By Sadie Fowler

Thursday morning opened up with a 9 a.m. start time with Ritz Entourage and Beverly Lamp defending their world championship title for the fourth consecutive year in the Model Pleasure Walking Stallions (Riders’ Cup) class for owner Lorraine Rosbury. 

Robert Nelms had a busy day Wednesday, showing several contenders between the first morning’s session as well as the Futurity. His momentum continued with a reserve finish in the class with Throw Me A Curve for Rushing Creek Walkers/Ronnie and Angela Rushing. 

Seventeen pretty western trail pleasure entries and their riders dressed up for the amateur three-year-old class with Checkpoint Charlie, who has collected reserves before at the Celebration, earning his first world championship with Tamara Hader up. 

“It felt fabulous,” Hader said following the win. “That was a tough, tough class with 17 talented entries in it. I didn’t expect to win. When they called my number it was just a huge adrenaline boost. The first thing I did was thank my horse … then I just soaked it all in.”

The winning ride marked Hader’s fourth performance so far at this year’s show and she’s looking forward to several more performances this week with the four entries she has showing. Click here to see Hader's interview on ReporTV.

WhitLei Green directed Hashtag to a strong reserve finish behind Checkpoint Charlie in the competitive class. 
Model Pleasure Walking Geldings came in third with six entries, keeping the eight-class session moving smoothly. A husband-wife team dominated the competition in the ring with the husband part of the team also moving up a notch in the standings when Robert Nelms directed Loose In The Outfield to the world championship in unanimous fashion for the second year in a row for Rushing Creek Walkers. Loose was in the name as Robert’s wife Amanda Nelms guided Loose At Midnight to the reserve finish for Loris Penick.

Nine entries of both English and western disciplines performed for the amateur trail pleasure and Allison Thorson carried on from a very successful opening day Wednesday where she had two huge performances in the most competitive classes of the morning. Thursday morning, Thorson returned to the winner’s circle aboard Australian Gold after missing the win in this class last year (they won it in both 2014 and 2015) followed by reserve world champions GiGi’s Lunch Money and Claire Hankins. 

Amateur English lite-shod contenders made their show next with six in the ring, and when the winner was announced it meant the world to Susan Coleman, who rode Roscoe Jenkins to victory for the second year in a row. Five of the six entries in the class were world champions so the victory was indeed well-deserved. 

“He’s an awesome horse; just an awesome, sweet animal,” Coleman said. “We were defending our title and this win meant the world to us.”

I’m Majestic and Dr. Karen Baum finished reserve behind Coleman and Roscoe Jenkins.

Judges David Landrum, Jennifer Bingham, Scotty Brooks, Chris Bobo and Bill Reel were in agreement for the four-year-old lite-shod class where Big Time Bandit and Patrick Thomas earned top honors, adding the third blue of the week so far to the Baum banner. The Million Dollar Answer and Jeff Laughlin finished reserve for Ronnie and Angela Rushing. 

I Walk The Line and Kelly Richards won the amateur novice park pleasure class, there first Celebration win, with Olympic Aftershock and Joey Manos coming all the way from California to pick up the reserve. 

Twenty-five entries made the gate call in the final class of the morning, once again requiring a mandatory workout. The number of horses included in any given workout is dependent upon the judges’ discretion and in this class 13 entries were selected for round two. This was the third class between both Wednesday and Thursday morning requiring a workout, something that’s extended the length of the morning sessions, said Celebration CEO Mike Inman. Even though there are fewer classes in the morning sessions — with the intent of shortening the time of the sessions — many classes have had double the number of entries from last year (only one class Wednesday had fewer entries than last year). 

In their home city with a roaring crowd on hand to cheer them on, The Red Light District and William Coley topped this incredibly competitive amateur novice country pleasure class for the Charlie Green team. Que Bella was in the winner’s circle Wednesday morning, and happily accepted the reserve finish Thursday morning with Kasie Caldwell on board. The yellow streamers went to Excalibur’s Dark Knight and Leigh Ann Gregory with Classic Country Star and Karen Allen rounding out the top four.

The morning finished on a high note in under two-and-a-half hours with exhibitors happy to have a chance to enjoy a beautiful afternoon in Shelbyville, resting, shopping, golfing, or simply hanging out at the barn.