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Show Farmers Go to City for Horses Motors Have Not Replaced Faithful Old Dobbin In Man's Heart. MEMPHIS, TENN. It was a long time ago that the car replaced the horse, but the day of the horse is still far from done. Today more horsemen and women will be found following the bridle-paths than riding rid-ing through the hills of Tennessee. It used to be that the city folk went to the country when they wanted want-ed to ride a horse, but now it isn't at all unusual for the farm youth to drive to town to get a mount. The automobile has replaced the hay burner down on the farm, and tractors trac-tors are fast taking over the duties of plow horses. Five riding academies that do not cater to an exclusive few are operating oper-ating in Memphis, and on sunny days they do a land-office business, renting horses for from 50 cents to $1 an hour. Business Too Good. None of the riding academies' owners bothers about business. It's too good already. The sunny day has yet to come to find a horse in the stable in midafternoon. The sight of a party of young people riding merrily down a bridlepath, bridle-path, a fat woman trying to reduce on an unruly steed, or a boy who hasn't reached his teens astride a horse romping down a dirt road is all the advertisement they need. Bill Sutton, owner of an academy, reported that on a recent Sunday he turned away more than 100 prospective prospec-tive riders between 2 and 4 p. m. "I just didn't have the horses," he said. To start his stable, Sutton invested approximately $2,000. Riding horses not thoroughbreds but good mounts cost from $85 to $115, and a riding horse will earn from $20 to $60 a month. Sutton figured that it costs about 50 cents a day to feed a horse. Most stables work from 20 to 30 horses. Interest at New Height. Sutton said that people were taking tak-ing more interest in horses today than ever before. "Exactljt. why, I-don't know," he said, "but the interest has grown by leaps and bounds. It used to be that just a few people cared for horses, and it was no problem at all for a man to rent a horse any time he wanted one. Now it seems that everybody wants to ride, and those who don't make reservations are just out of luck." Nearly one-third of the men who come to Sutton's place to ride are asked not to come back. That's because be-cause they mistreat the horses. "It's usually the newcomer who mistreats a horse, because a man who knows horses and loves them enough to ride them often would not i think of riding the creatures to I death." .. |