Elk River Farm, Winchester, Tennessee

Elk River Farm
Winchester, Tennessee

Danny & Sherry Taylor

WELCOME!

Jab Faulkner of the Boonville community of Lincoln County was a Middle Tennessee Walking Horse breeder of the old school. His father and uncles had raised good mares from brood stock that they had owned for years and the many fine stallions that stood in their section of the state. Jab continued to raise foals from the lines promoted by his father and uncle, and long after the advent of the padded show walking Horse, the Faulkner farm was noted for its fine using horses.

Jab and his wife, Frances had no children, however, and as they grew older with no younger family members interested in carrying on what they had developed, they decided to offer their broodmares for sale. One of the people who gladly acquired one of the Faulkner's finest mares was Danny Taylor of Elk River Farms near Lynchburg, Tennessee.

Danny Taylor grew up with Walking Horses and after attending college and working in a city for some years, he decided to return to his roots in Franklin County with the idea of raising foundation-bred Walkers as his Dad had done.

The mare that Danny purchased from Jab Faulkner was a black sabino named Lucy Sue's Angel. A tall, well built mare, she had inherited the Go Boy beauty from her sire, Angel's Go Boy, while taking her size from her dam, a daughter of Sage Fire.

In the late 80's Danny Taylor decided to rejoin his brother in the pleasure walking horse business. To obtain breeding stock with the old lines he favored, Danny went to the farm of Billy Ray Sanders for two Last Chance bred mares, to Jab Faulkner who once stood Top Wilson, for an Angel's Go Boy mare and to Dr. Nesbitt for a Sir Maugray bred mare.

These mares went to the courts of Chance's Goldust H., Red Bud's Rascal, Sun's Midnight Mark, and Go Boy's Cannonball. Danny kept the promising fillies he produced to develop a group of naturally gaited, foundation-bred mares.

Danny Taylor has seen the pendulum swing widely in the Walking Horse world that he has known since a youngster. The Walker that could perform a natural nodding walk, the horse with the calm disposition and people-loving attitude became a no-man's horse as the padded show ring performer in shades of black, bay, and dark chestnut became the idol of the Saturday night show.

Sun's Smokey Midnight

Now, as more and more people have begun to appreciate, and even expect to find a Walker with the natural lick, the Taylors find that the family heritage they made an effort to preserve contains within it the genetic potential to consistently reproduce the horse to fulfill those expectations.

Currently Available

Midnight's Powder Puff

Mare
Full Heritage

Danny Taylor
931-967-9553
Winchester, Tennessee

Heritage Tennessee Walking Horse Sales
Listings of available Heritage Walking Horses

Since Danny did not own a stallion at the time he purchased Lucy Sue's Angel, he was intent on finding stallions of older bloodlines with undisputed pedigrees, good dispositions, and the old fashioned walk. One day he, his brother and veteran horseman, Leon Oliver, went to Cannon County to look at a pair of stallions being offered at public stud by their breeder, Horton Elrod. One was a black-bay son of Merry Go Boy. The second and older stallion was a true black son of Midnight Sun named Sun's Midnight Mark. Danny was excited to have found a son of the Sun still available in middle Tennessee. He took his new black sabino mare to the court of the old black stallion in the spring of 1992. The following year, Lucy Sue's Angel foaled a black stud colt. Not the coal black of its sire, this colt sported a bald face and four stocking legs. When the foal coat shed off, the colt shimmered a dusty dark blue with a contrast of the white stockings and a very black mane and tail. Danny named his grandson of Midnight Sun, Sun's Smokey Midnight.

Sun's Smokey Midnight was an attractive youngster with a gentle attitude and a true running walk that he readily demonstrated at liberty. He had size, gait, color, and a foundation pedigree that is unique within the area. Danny determined that this young stallion would have a chance to prove himself at stud. With that goal in mind, he made sure that Smokey was started as a sane and safe trail horse, that the young blue stallion showed the gait under saddle, as well as other traits required of trail mounts.

The first foals sired by Sun's Smokey Midnight arrived in the spring of 1997. Breeders in the area quickly realized that here was a stallion offering something quite different from the currently popular Pride and Pusher lines. Smokey offspring in general inherited their sire's very correct gait, his size and weight-carrying bone, his willing disposition, and often his flashy sabino pattern.

As the years of the 90's passed, mares visited his court not only from surrounding counties, but some from over a hundred miles away. Breeders were pleased with their foals, returned to raise more of them. As the first Smokey foals grew and were started under saddle, they proved to be what their breeders and owners wanted in terms of dependable, easy-gaited trail mounts.

Sun's Smokey Midnight celebrated his tenth birthday in 2003. He stands as one of the few grandsons of Midnight Sun available at public stud that does NOT trace back to Sun through H.F. Pride of Midnight.

Danny Taylor is particularly fond of the Smokey-sired offspring that are out of the daughters of his family's late Pagie's Echo stallion. Danny's future plans for Smokey include repeated crosses with Paige's Echo daughters, as well as mares by Bud's Sterling Bullet. He believes these crosses will produce "an awfully good riding horse". Danny hopes the Smokey image will color his pastures for years to come.

Tennessee Walking Horse Heritage Entrance
All horses advertised on this site are being sold directly by the Owner or Agent, they are the sole responsible party regarding each sale or horse. Buyers are responsible for verifying the soundness & suitability of any horse listed. Kathy, Walking-Horse.com, Tennessee Walking Horse OnLine, or our agents are not responsible or liable for any misrepresentation associated with any horse or sale.

Updated 01/26/2010