Lulu passed to her daughter, Pinky, the bright color inherited from her dam, perhaps assisted a little by the filly's sire,          Wilson's Merry Boy G.G. This flaxen roan Merry Boy son was out of Wilson's Allen's Mello Gold, a full sister to the famous trio of  breeding stallions Hill's Wilson's Allen, Miller's Wilson's Allen, and Wartrace.

 

As had other families before them, the Taylors found that Billy's and Danny's equine enthusiasm was contagious. Spurred by his  sons' interest,  Dan Taylor began to raise foals from the family mares. He started by crossing them with the 1943 World     Champion Three Year Old Stallion, Society Man. Since the Taylors did not own a trailer, they rode the mares to the            stallion  who was several miles away. The sale in the late 50's  of a Society Man foal that became a show ring success convinced Dan Taylor that a breeding program was a wise addition to the farm's activities. When Society Man left for California in 1960, the Taylor mares went to the courts of his son, Paige's Black Boy and to Sir Winston S., a popular Go Boy's Shadow stallion  standing in nearby Moore County.  If the mares weren't busy in the nursery, Billy and Danny              enjoyed them on trail rides and  riding around the farm.

 

  As a shift in trends in the late 60's led to a depressed colt market, Dan Taylor decided to curtail the breeding operation.       He  sold   Lulu Taylor and Pinky Lu but did keep two daughters out of Lulu Taylor sired by Sir Winston and a Setting Sun horse named  Duke of Dearmanville.  At this point, Billy and Danny were grown and working away from home in Memphis, with no way to incorporate  horses into their busy lives.

 

The daughters of Lulu Taylor foaled two fillies in the spring of 1979. Danny sold his as a two year old but Billy broke his filly to  ride  and designated her as the foundation mare of his breeding program.

 

Determined to promote and preserve older, rare bloodlines, Billy took his sorrel mare Red Bud's Ladybug, to Cornersville, Tennessee  to a mahogany bay stallion named Mark's Crackerjack, owned by Leon Oliver's brother Steve. The results       were   two  bay fillies  named Taylor's Merry Girl and Taylor's June Girl. With their dam, these two formed the nucleus of Billy's broodmare band.

 

 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.

 

With two large broodmare bands representing a variety of older bloodlines, Billy and Danny began to retain stallions on their farms.  Always searching for stallions representing different foundation lines, they were surprised to discover in the Brownington community of Franklin County, an old stallion bred by their father. J.W. Sanders had kept this big, dark sorrel sabino since 1967. Sanders was not  horse person, he just liked the big horse and regarded him as a pet. Paiges's Echo,         sired by Paige's Black Boy and out of  Pinky Lu,  had never been gelded, but he had never served a registered walking mare. Mr. Sanders' health was failing, making it difficult to continue to care for the horse. When the opportunity arose,  the Taylor Brothers returned Paige's Echo to the farm where he'd been foaled 27 years before.

 

In 1993, the first registered Tennessee Walking Horse sired by Paige's Echo hit the ground. Subsequent foal crops revealed the results of the Taylor's planning and care. The foals by Echo were attractive youngsters with plenty of natural walk and people-oriented dispositions. They were also smart and eager to please. As an added bonus, many went beyond their sire's minimally expressed sabino to sport loud  roan patterns  with high stockings, bald faces, and eye-arresting body spots.

 

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. 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.