1969 Voice Of The Tennessee Walking Horse 1969 June Voice RS | Page 60

Lonny Barnes Stable would be well represented even without BEAU GENTRY . In fact , the more he thought about it , the more he liked the idea of not having to show under so much pressure this year . Dr . Greely wasn ’ t pushing him too much to show BEAU JACK anyway so . . . you never can tell .
It was a beautiful summer evening and Lonny and Helen were out behind the house watching the mares and colts in the south pasture . The sun had just settled behind the ridge and a cool breeze was blowing the fresh scent of evening across the valley . The kids were playing with the dog and Lonny and Helen were leaning on the white board fence , just listening to the sounds of the country . Each was engrossed in private thoughts when the silence was broken by the jingling
Ml * r QUEST
OF

A . BLUE by Charles Barry Sanderson

( Continued from Last Month )
Almost three months had passed since Lonny Barnes had broken his leg on his fall from BEAU JACK . A lot had happened in that span of time and for all practical purposes he really hadn ’ t done too bad financially . True , he had lost BEAU GENTRY as a breeding horse , but he had received everything that he had been promised by both Dr . Greely and the man who was standing him at stud . Several friends had rallied to his need when he was first in the hospital and his good horses had been well taken care of . Most of his customers had stayed with him during the time he was laid up , and both he and Helen were grateful for such good friends .
Lonny had been back in the saddle about two weeks and was beginning to regain his feeling of confidence . He had found it was somewhat hard to pick up where he left off when it came to riding top show stock . Three months is a long time to let some horses go and , as he saw it , he was going to have to work overtime to get his best stock in shape for the Festival in September . In analyzing his stock , he was still somewhat in a quandry as to what his chances were .
BEAU GENTRY was standing at stud in Middle Tennessee and Dr . Greely had not spoken to Lonny about their original understanding about showing him back again . Lonny remembered the contract with Alex Bartlet and that he was to stop breeding BEAU GENTRY the fifteenth of June so that they could start getting him back in shape to show . He also remembered that a lot of people , many of whom he respected very much , had told him that it would be impossible to get his World Champion back in shape to show in two and a half months , especially since they had been breeding him all spring .
Taking stock , Lonny felt that his best chance , naturally , was with BEAU JACK . They had another nice colt , the one that M . L . had tied with at the Rathmore show on Nero Mountain , that he just might let him show7 again at the Festival , and he also had a nice two-year-old filly . With two juvenile riders and a couple of good amateurs and his aged mare and gelding , the of the telephone ’ s outside bell . " I ’ ll get it ,” said Lonny , as he turned to run toward the house . Helen watched him as he went toward the back porch , still giving in somewhat to his previously injured left leg .
Helen gathered the kids and headed for the house . " Com ’ on now . . . bedtime . You ’ ve all got to have baths and get cleaned up before you go .” Little Lonny was grumbling because , being the oldest , he should be allowed to stay up later than the rest . He opened the door wide and let the dog in , and Helen yelled at him , " Lonny ! You put that dog right back out ! You know ...” She ceased her motherly ranting when she saw Lonny at the phone , motioning her to " be quiet ”
When she had finished getting the kids to bed , Helen returned to the den and found Lonny in the middle of the floor going over some old Festival annuals . He had a piece of paper stuck in the margin of each issue and was reading very intently . " What are you doing ?” she said , as she picked up one of the magazines . He looked up from his reading and said , " I ’ m just checking the background of the judges of the Festival for the past few years .” With a slight grin , Helen said , " What ’ s so interesting about the men who have judged the Festival in the past ? I ’ d think you would be more interested in who ’ s going to judge it this year .” He laughed as he smacked her on the backside of a pair of all-too-tight shorts and said , " I am . . . they just asked me if I would be interested in the job .”
Helen was dumbfounded when Lonny gave her the details of his recent telephone conversation with General Billy Hohan , manager of the Festival Horse Show . He related to her about the general asking about his horses and how he was doing . He said that everyone thought that BEAU GENTRY would be a great breeding horse and that he had heard that Alex Bartlet had done a great job breeding him . After that , the general went into a brief outline as to how the Festival selects judges . This was most interesting to Helen and she asked for every detail . " Well ,” said Lonny , " it seems that every member of the board keeps a
58 Voice of the Tennessee Walking Horse