1968-Voice Of The Tennessee Walking Horse 1968 January Voice RS | Page 98

There may be those of my friends who will mention
the fact that Star Pointer 1:59 1/4 was the first 2/00
harness performer, and that Argot Hal was the world’s
double-gaited champion with a pacing record of 2:04 3/4
and a trotting record of 2/07 1/4 that both of these
horses were inbred Hals, not carrying a drop of blood
that had not been in this family for years. But taking
Star Pointer at his best, and according the others the
same privilege, does any horseman now living believe that
Star Pointer could have beaten Napoleon Direct 1:59 3/4
(50% Hal, 50% trotter), or Evelyn W. 2:00 1/2 (50%
Hal, 50% trotter) a three in-five heat race?
For one I do not, and I will never breed any pure Hals
with the expectation of defeating our latter-day cross­
bred pacer. I will go still further and say that I person­
ally will not ride a pure Hal. The cross-bred is not quite
so easy under the seat, but this feature is more than off­
set by the disturbing blunders of the pure Hal. But it
must be said that the Hal with his hog-back, drooped
rump, and powerful stifles, has no equal when it comes
to carrying a heavy man over a distance of ground; while
1 could not conceive of a pure trotter maintaining an
easy gait for 30 miles with weight up.
When using trotting blood on the Hals, put it in and
then get away from it. The first cross (50%-50%), has
proven all right in many instances, but when you go on
from this base and lessen the blood of one or the other,
you had best butt the percentage from the trotting side,
and fill in with Hal blood.
Star Pointer 1 :59 1 4 (100% Hal), Napoleon Direct
1:59 3/4 (50% Hal), Evelyn W. 2:00 1 2 (50% Hal),
were free legged pacers, all holding world’s records at
one time or another. And as tributaries, Flower Direct
2:00 1 2 (75%. Hal) and Grace Direct 2:00 1/2 (62%
Hal) might be mentioned, but wearing the hopples,
equine concesssions to man’s glaring impotence, they
must be excluded from the consideration of a successful
breeder.
The above five horses were all bred in Maury County
d carry 50% or more of Hal blood. I have failed to
find a horse bred here or elsewhere in the world, carrying
any Hal blood and less than 50%. that can be classed with
the above.
Star Pointer emigrated to territories barren of Hal
blood, and cannot be classed as a successful sire. Evelyn
W. has never been bred to a Hal horse, and I fail to find
where any of her progeny has headed a summary. Flower
Direct was bred to Etawah and vouchasafed a third class
pacer. Grace Direct has not been bred. Napoleon Direct
entered the stud late, and his future is before him. He
has served, is serving, and will serve some of the highest
class, fastest record, trotting bred pacing mares in the
country; he will serve few Hal mares with records, but
it is a 5 to 1 bet that his greatest performers will come
from the latter.
The breeding of the above five horses goes to show
that Direct had no corner on the success of the Hal-
Trotting combination but rather that any good trotting
blood would produce the desired effect.
Napoleon Direct gets two lines to Director through
Direct and Erector, one to Electioneer, one to Gambetta
Wilkes, and two to Almont. Evelyn W. gets hers through
the Village Farm blood of Chimes and Mambrino King;
while Grace Direct gets part of hers through John R.
Gentry.
In contradiction to the above contention, it might be
claimed that Hal Dillard 2.04 3/4 established a great fam­
ily of pacers on foreign soil through his son Hal B.
2:04 1/2 who did manage to carry on another generation.
But it has apparently stopped with him, there being
scarce mention of his sons and daughters as producers.
Then, again the maternal side of Hal B. was Blue Bull,
a horse ignored by trotting-horse breeders.
It solely is to the free legged pacer that we must look
for development. No hoppled pacer has become a suc­
cessful sire. His brain ceases to function when his legs
are tied, and without freedom there can be no natural
development. Hopples have anchored the pacer and al­
lowed the trotter to forge twenty years ahead.
C. A. BOBO and
SON STABLES
SHELBYVILLE, TENNESSEE
PHONE: [phone]
*
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MACK’S WANDA ANN
4 year old mare
SUN’S SPECULATOR
black stallion
SUN’S J. P.—black gelding
PRIDE OF WARTRACE
chestnut gelding
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98
Voice of the Tennessee Walking Horse