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Reference: Pride of Midnight H.F. was a naturally high-stepping stallion with the attitude of a true show horse. While he was a successful show horse, his true success can be measured by his success as a sire. Pride of Midnight (POM) is one of the most influential walking horse sires in history. His offspring possess uncommon beauty and naturally animated movement. While POM colts are sensitive and easy to train, they are noted for the fact that they will not take abuse and can't be "fixed" like other lines.
In 1965 MIDNIGHT
SUN died. Harlinsdale Farms had
three colts to carry on his bloodlines: PRIDE OF MIDNIGHT, SUN'S
DARK BEAM and MIDNIGHT ALLEN. They were from the last crop of MIDNIGHT SUN
colts. They decided we would not let any of them go.
The colts were broken out at Harlinsdale and then sent to Dot
Warren for finishing. It was
decided that they were all keepers.
Their judgment was vindicated; they all proved to be very good
breeding horses. When they were 4 years old, they were put into
service. PRIDE didn't breed
many mares until he was five, so they showed him the year he was four.
It was unfortunate that PRIDE did not catch on early, but Mr.
Harlin believed in him and told people as early as 1971, "Believe me, this
horse is going to turn this industry around’.
PRIDE'S dam was owned by Mr.
Worrell at Solitude Stock Farm, but he was owned by Harlinsdale Farms
before he was registered.
PRIDE had a funny personality. He was pop-eyed and he stood up in
the cross-ties, he was a show horse from the day one.
He could do a lot when Dot Warren was riding him, but when they
decided to take him to the Celebration they brought him right back home
and left him from that day forward.
Harlinsdale
Farms had a hard time convincing folks that they
had the horse of the future
but Pride had a lot of freedom up front.
At the time, the industry didn’t have the big foot as they do now
and it took a lot get a horse's foot up. But PRIDE could do it with
a lot of ease and he had a natural
kind of snort and show horse ways.
The trouble was, a lot of trainers put him down hard.
They said you can't fix [sore] his colts - they won't take it.
Such trainers were missing the message that Harlinsdale Farms was trying
to convey which was: "We've got a horse that you don't need to fix that
way. He does it naturally."
But they had a hard time. There were some very vicious attacks against
Harlinsdale Farms and PRIDE OF
MIDNIGHT during that period.
The result was that over half of the colts PRIDE sired, were sired
during the last two years that he live.
To quote Bill Harlin,
“He was put down so hard by so many people "You can't fix his
colt”….That is a blight on our industry as far as I am concerned.”
In 1979, PRIDE passed away after two colic attacks. That was the last
times Bill Harlin saw his father in tears.
NOTABLE OFFSPRING
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Recognizing his ultimate
potential, Warren took his time with the gifted stallion. Pride Of
Midnight H.F. made his show ring debut in 1970 as a four year old
at the "Early Bird" show in Fayetteville, Tennessee. By the
following Monday morning he was the toast of the industry. He
showed six more times in 1970 always exiting the ring with a blue
ribbon. 