1968-Voice Of The Tennessee Walking Horse 1968 March Voice RS | Page 17

and that was to put a saddle on him and ride. GO
BOY was just the way that Winston liked a horse. He
was a little bit trotty with a natural tendency to walk
when he picked up speed. He and Winston spent
many an hour down in the flats and in the brush just
riding.” By the time the show-ring gate opened in the
spring, the name of MERRY GO BOY was in the air.
He was traveling on a reputation that had him built
up as a "super horse.” Observers claimed that he
could stride further, step higher and go faster than
any other Walking Horse ever foaled.
His first show under saddle was Pulaski, Tennessee,
and Mr. J. French Brantley of Wartrace reported on
this event in a most emphatic way. "He was the
greatest two-year-old ever seen up to that time. He
had a running walk that compared with the horses of
today, and he was going without boots. He had a look
that was new in the Walking Horse business, with
more animation and style than any horse I had ever
seen. Winston had a reputation of riding too fast but
this horse stayed with him and together they re-wrote
the book on the Walking Horse in the show ring.”
Before MERRY GO BOY reached the Celebration ring
as a two-year-old Mr. R. W. Norman saw him and
paid an unprecedented $2,000.00 for one-third interest
in him. Thus the names of Mallard, Norman and
Wiser became synonymous with MERRY GO BOY
and so it was to remain for three years.
The fame of the black horse with the big lick spread
like wildfire and soon MERRY GO BOY was a familiar
word in the Walking Horse vocabulary. At the 1945
Celebration, after an undefeated season, he won the
Two-Year-Old Championship in fine form. By this time
he had won more acclaim than any other show horse
of this breed. Winston and MERRY GO BOY came
back strong in 1946 in the Three-Year-Old Classes,
then called Junior Horses, and again went through
an undefeated season.
(Continuedon page 42)
silver is the
honor...and
silver it
has been!
Silver I___ I V
t Anniversary
o-o
i
1943 -1961
March, 1968
17