Tennessee Living

About the Author - Pettus L. Read

Pettus L. Read is editor of the Tennessee Farm Bureau News and director of communications for the Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation. He may be contacted by e-mail at .

Tennessee continues to have a growing horse population, and the sight of one or two horses on 5-acre lots around our state is nothing out of the ordinary. In fact, there are more horses in this state today than there were back when horsepower played a major role in Tennessee crop production.

The value of Tennessee’s equine industry is estimated at more than $515 million and growing daily. Tennessee ranks in the top five states for horses, following states like Texas and California.

Tennessee has also become a great place to “horse around” in. A story making the rounds with horse lovers could explain just why we have become such admirers of these noble beasts. Please note that I was given this story by afriend who thinks like a horse as well as whispers to them.

It seems somewhere over in East Tennessee during the ’40s there was a young man who thought he was a pretty good jockey as well as a good judge of horseflesh. Waddie Osborn could ride a Shetland pony down a 45-degree incline bareback on a rainy day and never fall off.

Waddie was about as good a horseman as you would ever want to see.

Well, that kind of expert horseman gets opportunities. And pretty soon, Waddie was asked to ride one of Mr. Bill Culpepper’s new racehorses in a very important race where you had to jump over hedges as well as ride your fastest to win. Mr. Culpepper knew of Waddie’s ability and hoped that the jockey could handle his new horse.

Just before the race, Mr. Culpepper led his horse, Ocean Dumplin, out onto the track and helped Waddie into the saddle. The track wasn’t much more than a big cow pasture with privy hedges for jumps.

Mr. Culpepper gave Waddie some last-minute instruction on how to run the track. Just as he walked off, he shouted back to Waddie and said, “I don’t know a whole lot about this horse, but I was told that all you have to remember is that every time you approach a hedge, you have to shout, ‘ALLLEEE OOOP’ real loud in the horse’s ear.”

Waddie could not believe what he was hearing. He thought that was the stupidest thing he’d ever heard of to say during a horse race, and in all of his years of riding, he had never used a command like that for a horse. No way was he going to shout that in Ocean Dumplin’s ear.

As the race began, Ocean Dumplin took off for the first jump in a blinding burst of speed, several lengths ahead of the other horses. Waddie prepared for the jump but refused to give the command that Mr. Culpepper had told him. Poor old Ocean Dumplin crashed straight through the jump.

As they came out the other side, Waddie had privy hedge limbs sticking out of his hat, his shoe tops and even had some tucked in his britches legs. As he attempted to remove a large limb from his belt, he could see that he and Ocean Dumplin were closing in fast on the next jump.

Being somewhat embarrassed but not wanting to go through another event like the last one, he whispered “allleee ooop” in the horse’s ear.

But the same thing happened. Ocean Dumplin crashed straight through the center of the jump.

As the third jump came into sight, Waddie came to the realization that he could not stand another crash though the hedges. This time, he yelled “ALLLEEE OOOP!” really loud.

Ole Ocean Dumplin sailed as smooth as silk over the jump with no problem. This continued for the rest of the race, but due to the earlier crashes through the hedges they only finished fourth.

Mr. Culpepper was mad as a bear with a sore toe when Waddie reached the barn. He immediately tore into Waddie and demanded to know what went wrong.

Waddie had a quick answer: “I didn’t do anything wrong. It’s your stupid old horse and his crazy ‘allleee ooop’ commands. What is he, deaf or something?”

With the veins on the sides of his head bulging, Mr. Culpepper hollered back at Waddie, “Deaf? Deaf? You idiot. He’s not deaf, he’s BLIND!”

Old Ocean Dumplin was just doing it the only way he knew how.

“Allleee Ooop!”

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Magazine:
Tennessee Home & Farm, Fall 2010 Edition Edition

Headline:
Talkin’ Horse Sense

Summary:
Who says humans are the smartest mammals?

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