1968-Voice Of The Tennessee Walking Horse 1968 May Voice RS | Page 5

die and two long lead lines. It is
similar to a regular bitting rig. At
some stages DELIGHT was pretty
hard to handle and showed an un­
usual amount of stamina and deter­
mination as well as horse sense. He
had a lot of life and really didn’t
want to give in too much at first.
After about two or three weeks of
this I started riding him and in three
or four months I figured we had a
great horse on our hands. He had a
whole lot of n atural ability.”
Shorty remembers his first show
on SUN’S DELIGHT as well as his
last. He only showed him twice as a
twoyear-old and only four times as
a three-year-old (then called Junior
Horses). Before tying reserve at the
Celebration in the Junior Class of
1962, SUN’S DELIGHT didn’t really
have an impressive showring record.
Knowing Shorty Branscum as we do,
he never plays the odds of the horse
show business ... he just loads up
and goes to a show. If they beat him
— well, that’s just part of the game.
We asked Neal Branscum what he
thought when Mr. Dean sold SUN’S
DELIGHT and he said, "I really
hated to see him go. I always thought
he would win the big one some day
and thought I could do it with him.
I guess it worked out best for every­
one the way it was, though.”
One of the most interesting as­
pects to the history of SUN’S DE­
LIGHT is the recollection of Mr.
Fray Escue, the man who purchased
the horse in the fall of 1962. Now
regarded as a seasoned horseman
and an astute Walking Horse author­
ity, Mr. Escue recalls his purchase
of SUN’S DELIGHT with a bit of
amusement. He says, "I was like
the bumblebee who doesn’t know he
can’t fly . . . and flies anyway. I was
new in the business and didn’t know
it was practically impossible to go
out and buy a horse just to win the
Celebration. Not knowing this, I went
to Sam Paschal, the man who had
won the big stake in 1962, and asked
him to buy me one to do the same
thing. With this in mind we started
looking for horses and eventually
purchased SUN’S DELIGHT. The
chances are that I wouldn’t even
consider such a venture today be­
cause experience has taught me that
'it just can’t be done’.”
Fray Escue and his family had
been in the Walking Horse business
a little over a year when they pur­
chased SUN’S DELIGHT. Exactly
nine months to the day after they
purchased him they had their World’s
Grand Champion. Somewhat of a
record, to say the least . . . especial­
ly for a newcomer!
May, 1968
One of the key people in the his­
toric climb to stardom for SUN’S
DELIGHT was Mr. Sam Paschal,
rider of three World’s Grand Champ­
ions. When questioned about the rel­
ative merits of these three champ­
ions and the other horses which he
has shown throughout a career of
forty-two years, Mr. Paschal replied,
"Well, I have been told by a lot of
people that the overall performance
of SUN’S DELIGHT at the 1963
Celebration was the greatest display
ever made by a Tennessee Walking
Horse in the twenty-nine-year his­
tory of the show. I will have to
agree with them!” Another interest­
ing observation by Mr. Paschal was
in reply to a question that he was
asked after the Thursday Night Stud
Class at the 1963 Celebration. When
so many people asked him whether
his horse could make another great
show on Saturday night (for the big
stake) he replied, "Well,, of course,
I don’t know. But he makes six
good shows a week about 4:30 ev­
ery morning, and so I don’t see why
he can’t make a good one again
Saturday night.” The record book
shows that he did!
Winning the Celebration was not
the end of the road for SUN’S DE­
LIGHT. After his victory at theShel-
byville classic, the deep chestnut
(Continued on page 61)
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