Tennessee Walking Horse Celebration

While attending the Wilson County Fair this summer, we picked up a pair of free tickets to the Tennessee Walking Horse Celebration in Shelbyville. This is the premier competition for the Walking Horse, and having never seen a Walking Horse in action, we went down to check it out.

The event has a high school football game atmosphere, if say, the team were extremely popular. Parking was only a few dollars and not too far from the stadium. Outside the stands they were handing out thick newspapers filled with information about the competition, and a lot of full page ads for individual riders and their horses. At the entrance various local clubs were selling cold drinks, cotton candy, pizza and more. The bleachers were unusual. General seating consisted of the normal rows of seats, but the rest was divided by metal rails into little boxes, where the seating consisted of tan metal folding chairs.

The crowd was casual, jeans and t-shirts and baseball caps, despite the long coats and bowler caps of the riders. Each competition consisted of a group of riders circling the rink, slow then fast, then doing an about face and circling the opposite way, slow then fast. All of this to the beat of various fairground organ styled songs. The overall effect is somewhat intoxicating for a while, but after several courses of competition, it lost it's interest for me, and I became interested instead in the dozens of nighthawks flying in and out of the floodlights. Ultimately, we left before all the competitions were complete, having seen enough to fulfill our desire to see the show. I firmly believe that watching more than we did would require the patience of a NASCAR enthusiast.

The light atmosphere of the show is darkened by the practices historically used to achieve the blue ribbon walks. Soaring, which is both inhumane and illegal, is still practiced today, however, the Celebration has taken strides to identify and block from competition those who practice it. With stricter regulations and better detection methods, it can be hoped that the future of such a distinctly Southern tradition may continue to be carried on with a cleaner conscience.