The BEST of Walking Horse Trivia!

Sadlbum...Yes' I did. My hair was long from 1967ish until I cut it somewhere around 1973. I wore it up in my first years' then in the side ponytail when I showed so my number would not be covered. It was also dark' but miraculously :scratch: turned blonde through the years??? :)

Yes, folks do still rent out their houses to visitors. I am not sure it is as popular as it once was though. This day and age if you don't know someone, you might be afraid to leave everything in your house open to a "stranger". School still lets out the week of the Celebration for that reason. They are still counting average daily attendance for funding money and with so many gone or staying home because of being out late (both teachers and students), it was just more sensible to close the schools.

Sadlbum, I remember all those things too. Actually, I was one of the ones who got to the gate about 1:00 to be first in line to race to our favorite seats and hold them for my parents. My Mom didn't get off work until 5:00 and my Daddy had to drive her since we only had one car. You didn't dare move or leave your seats because someone was watching and waiting to get them. The place would be totally packed by 5:00. The tractor that was working the track would be cheered. The track was dirt and not quarter-down in those days too. Rain meant MUD and lots of it!! Unfortunately, box seats are empty these days and reserved seats are easy to come by. I would love to see it filled again.

It might never be filled to capacity again. People have too many PLAY PURTIES now days. Computers, Internet, Wide screen Tvs, condo's in Florida, cruises, Tunica etc. You know interest is at a low ebb, when admission is a buck, concessions about the same & the place looks deserted.

Anyone know who the young lad with Vic in the bottom photo is?

Great photos of Vic! Thanks, Smitty.



MIB,

I don't know who the youngster is. Don't really remember Vic working the Wiser Farm sale.

It's Bobby Hugh with Vic...

Thanks Sen61, I thought he looked familiar.

Thanks go out to Priscilla Talley for contributing the last photo.

The Best of Celebration Celebrities






Billy Carter


Dale Earnhardt


Ed Bruce


Patsy Bruce


Tony Joe White


Lynn Anderson


George Foreman


Tom T. Hall


Zsa Zsa

The Best Of Pleasure, Trail, Versatility, Etc.

Date: 1941. Congressman Albert Gore, his wife and daughter, Nancy visit Tennessee's Pickett State Park for a weekend of horseback riding and general relaxation.

Nice photo's of the Gore family and Mrs. Pauline had a cute shape back then. Wonder WHY Smitty thought of them My maternal grandfather was a BIG Gore supporter....back when my entire family was RED. When my step grandfather came to visit (from MI)..they sometimes had heated discussions..because he was BLUE. Every year, the Gores hosted a BIG Angus production sale at the Carthage farm. My grandfather took me to a few of them..and their wonderful memories from my childhood.

I saw Ed Bruce a few weeks ago...and barely recognized him.

OHM,

These photos have been posted before. I originally chose them for posting not because of any particular attraction with the Gore family or their affiliations, but because the photos featured well-known Tennesseans from the past riding horses in a beautiful Tennessee location, and one with which I'm quite familiar.

For those not familiar with Pickett State Park, it is an absolutely gorgeous area, north of Jamestown, Tennessee, near the Kentucky state line. It is adjacent to The Big South Fork area, which is the best place to trail ride in the entire South. This area is one of my favorite places to go when I need an escape from modern society. It never fails to refresh and rejuvenate. In the 4th picture below, the creek in which the Gores are watering their horses is called Rock Creek. It runs through the state park and into Kentucky. It gets bigger on downstream and features lots of hemlocks and large boulders. I often camp and fish for trout in this stream about 7 or 8 miles downstream from where this photo was taken.

The Best of Jimmy Ellis

I remember watching Jimmy and Mr. Freewheel work late one night on the Celebration grounds whe he was a 4 y.o. and he was a walking machine.

I had forgotten how much he sounded like Elvis.

The Best of Walking Ponies


Atomic Star Jr. & Virginia Johnson and Little Bit O' Trouble & Ray Beech


Scatman & Jimmy McFarlin


Setting Sun's Apollo and Billy Brantley (Two-Year-Old)


Setting Sun's Apollo & Joe Van Clayton


Molly Bee Masterpiece & Jackie McConnell


Setting Sun's Delight & Stuart Whitener



Setting Sun's Delight & Ricky Womack


Setting Sun's Apollo & Lynn Doughty


Little Big Man & Ashley King


Ebony's Belle & Russell Pate (Two Year Old)


Go Boy's Merry Mad & Chuck Finney and Shadow's Mr. Magic & Dee Dee Miller


Happy Hollow Curious & Earlita Bowles


Reve's Little Boy & Sherri Deitz


Reve's Little Boy with Joe Deitz, Bob McQuerry, Sherri Deitz, Dorothy Halsey & David Landrum


Reve's Little Boy & Ben Martin


Magic's Calico Boy & David Williams


Ebony's War Eagle & Jennifer Bingham


Mud Slide Slim, with Tim Gray & Martin Best in the saddle

The Best Of Sonny Holt


Shaker's Merry Allen


Midnight Catwalk


Some misc. candids


Delight's MysteryGirl


Threat's Big Story


Wild Wind


You Light Up My Life


Knight's Magic


Big Rock E.R.


Pride's Mr. Threat


Knight's Magic

Dewey Henderson

Here's a couple of stories about Dewey from our board's early days.

Makethecut said...

One year at the Macon, Ga. horse show (they used to all be all-breed shows down here), Dewey Henderson got word that the judge wasn't going to tie his 3 gaited horse in the Championship and sent word to the center of the ring that if he won the class and didn't get tied that he was going to whip the judges @#*. Lo and behold the judge tied a buddy of his and before the reserve horse could be announced, Dewey had jumped the rail and knocked the judge out cold.
He recieved a standing ovation
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Everett said...

Here is a true story on Dewey Henderson, I asked Dewey if he really did this and he said Hell yes I did.
Dewey was trying to get a phone number from the phone company. The operator told Dewey to put someone on the phone that she could understand. Dewey said take this phone and stick it up your @## do you understand that? The next day the phone truck pulled up to Deweys barn, ask to speak to Mr. Henderson, Dewey said i'm Mr. Henderson what can I do for you.Phone guy said did you tell one of our operators to shove the phone up her @##, Dewey said I sure did. The phone guy said "if you don't apologise to her we are going to remove your phone". Dewey said get her on the phone I will talk to her. To the lady got on the phone Dewey said are you the lady i told to stick this phone up your @##, the lady yes sir i am, Dewey said you better drop your drawers and bend over they are going to bring this son of a #@#@# to you, Dewey hung up the phone took his knife out of his pocket and cut the line into then handed it to the driver and said get your @## off my property. In a couple days his trainer got the phone back in his name.
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scooter said...

Back a couple of months or so ago some of you were telling tales about Dewey Henderson.

I went to a cousin's funeral today and back to the family's house afterward. My uncle and I were sitting and gabbing about the good old days, you know back when his bladder was in control and my knees didn't ache. I had forgotten about this story but after he reminded me of it I thought you all might enjoy it too.

Years ago I sold Dewey a walk-trot mare. She was a beautiful thing. I had fallen in love with walking horses and had found a gelding I wanted. I needed to get the money to buy him so one Saturday night after she won the three gaited mare class at Ringgold, Ga. Dewey bought her. He didn't have room in his rig to take her home so I agreed to deliver her to him come Monday.

She was a spitfire from the word go. We got her loaded and off I went. I got over to Dewey's barn without any problems. He met me and called a groom to come and unload her. As she was stepping off the trailer her tail-set got caught and it spooked her. She went tee-totally nuts and started having a fine little fit. In the madness she kicked the right tail light on the trailer and broke it completly off.


Dewey wouldn't let me leave like that since I had to go through Atlanta to get home. He said he would rather help me get it fixed than to bail me out of jail. We climbed into his pick-up and went to find a replacement light. His old truck was spittin' and sputterin' and Dewey was fussin'.

Now those of you who knew Dewey know that he had a cleft pallet and a serious speech impedement. Neither of which ever seemed to bother him. He was always a lot of fun to be around but he was just a teech high sturng.

We were on a four lane and everything from donkey carts to Cadillacs was zipping past us like we were standing still. Then we heard the siren and Dewey really started raising Cain. He pulled over to the side of the road and a state patrol came walking up to the side of the truck. When he got to the window he looked in and asked for Dewey's liscense. Dewey didn't say a word, he just pulled his liscense out and handed it to the patrolman. The fellow looked at it and said, "Mr. Henderson, do you have any idea why I pulled you over?" Dewey said, "I nurrnunnly noo, I was nee onnee one you nuund neech." (I certainly do, I was the only one you could catch).

I busted out laughing. The patrolman handed Dewey back his liscense started shaking his head and went back to his car, drove off and we never did know why we got stopped

The Best of Middle Tennessee Horse Farms

The following are some old photos of Hayne's Haven Farm in Franklin, Tennessee. Most of these photos have been posted on here before, but there are a few new ones in the mix. I don't think I've ever posted ALL of the Hayne's Haven photos together before. In addition to the farm photos, included this time are some new horse photos, aerial shots and some photos of Col. Haynes & Hayne's Peacock at the farm.

Here's a good Celebration story sent in by Scooter several years back.

Scooter said...

I had the same college roommate for a couple of years and we became really good friends. He heard me talking about Walking Horses so much he could puke. I know that to be a fact, he told me so many times.

At the beginning of our senior year I told him to pack for a long weekend.....Labor Day......He had no idea where we were going. He fell asleep while I was driving us to you know where. He woke up somewhere between Murfreesboro and Shb'vll. He was still half asleep and didn't pay any attention to the barns etc. that would have given our position away to most folk. We rode into town, turned left, turned left again and there we were.......

He was furious, cussed me for a good ten minutes. I just laughed at him and told him to either get his a** in gear or he could just stay in the car. Of course you know he wasn't going to sit in the car while I was at the hoss show.

We got inside, went to our seats. Some friends had given me two seats in their second row from the ring box. I could tell the was impressed with the facility. The show started and we went and got country ham sandwiches, he was really warming up. Even admitted he saw why I liked this whole thing so much.

He was sitting right next to a lady in the adjacent box all alone and they began having a running conversation. It became apparent as each passing moment went by that her speech was becoming more and more slurred. He was entertained, I was watching the show.

He punched me and said, "watch this". I looked and she had a huge bottle of whiskey in her bag. She poured her styrofoam cup full and practacally downed it with one gulp. We both got tickled. She saw us watching her and since she and Tom had "become friends" she offered us both a swig. We started drinking with her......

Tom found out she and her husband were long time TWH owners and they had a horse in the WGC class that night. Tom kept talking to her and she kept pouring.

By the time the stake class came around we were all ****faced. Tom looked at her and said, "which one of these is your horse?" She stammered out, "Oh, he's the black one." He looked up and that was back when they were almost all black. He got tickled and so did she and I.

They kept talking and he realized she wasn't even watching her horse. He finally asked her if she ever watched when their horse was showing. She laughed and said, "I prefer to drink". Tom said, "how do you know if your horse wins?" She said, "why **** son, that's the easy part. I'll read about it in tomorrow's paper"

Tom was hooked on the Celebration and would meet us there every year until he died in 1980. Still miss the rascal

Here's a couple of tales from Mason:


Mason said...

Back in the day....when everything was fun; Wayne Hackney, Ricky Womack and I went to Baton Rouge together to the show. We took three truckloads as best I rememeber. At the motel the maid had failed to pickup a pair of red ladies panties when she cleaned one of the rooms (dont forget this part) We all got stables together and helped each other ,etc. One night we all three had a horse going in the same class. Ricky & I decided we SHOULD put those red panties in Hackneys riding coat pocket; then when we lined up ask him for a handkerchief. So when he wasnt looking one of us (I bet it was RICK) put them in his coatpocket that was hanging in the tackroom. Rick & I made SURE to line up beside Hackney. Rick told him his hands were sweating and did he (Hackney) have a rag? Hackney said "no". Then I said "You've got something in your right coat pocket." Hackney reached in and pulled out those red panties and held them up for the world to see before he realized what they were!. Everyone in the box seats saw them. We laughed til we almost fell off. He turned red as the panties and said "One of you SOBs' ARE going to carry these things home in your suitcase."

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Mason said...

There is an old Saddlehorse friend of mine that lives in Versailles Ky. Dudley Abbott some of you remember him, (you horse folks.). He told this story I think its one of the funniest ones I have heard. I think of it and bust out laughing over and over. He tells this story:

Said there was a group of horsefolks that wanted to restart the interest of Saddlebreds in Michigan. So they all got together and really put on a high class Horse Show.Said they had some kind of a party everynight after the Show. One night it was the Adult Exhibitor party. The next night it was Jr Exhibitors, next night Sponsor night and finally one night the GROOMS party. Dudley said the next morning when he got out to the show grounds, one of his black grooms, Lewis was laying on his cot in the tack room bandaged up like a mummy. Dudley ask his other groom CATFISH what in the H#LL happened to Lewis? CATFISH said He and Lewis went to that big Grooms party last night and they had a good time, but there was lots of FREE booze and LEWIS drank too much and got on top of a Horse Van and decided to jump off it across the one parked beside it onto the top of the third one parked pretty close to the second one.Dudley ask CATFISH ..."WELL WHY DIDNT YOU TRY AND STOP HIM?

CATFISH said WELL mis'er Dudley AT THE TIME, I THOUGHT he could make it!