Beloved Belinda - The Champion Cinderella Beauty of the Year
(Reprinted from The Voice of the Tennessee Walking Horse)

"Even the cowboys went wild" on a Saturday afternoon at the Fort Worth Livestock Exposistion and Stock Show when Beloved Belinda worked out in the excercise ring. Later thousands joined them in hurrahs as she won the 4-Year-Old and up Tennessee Walking Mare Class, and served notice she is reigning as Queen of the Breed in the five-year-old bracket.

Her performance so early in the season was called a re-run of her race to the World Championship Mare throne at the 1961 Tennessee Walking Hose Celebration at Shelbyville, Tenn. "Even faster than last year," declared her spectators who saw her in 1961 triumphs and again at Ft. Worth.

Trainer-Rider Sam Paschal of Murfreesboro, Tenn., says she's faster than ever - smarter than ever - and better than eve. That's going a long way. Last year she placed 4th in the Celebration Grand Championship Stake despite an epidemic of shoe trouble.

Belinda is a proved champion mare. She proved herself in 1960 with the 3-year-old title of the world among mares just 10 months after she left her home pasture as a pleasure horse. In 1961 she took mare classes at the Celebration; in Dallas; at the Kansas City American Royal where she also took stake honors; at Baton Rouge's Dixie Jubilee; at Montgomery's Southern Championship and at a host of other shows.  

The speckled grey horse is great today - but the greatest story is about where she came from, and why she is sometimes called "The Cinderella Horse" or "Sleeping Beauty." That story parallels some other fantastic stories of the breed - told in the history book about the Tennessee Walking Hose, compiled by the Editor of this magazine.

Why Cinderella? The answer is simple. She had the simple origin of Cinderella, she was "broke as a 2-year-old pleasure horse" not thought of as a star at any ball (show). Then came along Sam Paschal who took this Cinderella-Sleeping Beauty in hand, and look where she is today.

Not long ago, her owner, Miss Gene Wild of Sarcoxie, Missouri, reportedly turned down a $50,000 offer for her - and she has received other bids. Belinda's amazin background story, as related by Paschal and others, presents this picture.

Her mother, Youree's Grey Lady, was bred by E.H. Padgett of Wartrace, sired by Top Wilson out of June Beauty, a granddaughter of the super speedy Giovanni. As a yearling she was traded to C.O. Barker of Readyville in Cannon County, Tenn., for a reported $17. Barker sold her to Marland Summers of near Murfressboro for $40 as a work horse. He used her to make crops on his farm and teamed her with a mule to take his wagon to town. He did not breed the mare.

The late Irving S. Bugg of near Murfreesboro bought Grey Lady and bred her to Paschal's Little Merry Boy, a son of the great Old Merry Boy out of Sally Weaver. Paschal took the stallion to the Bugg farm where he bred Youree's Grey Lady. Breeding took place March 14, 1957. Eleven months later she foaled a grey filly who immediately because Irving's Grey Lady. That was Belinda's first registered name. 

Ernest Bugg, son of Irving, broke the filly as a 2-year-old pleasure horse with no thought of her true destiny in the show ring. Paschal and Charley Martin visited the Bugg farm, and bought her for $400. Martin rode the horse from Oct. 25, 1959 to April 1, 1960. Paschal began to ride her and no othe rperson has been on her back since that April date, according to this veteran trainer.

She was beaten only twice as a 3 year-old. By Celebration time that September (1960) she was good enough to win the 3-year-old  mare World's championship. She went on to win the Junior stake at the American Royal in Kansas City, Mo. Her leap from pasture to this championship recalls the amazing records of Strolling Jim and Haynes Pacock, early Celebration champions of the world.

It was  at Kansas City in 1960 that Miss Wild saw Belinda perform in a preliminary. She went home that night and told her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Allen Wild, "I want that horse." They said "Buy her then." So she did, the very next day - and she was Belinda's owner when she won the Junior Stake at that show. In 1961 Miss Wild owned the World Champion Mare when Belinda won this Celebration event as a 4-year-old. Her parents were said to be among the world's greatest growers of flowers with 500 Missouri acres in peonies alone.

Beloved Belinda's 1962 season is certain to make history, to thrill many thousands and also to "sell horses." (The Editor of the Voice received a letter last year from an Illinois woman who said she bought a Tennessee Walking Horse because she got such a thrill from seeing Beloved Belinda at Kansas City. If there is one, there must be many.)

The great Grey Queen with the romantic name (coined by Paschal) stands 15 hands, 3 inches; weighs 1,175 pounds; has an unsurpassed personality; loves to hit the running walk. She reminds veteran Walking Horse lovers of the great Honey Gold, 3-year-old Mare World Champion in the 1947 Celebration for W.M. Duncan of Inverness, Miss. That mare sold for a reported $30,000.

Sam Paschal says he will provide that Belinda, the daughter of a $17 mother, the pleasure horse bought out of a field, will be the "greatest show mare ever know for the Tennessee Walking Horse breed." She appears to be on her way.

One other point, Belinda's background, as shown by her pedigree, shows superior bloodlines that make for champions. Here is her heritage:

Sire: Little Merry Boy, by Merry Boy, by Roan Allen F-38, by Allan F-1 out of Gertrude F-84; Merry Boy's dam, Merry Legs F-4 by Allan F-1, out of Nell Dement; Little Merry Boy's dam, Sally Weaver, by Brown Allen, by Hunter's Allen F-10 out of Mary McDaniel (great grandaughter of Tom Hal F-20); Sally Weaver's dam, Nell Weaver, by Roe's Chief F-35 out of a daughter of Night Rider F-36.

Dam: Youree's Grey Lady by Top Wilson, by Wilson's Allen, by Roan Allen F-38 out of Birdie Messick F-81; Top Wilson's dam, Sade Starnes by Doc out of Princess.