| Reference: The
Pusher C.G. |
"Pusher" was aptly named. His ability
to push with his backend is renowned.
|
Excerpt
from
Walking from Wisconsin to Tennessee with Larry
Pickhardt
(By Sarah Gee © Voice,
March 2006 )
 In
1974, Larry bought THE horse. The horse that would not only
change his life, but also change the entire Tennessee Walking
Horse industry – The Pusher C.G. Larry, in partnership with
Evan Sherburne, bought the Pusher as a gangly two-year-old from
Charles Gavin of Dalton, Georgia. Gavin had brought the colt
to the 1974 Celebration for the sole purpose of finding a buyer.
One day as Gavin’s children were riding him around the warm-up
ring, The Pusher caught Larry’s eye.
Larry brought
The Pusher back to Wisconsin and began working him himself.
He recalls, “When I worked him as a three-year-old we were winning
everything up there. I was winning stake classes up there with
him as a three-year-old.”
Bryant Fly
came to work for Larry in 1976. Bryant had experienced a great
deal of success as an assistant trainer under Bob Cherry and
when Bob closed his barn, he asked Larry to hire Bryant. Larry
did and immediately put The Pusher under Bryant’s direction.
Having Bryant take over training duties at his barn was quite
the wake-up call for Larry. He states, “I basically found out
I wasn’t a very good trainer. I’d gotten by up there because
it wasn’t really that competitive. When Bryant came, that’s
when we started to really compete in the south – first Indiana
and Kentucky, and then Tennessee.”
Of The Pusher,
Larry remarks, “He was a great horse to be around. He was like
an actor. We’d get him ready to go to the show and take him
to the warm-up. He’d just go through the motions. However, the
minute you took him through the gate into the show ring, that
head would come back in your lap and that son of a gun would
be all business. He was fun to ride and fun to show.”
Larry and
Bryant brought The Pusher to the Celebration in 1977. With Larry
in the irons, he made the workout in the Amateur class but didn’t
receive a ribbon. The next year they walked away with a reserve
world grand championship and The Pusher gained a new owner.
Discussing
the sale, Larry relates, “Joe Dietz had been trying to by The
Pusher for $35,000 that whole summer. I kept telling him that
I wouldn’t sell him for less that $50,000. Well, we were showing
in Kentucky two weeks before the Celebration and we won the
amateur class. Joe tried to buy him. I told him no and that
in two weeks I was going to show the horse at the Celebration.
I told him that if he was standing at the gate when I came out
of the ring, I would sell The Pusher to him for $50,000. I also
told him that if he wasn’t there to buy him that night, the
price was going to be $75,000. Joe and his daughter Sherri were
at the gate the night we won the amateur reserve world championship.”
The Pusher went on to great acclaim, eventually earning the
1981 World Grand Championship and becoming one of the most popular
breeding stallions in the industry.
Prior to
selling the great horse, Larry bred five mares to him, two in
1977 and three in 1978. Neither of the 1977 colts made under
saddle, but all three of 1978 models,
The Pushover, Pusher’s
Prime Time, and J.J.’s Alibi, earned Celebration ribbons at
some point in their careers. In fact, Bryant Fly directed The
Pushover to the Four-Year-Old Reserve World Grand Championship
in 1983 for Larry. The Pushover was sold in 1986 and later followed
in his sire’s hoof prints to capture the 1990 World Grand Championship.
Larry is
extremely proud of The Pusher’s legacy, stating, “The thing
that I feel really good about is Pusher being a lit-up old skinny
raw-boned thing when I bought him and going out and doing what
he’s done. The Black Night Shade was the fourth generation of
Pusher horses to win the big stake...not bad.”
|
THE PUSHER C.G.
TWHBEA #725575
BORN: 4/04/1972
DIED: 10-2-2001
COLOR: BLACK SABINO
MARKINGS: BOTH HIND STOCKINGS,
LOWER LIP, BLAZE, MIXED TAIL.
sex: stallion |
DRUG DEALER
TWHBEA #644180
COLOR: BLACK
MARKINGS: NEAR HIND STOCKING,
STAR.
 |
SUN'S GUNSMOKE
TWHBEA # 540518
COLOR: BLACK
MARKINGS: OFF HIND SOCK,
NEAR FORE CORONET.
|
MIDNIGHT
SUN
TWHBEA #410751
COLOR: BLACK
|
ELRODS PRINCES ALLEN
TWHBEA # 431575
COLOR: CHESTNUT
MARKINGS: FOUR SOCKS, STAR, SNIP, FLAX MANE AND MIXED TAIL.
|
KNIGHT LADY
TWHBEA #520761
COLOR: BLACK
MARKINGS: NEAR HIND FETLOCK,
STAR. |
ROAN ALLEN AGAIN
TWHBEA # 390158
COLOR: CHESTNUT
SABINO (REG AS "ROAN")
MARKINGS: BOTH HIND
AND OFF FORE SOCKS, BROKEN STRIP, FLAX MANE AND TAIL.
|
GLORIOUS KNIGHT
TWHBEA # 350062
COLOR: BLACK
MARKINGS: NEAR HIND SOCK, STAR, SNIP
|
GO BOYS BLUE GAL M.
TWHBEA #643113
COLOR: BLACK
MARKINGS:
UNKNOWN |
GO BOY'S FLYING CLOUD
TWHBEA #610340
COLOR: BLACK
MARKINGS: BOTH HIND SOCKS, BLAZE.
 |
MERRY GO BOY
TWHBEA #431336
COLOR: BLACK
|
MISS MADISON
TWHBEA # 431697
COLOR: BLACK
MARKINGS: NEAR HIND AND OFF FORE STOCKINGS, STRIP.
|
MEEKS BLUE GAL
TWHBEA #640149
COLOR:
BLACK (SABINO OR ROAN?)
MARKINGS: BOTH HIND SOCKS, OFF
FORE FETLOCK, BLAZE, MIXED MANE AND TAIL. |
GO BOY'S SPECIAL
TWHBEA # 540614
COLOR: CHESTNUT
MARKINGS: STRIP |
CHESTER'S BLUE GAL
TWHBEA # 570860
COLOR: BLACK
SABINO (REG AS "ROAN")
MARKINGS: BOTH HIND
AND OFF FORE STOCKINGS, BLAZE. |
NOTABLE OFFSPRING
|
