THE HUMAN ELEMENT
It has been said that " the only thing wrong with the Walking Horse business is the people in it. It has also been said that the horse business( as we know it) gives us the rare opportunity to see the absolute best and the absolute worst in the same people. The enthusiasm for success in the horse business is unlike any other activity which we know. Consider the man who will fight a judge over an opinion and yet will spend all night helping the same man get a horse trailer out of a ditch. This is the " human elemen that is hard to fathom in many areas of business and general activity... especially the horse business. ^
Occasionally we witness the " human element work in a situation which produces a & roS:= mlscaJ " age of justice to one of our fellows. At the iecent Columbia Spring Jubilee we were interested in a development in the Two-Year-Old Stallion Class. One particular horse, which is regarded as a g ®
tender for championship honors by a lot o^nowledg able horsemen, made the final workout but did not get
a ribbon. This was particularly interesting to us sine we were discussing the progress of e several recognized experts and they w go among themselves as to whether this particular horse would tie first, second or third.
The " human element” comes into play when you consider that the horse was ridden by a trainer relatively unknown in Middle Tennessee. No doubt, had he been ridden by a welI-knowrn top professional, he would have tied at the top. We are not questioning the ability or integrity of the judges— they had a job to do and they did it— however, we do wonder how such knowledgable and recognized experts could miss such an outstanding horse. The usual answer is, of course... " I just didn’ t like him,” and that will be the end of that. There is another facet to this type of situation that
hurts all of us. The man who owns the horse is new in the business. He has the enthusiasm and interest to invest a lot of money with all of us, but... can we keep him interested if he receives this sort of treatment very often? Chances are that we can’ t!
We would like to point out that we are not taking anything away from the other horses in the class. It was a fine class and in our opinion the horse that got the blue deserved it. He is a great Two-Year-Old and
has a top trainer. The " human element” is also seen in other situations which are equally interesting. For instance, there is one section of the country in which we find the established horsemen( both professionals and amateurs) being faced with a crop of young, energetic and knowledgable trainers who are easing their way into the big time. Instead of keeping pace with these young upstarts by improving their own training techniques or by getting better horses, they have instigated an elaborate system of pre-show inspections of our breed that is designed to eliminate as much competition as possible.
They have even gone so far as to seek legislative measures designed to regulate these inspections with state support. The result has been that they have lost control of the situation and are getting caught in their own trap. The " inspectors” thus far have been individuals who are not Walking Horse oriented and are completely lacking in any knowledge of our horse, our problems or our goals. Where this will eventually lead is a matter of speculation but we cannot envision the merit of such an approach as being in the best interest of our breed. The " sore loser” has long been famous for his cry of " sore horse” and he would rather see the whole business collapse than admit that the other fellow has a better horse. This is the " human element” at its best( or worst, as the case may be). Another prime example of the " human element” was a situation in which a state Walking Horse organization actually prohibited the showing of " Tennessee owned or Tennessee trained horses” at their shows. This appears to be the best example that I have seen of the " human element” in the horse business. If we were to question the perpetrators of this scheme we would most certainly hear stories of gross mistreatment of horses and inhumane training practices by Middle Tennessee trainers. This, of course, would be their reason for banning these horses from the show ring in that state. It would be interesting, however, to note the " won— lost” record of trainers from the mother country who had invaded the sanctuary of that particular association.
DO ALL YOUR. FRIENDS TAKE THE " VOICE "? IF NOT. NOW IS A GOOD TIME FOR THEM TO SUBSCRIBE.
June, 1968