1964-Voice Of The Tennessee Walking Horse 1964 January Voice | Page 16

JANUARY
TENNESSEE WALKING Hi 6}RSE
The VOICE takes pleasure in intro­
ducing a new feature column, which
will appear each month, as a part of
our continuing effort to provide the
best possible coverage of "Walking
Horses Around the World.” In this
column you will be reading news of
all kinds, from everywhere.
Mrs. Fred E. (Barbara M.) Friend,
editorial assistant on the staff and
secretary of the VOICE Publishing
Company, Chattanooga, will write this
column. News of general interest to
lovers of Tennessee Walking Horses,
questions or opinions for general pub­
lication should all be addressed to Mrs.
Barbara M. Friend, Box 3054, Chat­
tanooga, Tennessee (37404). A capable
writer with experience in several
phases of publications, Mrs. Friend is
enjoying her new association with the
VOICE. We urge all of our readers to
send news and views for this column;
we will use all of it that we possibly
can, and as soon as we can. With your
help the VOICE can help Walking
Horse People keep in touch with one
another all year.
—The Editors
Mrs. L. H. Williamson, I Evans
Parade, Glenbrook, New South
Wales, Australia, wishes to locate
any other Australians who share
her interest in the Tennessee Walk­
ing Horse. Her acquaintance with
the breed began when her hus­
band, a member of the Royal
Australian Air Force was sta­
tioned in South Carolina on Ex­
change Duties with U S A F. While
in the United States she attended
three Celebrations and has become
so fond of Walking Horses that she
is very much interested in learning
whether there are any plans for
exporting Tennessee Walking
Horses to Australia. In other
words, “Tie me kangaroo down,
Sport”, and send a Tennessee
Walker to my port.
Helpful hints: Here is a new idea
for pleasure riders who enjoy pack­
ing a lunch and riding off to some
secluded spot for an outing. Aleiha
Wiehl of Yakima, Washington, and
her local saddle-maker have per­
fected a bit which unsnaps, leaving
a halter. This ingenious device
leaves her horse free to graze while
she enjoys her picnic. Mrs. Wiehl
also has the answer to protecting
her hands when riding but, at the
same time, leaving her fingers un­
encumbered. She simply cut the
fingers out of an old pair of gloves
and created something similar, no
doubt, to a golfing glove.
Nancy Gilliam of Manchester,
Tennessee, apparently has become
a good will ambassador for the Ten­
nessee Walking Horse at the Uni­
versity of Tennessee where she is
a freshman. Nancy reports that
not only Tennessee girls but girls
from many other states were great­
ly impressed with the beautiful
horses pictured in the VOICE.
Since all these girls are interested
in learning more about Tennessee
Walking Horses, Nancy has writ­
ten home for other sources of in­
formation with which she can help
satisfy this thirst for equine know­
ledge. We are delighted to hear of
this interest at the college level.
“I want another Walker!” says
Ernie Peters of Compton, Cali­
fornia. Mr. Peters reports that he
is the owner of three quarter
horses but that after he rode a
Tennessee Walking Horse, it didn’t
take him long to purchase one.
Now he intends to sell one or two
of his quarter horses and get an­
other Walking Horse as soon as
the right one comes his way.
Another Californian, Mrs. Bern­
ard R. Crawford, of Independence,
California, writes that her family is
more than pleased with their Walk­
ing brood mare and is eagerly
awaiting the arrival of her foal.
The Crawofrds are pioneers in the
Walking Horse Breed in their area,
since there are no other Walkers in
their vicinity. They will doubtless
make many friends for the Ten­
nessee Walking Horse with their
mare and her foals; and, perhaps,
soon, some of their neighbors will
be Walking Horse owners too.
Veni, Vidi, Vici . . . Other Ten­
nessee Walking Horses in Cali­
fornia are proving themselves and
impressing the skeptics. Donald V.
Smith of Red Bluff, California,
states, “When we first procured
Tennessee Walking Horses, we took
a lot of kidding from our cowboy
friends because we were sup­
posedly acquiring horses good for
nothing except to walk around a
track. Since that time many of our
friends have had an opportunity to
ride our two saddle mares to work
cattle and that has silenced them
in that regard.” Mr. Smith also re­
ports that Mrs. Smith’s four-year-
old mare acquitted herself splen­
didly before ridiculing quarter
horse owners when she went after
and carried home a buck that had
been shot on a hunting trip high in
the mountains; “She performed in
a manner which made the quarter
horse owners very silent, and it
was just as though she had been
doing this all her life.” Since at­
tending the Celebration in 1962, the
Smiths have acquired two show
stallions; one show mare; one top
breeding stallion, BLUE NAM-
RON; three saddle mares; nine
brood mares; two two-year-old
fillies in training; and six colts
from their own mares. The Smith s
feel that they have the best bred
breeding stock on i.he Pacific Coast.
From Californ;:> also comes a re­
port from Mrs.
B. Lawton of
Placerville, concerning her Walk­
ers’ reliability, stesidiness and good
judgement on a difficult ride along
High Sierra trails reaching a height
of 8,300 feet. Her three horses out­
performed and out-lasted Western
horses, bred for such endurance
contests. It appears that Tennessee
Walking Horses are really “walk­
ing on” in California.
From the eastern coast comes a
report from Mrs. Harry McDaniel.
117 Hawthorne Avenue, Neptune,
New Jersey, that although Ten­
nessee Walking Horses are practi­
cally unheard of in her territory,
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