1964-Voice Of The Tennessee Walking Horse 1964 June Voice | Page 34
By Lowell H. Clemmons, Sr., M.D.
Cullman, Alabama
It is with rare pleasure that we wel
come the distinguished man o{ let
ters, Dr. Lowell H. Clemmons to the
VOICE staff of life. Dr. Clemmons is
perhaps best known for his forthright
approach to the horse business as re
flected in his articles (by the same
name) which appear annually in the
"Blue Ribbon” Yearbook of the Cele
bration, Incorporated. Dr. Clemmons
has a keen understanding of the horse
business and attempts to clarify many
of the problems of the horse world
by relating situations, antecedents and
stories which reflect the true situation.
We are sure you will appreciate the
fact that “Dr. Clemmons Rides Again!”
THE EDITORS
Patsy, my oldest daughter—by
marriage—(that is by marriage to
my son Philip) is one of my favor
ite people to tell stories to. I think
she and I laugh at the same things
and a lot of times we laugh when
other people don’t think things are
funny. Several times I have told
her the story of Duke, a horse I
once had and since she and I get
so tickled about this story, she in
sists that I write it just for our en
tertainment.
A number of years ago when we
were living in Brewton, I bought
a horse named Duke. His breeding
was unknown, but I bought him
from a friend of mine who hunted
a great deal and he assured me
that I could hunt from the horse
without ever having to get off —
that is if I had a dog that would
bring the birds back to me. So I
bought the horse and I did hunt a
good bit from his back. Occa
sionally he would shudder a little
bit when I shot a gun, but he be
haved pretty well. As a matter of
fact the only things he was mor
tally afraid of were railroad trains
and bulldozers. Either one of these
34
would really tear his nerves up and
he would literally explode. I found
out later that when he was a colt
his mother ran into a train and
killed herself and the rider and
left him an orphan.
Anyhow, I liked Duke and spent
many hours riding him. One of my
friends one day told me that Duke’s
mother was half Thoroughbred and
half Walking Horse and that his
father was a registered Thorough
bred and a great jumper. In case
you don’t know, Hunters and
Jumpers actually are of the
breed Thoroughbreds. Then he
said that when Duke was younger
he himself had been quite a
jumper. So I figured that if the
horse once could jump he still
could jump. One nice sunshiny fall
day I was out bird hunting and I
came to a fence which was covered
a good bit with ivy and under
growth and I had the choice of
either going about three quarters
of a mile to a gate or jumping the
fence, so I decided that since Duke
was a jumper, I would jump the
fence. As a boy I had ridden jump
ers a good bit and actually it was
a sport I used to enjoy. So I rode
Duke up to the fence so he could
estimate the height of his required
jump, then I circled for the ap
proach and he started as any good
jumper should toward the fence.
He was switching his tail and snort
ing and I felt elated to again be
astride a jumper. However, in
stead of taking the customary ap
proach, he kept going faster and
faster until he was actually run
ning. The final result must be ob
vious to you. He never left the
ground. When I stood up in the
stirrups and tightened the rein to
make 1he jump, he just ran a little
harder smack dab into that fence
and the two of us rolled head over
heels for at least a 100 yards or
less. We tore the fence down and
both of us had multiple lacerations
and abrasions. Shortly thereafter
I sold Duke and the last I heard
about him, a friend of mine was
hunting him down by Mobile in
the swamps and had killed two
turkeys. He had one turkey on each
side of the saddle and the turkeys
apparently “spooked” him, because
he took off with the saddle and
turkeys, but no rider. The report
was that two weeks later he was
still running through the swamps
with the turkeys and saddle hang
ing beneath him.
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Visitors Always Welcome
LESLIE WHITE
Route # 1
Williamsport, Tennessee
(Near Columbia)
Phones: 388-4750 or 583-2373
VOICE of The Tennessee Walking Horse