GoElvis.com,

Car fanatic Elvis had a genuine love for real horsepower

Elvis loved girls, we know that. Elvis loved cars, we’ve heard all about it. The world is fully aware of Elvis and his music, food, movies and generosity.

But when have you heard about Elvis Presley and his fondness for horses? One of the reasons he acquired Graceland, after all, is because of its stables and the space available to run horses. In fact, Elvis Presley Enterprises still keeps three horses at the estate.

Local horseman Bill J. Spence has insight into Elvis’s interest in the equine. Spence’s father, the late William B. Spence, sold Elvis the singer’s first horse. And the younger Spence owned a store on Millbranch where Elvis “became one of my best customers for his clothes, tack, saddles, feed and so on.”

Spence is a Realtor and entrepreneur who produced the Cotton Carnival Horse Show in the late ’60s and early ’70s and helped found the equestrian center at Shelby Farms. He also wants to establish an equestrian hall of fame here. He cites local Olympic gold medal winner Melanie Smith Taylor, championship rider Joe Webb of Searcy, Ark., and Elvis as people who have brought horse-riding attention to the region.

The Spences figured into Elvis’s life early on. William B. Spence’s three boys went to Humes High School when Elvis was there.

Later, when Elvis purchased the Graceland estate, the elder Spence was farm manager for the previous owner. The Spence family lived in a tenant house behind the mansion, rented adjacent acreage and established Graceland Farms Saddle Club.

“Elvis fans started renting horses from our stables and would ride next to Elvis’s tall fence so they could see over it and maybe get a glimpse of The King,” Spence said. “We even allowed Elvis to enter through the south side of our place in order to avoid the congestion at his front gate.”

The long relationship may have had one lasting effect on popular culture. Bill is convinced that at some point, his father impressed Elvis by taking care of business.

As in “TCB.”

“My daddy’s daddy would say `you’ve got to take care of business’ before getting on to the recreation. And my daddy would say it, too. Elvis had to have picked up on it.” It became, of course, a central slogan with Elvis and his entourage, and a TCB lightning logo came into wide use.

Elvis was known for making offers people couldn’t refuse. That included horse-trading.

Spence had acquired a pleasure saddle horse for his wife, Ruth. “She loved the young gelding. But Elvis saw it and said he wanted it. I said it was my wife’s horse and she loved it, but he kept after it. Elvis said, `I’ll make you a price. Go load him up and bring him over and I’ll try him out.’ Elvis called his daddy and Vernon rode him.”

Elvis was determined. So much so that he offered far more than what the horse was worth. “I said it was too much but Elvis said that was OK.” He gave it to Vernon who gave it to his wife, Dee Stanley Presley.

Spence said that his wife, Ruth, cried all the way home. But he did what he could to make up for it: “I bought a set of den furniture with that money.”

The horse, by the way, was given the name Colonel Midnight. Seems that Colonel Tom Parker wanted it named for him, and the colonel is well remembered for getting what he wanted.

It was in 1967 that Elvis decided he needed more space to gallop. He bought a 163-acre spread in DeSoto County, Miss. and named it the Circle G Ranch, the “G” standing for Graceland.

“When Elvis got it he went horse crazy,” Spence said. “He went wild and bought horse trailers and pickup trucks.”

And he was, as always, very competitive.

“Elvis kept after me to get the fastest horse. `I don’t want them boys to outrun me,’ he said.”

Elvis bought a particularly unattractive mare that was, Spence said, “the ugliest on the place, but that sucker could run.”

Now at the time, Memphis Mayor William B. Ingram was doing all he could to name something after Elvis. Eventually he got a length of U.S. 51 renamed Elvis Presley Boulevard.

“Elvis always had a black or red marking pencil and he’d write on something he was buying the name of who it was for,” Spence said, recalling that he saw Elvis jotting “Mare Ingram” on some equipment. ” `Elvis, do I know that horse?’ He said, `You know that ugly mare I bought? Mayor Ingram has tried to name something for me and I figure I’ll name something for the mayor.’ ”

And Elvis and Spence just couldn’t stop laughing.

Another time Elvis came by Spence’s Horse Services store and decided that he had to have hats for his entourage.

“I took out a couple of cheap hats,” Spence said, “but Elvis said, `No, I want the best you’ve got.’ ”

That turned out to be a Resistol pure beaver hat, an expensive item. “You don’t want these for your guys,” Spence told Elvis.

But The King would not be swayed and told Spence to fit his boys. And what’s more, he wanted to tie those hats on their heads.

“Elvis said, `We run those horses hard and I don’t want hats in the dust.’ ”

So Spence got some nice Latigo leather boot strings and took his pocketknife out. “I took every one of those beautiful beaver hats,” he said sorrowfully, “and punched holes in them.”

Just taking care of business.