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A MARE ? WHY NOT ?
When was the last time a mare won the Celebration ? The year was 1954 and WHITE STAR won the big stake and the World Championship title with Percy Moss up for Dr . and Mrs . W . V . Gamier of Bastrop , Louisiana . Since that time ( thirteen years ) there have been twelve stallions crowned as World Grand Champions and today ten of them are standing at stud . One , SUN ’ S JET PARADE , has died , and one is still in active competition . Prior to 1954 there were four mares crowned as winners in a fifteen-year span . In 1942 MELODY MAID won the title with Floyd Carothers up for Mr . and Mrs . Frank Rambo of Oakwood Acres , Fayetteville , Tennessee . In 1943 itwas BLACK ANGEL that carried the title with Winston Wiser up for Mr . and Mrs . R . F . Ellis , and in 1944 the World Grand Championship was won by Urban Small riding CITY GIRL for M . J . Myer .
Now ... we again ask the question . A mare ? Why not ? Various areas of horse activity have different regard for stallions and mares . For instance , the Arabian Horse World puts maximum emphasis on the mare while the Thoroughbred business clings strongly to the stallion . The Gaited Horse World , while being Consious of breeding does not put the maximum emphasis on stallions in the show ring as does the Walking Horse World . A mare named MY MY has won the World Grand Championship in the Gaited Horse domain for the past five years at Louisville , Kentucky and appears to again be a strong contender for the same title . By constrast , the Walking Horse business today seems to have a strong tendency to insist that a stallion win the Celebration .
We have always been interested in the developments of the 1965 Celebration Stake Class in which a mare named MIGHTY SUNBEAM put on a fabulous performance with George Livingstone in the saddle . This mare had been tied reserve in the Mare Class behind SHADOW ’ S GAY LADY and came on strong to tie fifth in the big stake . Now ..... the question is whether or not she would have won the class had she been a stud . It is true that she was in " high cotton ” as she was competing with TRIPLE THREAT , JOHNNY MID NIGHT , GO BOY ’ S ROYAL HEIR and GO BOY ’ S SUNDUST but the fact remains that she did put on a great show .
And what about GOLDEN SUNDUST , the great gelding that Wink Groover showed for several years to win the Aged Gelding Class and came back and was tied down in the Championship Stake . Had he been a stallion would it have made any difference in how he tied ?
What benefit , if any , would it be if a mare ( or a gelding ) were to win the big stake this year ? When we think about it and consider that all of the living World Grand Champions are stallions and they are all now standing at stud in Tennessee ( the exception being MACK K ’ S HANDSHAKER who stands half of the season in Macon , Georgia ) it appears that we are getting " stud happy .”
A horse is a horse is a horse ..... and as long as our criterion for excellence is based on 20 % Flat Foot Walk , 40 % Running Walk , 20 % Canter and 20 % Conformation it should make no difference whether or not the winner is a Stallion , a Gelding or a Mare .
Whenever we write an article such as this we must remember that there are a lot of angles to consider . We do not , in any way , intend to take anything away from the several major contenders for the 1968 Celebration Championship that are Stallions . These are all great horses and one will perhaps win it ; however , we do wish to stimulate the thinking of our readers to at least accept the possibility that a mare can , on ocassion , defeat a stallion . It has been done ..... but not in the past thirteen years .
MISSISSIPPI CHAMPIONSHIP SHOW SCHEDULED FOR SEPTEMBER 19-21
The Mississippi State Championship Horse Show will be held September 19-21 in the beautiful Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson , Mississippi . Twenty-two Walking Horse classes have been scheduled in the three-night
and Saturday afternoon sessions .
The show is sponsored by the Mississippi State Horse Show Association and complete details of the show can be obtained from them . Contact Shelby Lilly , P . O . Box 4571 , Jackson , Mississippi .
54 Voice of the Tennessee Walking Horse