1969 Voice Of The Tennessee Walking Horse 1969 April Voice RS | Page 62

Many of these shows hire a judge as recommended
by some local Walking Horse enthusiast - who usually
ends up with a large part of the blue ribbons. If a
show is not a member of any association it can hire
anyone it may desire, whether he is qualified or not,
and if you attend such a show, you do not deserve a
blue ribbon.
On the other hand, there are many people who carry
a judge’s card from one association or another who
are simply not qualified, or whose past performances
indicate that they haven’t the honesty or integrity to
warrant your trust. We remember attending a show
some years ago and witnessing a disgusting job of
judging. The manager of the show was also an official
of the area horse show association. He was also the
announcer for the show and had four horses that won
5 blue ribbons. He also owned the winner of the pleas­
ure horse class that came back to tie reserve in the
stake class. In discussing this with the judge, we
pointed out that a one-night horse show may not seem
important, but at that show he had been the sole
judge of a quarter of a million dollars’ worth of horses.
The pitiful part about this situation is that we have
no way to prevent such a person from repeating his
performance the next week. As long as we have peo­
ple to whom a blue ribbon is priceless, and judges
who will accept their terms, and trainers who will
participate in such a sham, then we will continue to
have the current situation.
With this in mind ... DO YOUR PART! Work closely
with those horse shows in your area and try to assist
the management of those shows in obtaining the
services of a judge that will be a credit to the show
as well as to the Walking Horse business at large.
Make sure that the manager knows our rules and
knows what we expect of him as the key official at
his horse show. Point out to him that this is the best
way to have a good, successful, profit-making horse
show and to assure that horsemen will participate
again next year.
Rule Changes
Finally . . . after much discussion and considerable
rebuff of the VOICE for printing the approved rules
for 1969 . . . changes in the rule having to do with
the "length of the horse’s foot” have been made.
Representatives of the various Walking Horse organiz­
ations met in Shelbyville, Tennessee in March to dis­
cuss the rules which were reprinted in the February
VOICE. Unable to come to any decision using a dia­
gram, they decided to move their session to the C. A.
Bobo Stables and check some horses. This was most
revealing. The consensus was that very few horses in
any stable would meet the standards as previously
approved. The new rule reads: "THE TOE OF THE
FRONT FOOT MUST BE AT LEAST ONE INCH (1”)
LONGER THAN THE HEEL.”
One other clarification should be made. In the rules
for 1969 which were printed in February, the diagram
of the boot showed that the three-inch (3”) measure­
ment was to be made of the bell portion of the boot
only. This has been clarified to include the roll at the
top of the boot.
Breeders’ Association Election
An article in last month’s VOICE set forth the facts
regarding the upcoming election of officers for the
■ROYAL HEIR’S
TRAINED BY
LARRY L. LOWMAN
WALK-A-BY STABLES
MURFREESBORO, TENNESSEE
CRACKERBOX”
RICKY WOMACK
LARRY LOWMAN
This outstanding pony was shown very success­
fully by Larry last year and will be shown during
the '69 season by Ricky Womack.
SIRE: GO BOY’S ROYAL HEIR
DAM: LORD BRANTLEY MARE
LARRY LOWMAN — up
OWNERS
MR
& MRS. W. T. VAUGHAN
ANTIOCH, TENNESSEE