1969 Voice Of The Tennessee Walking Horse 1969 July Voice RS | Page 37

when he picked up speed. He and Winston spent
many an hour down in the flats and in the brush just
riding.” By the time the show-ring gate opened in the
spring, the name of MERRY GO BOY was in the air.
He was traveling on a reputation that had him built
up as a "super horse.” Observers claimed that he
could stride further, step higher and go faster than
any other Walking Horse ever foaled.
His first show under saddle was Pulaski, Tennessee,
and Mr. J. French Brantley of Wartrace reported on
this event in a most emphatic way. "He was the
greatest two-year-old ever seen up to that time. He
had a running walk that compared with the horses of
today, and he was going without boots. He had a look
that was new in the Walking Horse business, with
more animation and style than any horse I had ever
seen. Winston had a reputation of riding too fast but
this horse stayed with him and together they re-wrote
the book on the Walking Horse in the show ring.”
Before MERRY GO BOY reached the Celebration ring
as a two-year-old Mr. R. W. Norman saw him and
paid an unprecedented $2,000.00 for one-third interest
in him. Thus the names of Mallard, Norman and
Wiser became synonymous with MERRY GO BOY
and so it was to remain for three years.
The fame of the black horse with the big lick spread
like wildfire and soon MERRY GO BOY was a familiar
word in the Walking Horse vocabulary. At the 1945
Celebration, after an undefeated season, he won the
Two-Year-Old Championship in fine form. By this time
he had won more acclaim than any other show horse
of this breed. Winston and MERRY GO BOY came
back strong in 1946 in the Three-Year-Old Classes,
then called Junior Horses, and again went through
an undefeated season.
It is at this point that the story of MERRY GO BOY
begins to become somewhat of a miracle. It is stated
that Winston bred this stallion to over three hundred
mares during both his three- and four-year-old years.
This, plus the fact that he was also showing him,
attests to the remarkable stamina of this horse. In
1946 Mr. C. C. Turner of Broadway, Virginia, a well-
known Walking Horse enthusiast and a strong mem­
ber of the Breeders’ Association, purchased MERRY
GO BOY for $45,000.00. Mrs. Winston Wiser, in relat­
ing the purchase of GO BOY by Mr. Turner, recently
stated that “the papers reported the figure as $55,-
000.00 and when we made out our income tax return
July, 1969
(Above) FINAL SHOW — In
ring in the Get of Sire Class
career- He never entered the
MERRY GO BOY on his 25th
year ago, the famed champion
1967, MERRY GO BOY entered the Celebration
to win the final victory of his twenty-six-year
ring again.
(Below) A classic head shot of
birthday celebration. At that time, just over a
was alert and healthy.
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