1965-Voice Of The Tennessee Walking Horse 1965 January Voice | Page 23

auction sales for five years. In the late fifties Mr. Wise and Jack War­ ren operated the Murray Farm and reopened the semi-annual sales. Finally, in 1961 Mr. Wise bought the Murray Farm and operated the sales until April, 1964, at which time he sold the Murray Farm and the auction business to Mr. S. W. Beech and Mr. Pete Yokley. During the period of his partner­ ship with Jack Warren, Mr. Wise was also building a reputation as a trainer of horses for amateurs. Wise and Warren became famous for the championships earned on horses that they had schooled. As Mr. Wise comments, “There was a lot of times that we could have held a good amateur show right out of our barn.” To mention only a few of the many champions train­ ed during this period, one would have to list these: MIDNIGHT SE­ CRET, owned and ridden by Kay McFarland; ROMEO’S MERRY QUEEN, owned and ridden by Su­ sie Beasley; SUNDAY BONNET, owned and ridden by Marcie Ann Hopkins; FASCINATING RHY­ THM, owned and ridden by W. T. Baynard. Among the many fine horses trained and shown by Mr. Wise himself, obviously his favorite is MIDNIGHT MERRY BIRD. After winning the two-year-old stake at the National Celebration, this filly was sold and taken to California. When she was a four-year-old, she was returned to middle Tennessee. At that time Mr. Wise got her back and won all the aged mare classes with her including the class for aged mares at the 1954 National Celebration. Since selling the Murray Farm, Mr. Wise has returned to his farm on the Fayetteville Highway, just outside Lewisburg. There he and Mrs. Wise have extensively remo­ deled their home, while Mr. Wise supervises and trains a stable of twenty horses. Assisting him in the training are “Bud” and “Dooney” Thomas, two very fine young train­ ers. Mr. Wise adds, “A lot of people thought we were going out of busi­ ness when we sold the Murray Farm. But we’d like the public to JANUARY, 1965 MIDNIGHT MERRY BIRD—Winner of the 1954 Age Mare Class at the Celebra­ tion with Harold Wise up. MERRY BIRD was owned by Susie Beasley and the Murray Farm at the time. realize that we are still in busi­ ness and that we are always train­ ing, buying, and selling. Visitors are certainly welcome to come by and see for themselves how our operation is making progress.” In other words, Harold Wise is still very much active in all phases of the horse business, except the auc­ tion sales. From his vantage point of long association with the sale of Walk­ ing Horses, Mr. Wise is in an ex­ cellent position to comment on the future of our breed: “In my opin­ ion, 1965 is going to be a very successful year, and I think we will have many successful years to come. More and more new people are getting into the Walking Horse business every year. We are glad to accept them into the Walk­ ing Horse world and hope that they find their associations and exper­ iences here as pleasant as ours have been. I feel that the shows are getting better . . . with more classes and more horses than ever before. As long as the breeders continue to select superior animals for their breeding stock, we can continue to have a finer horse with more ability year by year. And there will always be people ready to buy the best in Tennessee Walk­ ing Horses. Since the country is growing at a rapid rate, there is no reason why our business can­ not continue to grow also.” Mr. and Mrs. Harold Wise have two children. A son, Billy, lives in Albertville, Alabama; and a daugh­ ter, Mrs. Thomas Sparks, lives in Houston, Texas. In the course of our conversa­ tion, Mr. Wise continually paid tribute to the late Jimmy Joe Mur­ ray, a master promoter of the Ten­ nessee Walking Horse and a man of complete integrity. It seems ap­ parent to this writer that Harold Wise chose a very splendid man to pattern much of his life upon, and his success and reputation to­ day are testimony that he has fol­ lowed his example well. Certainly the Walking Horse business is for­ tunate to have a man like Harold Wise devote the majority of his adult life to it. 23