Prior to the establishment of the ALLEN line, the HALS represented the most prominent horse family in Middle Tennessee.  HAL blood seems to have done for the Tennessee Pacer what ALLAN blood did for the Walking Horse. Pacing blood had been in Middle Tennessee many years before HAL blood arrived, but with its appearance the Tennessee Pacer rose to new heights and became the standard-setter of the pacing world.  To undertake to establish the accurate bloodlines of the HALS in Middle Tennessee is to attempt the impossible.  Little remains when legend is sifted from fact.  The problem is not one of establishing the influence of HAL blood on the Tennessee Pacer and, subsequently, the Walking Horse; that is agreed upon by all.  The problem is to establish the specific animals through which this influence came about.  But to fully understand the history of the Tennessee Walking Horse, a knowledge of this outstanding family is an absolute necessity.

Legend has it that the first horse named TOM HAL was foaled in Canada about 1802. This horse is registered with the American Saddle Horse Association under the number 3237 and has been accepted as one of the original Foundation Sires of that breed.  Nobody has been brave enough to come forward with a pedigree for the original TOM HAL, and since he supposedly came from Canada it was only natural that he be called a Canadian Pacer.  TOM HAL was another horse around which tall tales seemed to grow. He was never known to lie down except to roll, and he even ate his food walking around in his stable.  The records show the old horse died in 1843 at the age of forty-one. TOM HAL sired many stallions in Kentucky, but one stood out above the others.  When the old horse was thirty-five years old he was bred to a mare of COPPERBOTTOM breeding and the resulting foal was BALD STOCKINGS, the first horse of record to perform the running walk.

BALD STOCKINGS was a roan with four white feet and a bald face.  He was foaled in 1837, and died in 1866.  Besides representing a cross between the HALS and COPPERBOTTOMS, BALD STOCKINGS carried Thoroughbred blood, as his second dam was by TARQUIN.  BALD STOCKINGS was bred by Higgins Chinn of Lexington, Kentucky.  He established a reputation as one of the fastest horses under saddle in the region and the best riding mount of his day.  BALD STOCKINGS would play an important role in the development of the Tennessee Pacer and the Walking Horse.  His influence would come not only through his sons, but also through his great daughter, QUEEN.   QUEEN is still considered one of the most outstanding brood mareS developed in America.  She was the dam of LATHAM'S DENMARK;  DIAMOND DENMARK; and KING WILLIAM, the great grandsire of  GERTRUDE, dam of ROAN ALLEN F-38.  Through GERTRUDE the blood of TOM HAL entered the very foundation of the Walking Horse, but it was through a son of BALD STOCKINGS that the HAL blood made its most important appearance in Middle Tennessee. 

 Dr. George P. Grout, genetic investigator for the TENNESSEE WALKING HORSE magazine, agreed that it was a son of BALD STOCKINGS which brought the HAL blood to Middle Tennessee.  However, he refused to name the specific animal involved.  The most widely accepted story of how KITTRELL'S TOM HAL came to Middle Tennessee is contained in an unpublished manuscript by Margaret Lindsley Warden.  According to Miss Warden,  

In 1891 Major Marion B. Kittrell lived at Rutherford County, but at the time that he owned TOM HAL he resided in Wilson County about 3 miles from Lebanon. He and Col. Edmond Hill, Tennessee; Campbell Brown of Chambers were rivals in fine and fast saddle horses. The Colonel was one of the owners of that COPPERBOTTOM believed to have been the first of his tribe in Tennessee and which made quite an impression as a saddle horse and sire.  Naturally, Major Kittrell was eager to get a stallion that could outdo COPPERBOTTOM and his offspring.  It was much on his mind, so when Kirtley (a horse dealer from Kentucky) came to his place that fall with a drove of mules and a horse or so, as he did regularly, the Major mentioned the matter to him.  Of course, Kirtley said he had the very horse, a wonderful four­ year-old. So Major Kittrell went to see the horse and bought it.  KITTRELL'S TOM HAL made the seasons from 1850 to1857 in his owner's management in Wilson County.  During the'57 season he was sent to Marshall County in charge of a brother-in-law, Robertson Bryant, who finished the season with him and sold him in '58 to Squire D. C. Orr of Mooresville.  This owner stood him the seasons of '58 to '61 and sold him in the fall of '61 to a Dr. Steele near Pulaski.  ln '63 he was taken from Steele by Federal troops and after being worked down was turned out on the commons where he died within a mile of Pulaski.

Some horsemen who were never convinced of KITTRELL'S TOM Hal's credentials often repeated the story that the old horse went out into the woods to search for his pedigree and became so confused he could not find the way home.  Tennessee soon produced its own HAL stallion.

In describing the HALS, W.J. McGill wrote,  These small HAL horses with flat bones, good feet and legs, hind legs not too straight, were usually Red Roans.  They had low carriage, especially their head, but good tail style, arched neck, big kindly eyes, smart well set ears, good conformation, usually arched backs or 'hog back' as we called them.  A man, his wife, and one or two children, could go visiting to the faraway kin in record time on a HAL horse.  HAL horses were docile and gentle, weight-carrying horses with heavy muscles; their backs were so shaped that saddles stayed put and when a load had to be drawn they had the muscle, the grit and will to do it. Some Hal horses became outstanding racers while others excelled as saddle horses.  By far their most important contribution was as utility animals for the farmers of the region. These were among the horses that pulled the buggies, snaked the logs, pulled the fire engines, carried the country doctor on his rounds, and brought the circuit riding preacher into the hills for his Sunday sermon.  Every old roan horse was called a TOM HAL, and each breeder not only advertised that he had the original horse but also modestly admitted that he had the best.  

Another famous HAL stallion, one that later became a Foundation of the Walking Horse, was GENERAL HARDEE F-21.  Foaled in 1862, this chestnut roan horse was by GEORGE WASHINGTON by TAYLOR'S HENRY HAL by KITTRELL'S TOM HAL.  GENERAL HARDEE, like KNIGHT'S SNOW HEELS and TOM HAL F-20, was another of the stallions that brought the blood of the original TOM HAL to Middle Tennessee horses.  GENERAL HARDEE represents a cross between the HALS and the McMEEN'S TRAVELERS.  Through McMEEN'S' TRAVELER, GENERAL HARDEE traces to the Thoroughbred TIMOLEON and through ALGERINE to the famous WHIP family.  Also, through his sire, GEORGE WASHINGTON, he traces to the COPPERBOTTOM and the MORGANS.  GENERAL HARDEE F-21 was a great horse in his own right.  He contributed speed at the pace, and through his blood, many of the great Tennessee Walking Horses of today inherited their gaits.  Although there were many TOM HALS in Middle Tennessee prior birth of TOM HAL F-20, it is to this particular stallion that much blood in the Tennessee Pacer, and subsequently the Walking Horse can be traced.  Just how many sons and daughters this stallion sired can never be known, but the number is substantial.  Of the stallions credited to him, the following are prominent: BROWN HAL F-83, LUNA'S TOM HAL,  BURN'S HAL, TOGGIN'S HAL, MOORE'S HAL, HUGH'S TOM HAL, JR., ALDRICH'S HAL, GREY HAL, BOB HAL SELL'S HAL, ANDERSON'S HAL, OLD NAT, THOMAS' TOM HAL,  HOWELL'S HAL and TRICE'S HAL.  By far, the most influential son of TOM HAL F-20 was BROWN HAL.