1968-Voice Of The Tennessee Walking Horse 1968 January Voice RS | Page 84

produced many of the great stallions later found in the various communities of this section .

The region generally known to all horsemen as Middle Tennessee , and very aptly termed by our friend Trotwood Moore “ The Dimple of the Universe .” was supposed to include the counties of Maury , Marshall Giles Davidson , Williamson and Sumner and Bedford . Breeders of Thoroughbreds were prominent in these counties from our earliest accounts . And while the earliest data obtainable will show that it was nothing uncommon for a mare to be ridden several hundred miles across several states to a chosen stallion , I propose to list only such Thoroughbred stallions as stood in Middle Tennessee , along with their first year of service , omitting the axact localities , as well as the intricate number of years of service at local points .

Imp . Bagdad ( Sent by the Minister of England from Tripoli ) 1824

Imp . Leviathan 1825 It appears that Leviathan was transferred to Maryland , Virginia and Kentucky , later coming back to Tennessee .

Timoleon , sire of Boston , sire of Lexington ..... 1826 Imp . Stockholder ....... 1826 Imp . Leviathan 1832 Imp . Luzoborough ..... 1834 The above four horses were great sires and I can find no newcomers until : Imp . Ainderby ......... 1849 Imp . Albion .............. 1850

At this period there was a very apparent shifting of Thoroughbred operations to the counties of Davidson and Sumner . And with but few exceptions the remotest thorougbreds found in the back lines of pacing horses were Leviathan , Timoleon , Stockholder Luzborough and Albion . But from 1858 to 1870 we find so much use being made of Dice and Stackpole ( sons of Leviathan ), and of Commodore ( son of Boston ), that it would appear our Copperbottoms were about half Thoroughbred .

That the early settlers brought their saddle horses with them there is no doubt . That later on this became a great Thoroughbred breeding and racing centre , is proved by the history that this strain made in both service and racing . These thoroughbred stallions are close up in the pedigrees of saddle stallions that we have been able to trace .

The early breeders of this strain of saddle horse had but one object in view , that of gait . They sought to produce a horse that could fox-walk or running-walk naturally . It must be done naturally in order to be maintained over the long distances encountered at that period . It must be easy to both rider and horse . A tired horse makes a tired rider . That they succeeded is borne out by the fact that at this late date , there does not exist a family or strain of horses than can go these gaits over a distance , but the Hal .

T . L . Porter , who has just died at the age of 90 , and whose father , Nimrod Porter , was sheriff of Maury County for 30 years ; Col . Simms Latta now 90 , and Sheriff of Maury County during the Reconstruction

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Period , and Capt . Ned Lee , now 98 former postmaster here under Franklin Pierce and later in Forrest ’ s Cavalry , all agree on one point — that the early settlers brought their saddle horses here with them .

As before noted , there was for a long early period a continual movement of horses between this section and the Carolinas . And the towns of Halifax and Warrenton , N . C ., show most frequent mention .

In Willoughby Williams ’ correspondence with Gen . Andrew Jackson will be found reference to the bringing of “ Free And Easy ” to Warren County , N . C . in 1790 . “ As was his name , so was his gait .” He was later followed by Ranger of the same Narragansett strain . While still later in 1823 , Copperbottom , a Canadian and Thoroughbred , was brought from Kentucky as a colt . Further on in this correspondence . Mr . Williams alludes to old Copperbottom having been brought from North Carolina to Tennessee in 1843 at the age of 20 , where he made three seasons and died in 1846 . He was described as a chestnut or liver roan , and a great sire of saddle horses .

Tradition tells us that this strain of saddle horses was much improved as to appearance upon the free use of Thoroughbred in this section . But they began to lose that precision of gait , which became forced and difficult of maintenance . And about this time we have the arrival of Old Copperbottom , a tried and proven sire of saddle horses . This was in 1843 . As a check on this old horse , we find that from 1848 to the beginning of the Civil War , there stood in this section four chestnut roan Copperbottoms as follows : Morrill ’ s Copperbottom at Cornersville , Marchall County ; Nolan ’ s Copperbottom at Mooresville , Marshall County ; Clardy ' s Copperbottom near old Berlin ; Marshall County ; and Day ’ s Copperbottom , near Culleoka , Maury County .

Big Bigby Creek flows from South to North through the mid-western section of Maury County , and drains a belt about five miles wide that for fertility is probably not excelled on the globe . It is from this section that millions of dollars worth of phosphate has been shipped in the past 25 years . And this being the richest portion of this section , it was accordingly the first settled . That it was a veritable canebrake 20 feet high has been passed down by the generations . And in the 40 ’ s there was organized in this community what was known for years as the Bigby Stock Company , to study breed , and develop the saddle horse . It was here that Commodore , Stockpole , and McMeen ’ s Traveler held forth . In 1851 this company imported from Canada a gray Canadian pacer by the name Tecumseh . But he arrived out of season and

before the opportunity came to use him , a jack killed him .

At about this same time this company started the importation from Southern Mexico of so-called Spanish pacing mares . Parties were sent from here down there to make such selections as they thought were of the proper conformation to produce saddle horses — of course , bearing in mind the fact that the saddle gaits were derived from the pace . These horses are not to be confounded with the mustang , carload after carload of which were distributed throughout the country at a later date . The writer has had some recent experience with the little horses of the Yucatan Penninsula and British Honduras . They usually run from 13 to 15 hands high and are natural saddle horses . They are easy to break and have most amiable dispositions . Their ability to perform great tasks on scant food is marvelous .

With the American Chicle Company on the Rio Hondo ,

Voice of the Tennessee Walking Horse