It's a lot like nuts and bolts -
if the rider's nuts, the horse bolts!

~ Nicholas Evans ~
 "The Horse Whisperer"

ANCESTRAL  HISTORY  TRACED TO THE FOUNDATION SIRE OF THE TENNESSEE WALKING HORSE

THE STORY OF BLACK ALLAN LATER KNOWN AS ALLAN F-1

Allan F-1 was a promising black colt sired by the acclaimed pacing stallion Allandorf and sold by the side of his noted dam, Maggie Marshall. "History of humans and horses has few parallels of the life story woven around Allan F-1", stated Ben A. Green in his book 'Biography of the Tennessee Walking horse'.

Allan F-1 was the designation given to Black Allan by the Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders' Association when it began its Registry in 1935. He was so noted because of his recognition as the "greatest contribution to the breed, among all known stallions".  His lineage consisted of Allandorf, Onward, George Wilkes F-54, and Hambletonian. His dam was Maggie Marshall and her lineage consisted of Bradford's Telegraph, Black Hawk, and Sherman Morgan.

One of Maggie Marshall's colts, named Elyria was foaled in 1882 and proved to be a great trotter with a record of 2:25 ¼, very fast for those days of high-wheeled sulkies.

What follows is the sequence of events that relegated Allan to the role of a "wandering horse".
 

• Elyria's owned, George Ely, was so pleased with his fast trotter that he traveled to Lexington, KY and bought Maggie with Black Allan at her side. Ely had hopes of owning another fast trotter in his colt.
   

• The colt was a trotting horse that refused to trot - he would only pace. After several years in 1891 Ely gave up on the black colt and sold him in a sale in Lexington, Kentucky.
   

• John P. Mankin of Murfreesboro, Tennessee purchased the horse for $335.00

• Lacking speed, Allan was relegated to stud but had little to attract any attention.
   

• Neglected, his talents hidden to the world, Allan became a "wandering horse", once being sold for a black filly, a jersey cow and a $20.00 bill.
   

• For the next twelve years it was a downhill slide for Black Allan. Even his impressive bloodlines could not prevent his fading into obscurity.
   

• One of his later owners, J.A. McCulloch used him to tease the mares that were to be bred to his jacks to produce mules. Thus Allan, the horse with no reputation, became known as "The Old Teaser" and evidently was thought good for nothing else. It seems that Allan had fallen to the lowest level of a stallion's life.

Then history reveals that in 1903 James R. Brantley, a knowledgeable horseman from Coffee Country, bought the horse from McCulloch for one hundred and ten dollars in a package deal.

From this point Allan’s reputation soared.  He stood at the Brantley's farm from 1903 to 1909. Word spread throughout Middle Tennessee of the good colts with natural walking gaits being foaled by mares bred to Allan.  He became a king with popular court, breeding mares from all the great lines. Regardless of the type of mare mated to him, the resulting offspring performed an easy gliding gait that could carry the rider - every ride effortless. During that time he was bred to the great mare, Gertrude, producing a colt that would become one of the most noted sires in the history of the Tennessee walking horse breed. He was Roan Allen, later to be designated as Roan Allen F-38.

Black Allan was sold one final time in March of  1910 in transaction between two close friends, Brantley and another Tennessee breeder, Albert Dement of Wartrace.  During the next seven months just preceding his death at the age of twenty-four, he serviced 111 mares - indeed a phenomenal feat for such an aged stallion. One of the mares was Dement’s Merry Legs who later with Roan Allan F-38 went on to produce the finest Tennessee Walking Horses. 

The impact of Allan F-1, the chosen foundation sire of the Tennessee Walking Horse, was virtually unknown until more than a quarter of a century after his death. The pre-potency passed on to several generations of his progeny was responsible for his selection as the foundation sire by the Executive Committee of the Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders' Association in 1935.

We share this story of this great sire as both of the Fayebrook Farms Walking Horse stallion's come from this great foundation breeding.

We feel strongly that the old bloodlines produce a very natural Running Walk.

This story is excerpted from the archives of the Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders' and Exhibitors' Association as written by the Executive Director and originally written in the history recorded by Shelbyville's W.J. McGill.
 

Photo courtesy of  Dr. Bob Womack, author of "Echo of Hoofbeats."

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