and later owned and operated a
livery stable.
His preference for trading rather
than selling horses is emphasized by
his wife, Effie O’Neil Howell, now
eighty-five years old. She claims that
Mr. Ben was late for their wedding
because he had a chance to trade
horses on the way to the church.
The pair he traded for was so wild
that, when the bride and groom ar­
rived at their new home, she had to
bail out the back of the buggy while
the horses were running and open
the gate as Mr. Ben ran them down
the road a ways, finally turning them
around and driving them back into
the yard.
July, 1968
In 1916, when horses and mules
were kings, Mr. Ben moved to Mem­
phis as manager of Patterson Trans­
fer Livestock Department. This firm
operated with 1,300 head of horses
and mules, and had their own harn­
ess and wagon factory and black­
smith shop. Mr. Ben traveled all over
the United States in search of stock
for the business. When the trucks
took over, he operated a large mule
commission firm at the Stockyards
(Memphis was then the world’s larg­
est mule market).
In his travels Mr. Ben saw a num­
ber of those good, easy-riding horses
up in Middle Tennessee. O’Neil How­
ell, Mr. Ben’s son and partner in the
saddlery, remembers riding with his
father in a Model T through the hills
and valleys of Middle Tennessee. If
Mr. Ben caught sight of a likely-
looking horse plowing on a hillside,
he would stop and look him over. If
he still liked what he saw, he’d have
the horse unhitched and put his little
"flat saddle” on him and ride him up
and down the road. In this manner
Mr. Ben bought hundreds of these
"Turn Row” horses (as they called
them then) to be shipped to Memphis
and sold to plantations for their over­
seers to ride. He made a name for
himself with the "Turn Row” horses,
as they had good gaits and plenty of
stamina, and he filled many an order
over the phone.
Many prominent Walking Horse
breeders bought their first horses
from Ben Howell — Dr. Porter Rod­
gers and Mr. E. L. Burgess among
them. Mr. Ben bought the first horse
that Sam Paschal ever sold. It was
Sam’s very own pony, and Sam cried
when he sold him.
When the Walking Horse Registry
was being established, Mr. Ben was
on a committee to register horses on
performance. He was also responsible
for having some of the early shows
for Tennessee Walking Horses. In the
early days, different plantation own­
ers and overseers would brag about
their horses, eventually arranging a
meeting (or show) with someone to
judge . . . and of course, folks came
to watch. The winner usually had a
blue ribbon pinned to its browband,
which gave rise to the phrase, "Pin­
ned to the Blue.” Mr. Ben had a
famous gelding, PRIDE OF MEM­
PHIS, which he showed all over the
country. This gelding, sired by old
WILSON ALLEN, was undefeated
as long as Mr. Ben owned him, and
this one horse was responsible for
putting the spotlight on the WILSON
ALLEN line.
Ben’s daughter Fern married Sam
Gibbons during the Second World
War. Some time after his discharge,
Sam and his father-in-law b egan man­
aging the Murray Farm Sale in Lew-
isburg. After they sold out to Harold
Wise, Sam went on to become man­
ager of the Celebration, and Mr. Ben
continued his favorite occupation:
observing horses.
Since 1945 Mr. Ben and his son
O’Neil have operated the Ben How­
ell & Son Saddlery at 138 South
Second Street in Memphis. Mr. Ben
is in his glory at a horse show, a
sale, or at the store when he can sit
and talk to horsemen not only about
the past but about the future, for he
has a keen insight to the future of
the horse business. He has a remark­
able memory for horses and can re­
member them better than most peo­
ple can remember other people. The
reason is that each horse has a dis­
tinct personality for Mr. Ben, each
being an entity different from the
others.
Mr. Ben feels that "a good horse
doesn’t have color.” He likes all
breeds but his favorite is the Ten­
nessee Walking Horse. He and H. O.
Davis, Montgomery, Alabama, were
largely responsible for Walking Hor­
ses’ wearing boots: they thought that
the boots would be attractive and,
also, that the weight could be re-
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