1969 Voice Of The Tennessee Walking Horse 1969 February Voice RS | Page 8

Lonny . . . about twenty-two degrees.” He added,
"Weather man say it’s going to get all th’ way up to
thirty-eight this noon.”
After going through the preliminaries of checking all
his horses, Lonny set about getting BEAU JACK
ready to work. This was an important day for Lonny,
because he had done some experimenting with his
black "wonder horse” the night before, and was anxi­
ous to see what effect, if any, some of his training
techniques would have on his horse. Looking at M. L.,
he said, "Well . . . let’s get him out and see how he’s
going to do.”
MTV
QUEST
OF
A k.
BTUE
by Charles Barry Sanderson
For over a month, barn talk all over the Walking
Horse world had centered on BEAU JACK, the black
two-year-old stud colt by BEAU GENTRY that had
captured the fancy of a lot of well-known people in
the business. Since he had been first unveiled by Lon-
ny and Dr. Greely, the word was out that he was "the
one to beat."
The program to stand BEAU GENTRY at stud for
SI.000 had gotten under way and they had already
run their first ad in the breed publication Stallion
Issue. Thus far, the reception had been rather cool, as
they had booked only three mares since the magazine
came out, but there were undercurrents of interest
that hinged on the progress of BEAU’s first colt.
Quite a few people had made the trip to the Lonny
Barnes Stables to see both the 1968 World Champion
and BEAU JACK, his first colt under saddle. Lonny
was very careful in working this truly fine horse and
had to refrain from working him every time someone
came into the barn to look at him. It was becoming a
problem to work him at all because every time Lonny
got him ready to work there was always a group of
people around to see him. Lonny, like all trainers,
needed some time to work a young horse alone. He
needed to do a little experimenting with bits, shoeing
and some other tricks, and finally decided to work him
early in the day.
It was a cold, dark morning. Since deciding to work
BEAU JACK early, Lonny had made arrangements
for Martin Luther, his colored ground man, to come in
an hour early every day and leave an hour early. Of
course the enthusiastic young man always stayed un­
til Lonny left, anyway, but at least Lonny had tried.
M. L. had come in before Lonny and had fired up the
heater. He put a pot of coffee on to brew and set
about cleaning up for the day’s work.
Lonny came in and hustled over to the heater.
"How cold is it, M. L.?’’ he asked, as he looked at
the thermometer on the wall. M. L. inspected the mer­
cury and said, "Not too bad this mawning, Mister
10
Without saying a word, the young Negro went to the
stall with a lead line in his hand. As he opened the
door, the young black stallion turned his heels toward
the door. "Hmmmm. . .” M. L. said to himself. "He’s
never done THAT before.” He noticed that BEAU
JACK was standing with his feet close together and
his back legs up under him, and was swaying some­
what from side to side. "Com’ere, hoss . . .” he said
as he moved around the door facing. At that moment
the sleek black stud let out an angry snort and brac­
ed himself for a hind-foot assault. M. L. recognized
the signals and, just as BEAU JACK cut loose with a
vicious kick, managed to hit the ground on his back in
an undignified manner. BEAU JACK’S right hind foot
caught the edge of the door facing with such force that
it sent a fragment of wood at least twelve inches long
and three inches wide flying across the hall.
Hearing the commotion, Lonny came running to see
what the trouble was. He saw M. L. lying on the floor,
scrambling to get out of the way of flying hoofs.
BEAU JACK continued his kicking at anything that
moved. With ears back, he would strike out the mom­
ent that Lonny set foot in his stall. He made no move
to escape but was content to hold his ground. Lonny
brushed M. L. off and said, "Let’s let him cool off for
a few minutes. We can get him out in a little bit.”
After a cup of coffee, Lonny eased up to the stall
and talked to the young horse. He noticed that BEAU
JACK had broken out into a sweat and that his ears
were laid back. He showed none of the life and brilli­
ance that made him so outstanding. Lonny slowly
opened the door and again BEAU JACK aimed his
heels at the door. "Easy, boy . . . easy. Nobody’s
going to hurt you. Easy, now.” He slowly eased his
way up beside the colt and put his hand on his neck.
BEAU JACK put his ears up and looked st