Per its April Board meeting, the Celebration class schedule that is currently online at the Walking Horse Report and posted below on this site is the horse show’s final schedule.
Click Here for Final 2019 Class Schedule
Entry Deadline is Tuesday, August 6 at 5:00 pm. All entries must be received by 5:00 pm on that date. Late entries will not be accepted.
The Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration released its tentative class schedule for its 2019 edition, which is scheduled to take place Aug. 21-31 in Shelbyville, Tennessee. A few changes to the schedule were made following a comment period where trainers, owners and exhibitors could express their input to the committee overseeing the schedule.
Some of the highlights being implemented to this year’s class schedule as a result of that comment period include revisions or additions regarding the flat shod division, the junior horse division and the pony division.
“The committee implemented several of the comments received and feel this schedule is better as a result of that stakeholder input,” said Celebration CEO Mike Inman.
In the flat shod division, an Amateur Three and Under Country Pleasure World Grand Championship as well as a Trail Pleasure World Grand Championship have been added.
“As these divisions have grown the committee felt the numbers are now there to support world grand championship classes,” Inman said. “We look forward to seeing how this opportunity unfolds in 2019.”
The new schedule also reflects the official change to the junior horse division, with the exception of Rider’s Cup classes in the padded/performance divisions, where the age for a junior contender remains four and under. Otherwise, junior horses are now considered to be ages five and under.
Exhibitors should also note the Celebration’s plans regarding the Amateur Pony World Grand Championship. Regarding the ponies, preliminary classes will be held for amateur pony stallions and amateur pony mares and geldings, respectively. Following the preliminaries, if 10 or more horses are entered for the Amateur Pony World Grand Championship, that world grand championship will take place — it will be class number 142.
In the case where fewer than 10 ponies are entered for the world grand championship, class 142 will not take place. Rather, ponies will instead show in class 146, which is the Amateur 15.2 and Under World Grand Championship. This is the same set of guidelines the Celebration followed regarding this division last year.
“Last year, the entries in the Amateur Pony World Grand Championship fell just short of the number needed to be a stand- alone championship,” Inman said. “With the number of entries just shy of the 10-horse threshold in 2018, the committee thought it would be good to offer the same opportunity this year in hopes of increased participation.”
Click here for the tentative schedule
The Tennessee Walking Horse
National Celebration has selected Rollie Beard, Brent Grider and Kenny Smith to
adjudicate the 49th annual Spring Fun Show, scheduled for May 23-25 at the
Calsonic Arena in Shelbyville, Tennessee. Each night’s performances begin at 6
p.m.
“This group has the desired blend of experience
and freshness that The Celebration likes to incorporate into any judging
panel,” said Celebration CEO Mike Inman. “They are more than capable of handing
the judging duties of what is certain to be a collection of the best horses in
the industry.”
Beard is one of the most experienced judges in
the industry and has previously judged The Celebration eight times, most recent
in 2014. In addition to The Celebration, Beard has judged most all major shows
in the industry including Mississippi Charity, Gulf Coast Charity, the
International, Tunica, the Red Carpet show in Pulaski, Columbia Spring Jubilee
and Belfast.
Grider has also judged at The Celebration,
marking the cards in 2012. Grider also has a wealth of experience at other
major shows including the Kentucky Celebration, Alabama Jubilee, Columbia
Spring Jubilee, Gulf Coast Charity, Lewisburg and the National Trainers’ Show,
which Grider did for the second time this year.
A new face to the Celebration series of shows is
Kenny Smith. Smith has previously judged the 2017 and 2018 Alabama Jubilee and
also judged the National Trainers’ Show in 2018. Smith has been a
long-time horse owner and exhibitor as well as shown in the Amateur Owned &
Trained divisions.
In 2018, The Celebration began “associate
judges” for the Spring Fun Show in an effort to help continue to grow the
judging pool and as a way to evaluate additional judges in the heat of battle
during the Fun Show. Last year, Ross Campbell and Grant Holt were the
associate judges and Campbell went on to judge The Celebration later that same
year.
“We are happy to build on the tremendous success
of the associate judge system that began last year,” Inman said. “This
initiative dramatically accelerates the process of expanding the pool of judges
with Celebration experience. Three of the five judges at this year’s Fun Show
will be making their Celebration-event debut in either the official or
associate judge capacity.”
This year, Jason Hughes and Becky Barnes will
fill out the associate judge roles and mark their cards on Thursday and Friday
night of the Spring Fun Show. Hughes has previously judged the Alabama
Jubilee three times as well as Woodbury, National Trainers’ Show and North
Carolina Championships. Barnes has judged the 2018 WHTA Thanksgiving
Classic, Marshall, Texas and other shows in the Kentucky circuit.
The Celebration will also conduct a trial run of
electronic judging equipment at this year’s Fun Show. The Celebration hopes to
speed the process of tying the classes and announcement of the results so as to
reduce the time of the show and significantly decrease the amount of dead time
at the show.
“The use of electronic judging is eagerly
anticipated and we are truly excited to evaluate its impact, both within center
ring and for the spectator experience,” Inman said.
If the program is successful, the hope is to
have the program used at this year’s Celebration.
CELEBRATION® RELEASES SPRING FUN SHOW SCHEDULE
A tentative schedule for the 49th annual Spring Fun Show has been released by The Celebration. The show will take place May 23-25 in Shelbyville with classes kicking off at 6 p.m. each evening.
“This schedule reflects the 5-year-old designation for junior horses as well as three-year-old and under classes for amateurs in country pleasure and trail pleasure,” said Mike Inman, Celebration CEO. “The Celebration is also excited about offering four racking classes at this years’ event.”
Entries will be taken at the SHOW office inside Calsonic Arena each evening from 3 to 6:30 p.m. each evening. Entry deadline for the first four classes each evening is 5 p.m. All other entries must be made by 6:30 p.m. each evening.
2019 FUN SHOW PRIZE DISBURSEMENT FORM
By Sadie Fowler
The Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration has released its proposed schedule for the 2019 horse show and is now open for discussion — for a short-term period of time.
In 2019, there are a few substantial changes to the tentative class schedule that need horse show enthusiasts’ attention. Anyone interested in changes to the schedule (which is included in its entirety below) should make their voice heard within 30 days.
Perhaps the biggest change folks will want to study in the schedule for the 2019 Celebration involves an amendment to the junior horse age limit in the flat shod and park performance divisions. A junior horse in those classes will now be considered five and under, versus the previous rule of a junior horse in either category being four or under.
“The rationale for defining junior horses as five years of age and under is to make all disciplines of amateur show horses consistent,” explained Celebration CEO Mike Inman.
The tentative schedule reflecting the potential changes was actually released in December, and includes the changes about the transition from four years to five years of age for junior amateur horses in the flat shod and park performance divisions — to match the padded division.
“While a slightly revised class schedule being released this time of year is not something that’s uncommon for the Celebration to release, given the substantial change to this year’s schedule regarding the age requirements in these classes we wanted to bring this to owners’ and trainers’ attention immediately to ensure the comment period is not overlooked by anyone,” Inman said. “We all get into ‘off-season’ mode and it is not uncommon to put off thinking about show season, including the Celebration schedule, until closer to show season. We just want to make sure everyone has an opportunity to comment during the 30 days allotted. So far, the feedback we’ve received as been positive so we believe this will be a welcome change most will be happy to see.”
Anyone wishing to comment should contact the Celebration office directly at 931-684-5915
In the continuing effort to balance session times and to offer classes best supported by entries at the Celebration, the schedule committee has made some amendments to the 2019 schedule.
In the morning sessions, these adjustments include shifting AOT Lite Shod and AOT English Trail Pleasure classes from Saturday morning into the Monday morning line up.
“The parallel objectives of briskly paced, reasonable session lengths along with competitive classes remain the Celebration Board’s goal and these initiatives help achieve that,” said Celebration CEO Mike Inman.
Other changes involving the Saturday a.m. session include the Auxiliary Youth Equitation 6-11, which will shift to Wednesday morning and the two Auxiliary Youth Equitation Canter classes, 12-14 and 15-17, respectively, will compete on Thursday morning. This will put all the morning sessions in a better position to be completed by the target of noon each day.
For the evening sessions, the O/A Western Country Pleasure WGC and O/A English Country Pleasure WGC will combine into an optional tack championship on Friday evening of the World Grand Championships. This effort will make all the flat shod World Grand Championships consistent as to tack and hopefully increase the number of entries vying for this honor.
There are two new classes planned for the upcoming year. These include the offering of a Novice Youth Country Pleasure class competing on Wednesday morning. Secondly, after last year’s support of Adult All Day Pleasure, a Youth All Day Pleasure will be added to the Friday morning line up in 2019.
The Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration will continue its tradition of requiring ownership to show in amateur classes during the world championship horse show. In recent years, leases have become more popular and The Celebration would like to clarify its policy on temporary ownership.
Starting at the 2019 Celebration, if a horse is going to be shown under a lease agreement, a copy of that lease agreement will be due at the time of entry. The Celebration recognizes the Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders’ & Exhibitors’ Association as the official record of ownership so the lease must be on file with TWHBEA and a copy presented with the entry before the entry deadline for the 2019 Celebration.
“We want to make sure that our program and announcements from center ring reflect the true ownership and eliminate any confusion that may exist about a horse’s ownership during our show,” said Celebration CEO Mike Inman. “In fairness to all our exhibitors, this change will ensure that proper ownership rules are being followed in order to compete in our owner/amateur classes.”
The 2019 Celebration will begin on Aug. 21 with morning classes in the Calsonic Arena and culminate with the crowning of our World Grand Champion Tennessee Walking Horse in Maverick Arena on Aug. 31. For more information please visit www.twhnc.com.
THE CELEBRATION® RELEASES INFORMATION ON TUNICA FALL CLASSIC
The Celebration has announced information regarding the popular Tunica Fall Classic, to be held November 1st -3rd at the Paul Battle Sr. Exposition Center, in particular, information about the horse show hotel and exhibitors’ party.
Gold Strike Casino and Resort, an MGM Resorts Destination, is the horse show hotel with special rates available at $49 during weekdays and $95 for weekends, plus applicable fees. For reservations call 1-888-245-7829 and use block code 1810Tunica (Tunica Fall Classic). Rooms have already been blocked out.
There is an exhibitor party planned for Wednesday October 31st from 6:30-8:30 in the Millennium Theater Lobby in the hotel. VIP floor tables are available for purchase. Fee is $1500 which includes reserved table with seating for eight (8) and specially prepared dinner each night along with show sponsorship and recognition.
“If you have any problem obtaining that special rate or room availability or would like to reserve your exhibitor table contact The Celebration office at 931-684-5915 and it will be handled,” said Mike Inman, Celebration CEO.
The Amateur Pony Championship, Class 137A, did not have the required 10 entries to make a class. As a result all pony entries in Class 137 A will be automatically placed in Class 141, Amateur Riders on Walking Horses 15.2 and Under.
