The 53^rd Annual Spring Fun Show will be held May 25-27, 2023, in the outdoor Celebration Arena on the showgrounds of the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration.  Judging the Spring Fun Show will be Chris Bobo, Nathan Clark and Chris Zahnd.  The trio will combine two Celebration veterans along with Zahnd, who will be judging his first Celebration event.

                “We are looking forward to a great show and are excited about having the show outdoors in Celebration Arena.  This panel is an experienced panel and we are excited to have Chris Zahnd judge one of our shows for the first time. He has done several major shows over the last three years and we look forward to having him at the Fun Show,” said Warren Wells, Celebration CEO.

                Bobo has judged The Celebration® four times in his career and judged it most recently in 2021.  Bobo has judged the Spring Fun Show multiple times as well.  Clark has judged The Celebration® five times, most recently in 2019.  Clark, like Bobo, has also judged the Spring Fun Show on multiple occasions.

                Zahnd will be judging a Celebration show for the first time however he has judged several major shows in the past three years.  Zahnd has judged Marshall County, the FAST Showcase, Woodbury, North Carolina Championships and Alabama jubilee among others since the beginning of 2020.

                The Spring Fun Show will feature 69 classes across the three evening performances.  Each performance starts at 6:00PM.  For more information, including sponsorship opportunities visit www.TWHNC.com or call The Celebration® office at 931-684-5915.

2022 Fun Show Entry Form

(Reminder- Online Entry available for Fun Show Click here)

2022 Fun Show Prize Disbursement Form

2022 Fun Show Credit Card Form

2022 Fun Show Class Schedule

2022 Fun Show Premium Info

The Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration has selected Leah Boyd, Derek Bonner and Jamie Bradshaw to judge the 52nd Annual Spring Fun Show. The Fun Show will be held May 26th-28th in Calsonic Arena.

The judging panel includes two experienced Celebration judges along with Boyd, who will be making her first assignment at a Celebration event. Bradshaw, from Arab, Al., has previously judged The Celebration five times, most recently in 2019. Bradshaw will be marking the cards for the third time at the Spring Fun with the last being in 2012.

Bonner, from Moresboro, N.C., has also judged The Celebration three times, most recently in 2021. Bonner also previously judged the Fun Show in 2014. He and Bradshaw were on the same judging panel at the 2013 Celebration.

Boyd, Murfreesboro, Tenn. will be marking the cards at the Fun Show for the first time in her judging career. Boyd most recently judged the TWHBEA Summer Sizzler in 2020 but has also judged the International in her career in 2007.

“We are excited to have this panel judge our show. We receive a lot of feedback from our exhibitors about the lack of variety in the judging panels across the industry so The Celebration feels it is vital to do what we can to help grow the list of experienced judges while also providing the most competent panels for our exhibitors to show before,” said Celebration CEO Warren Wells.

In order to continue to achieve The Celebration’s mission of expanding the judging panel this year’s associate judges will be Vickey Gilbert, from Rogersville, Al., and Chad Williams, from Murfreesboro, Tenn. The associate judging program is an effort to give additional judges the opportunity to judge one of the industry’s premier events while also allowing show management to learn more about their judging. Their cards will be kept and reviewed but won’t count toward the tie of the class at this year’s show.

For more information on the 52nd Annual Spring Fun Show visit www.twhnc.com.

2022 CELEBRATION TENTATIVE CLASS SCHEDULE

The Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration recently received its tentative class sheet back from its committee for the 84^th Annual Celebration.  The class schedule has major changes as 2022 will mark the first Wednesday evening session of The Celebration®.  The TWHBEA Futurity, which has traditionally been held on the first Wednesday evening of The Celebration®, will now have its classes as part of the traditional Celebration classes during the 16 sessions.

The first Wednesday evening will still host four Futurity only classes in the yearling fillies and stallions and weanling fillies and stallions and will be held in Calsonic Arena meaning just as in previous years. Thursday’s evening session will be the first in the outdoor Celebration Arena.

“The move to incorporate The Futurity as well as add a 16^th session will allow us to further spread out some of our classes, keep our session lengths manageable and increase the competition across our divisions,” said Celebration CEO Warren Wells.

Another new change that has received an overwhelming positive response is the addition of the Two-Year-Old Mares World Grand Championship on the second Friday evening.  The Celebration’s committee has also included an Open Canter class on the second Wednesday evening that replaces the 15.2 & Under Canter from previous years.  This class will be a qualifier to the Tennessee Walking Horse World Grand Championship.

“We would really like to thank our committee that worked so diligently on this task.  This year provided some unique challenges and opportunities with some of the changes that were incorporated so we are especially grateful for the committee’s hard work,” said Wells.

The class sheet committee is chaired by Jennifer Bingham and includes Nathan Clark, Justin Jenne’, Laurie Toone, Howard Hamilton, Amy Trimble, and Chris Hazelwood.  The Celebration® will send out the schedule to industry organizations, post on its web site and include in industry publications for trainers, owners and exhibitors to review and send in comments. 

All comments should be completed by Friday May 13^th and sent to Connie Allen at callen@twhnc.com.

Celebration releases splits

The 83^rd Annual Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration® will be held August 25-September 4, 2021.  The class sheet was revamped for 2021, with several changes made per recommendations by a committee formed by the board of directors.

In total, 11 classes were split and for the first time in several years there will be no three-way splits in 2021.  “We are tremendously excited to have competitive classes that pit many of our industry’s most talented horses against one another in both preliminary and championship classes,” said CEO Warren Wells.

For the first time in years, the Two-Year-Old Stallions will be split only into an A and B division.  The total numbers of entries were down significantly in the division which warranted only a two-way split. 

Although the Walking Stallions, Five Years and Over (Canter) only had 11 entries, The Celebration® kept with tradition and split the class into two divisions.

“It was a tough call with only one trainer having multiple entries and the total number of entries not warranting a split.  I know our fans would love to see all 11 horses in the ring at the same time, and it would make for great theatre. But I chose to keep with tradition in my first year on the job,” said Wells.

The A division will feature:

Walk For Roses and Russ Thompson

Joe Pa and Winky Groover

Mach 1 and Jimmy McConnell

Hey, Tomcat and Jamie Lawrence

Really Coach and Rodney Dick

The B division will feature:

Jose’s Power Broker and Keith Blackburn

A Big Honor and Ryan Blackburn

Minor Ordeal and Tyler Baucom

Jose’s Revival and Casey Wright

Gin’s Shadow and Jimmy McConnell

He’s Unleashed and Jeff Green

2021 CELEBRATION® CLASS SCHEDULE-SPLITS

After a 10% increase in entries in 2020, The Celebration® announced a total of 2,262 pre-show entries for the upcoming 83^rd Annual Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration®.  The 2,262 total is up 10 entries from last year.  “We are extremely pleased with the entries for our upcoming show.  With such a large increase last year, the ability for us to continue to add entries year over year continues the positive trends we are seeing in the industry,” said Celebration CEO Warren Wells.

The number of unique horses that make up the 2,262 entries also increased from last year.  In 2020, 1,311 different horses were entered at The Celebration®.  In 2021 that number jumped to 1,320 horses.  “Being the world championship horse show, we want to host as many horses as we possibly can, and we look forward to continuing to grow this number over the next several years,” said Wells.

The 1,320 horses competing is a jump of 120 horses over two years ago.  This number has been continually rising and this year’s increase is another positive sign.  The 83^rd Annual Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration will be held August 25^th through September 4^th. 

The FAX machine for the Celebration was inoperative last week and the week before. If you FAXed your entries in, you will want to resend and check back to see that your entries were received.