WALKIN ' IN ARKANSAS
BY JOAN BEASLEY Valhalla, Route 1 FARMINGTON, ARKANSAS 72730
There has been a great resurgence of interest in all parts of our country in the pleasure horse, and more people are buying Walking Horses for their personal mounts. Northwest Arkansas abounds in Pleasure Walkers, registered horses with papers that read
•’ rite similarly to some of our finest show stock, and v e would like to tell you about a few of them. Some of these horses are back-yard pets, some are shown during season and ridden for pleasure during offseason, but they all have one thing in common: each of them has walked its way right into some person’ s
heart. There is a stallion at Gentry that took our interest
and held it from our first visit. We learned that his name is MIDNIGHT C. by MIDNIGHT’ S GOLD STAR by MIDNIGHT SUN. His dam was GLORY LASSIE, an ALLEN-bred mare. MIDNIGHT C. is registered as sorrel, but he is very close to palomino— that good, deep, golden shade with reddish lights— with beautiful, long, flaxen mane and tail. Greg Cripps is the proud owner of this ten-year-old stallion, and with a pasture full of horses of other breeds, guess who he rides when he takes to the trail? Right! MIDNIGHT C., shod like a quarter horse, minding his own business, and walking like mad!
The Ben Chesneys of Siloam Springs are both big Walker enthusiasts. They have a pasture full of mares and some real nice weanlings. One of Ben’ s favorite mares is owned jointly with Mrs. Nancy Randall, also of Siloam. FIRST JOY, by PRIDE OF HALL ALLEN out of SANDER’ S JOY, has been shown in Pleasure Classes at some good shows and has tied well. Wally Moon— yes, that’ s the one, baseball’ s pride!— likes this mare and has shown her several times. He is a rather recent convert to horses from baseball, and we think he did real well to ride JOY to fourth place at the Siloam show in a huge pleasure class after working with her only one week. JOY has a very nice coming-tv. o filly by Ben ' s MACK K. stallion, MACK K’ S BIG CHANCE. This seven-year-old is a beautiful bay and has sired some fine colts. Ben aspires to show him next spring, so BIG CHANCE may be off the roads and into the ring. He has the looks, bloom and breeding( his dam was MARY GOLD ALLEN from the MERRY BOY line) and we wish Ben good luck on this venture.
Tito Morsani of Tontitown has a very favorite mare at his house. She is a LAST CHANCE mare a chestnut named MY LINDA LEE, and Tito has a’ couple of her fillies to back up his belief in her. One is aTorre yearling, PRINCESS LADY M. by BRIGHT DFridin w the stud owned by Clell Burnett ofBenlonvUleTh^s springs filly is a chestnut by DULAN’ S otpdv MACK. LINDA is a realnaturi. RS
all over the country to field trials, and he has never yet failed to give him says she good day’ s work. a good ride or do a
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MY LINDA LEE had a son a couple of years ago that made us all very proud. Morris Collier bought MACK K’ S BLACK CHANCE( by BLACK ANGEL’ S MACK K) when he was just six months old and took him to Floyd Posenke to care for, break, and train. The colt looked so good as a weanling that one just knew he’ d make a show horse, and he is well on his way. MACK is a real flashy black colt, and we all hope he does as well in Junior classes next season as he did in the two-year-old classes. Morris has MACK and his amateur stallion ROCKY HILL( by MIDNIGHT PLEASURE R. G.) home in Fayetteville now, and is working both of them himself, out of the training ring and onto the fields of the U. of Arkansas Farm. These horses are not technically pleasure horses, but in essence they are being used as such.
Glen Giles of Prairie Grove has a dark blue roan stud by RODGERS PERFECTION out of an OLD GLORY mare that he rides as often as time permits. HOT TODDY has the conformation, bloom, manners, and gait... everything it takes to make a good show horse... but Mr. Giles isn’ t interested in the showring for himself. He rides TODDY in parades occasionally, plain shod with western equipment, and TOD DY really walks on.
Our little’’ orphan,” THE WILD REBEL, was sired by HOT TODDY out of our pleasure mare, PAPRIKA DARLIN’. REBEL’ S dam is still with us, but she had no milk so our little blue roan REBEL got his milk from our son’ s old baby bottles. Our overgrown sevenmonth-old isn’ t ready to be anyone’ s pleasure horse yet, but he is a lot of colt, big and loose, and we can hardly wait! ' RIKA, his dam, is a dark sorrel roan of ALLEN breeding, and is seventeen hands of personality! She’ s big, and she’ s boss of the entire place! JAVA B., our four-year-old black roan stallion, is the other one we love to ride. JAVA is a line-bred MER RY BOY, being by LITTLE MERRY BOY out of BUR NETT’ S MERRY GIRL. We decided to show JAVA just for fun last spring and took him to Jerry Underwood for training, but hard luck attended us: at his first show he came down with colic. We brought him home to Farmington, and during a real good ride he threw a shoe and lost a lot of hoof. That ended all thoughts of show last year, but we are riding him for pleasure, and pleasure it is!
KEEP THOSE CARDS AND LETTERS COMING... WITH YOUR HORSE SHOW DATES ON ' EM!
Is your club or association planning a horse show in 1969? If so, now is the time for the show manager to send us the date and other basic information so that it can be included in the VOICE’ S " Horse Shows to Remember” column. There is no charge for this listing and it will appear monthly. Remind your show manager— or send it in yourself.
This year, in addition to the date, name of show, location of show and person to contact, please include the number of Walking Horse classes planned. This will be of value to trainers and owners who are planning their schedules for the show season. And, after your show, don’ t forget to send the results to the VOICE.
Advertising always pays— and this advertising costs your club a maximum of six cents... for the stamp!
Voice of the Tennessee Walking Horse