WALKIN ' IN ARKANSAS
BY JOAN BEASLEY Valhalla , Route 1 FARMINGTON , ARKANSAS 72730
' flic * Contributing Editor from Arkansas is confused . Lately the greater part of my thoughts have been o ! the " sore " horse and the controversy of the legislation against the practice . I can ' t think of one good reason why the proposed laws would obliterate a breed of natural Walking Horses . Pacers , yes ; Walkers , no ! They might not look as showy in the ring , their knees wouldn ’ t hit their noses , and the rider wouldn ’ t have to think about sliding off the rump because they wouldn ' t be " down under " quite as far , but they would still be walking ! Granted , the show * that are predominantly Walking Horse shows might suffer at first , but once we all got " with it " and started working together we could come back with better shows than ever . We don ' t have to prove to the American Saddiebred folk > that we have a show horse . They know it now . A . - as lor them cleaning up their house too - well , that ' s up to them . Wouldn ' t it be a lovely feeling to ride into that ring on a calm , happy , sound horse doing his " thing " in the way he was meant to do . knowing we were on a horse that needed no embellishments to make him do his gait and look beautiful ?
One crazy part of all this is that there are many people that laugh when you speak of a " natural .” The majority of them have gotten into the Walking Horse world since ail the " soreing " began , and they honestly believe that if a colt doesn ' t pace , he won ' t walk . They think that if he paces a trainer can , with mechanics , " make " a Walker . I have argued with them in the past ; now 1 just feel sad . What do they think all those colts are doing out in the pasture with their little heads going up and down when they are hurrying to keep up with mama ?
. About the time the " soreing " problem really became a problem , we moved to Texas and I was out ol touch for a time . 1 remember the first show with a Walking class 1 had seen for several years was in Oklahoma City . When the first horse came into the ring , I really couldn ' t figure out what had happened to him . Then suddenly there was a ring full ol ' gorgeous black horses doing the same gait my pleasure horses did , only in a high-stepping , exaggerated way . How did they do it '/ It was beautiful , exciting and lovely , and the crowd went wild when the judge called for the running walk . My husband -Joe had never seen anything quite like it and neither had I . We were thrilled ! When we found out why , we could have cried . Is the thrill worth the agony /
It has been said . " Great strides have been made ," but all I can find are a few teensy steps made by a lew . I ' ve spent my life trying to keep the feet of my horses in perfect shape and making sure they didn ' t hurt . 1 cannot understand intentionally hurting them for tiie sake of showiness . It seems to me we have been given a pretty good chance to do this thing ourselves and we haven ' t . It seems too much of our lives is ruled by Federal Laws now and most of it is a barb to us all . As a southerner , I am " agin " federal legislation ! But if we won t do it ourselves , how else can it be done ? Mr . Spencer , our Editor , says this will kill the Walking Horse business . Now , I am not wanting to argue with Mr . Spencer . He is a fine person , loves Walkers , and is truly interested in what happens to the breed . But in his article in the September / October issue of the VOICE he makes this statement a number of times but fails to explain how it will ruin our business and hurt the breed . All I am asking for is an answer and no one seems to know . Granted , there will be a lot of cheap show horses , but they are the ones that cannot walk without artificial means to start with . There will be a number of show horses whose value will double — the naturals . Due to " improvement of the breed " these are becoming fewer in number all the time . It seems to me the economy of the Walking Horse business will be helped in the long run and the breeding program will be given a long-needed clean-up of far too many stallions that should be in front of a sulky instead of under a saddle . When traveling on a " horse-seeing tour ," one begins to wonder if the word " geld " is now obsolete ! If it ' s black and pretty it is left a stud regardless of breeding or what the feet can do gait-wise . Getting back to the natural way of going would certainly end this . One ." Lallion owner we know has said that less than 5 ",, of all walkers foaled are naturals . The word was out that naturals don ' t make good show horses . Now he says he has a pasture full of naturals . Naturals will be " in ” if certain rules are enforced .
I have not written or telegraphed our good senators favoring their legislation . . . yet ! Neither have I written against it , and won ’ t until someone can come up with a good , sound answer as to how it will hurt the right man with a good horse . We had all rather " clean up ” without Federal legislation , but so far there has been too much dust left under the rug . I don ' t think it can be said we are cleaning up our own mess with much alacrity . Apparently Tennessee ’ s Governor Buford Ellington is also becoming impatient with our " fervid " efforts . It makes you feel pretty peculiar when people look at you like you are some king of criminal because you own a Walking Horse . If it takes lesiglation to keep " Walker ” from being a dirty word , no one is to blame but us — the people that breed , raise , and train Walkers !
EDITOR ’ S NOTE : I would like to thank Mrs . . Joan Beasley for her very perceptive article . To answer her question , federal legislation would " kill the Walking Horse business ” because few horse show managers are willing to risk imprisonment or fines for the sake of Walking Horses . They would soon drop our breed from their show , or would find some other means of raising money besides a horse show . As Senator Tydings said in LIFE magazine , and I quote , " If we can close down some shows , we ' ll put a stop to all this .” He ' s right !
We cannot return to the days when the canter was the fastest gait . This would be comparable to returning to the " T-Model Ford ” for today ' s travel needs . We can , however , find a middle ground between the show horse gait that we see today and the pure , natural , undeveloped gait of the early days . Somewhere between these two examples is a horse that we can Jive with ; a horse that will be exciting and beautilul and that will command top prices ; a horse that will do enough naturally in the showring to maintain our status in the horse world . Remember . . . our horse has progressed 1 aster than we have , and ii we are smart and are given just a little more time , " he will pull us out of the ditch .”
38 Voice of the Tennessee Walking Horse