1968-Voice Of The Tennessee Walking Horse 1968 July Voice RS | Page 16

in it. Who a -> «***-,
of -.............
the line said,
ui
- "Well • . • : let’s l**} say I’m a friend
of the Walking Horse business and wouldn’t want t
see you or anyone else hurt. Lonny seized his oppor
tunity to say something and remarked, "You keep on
saying WE . . . just who is WE?” The man ignored his
1 question and went on talking. "Let me outline it for
j you, Lonny! You just sold one-half interest in BEAU
* GENTRY to a group knows as 4 SQUARE Enterpris
es . • • right? This leaves Dr. Greely with one-half
interest, but . . . did you know that the contract be­
tween the good doctor and those men gave them the
right to determine where 01’ BEAU would stand
should he win the Festival?”
\ J I%'
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i
s
i
by Charles Barry Sanderson
(Continued from Last Month)
With a little more than one month before the Na­
tional Walking Horse Festival, most trainers were
busy lining up their stock for the big world champion­
ship event. Lonny Barnes, who had had his share of
problems during the year, had finished the last month
in good form. He had shown his good stock two times
in the past three weeks and so far hadn’t gotten any
of them beat. It was about three in the afternoon and
Lonny was sitting in a chair leaning against a post in
the cross-tie area. There was a cool afternoon breeze
blowing through the barn from the west. Lonny had
just finished working all the horses he planned to
work and he was busy going over the Festival Class
Sheet.
Muttering to himself, he said, "Let’s see now ... it
looks like we’ll be taking about five and maybe six
this year. I’ll have to make arrangements to reserve
at least six stalls. Need one for a tack room and . . .”
His line of thought was interrupted by the ringing of
the phone. Yelling to M. L., who was busy cleaning
stalls, he said, "Can you get that?” The stout colored
boy dropped his pitchfork and ran toward the phone.
Sticking his head out of the office door, M. L. said,
"It’s for you, Mr. Lonny . , . long distance.” Lonny let
his chair down with a thump and went to the phone.
After the formalities of accepting a long-distance call
he heard a voice on the other end say, "Mr. Barnes
. . . I’ve got a little information for you and prefer to
remain unknown for the present . . . OK?” Without
waiting for much of a reply, he went on to say that he
had information that Lonny was involved in a big at­
tempt to get the Festival set up for BEAU GENTRY.
"WHOA, MAN . . . you got some’pin mixed up bad. I
don’t know nothing about no fix, and . .
Lonny’s
prompt denial was interrupted by an insistent voice
that said, "We just wanted to know if you knew any­
thing about such an attempt. We didn’t say it was a
fact . . . just a rumor.” Lonny was just a little bit mad
by now and said, "I have heard all my life that the
’big one’ had to be bought but I never put any stock
16
By this time Lonny was obviously shaken by the
fact that the man knew so much about his business.
In reply to his question, which Lonny did not know,
he said, "Why, yeah ... I knew they had talked
about it, but ...” The man interrupted again and
said, "How hard do you think it would be to outright
bribe a Festival judge? Five thousand . . . ten thous­
and . . . how about twenty thousand? The way horses
Sre being priced these days that would be a drop in
the bucket to - let’s say - a group like 4 SQUARE
Enterprises.” Lonny said, "Yeah, but . . .” The man
broke in again, saying, "If they only got to two of the
judges it would mean that they would have less than
seventy-five thousand dollars in their one-half of the
next World Grand Champion.” Lonny was dumfounded!
It was about eleven-twenty at night when Lonny
finally got off the phone. Helen had waited up for him
but had been dozing on the couch. The clink of the
receiver being laid on the phone aroused her. "Are
you finally finished? You been on the phone all night!”
Lonny slumped in the big living room chair and said,
"Man ... I think we got a bear by the tail. Let’s go
to bed, Sugar; I’ll tell you all about it in the morning.
Exactly one week later Lonny and Dr. Greely were
heading for Middle Tennessee. They were riding along
in the comfort of an air-conditioned Lincoln . ■ • en*
joying the countryside as they split the early-morning
air at about seventy miles an hour. Dr. Greely spoke
up and said, "We can get some breakfast at that mo­
tel up ahead. They usually open their dining room
about this ti me.” Lonny replied, "I’m about ready for
some coffee, anyway.”
They went into the dining room of the motel and
new that they were getting close to Walking Horse
country. Horse pictures were arranged around the
walls and the general atmosphere was "horsey.” Loo­
ny looked up at one picture and said, "Boy • • • e
was a great one. I remember seeing him win it when
was just a kid. I thought his trainer was just abou
Voice of the Tennessee Walking Horse