Trivia Archive 6

olympic

Olympic is CORRECT!

HC...Yes but not for long. When we bought Johnny's Rebel Maid we bought a package deal...we got her and Johnny Jr. and Delight's Deadringer. Larry Gribble was their owner and Vic Thompson brokered the deal for us. We loved Rebel and was hoping that the Johnny Midnight horses were all going to be that good!! We were hoping Johnny Jr. would make a top notch Amateur horse. Unfortunately he just wasn't quite the quality horse that Rebel turned out to be...of course not many were. I may be wrong but I believe I only showed him one season..I think that was 1974?? I had been able to ride and show my horses extensively because I was living in middle Tn and going to MTSU. At my families insistence I moved to go to college in NC but did come back to show Rebel in the 1975 Celebration and a few other shows (Larry Webb showed her in '74 as a 4 yr old). At the time I didn't know it but the '75 Celebration was to be my last.

What has happened to the 1234 beat flat walk and the rocking chair canter?

The 1-2-3-4 beat has turned into the cha-cha and sometimes the salsa (and often a mixture of the two).
The canter has gone the way of the dodo........(I don't understand this, somebody explain it to me)
I also wonder why the TAILS look like crap???

I'm just old school I reckon........

You still see those two gaits on the better flat shod hosses but they are just about a thing of the past with the padded hosses.

to teach a horse to canter is much easier for 2 coming 3 than 3 coming 4 and they never forget. It may be that the feet have to be better than perfect it's undesirable to teach the canter. Mr Glo could sure do the flat walk

I used to watch MR. Glo show about every Saturday night when he was at his best. He would "Jar" the ground as he passed down the rail in a flat walk. Alot of the horses today would not mash you finger. Big difference!!!

I mentioned Dead Ringer above...I showed him in Amateur classes too. Larry showed him at the Celebration in the 3 yr old class but I showed him at several of the one nighters. I think we replaced Johnny with Dead Ringer...for some reason my memory is very fuzzy on this though?? :scratch:


A horse I have wondered about is Senator? Do you remember him? He won the 2 yr old stallion class in '73 for owner Bob Buckner then my Daddy bought him for either a stake horse for Larry or amateur horse for me (depending on how he did). He was one more awesome son of a gun the night he won that 2 yr old class...funny how I can remember that far better than anything about Johnny Jr!! Everyone thought he was going to be the next "Star"!! Then he turned out to be "hot and cold"...sometimes he was great and others not worth a dime. I still held out hope for him because he had so much natural walk to him but of course we got out of the business and I never knew what happened to him. Do you or anyone else know??

As well as not moving in time; they can't shake their heads nor are they set either. When this "new gate" was created their entire balance was compromised. This does not apply to all of today's horses but to a good majority of them.

Hill, your Dad sold J J to a Mr. R.J. Rupert in 1974 and he died the next year at age 10. I guess you knew that he was third in the 2 y.o. stud class in 67. That was the same year Possum Brock won the other 2 y.o. stud class and 2 y.o. WGC with Double Delight O and was reserve(and many thought should have won) in the WGC with Mr. Glo. Ole Possum had an impressive string that year.

MIB..Thanks a bunch! I couldn't remember how long we owned him!! I thought it was only a year. I knew he was a good young horse and actually Possum had done pretty well with him in stake classes too...but maybe more outside of Tn. I hate to hear he died so soon after we sold him..and relatively young too. Hard to believe that happened to two of them!! What do you remember about Senator (our big chestnut/sorrel colt)??

Magic Marker wrote:

What has happened to the 1234 beat flat walk and the rocking chair canter?

Damn good question.

Hill, I remember Senator well as a 2 y.o. He was a big colt, looked like an aged stud rather than a 2 y.o.. I saw him make his first show I think in Watertown and he was the talk of the show. I think he won his class at the Celebration that year but was turned down for the championship.
Your dad sold him in 76 and he changed hands quite a few times after that. According to IPEDS he had 30 foals registered to him. No death date given.

Who was the editor for The Blue Ribbon during the 80's?

We bought Senator at the Celebration when he was a 2 yr old...can't remember if the sale was finalized before or after the show but I know the negotiations were going on during the show. I can still see him in the ring in the 2 yr old stud class...Wow!!! You are right he was one big filled out colt!! The two horses that we were hoping we were going to be able to hold onto were Rebel and Senator. Big hopes for those two but sometimes no matter how hard you've worked or how much you want and wish this old life will throw you a curve ball.

First of all a large number of amateur riders cannot canter a horse. Second, some trainers cannot break a horse to canter properly. I am talking about a Rockin Chair Canter. As far as the good 1234 flatwalk you have to give a horse time and stay out of his mouth when he is young. Marvin Wilson told me one time when you get a horse right on the ground his head will be about right. I have thought a lot about that statement and tend to agree. The gait we see today is something between a Show Rack and flat walk. I call it a "racky" flat walk. The good horses of yester year would Push and pull and shake their heads. My Magic Marker was a great example of this. Bottom line is colts are not given enough time to develop a good flat foot walk. It is hard to work 40 to 50 head and take time with them. My opinion.

In 1973 during the spring Murray Farm Sale, I purchased a yearling stud colt from Billy Hale during the Wednesday afternoon sale. At that time I had a few stalls rented from SW for the purpose of cleaning up unbroke yearlings and re-selling them at the Friday/Saturday sales. Jackie McConnell purchased this colt from me before I had a chance to run him back through the sale. His name was Ebony's Double!!

Jackie tells me that he sold the colt to Elvis later the next year. Funny how being at the right place at the right time ties you to historical events.

Double is the Black TWH that is shown on a film at Graceland with Elvis in the saddle. I didn't find all this out until December 1993 when Betty Freeman and I sold Santana to the Shermans through Jackie.

This is a good article on Ebony's Double and Elvis' other horses. It mentions when Double was brought to the Celebration (with Prescilla in attendance) and ridden by Alene (barn manager at Graceland) for his retirement.
Rambler...You might be able to use this for the Elvis article you are doing???

http://www.elvis.com.au/presley/ebonys_double_elvis_last__horse.shtml

Chap your probably right but those gaits made TWH a unique show horse and should not be discarded. My opinion MMM

Hi, Santana1 - Little did you know that you'd had a brush with history. :) Ebony's Double didn't pass on until 2005, a nice long time.

Did Jackie work at GLL Farms back in the day? That's where everything I've read about Ebony's Double says he was bought.

Hill - That Australian Elvis site has a lot of great articles about Graceland's horses on it. The MidSouth Horse Review has a couple of good 'uns, too.

http://www.midsouthhorsereview.com/articles/2009/10/01/news/news00.txt
http://www.midsouthhorsereview.com/articles/2010/09/01/news/news22.txt

Thats right Rambler..Double lived to be 32 years of age. He was treated well at Graceland!! Here is a short article on his death.

http://www.elvis.com.au/presley/news/ebonys_double_dies_age_32.shtml

As I've been reading all those Graceland horses stories, I believe I wouldn't mind retiring at Graceland!

Here's some little known trivia....

What do Elvis Presley and Everett Majors have in common..........???

Harold Twitty.