Shaker's Shocker was sired by the World Grand Champion Mack K's Handshaker, 561320, who was Celebration winner in 1960.   His dam was My Darling, 51026, by Rooster Allen, 480426, and he by White Lightning, 370059 by Hunter's Allen F-10.

Breeder of Shaker's Shocker was Tom Barham of Lewisburg, Tennessee, who named him Handshaker's Nodder as a colt.   Barham, a purveyor of riding clothes, mentioned to Mrs. H. Pearl Sain, when she was in the Barham store picking up riding clothes which daughter Betty had ordered, that his old Hunter's Allen-bred mare had brought him a "big, strong, dandy colt" the night before.   Mrs. Sain went with Tom Barham to see the colt and, upon returning home to Bell Buckle, Tennessee, told Mr. Sain and Betty about it.   Mr. Sain then went back to Lewisburg and bought the colt from Barham with the stipulation that the colt remain by side of the dam until weaning and, at that time, Barham would deliver the weaned colt to the Sain Stables in Bell Buckle.

Betty Sain changed the name from Handshaker's Nodder to the one she liked better, Shaker's Shocker.
As a colt, Shocker was allowed to run to pasture until the fall of his yearling year when he was caught-up and taught to lead.  Betty recalls that her father was in the hospital when she first started Shocker under saddle late that fall as he was coming two, and she had no one to hold him or help her in any way when she first started riding him.

Prior to the 1966 Celebration Horse Show, Shaker's Shocker had been away from home to only eight horse shows, including the previous Celebration when he was fifth in the junior stallion event and reserve junior champion.

As a three-year-old, Shocker started the season with a bang by winning the hotly contested event for junior horses at Lewisburg, Tennessee.   He was tied fifth at Lafayette, Tennessee, and, in August prior to the 1965 Celebration, tied first at the Belfast Lions Club Show at Belfast, Tennessee.

In 1966, the only appearance made in the show ring by Shaker's Shocker was at the Celebration Horse Show.  He was winner of the event for junior stallions, the preliminary for the Junior Walking Horse Championship Stake, on Wednesday night.   Shocker passed the Junior Stake, however, in favor of a try for the Grand Championship.   His performance in the big stake was electrifying to the overflow audience on stake night as he battled the odds and tradition to win with a truly scintillating performance.

Owner-rider Betty Sain is among the youngest riders to compete in the big stake at the Celebration.  She was twenty-three years old at the time of her big win.  Betty is the only lady to win the Grand Championship of the World.

Betty Sain was the first lady to ever ride to the winner's circle in the Grand Championship Stake.  She and Shaker's Shocker were given a standing ovation as 1966 winners.

From: "James Burleson" <jburleson@flanet.com>
To: <walkerswest@walkerswest.com>
Sent: Friday, June 07, 2002 4:49 PM
Subject: Hi Mary Ellen...


Hello again,

We have conversed before.  I have not visited your site lately and the updates are really good to see.  I was looking at the Shocker page and just wanted to let you know that Betty sent me a picture just like that when I was a youngster, the one with Shocker eating out of the silver bowl.  If  I'm not mistaken, the writing up top on the photo itself, that is not quite visible in the one on the webpage,  stated "How sweet it is...".  I guess I was thinking when I was young that I was the only person that got a  picture like that (!).  That picture is still around "somewhere".  I think I was about 11 years old at the time.

Till next time...
Monte

I just stumbled on your Betty/Shocker tribute page and I wanted to tell you how much I loved seeing the photos. My family bought the farm across the road from Betty's in 1976 when I was eight years old. For the next ten years, I spent much of my free time hanging around her barn, exercising her horses, meeting the stream of fascinating characters who came to her barn, and enjoying knowing one of the most fascinating people I've ever met. My parents and siblings loved Betty as well and she was an always entertaining guest at our house at least once a week for years. She was a huge influence in my life.

Betty had a gift with animals that was quite simply amazing. The last time I saw her, in the late eighties, she had been forced off her beloved farm by finances and was living with her mother in her childhood home in "downtown" Bell Buckle. The few horses she still owned were boarded at various farms in the area, which broke her heart. But at home, she had a small brown bird - some sort of common Tennessee songbird she had nursed back to health - and she had taught this bird to talk and sing. The bird could talk as well as any African Grey parrot. It was astonishing.

Shocker was an astounding animal. He was huge, gorgeous, and difficult to handle. ONLY Betty could handle Shocker. No one else could even get in his stall but he adored Betty. His offspring constitute some of the most talented and beautiful flatshod Walkers in the world, but the TWH show horse community shunned Betty because of her outspoken opposition to what was then widespread soring. And most of the show world men hated her. She was loud, gorgeous, eccentric, and so talented that she could not be ignored.

She was one of the earliest proponents of TWH versatility; I remember traveling with her to watch her ride in Nashville's annual Iroquois steeplechase. She ran the steeplechase on - I think - Shocker's Stardust, a beautiful mare. She also rode her horses western, trail, and trained many of them to do dressage moves and tricks, like counting by tapping their hooves. When she rode, she would let her waist length blonde hair down from its usual severe bun and it would stream out behind her - this tiny, beautiful blonde woman on these large, flashy gaited horses was a sight not to be missed.

My family still lives in Bell Buckle, while I live in Knoxville, TN. I now ride hunter jumpers, as does my eight year old daughter. I tell her Betty Sain stories every time we drive past Betty's farm. Seeing it now makes me very sad. It had been her pride and joy and she bought it with her winnings from her Grand Championship on Shocker. Shocker is buried by the barn, with a beautiful headstone, and I hope the people who own the farm now tend his gravesite the way Betty did. She *adored* that horse.

Katie Allison Granju
Knoxville, TN

----- Original Message -----
From: VBucy@bcieng.com
To: walkerswest@walkerswest.com
Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 2004 11:22 AM
Subject: Shaker's Shocker

Good Morning:

I too have a story about receiving a picture of Betty and Shaker (the one with him eating out of the silver bowl). It has “How sweet it is” written across the top. Like the gentleman before me, I was overjoyed at receiving a picture like that and felt very special. I still have the picture and was looking at it just a couple of days ago.

As a child, I was fortunate to have a wonderful mentor, J. McKessick Jeter, who interested me in Tennessee Walking Horses. I’m out of the horse business at the present, but am anticipating retirement with gusto and hope to bring one of these majestic creatures into my life at that point.

Thanks for the walk down memory lane.

Vicki from Florida

<==1965   1967==>

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