The Celebration has just announced the classes it will split for the upcoming Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration, which kicks off Aug. 21 and runs through Aug. 31. Ten classes have been split with A and B divisions and one class, the Two-Year-Old Walking Stallions, will have three sections. 

“Not only do we have large classes that required splits we also had quite a few right on the cusp,” said Celebration CEO Mike Inman, who also announced yesterday that entry totals are up slightly from last year. “This speaks to the incredible talent we’re going to be seeing at this year’s show.” 

Serving as the headliner in the news regarding the splits of course is the breakdown of entries for the aged stallions on the first Saturday night of the show. Entries in the aged stallions preliminary, class 79 sec. A are as follows: Jose’s Power Broker and Keith Blackburn for Dan and Susan Erwin, Jose’s Thunderstruck and Scott Beaty for Barron Witherspoon, Star Of Ritz and Casey Wright for Herb Murrath, He’s Unleashed and Chad Williams for Virginia Stewart, Hey, Tomcat and Jamie Lawrence for Roy and Joan Wester, Bourban Street I and Chad Way for Duke Ingram, A Cowboy Casanova and Nick Price for Sarah Coffee Burks, Putt For Dough and Bill Cantrell for Cantrell and Powell, I’m Mayhem and Rodney Dick for JoAnn Dowell, and Jose’s Cold Chills and Jimmy McConnell for LaRue, Ann and Bart McWaters.

Sec. B for class 79 also features 10 entries, includes the following: Woodford and Justin Harris for the Andrew Family, Master’s Razzle & Jazz and Herbert Derickson for the Alan Riddley Family, The Darkest Hour and Tyler Baucom for Teresa Kincaid, The Iron Door and Alan Price for Sarah Coffee Burks, Jose’s Red Rock and Chris Helton for JimBo Conner, Gus Malzahn and Rodney Dick for JoAnn Dowell, Border Run and John Allan Callaway for Gayle Holcomb, Fly Dragonfly and Jimmy McConnell for Barnes & Farris, My Shockwave and Jimmy McConnell for Bill and Karen Bean, and I’m Lombardi and Gary Edwards for Henry and Peggy Metcalf.

The complete list of splits are as follows: 
• Class 26 — O/A Two-Year-Old Walking Stallions
• Class 30 — O/A Novice Lady Riders on Novice Walking Mares or Geldings
• Class 51 — Three-Year-Old Walking Stallions
• Class 70 — Three-Year-Old Walking Mares
• Class 73 — Two-Year-Old Walking Mares
• Class 79 — Walking Stallions, Five Years and Over (Canter)
• Class 91 — O/A Four-Year-Old Walking Mares or Geldings
• Class 109 — Two-Year-Old Walking Stallions (A,B,C)
• Class 117 — O/A Two-Year-Old Walking Mares or Geldings
• Class 122 — O/A Three-Year-Old Walking Stallions
• Class 126 — Three-Year-Old Walking Mares or Geldings

The Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration, which kicks off Aug. 21 and runs through Aug. 31, has added a class to its Wednesday slate of classes. Class number 7A Wednesday morning, Aug. 21, will be the O/A Riders on Three-Year-Old Country Pleasure Walking Horses, Optional Tack.

The Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration has selected Jamie Bradshaw, Nathan Clark, Jamie Hankins, Kenny Smith and Robbie Spiller to judge the 81^st Annual Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration.  The 81^st Celebration will be August 21^st – August 31^st on the historic show grounds in Shelbyville.

The panel once again is a blend of experienced judges with new faces to the Celebration.  Both Smith and Spiller will be making their first appearance at The Celebration.  “Last year’s panel included two new faces and we felt like the mix of three experienced judges along with two new ones was a good mix and produced great results last year.  In addition, The Celebration is committed to expanding the judging pool and giving more of our licensed judges an opportunity to work our shows,” said Celebration CEO Mike Inman.

Clark and Bradshaw will return for the fifth time to mark the cards.  Clark previously judged in 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2016.  Bradshaw last judged the Celebration in 2013 but also marked the cards in 2006, 2009, and 2011.

Hankins will be returning to center ring at The Celebration for the first time since 2011 and will be marking the cards for the seventh time.  Hankins judged in 1994, 1996, 2001, 2003 and 2008.  Hankins judged with Clark in 2008 and with Bradshaw in 2011.  The Celebration has been committed to diversifying its panels and this year’s panel only includes one judge who has marked the cards at The Celebration in the last five years.

“We are excited for this year’s show and appreciate these five judges for agreeing to take on one of the most prestigious jobs and responsibilities in our industry.  Judging the Celebration is the most important job our judges can accept and we expect this year’s panel to do an excellent job.  These five individuals have judged at most all of our industry’s major venues and continue to judge prestigious shows even in the time periods that they have not judged our shows.  The confidence the industry has placed in selecting these individuals for their shows was a major factor in our committee’s decision to select them for this year’s assignment,” concluded Inman.

August 21-31, 2019

Start Making Plans for the 2019 Celebration!!!

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.

Click Here for Entry Information

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

2019 FUN SHOW PREMIUM

2019 FUN SHOW ENTRY FORM

2019 FUN SHOW CREDIT CARD AUTHORIZATION

2019 FUN SHOW CLASS SHEET

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

 2019 TENTATIVE CLASS SCHEDULE

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.