1967-Voice Of The Tennessee Walking Horse 1967 October Voice RS | Page 28

HAPPINESS IS
a family affair!
The William Beaumonts Enjoy Horses and Horse Shows!
Take one daughter interested in horses, another
that is a Latin scholar, throw in two contented par­
ents, and what have you got? A very happy family!
That is the situation with the Bill Beaumont family
of Clarksville, Tennessee.
While family activity in the Walking Horse business
is not newrs, the story of one member of the Beaumont
family is news. Sally Beaumont, now eleven years
old and in the sixth grade at Barksdale school in
Clarksville, is the key to their horse activity and her
story is quite interesting.
Sally wTas a whopping three-pound, four-ounce bun­
dle of energy when she was born. As a child she has
been accident-prone, having had her left thumb cut
off and sewn back on again, not to mention various
and sundry' broken bones and other minor injuries.
You would think that the parents of such a child
wouldn’t think of letting her ride horses, but at the
tender age of three, she climbed into the saddle of
a pony mare named FLIRT, and has been an avid
horse enthusiast ever since.
A note of distinct sadness comes over the Beau­
monts as they speak of FLIRT, and they told us that
she finally died last November at the age of thirty-
nine. Sally loved this pony and showed her for the
first time at the age of five in Madisonville, Tennes­
see, to tie fifth in the pony class.
Sally loved to show horses, and when she had ob­
tained some experience and had become a ring-wise
veteran of seven years old, they got her a white
registered Tennessee Walking Horse named SUN­
DANCE. This horse was purchased from Mr. Frank
Hutton and proved to be "just what Sally needed.”
Celebration spectators will never forget the time that
seven-year-old Sally Beaumont rode into the big ring
on her white horse. She immediately picked up the
plaudits of the crowd, and spurred and kicked fran­
tically to get SUNDANCE into the running walk and
the canter. She placed tenth in a fine class, much to
the pleasure of the crowd.
Her next horse was GO BOY’S COPYCAT, a sorrel
gelding that she tied sixth at the Celebration when
she was eight years old. RIPPLING WILSON came
next and proved to be quite a campaigner with Sally
in the saddle. In the summer of 1966 the Beaumonts
showed RIPPLING WILSON twelve times and took
twelve ribbons, including a tenth place tie at the
Celebration.
28
SALLY BEAUMONT UP - At the age of five years, Sally showed FLIRT in
the Western Pleasure class.
We were fortunate enough to be present right after
the Shelbyville PTA Horse Show this year when Sally
Beaumont approached the judge, Mr. Richard Mary
of Baton Rouge, and, looking up with delighted eyes,
said, "You tied me first in the pony class and I want
to thank you.” A bystander remarked to Mr. Mary,
"It makes it all worthwhile, doesn’t it, Richard?” We
would have to agree! Sally was showing a Walking
Pony named MIGHTY LITTLE GIRL, a fine sorrel
mare that is in training with Dot Warren in Spring
Hill, Tennessee. LITTLE GIRL was purchased from
Jimmy Small in Benton, Kentucky last year, and
Sally has showed her nineteen times to tie seventeen
ribbons, including a Blue Ribbon at the PTA Show.
Sally got the gate in the Pony Class at the Cele­
bration this year, but their family motto is "Smile.”
We heard several years ago that if Sally ever came
out of the ring with anything but a smile on her
face that the Beaumonts would sell their horses. Dr.
and Mrs. Beaumont feel that showing horses should
be a family fun project and when it ceases to be fun,
then they should find something else to do.
Voice of the Tennessee Walking Horse