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Three things set the modern Tennessee Walking
Horse apart from all others - the gliding, natural running walk gait,
the distinctive Walking
Horse look, and a heart bigger than any mortal body can account for.
The running walk is
characterized by its smoothness to the rider and relative ease on
the horse. It is much faster than an ordinary walk,
averaging speeds of 8-10 miles per
hour, with some horses maintaining the gait at 12 miles per hour. (Higher speeds usually
mean that the horse has broken gait and may be performing a rack or stepped pace,
either of which can pick up considerable
speed.) There is an even 1-2-3-4 beat, with a
rhythm and footfall pattern identical to a regular walk or flat walk. The
flat walk graduates
to the running walk as the horse picks up speed and takes a running step as he
switches from one
front foot to the other. Meanwhile, the hind legs reach far forward,
landing well past the track left by the front foot
on the same side. The hind legs drive
from behind in long strides and the horse may bob his head, flop his ears and even
clack his teeth in time to the rhythm.
While the breed also performs a slower flat walk, and other gaits, it was
this powerstroke,
drive-from-behind, running walk gait that put the Walking Horse - and its namesake state
- on the
map. Before the Tennessee Walking Horse became known, the patron saint of
the south had been The bond between a Tennessee
Walking Horse and his owner.
It took a blend of elegant Saddlebred (with its
under-pinning of Thoroughbred [Denmark]
blood), tough, elastic Morgan, fast and
powerful Standardbred, and now extinct Canadian Pacer and Rhode Island Narragansett
to set the cornerstone of early Walking Horse – or Plantation Horse - breeding.
When the Tennessee Walking
Horse Association of America (later changed to the
Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders’ and Exhibitors’ Association
[TWHBEA]) sat down in
1935 to bestow the honor of foundation sire (F-1), several good horses were under
consideration,
including TOM HAL, HARRISON CHIEF, COPPERBOTTOM AND
MCMEENS TRAVELER. But the horse chosen as the foundation stallion
of the
Tennessee Walking Horse breed was ALLAN. Foaled in 1866, his sire was ALLENDORF,
of elite Standardbred breeding,
and his dam was MAGGIE MARSHALL, a documented
seven-gaited, great-great granddaughter of FIGURE, the original Morgan horse.
An
additional 114 horses were recognized as foundation stock, including ROAN ALLEN,
another famed seven-gaited show horse.
Many
horses in the early years contributed gait through undocumented dams.
“Plantation bred” or “Colonial
Saddle stock” might be the only indication of a long line of
distinguished southern breeding on the bottom of many
a good horse’s pedigree. The
origins of these “local mares” are disputed by some and proudly acclaimed
by others as
having been rooted firmly in the hills of the Appalachians or Ozarks, from lines dating
back to the early
1800s.
The classic Walking Horse look includes a proud carriage, in some lines a large,
elongated head (though
many lines have crossed away from the familiar “walking horse
head”), long graceful neck, sloping shoulder,
medium-to-short back, and in good lines,
incredible substance and “bone”. Horses still average 15-16 hands
and weigh in from
900 to 1100 pounds. Walking Ponies (horses smaller than 14.2 hands) and larger
strains (16 hands
plus) are being bred to meet the growing and variable demands of the
market for naturally smooth gaited, reliable, attractive
horses. All colors are allowed and
white is not penalized. The sabino gene, mistaken for roan early on, throws some
interesting
and splashy coat patterns.
To many who fall in love with this breed, the willing and forgiving attitude is the strongest
allure it has to offer. With a long history of service to families and farmers, as well as
providing entertainment
in popular Saturday night horse shows of the 19th and 20th
century, their innate sweetness endured them to all. Sadly
though, their good nature has
not always worked in their favor. Ironically, a lively disposition was often disdained
because
such horses would not tolerate the spurge of the Walking Horse showring-
soring.
Concocted to get an edge on the
competition, soring is the application of chemical
irritants, or other means of causing pain to the horse’s front
feet or forelegs in order to
alter the horse’s gait. Pain causes the horse to pick up his forefeet quickly, while
straining to drive his hind legs as far underneath his belly as his muscles, tendons and
ligaments will reach, in
order to minimize the weight his front feet must bear. Today’s
Walking Horse has allies his long-suffering ancestors
did not. By 1970, the blatant
cruelty of soring became too much for the American public to ignore and the Horse
Protection
Act was passed making the practice illegal. Subsequent years have seen the
Act whittled and fine-tuned as the Walking
Horse show industry struggles to comply.
Over 30 years after the passage of Federal Law, the Sound Horse movement,
composed
of organizations dedicated to the enjoyment and exhibition of naturally gaited,
sound (unsored) horses, is gaining momentum.
Some have tried to fight the abuse from
within the Tennessee Walking Horse show industry itself, others have branched
out and
offered new shows in which the law against soring is stringently enforced. FOSH is a
leading organization
in fostering sound horse shows, and others, such as the National
Walking Horse Association, Sound Horse Organization (which
benefits other anti-horse
abuse causes as well) and American Horse Protection Commission have followed suit.
With
the TWHBEA reporting more than 430,000 horses registered through it, the
Tennessee Walking Horse is second only to the
American Quarter Horse in the United
States. His popularity abroad extends as near as Canada and as far away as Germany
and Belgium.
Because of the backlash against soring, today there are several associations and
registries in
addition to TWHBEA. The Canadian Walking Horse Association, Tennessee
Walking Horse Heritage Society, National Walking
Horse Association, International
Pleasure Walking Horse Registry and the Part Walking Horse Registry all seek to
maintain
the natural gait and soundness of this uniquely American treasure.
As in the old days, today’s Tennessee Walking
Horse fills many roles. As the times have
changed, the Walking Horse’s versatility has only grown to meet and exceed
the
challenges. There are Walking Horses excelling in endurance riding, ranch work,
dressage, jumping and, of course,
the show ring, pleasure and trail riding.
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