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GOING Gaited
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for gaited horse enthusiasts
When the going gets rough...go gaited!
MAGAZINE
GOING Gaited
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Curly
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FEATURING:
MORGAN
FEATURING:
The
Gaited
EDITOR'S NOTE: Our format for this column will change slightly from this point forward. We asked Jennie and Nate to write an article on maintaining and correcting gait since their premier stallion Champagne Watchout is nothing less than stellar at maintaining his gait. As it turns out, that was no small task, as they have struggled with containing all of the necessary information in one article. What we have also implemented is that each trainer will begin what amounts to a series of articles, and we will publish them in successive issues until completed. This month begins a series on maintaining gait that will be written by Jennie and Nate Jackson. They felt it necessary to begin with gait identification, something Susan Brown covered in length a couple issues ago, so some of this material may be familiar to you. Click here to return to article.
This story partly begins in 1886 during the Civil War when a black colt was born. He was born into trotting royalty, his mother from a famous line of Morgan Horses and his sire from the Hamiltonian line of trotters. Racing trotters were in demand and much was expected from the little black colt. Allan, however, refused to trot. He could pace a decent mile, but pacers were not in favor. Allan lived his life in ignominy until he was seventeen years old and proved himself to be a prepotent sire of smooth-gaited horses when mated to the Tennessee Pacer. Thus old Allan became the foundation sire of Tennessee Walking Horses. Through this heritage, Allan would make a vital and significant contribution to Rose Miller’s life.
There are very few true stories about the Tennessee Walking Horse of yesterday and today. A notable exception is Echoes of Hoofbeats, a biography of the breed, by Bob Womack. Rose Miller has used his knowledge of the old time Walkers in her book, but the present day accounts are all hers.
For thirty plus years, Rose Miller has ridden, raised, trained, shown, judged and most importantly, loved this unique breed of horse. She wrote The Horse That Wouldn’t Trot predominately to entertain, but also to expose some ugly truths of how throughout this breed’s history, some men have cruelly treated this gentle and willing horse in the name of training.
Rose’s horse tale begins in 1944 when as a child she told her parents that they should move to the country and raise horses. When she was eight, they moved to a farm in north central Pennsylvania and eventually Miller got her first horse, but this story really takes off after Rose and her family survived an Indiana tornado.
Losing their little dream farm led to another bigger and better farm, and in 1973 Miller was able to follow her childhood desire of raising horses—Tennessee Walking Horses, an easy-gaited animal that didn’t trot, but the endeavor wasn’t as easy as a child had perceived.
Rose’s stallions were as diverse in attitude as color. Xanadu was almost too lackadaisical in his duties but grey mares got him energized, Delight might just try to breed the tractor if it was in the breeding area, Galahad dug holes under two fences to get to the mare of his desire, Vision kicked at his mares after he bred them but Praise Hallelujah, the horse love of Rose’s life, was nearly perfect..
Xanadu and Praise Hallelujah, two very special stallions, defined her Walking Horse history. Xanadu was a “using” trail type of Walker. He was shown to a top national honor: The TWHBEA Supreme Versatility Championship. Many points in different categories including show jumping were accumulated for this prestigious honor. Xanadu had once jumped a pasture fence, but learning to jump in the show ring was entirely different, challenging and a story in itself.
The second part of Miller’s horse life was dominated by Praise Hallelujah, a naturally-talented, marvelously-gaited individual who competed successfully against horses trained by soring, the inhumane method of getting the Tennessee Walking Horses to step high using caustic chemicals on the horses’ front ankles. This appalling system is outlawed by the Horse Protection Act, but still exists, thwarting even efforts by USDA inspectors to bring it to an end. Rose was introduced to a brilliant dressage instructor who aided her and Praise Hallelujah in reaching their lofty goal of getting the blue ribbons in tough competition. She learned patience, hard work and a talented dressage instructor added up to splendid success.
Praise Hallelujah proved himself a sire of naturally-gaited horses, both for trail riding and showing. Numerous interesting incidents occurred in Miller’s breeding career with this majestic stallion, among them teaching him to “breed” a big black barrel with a hole in the end to collect his semen for shipping to faraway mares.
Stories about his colts and fillies are poignant, yet inspiring. Little Honey developed a bone deformity which crippled her, but she helped raise an orphan foal before leaving this world. Sunday was a precocious beautiful black filly who thwarted all Miller’s attempts to show her as a baby pinning back her ears and moving around as soon as the judge came close enough to inspect her, but went on to become a grand show horse under saddle. Cookie was a rescued mare from a trainer that used soring on his horses, who touched all hearts by her bravery.
Redeemed was comatose at birth, but was revived and spent his seven years of life loving two young teenage girls in need of emotional support and confidence building.
This time of Rose’s life also saw family sorrow and loss as Miller’s oldest daughter, Sharon, succumbed to inflammatory breast cancer, a first grandchild was stillborn and to make that part of her life even more heartrending, some of her beloved horses who gave so much comfort and joy during the human losses, suffered different maladies and death all within a few short years. Rose was distraught and thought about selling all the horses; the pain of losing them was too dreadful. A young niece put her sorrow back in perspective, telling Miller that she was entitled to feel bad after all the agonizing losses, and assured her she should go on with her life’s work with horses.
Rose retired Praise Hallelujah from the show ring when he was fifteen years old. He had shown for thirteen years, won numerous coveted awards, championships and blue ribbons galore. He showed her when it was time to retire by nearly worrying himself sick when mares brought with him to shows were out of his sight. If it wasn’t fun for him, it wasn’t fun for Miller either, but it had been a grand run.
After breeding horses for thirty years, Rose had an epiphany she should refrain from bringing more horses into this unsettled world. Miller gelded Praise Hallelujah so he could live with his much-loved mares and eat luscious pasture grass to his heart’s content. Out of necessity most stallions must live a solitary life so not to harm themselves, other horses or people. He loved his new-found freedom and companionship. It was a fitting reward for the years of outstanding service and pleasure he had given.
The issue of soring persists but recent exposure in horse magazines such as Equus, The Horse, Horse Illustrated and other media has made the practice harder to hide. Hopefully public outrage will succeed where the inspection process has not. The Horse That Wouldn’t Trot is part of a continuing effort to stop these abuses.
