1964-Voice Of The Tennessee Walking Horse 1964 August Voice | Page 36

JUDY ’ S JOTTINGS

By Judy Byers Killer , Alabama
The amateur riders in North Alabama have some outstanding horses that they take to every show in Alabama , Tennessee , and Mississippi . In fact . Sam Hall of Tuscumbia has shown his black stallion MISTER PIDDLEY at shows from Houston , Texas to Nashville , Tennessee . MISTER PIDDLEY was raised by Sam and was one of the first horses under saddle by the MERRY GO BOY stallion PIDDLEY . He was trained and shown by Bud Dunn as a 2 and 3 year old for many blue ribbon wins . Owner Sam Hall has been training and showing him successfully in amateur classes this year . MISTER PIDDLEY has recently been put with George Witt of Athens who says he is one of the best amateur mounts he has ridden .
Gail Jones of Florence raised MAUGRAY ’ S BIG MAN from her MIDNIGHT SUNSET mare and the old show horse MAUGRAY ’ S CRITERION . Gail broke and started training the colt with the help of the young trainer Billy Stanfield . Bud Dunn put the finishing touches on BIG MAN this year and Gail has shown him very well in amateur classes everywhere .
Jack Darnell and Raye Graham have several top horses that they show in the amateur classes . Jack trains their mounts at his barn in Huntsville and Raye drives from
Meridian , Mississippi every week to make the shows in Alabama and Tennessee . SUN ’ S PAPER DOLL and Raye Graham are a combination that is competition wherever they go . They usually take away the blue ribbon as does Jack Darnell on the good gelding MERRY BOY ’ S JACKPOT . Darnell has a HANDSHAKER horse that is a show winner and PHIL ’ S GO BOY was always hard to beat .
Connie Carmichael is an enthusiastic young rider that has been showing several years in the pleasure classes . She has a big sorrel OLD GLORY gelding by the name of GLORY ’ S CHANCE that has taken about 34 ribbons including 16 blues . She hopes to show in the amateur classes this year a BIG SHOT gelding , being trained for her by Bud Dunn , as soon as he is ready for competition . Another young rider moves up in the horse show business from pleasure horses to amateur classes .
EL CID , a black Walking Pony , is shown by Charlotte Neill of Tuscumbia . This striking pair are seen at many shows and have won a number of ribbons . They took fourth place at the exciting Belfast show but won the blue ribbon at the equally good Ardmore show . I understand that Charlotte keeps and trains her own pony at her home . Very good indeed for such a young rider .
We attend every show in North Alabama , North Mississippi and Middle Tennessee and however small the Belfast show may seem compared in attendance to Fayetteville it certainly compares in quality of horses and riders . Belfast , Tennessee held its 4th annual horse show ' Friday , July 31 and announced that it had the largest crowd in attendance and possibly the greatest number of horses . When a show has such outstanding trainers as Doug Wolaver , Jimmy Waddell , Steve Hill , Charles Martin , Don Pascal , Buddy Black , Wink Groover , Robert Burris , Harold Kennedy and Albert Rowland and others showing their horses it couldn ’ t be anything but good .
You v / ill find the official list of winners elsewhere in the VOICE but I must tell you about the most interesting and most exciting classes of the show . Interesting to me would be the gelding class because of the stories behind the first and second place horses . HILL ’ S PERFECTION , who was the World ’ s Champion Gelding last year , was tied first with Steve Hill riding him again to the honors . PERFECTION ’ S history has already been published and most people know of his life on the range before his show career began . Wink Groover was riding an 8 year old gelding , shown under the name of SUN DUST RAM­ BLER , that was considered an outlaw by owner Roy Davis . The horse was sent to Wink Groover during last winter in hopes that he could break him though he was 7 years old . Wink tried the horse but the fight was too much and after several mishaps and injuries told Davis he wouldn ’ t ride him . Wink has a big friend , Junior Carver , who agreed to try his luck for a fee . The horse finally found his match and after considerable work decided he would rather be a top show horse than an outlaw so Wink has trained him . He took 2nd place but gave Steve and HILL ’ S PERFECTION a real contest for his show ring debut . Next time it very well could be the other way around . Be on the lookout for SUN DUST RAMBLER and Win ¥ Groover .
The Walking Stallion class was the most exciting , of course , with TRIPLE THREAT , the reserve World ’ s Champion , and MIGHTY GO BOY , a top contender , battling it out to the finish . TRIPLE THREAT was tied first with Harold Kennedy riding . MIGHTY GO BOY was reserve ridden by Albert Rowland but that decision too could be reversed at their next meeting . Jimmy Waddell made an excellent show on SHADOW ’ S SHADRACK for third place . Kenny Burke and MAC K ’ S STINGRAY were tied fourth with MIGHTY MISSILE K and Doug Wolaver fifth . Quite a good show and I ’ m sorry if you had to miss it .
36 VOICE of The Tennessee Walking Horse