History Of The Tennessee Walking Horse

Also, do any of yall use Google Earth??? It's a fantastic program.



If there are no objections (such as privacy, etc.) I will MARK all of the grave locations on Google Earth.
I think I would have to have the exact street address of the gravesites to do this.

Any feedback on this idea is welcome.

If anybody is checking with MTSU, I think Triple Threat died there also. Maybe he's buried on the property.

You know, I had forgotten that and I was just there this week!! It was a big deal and in the newspaper that they moved one of the Champions there. I will have to check on that too. Dr. Bob had something to do with it.

Wilson's Allen is buried at MTSU...never a WGC but an influential sire. We had a discussion on here about his big funeral and maybe Smitty can find it. Triple Threat died at Morehead State..and is probably buried there.

Smitty...Royal Heir is buried on Franklin's Hillvale Farm. I never heard Gamble's Farm called anything else, and it's at Belvidere TN.

I don't know if Jeff and Sheri Gamble's house was near the barn, but here's an address for the house.
772 Roggli Rd
Belvidere, TN 37306-2162

Still awaiting confirmation on Ebony's Mountain Man being at Joe Spivey's. Have messaged Wilson and Grover Blaylock, along with Janice Spivey. Another friend of theirs said they also believed he was buried there, but no marker that they knew about. If there's a marker, I will drive over and make a picture of it.

the last i remember about Talk Of the town he was a pasture ornament somewhere in Ga.

I just had a call from Catfish and he told me Tommy Stewart would know if any WGC are buried at Joe Vann's place.

He said Talk Of The Town was buried at Chitwood's place in North Ga.

Now thats interesting...........two different accounts of where Talk is buried from two very good sources. Easy to be mistaken on some of this stuff, cause it was a long time ago and wires can get crossed over time. I guess we need absolute confirmation before posting any locations.

I'll try to post photos of the grave markers, if I can find them. Of course, many will probably be unmarked, which is kind of sad. History should be preserved, if at all possible. I think I remember Horsegurl sending in some shots of the markers at Beeches last year. I'll see if I can find those photos. Sadlbum may have posted some as well.

This site has become so darn big it's getting hard for me to find anything anymore.
I need some kind of cataloging system...

The Gamble's call their farm Breezy Knoll Farm now. They are into field trial dogs at the present. Gamble Farms is all I remember when they had horses. Jeff's sister is a friend of mine and I will see if she knows if Senator is buried there.

Thanks Rhinestone. Any extra confirmation is a good thing.

Would be fantastic to get the legendary Larry Lowman on here. I'm sure he's a walking encyclopedia of TWH knowledge and memories. Was he not the originator of the Walking Horse Museum?

Smitty,I believe he is or at least had a lot to do with it.

Larry did have a lot to do with the Walking Horse Museum...I'm not sure who owned the house in which it was located but I know Larry was instumental in getting the original items for the opening. I gave him the riding habit that I wore when I won the Juvenile class in '69 in addition to some other items from that win. He would be a huge asset to the site as he knew everyone!! I would love to talk to him again myself...he was a always a nice person and lots of fun too!!


I will see if I can locate Hank Chitwood and find out about Talk of the Town. I don't know if Hank is still in Ga; if not I have no idea where he would be??

Some more info on Black Angel:

Who was Black Angel ? A sparkling mare, Black Angel, proved to be the "mud horse" of the 1943 National Celebration - winning the Walking Horse World Championship under the most harrowing weather conditions in the 22-year history of this great show. Twice nightly shows were postponed, the whole program was telescoped. And Black Angel strode to her championship on a Sunday afternoon with young Winston Wiser saddling his first fo five champions. When she won the crown, Black Angel was owned by Mr. and Mrs. R.F. Ellis of Orrville, Alabama. She became the first champion owned outside of Tennessee. Black Angel had only one star for a marking. She was bred by Mrs. F. Bramblett of Wartrace, and sired by Merry Boy out of Nell Bramblett. Six weeks after winning her championship, Back Angel was sold to Mr. and Mrs. W.B. Yancey, Blissful Farms, Marianna, Arkansas. Her price was said to be the biggest ever paid for an individual of the Tennessee Walking Horse breed to that time. S.W. Beech, Jr., of Belfast, Tennessee, was trainer at Blissful Farms. He showed Black Angel extensively over the entire South and she won consistently. On May 10, 1945, she was sold to Mr. and Mrs. David Moreton, Jo-Mo Satbles, Brookhaven, Missisippi, but she remained in Beech's care. K. Kissee of Sparta, Missouri, bought her on May 6, 1946. About this time word got around that the big Chicago Horse Show would have Tennessee Walking Horse classes. Beech rode Black Angel to victory there on November 10, 1946. One account said some of the potential entries from that area where held out by owners who figured they had no chnace against Black Angel. Ridng Black Angel again, Beech retired the Mona Lorenzo Memorial Challenge Trophy at Jackson, Mississippi, with three straight years in the victory circle for the championship stake. The mare became a brood matron, and was the first World's Grand Champion to have a colt sired by another World's Grand Champion. She was mated to Midnight Sun for this historic event.

(Excerpt from Ben A. Greens book: Biography of the Tennessee Walking Horse)

I don't understand the first sentence. How could it have been"the most harrowing weather conditions in the 22 year history of this great show" when the year was 1943 and the first Celebration was in 1939? That math just don't add up

MIB,

I think the author means up until the time he wrote the book. It was published in 1960, so I would guess the Celebration would have been about 22 years old at that time.

I just added gravesite photos for Midnight Sun & Pride's Secret Threat. These were photos Sadlbum posted on here some time back. I also added a photo for Dark Spirit's Rebel. Not sure where I got that one (?). I have gravesite photos for all the WGC's buried at Beeches, but I can't seem to find them right now. Horsegurl, I think you may have sent these in. If you still have them, please send them to me again, if you would be so kind.

OHM, you mentioned in a previous post that True Grit was buried at Bonnie Cady's barn.
Care to confirm and/or elaborate?

Good project here! Let's keep it going...

Haven't heard from Larry yet, but he said it might take him a bit.

Just got some good confirmation on Carbon Copy from Lee Lenox:

Lee said...

"He was buried at Russell Pate's old barn in Savannah,TN. Died in 1992 at the age of 32."


So MIB was correct on that one. Hard to believe CC lived till 1992.......I had no idea!
I think I can safely update that one...

Yes Smitty, Ebony's True Grit is buried at Bonnie Cady's and he does have a headstone.

I think the house that held Lowman's museum...stood where is now Dollar General Store or close.

OK.....I updated True Grit's info. Bonny's place is still called the Horse Hub isn't it???
I could use a photo of that grave marker if anyone knows Bonny and can get permission to photograph it.

What about....

Mack K's Handshaker
Go Boy's Sundust
Ace's Sensation
Delight Bummin Around
Shade's Of Carbon
Threat's Supreme

I am almost certain Triple Threat is buried at the Morehead State University Stables just outside of Morehead, Ky.
He was donated to the University as a gift, as I recall. This e-mail I found on Walker's West Triple Threat page does confirm that he did indeed die there.

I am from St. Louis, MO.
I went to Morehead State University in Morehead, KY., where I was very fortunate to know Triple Threat during his last few years of life. He lived on our University Farm in the stud barn with his goat "Hershel." I was there when he died, and although "Triple Threat Again" was also in our barn and Hershel was given to him, the goat died shortly after the death of TT and the barn was never the same.
Just a short little story :)

Kim Jaeger

The Walker's West web site is where I got my info re: Triple Threat, but when I posted I wrote MTSU instead of Morehead State.

Also from Walker's West, here's what is written about Shades Of Carbon:
Shades was sold right before the big night to Glenn Lowe of Tullos, LA for the ungodly sum of $200,000 (?). He left him at Joe Martin's for a couple of years and then moved him to LA where he stood at stud. It really hurt him from a breeding standpoint as he was far away from many of the very best mares in TN that might have been bred to him had he been left there. He died in LA a few years ago.