Reference: Last Chance


Photos reprinted with permission from the Voice of the Tennessee Walking Horse.

Last ChanceLast Chance, TWHBEA #350034, was by Hunter's Allen F-10 and out of Merry Legs F-4. He was one of the few walking horses of his time that did not trace back to Roan Allen. He sired John A's Chance, who was considered to be one of the greatest yellow breeding stallions of all time.

"Last Chance, the sire of Yellow Jacket, was sired by Hunter's Allen F-10 in 1931. Last Chance was chestnut with both hind socks, strip, and flax mane. An exceptional two-year-old show horse, he went on to place fifth in the 1939 Celebration's Four-Year-Old and Over Class. Additionally, he placed fourth in the Get of Sire Class that year." - Harold Dean Givens in "The Origins of The Palomino Walking Horse"
 

DELIGHT AND DILEMMA: THE ALBERT DEMENT HORSES
From The Plantation Showcase, October 1995.

Among all of these though, his (Albert Dement's) favorites were the American Saddle Horse mare, Nell Dement a flax sorrel, and her stocking-legged daughter by Allan named Merry Legs. When the Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders' Association was organized in 1935, these two mares were accorded foundation status as Nell Dement F-3 and Merry Legs F-4.

As a young mare, Merry Legs was highly competitive in the county fair show circuit of her time. During her years in the ring, she won over forty blue ribbons at the major showcases of the day. The first man to truck Tennessee Walkers, Miller Hogwood, remembers one State Fair plantation championship in which his Uncle Albert was exhibiting Merry Legs. In that more relaxed atmosphere where ringside regulations were rather loose, Albert Dement requested his groom to hand him a glass of water. Balancing the glass in the palm of his hand, Dement neck-reigned Merry Legs around the ring as the audience went wild. The paid left the arena with the State Fair Grand Championship.

As a brood mare, Merry Legs produced a total of thirteen foals by many of the leading sires of the period. Albert Dement sought to produce the perfect breeding stallion through Merry Legs, and as she grew older began his final experimentation with the golden chestnut stallion, Hunter's Allen, at stud in Lewisburg, Tennessee. The first two foals from this cross died as yearlings, but in the spring of 1931, Merry Legs dropped a chestnut colt with two hind socks, a strip, and a flax mane.

Because Merry Legs was twenty years old when this foal arrived, Dement called him Last Chance, a name that proved prophetic when the bay mare died of colic the following year. The foal so pleased Dement that he was retained as the head herd sire of the Dement breeding program. After Albert Dement died on March 16, 1940, a tribute to his achievements was presented at the Columbia horse show. Last Chance was led around the arena, saddle empty, as friends and associates circled the ring behind the classic stallion, moving slowly while the announcer listed Dement's many contributions to the breed he helped create.

LAST CHANCE
TWHBEA #350034

COLOR: CHESTNUT
HUNTER'S ALLEN
TWHBEA # F-10
COLOR: CHESTNUT
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ALLAN
TWHBEA #F-1
COLOR: BLACK
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ALLANDORF
TWHBEA #12205
COLOR: GREY
MAGGIE MARSHALL
TWHBEA #12206
COLOR: BLACK
ALLIS
TWHBEA #84
COLOR: BLACK
MARKINGS: BOTH HIND STOCKINGS, STRIP.
HEIGHT: 16H
*PAT
TWHBEA #11266
COLOR: BLACK
**NELL
TWHBEA #11202
COLOR: BLACK
MERRY LEGS
TWHBEA# F-4
COLOR: BAY
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ALLAN
TWHBEA #F-1
COLOR: BLACK
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ALLANDORF
TWHBEA #12205
COLOR: GREY
MAGGIE MARSHALL
TWHBEA #12206
COLOR: BLACK
NELL DEMENT
TWHBEA #3
COLOR: CHESTNUT
DONALD
TWHBEA #6
COLOR: CHESTNUT
*FLAX
TWHBEA #12286

NOTABLE OFFSPRING

 


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