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Backward  Ranch
Floyd & Beverly Sherman |
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Cook Brothers
Educational Fund, Inc. |
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| The Celebration, Inc. |
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Enchanted Gait Stables
Bruce & Nancy Lovato |
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Webb's Oil Corporation
Joe & Janice Fostek |
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| Don & George Ann Pratt |
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| David Pruett |
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Deborah L. Williams
Architecture, LP |
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Rutherford County
Convention & Visitors Bureau |
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Rockwall Insurance
Agency |
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| The Tennessee Walking Horse |
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The Tennessee Walking Horse is a popular breed, famous for it’s ultra smooth ride, that was developed in the Middle Basin of Tennessee. Originally bred for a light utility horse, the Tennessee Walker could carry plantation owners comfortably for hours while inspecting their land.
A light horse breed, the Tennessee Walking Horse is a composition of Narragansett Pacer, Morgan, Standardbred, Thoroughbred and Saddlebred bloodlines. The foundation sire of today’s Tennessee Walking Horse was a black foal born in the Spring of 1886 in Kentucky. The foal, Black Allan, was a cross between a Morgan mare and a stallion from the Hambletonian family of trotters. Allan never became the great trotter he was bred to be - instead he paced. Albert Dement of Wartrace, Tennessee purchased Allan at the age of 23 with the dream of producing a breed of horse that would perform a gait that was a cross between a trot and a pace. A gait to be called the running walk. Allan bred approximately 111 mares the last year of his life before passing away at the age of 24.
Breeders and owners of the Tennessee Walking Horse combined to form a breed association on April 27, 1935. The organization selected 115 horses that would be considered the foundation stock for the new breed. The number one foundation sire was Allan. He was denoted in the stud book as Allan F-1 and was considered the greatest contributor to the Walking Horse breed. It was a cross between Allan and the Tennessee Pacer that produced today’s Tennessee Walkers.
The Tennessee Walking Horse is known today as the “World’s Greatest Show, Trail, and Pleasure Horse” because of it’s calm, docile temperament combined with it’s naturally smooth and easy gaits.
The Walking Horse is as comfortable an English mount as it is a Western mount. The very young, the aged, the novice, as well as, experienced riders, are all comfortable aboard the Walking Horse whether on trails or in the show ring. The breed is very popular and in much demand in all 50 states and several foreign countries. It usually comes as a surprise to most people that two famous TV cowboys, Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, rode Tennessee Walking Horses.
In Middle Tennessee, where the soil is rich in minerals due to the abundant limestone natural to the area, nutritious bluegrass grows lush. This in turn provided the perfect location to raise the hardy Tennessee Walking Horse - making them sound and free from disease. These strong qualities have been transmitted throughout the breed wherever it’s found today.
The Walking Horse is noted for being an affectionate, gentle and intelligent breed. The breed is seen in a variety of colors including black, chestnut, sorrel, bay, roan, palomino, white and gray. Their faces and legs may be marked with white. The typical Walking Horse averages between 15.2 and 17 hands tall (with a hand measuring 4 inches), and weighs between 900 and 1200 pounds. They have long graceful necks, short backs, well built hindquarters, sloping shoulders, slender but strong legs. The head is handsome with refined bright, intelligent, eyes, prominent nostrils, and pointed, well shaped ears. Their manes and tails are long and flowing.
The breed performs three gaits: the flat walk, the running walk, and the canter. The Tennessee Walking Horse is most famous for the running walk, an inherited, natural gait unique to this breed.
The flat walk is a four-cornered, long-reaching walk with each of the horses feet hitting the ground separately at regular intervals. The back hocks should move forward; vertical hock action is undesirable. Unique to the Walking Horse is the overstride. This occurs when the horse glides over the track left by the front foot with his hind foot. The Tennessee Walking Horse also is the only breed that shakes his head in rhythm with the cadence of its feet. |
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