By Sadie Fowler

The crowd at last weekend’s Columbia Spring Jubilee received a special treat just prior to Saturday night’s show when Texas Joe Black and John Allan Callaway presented the American flag. At 17, Texas Joe Black is known and loved by many for his beauty and impressive show record that goes back 16 years.

Texas Joe Black started his show career in 2004 under the direction of Trainer Tommy Loid and since that time he has shown more than 140 times — many of those performances ending with blue ribbons in hand. 

Owned by Kathy Zeis, the gray stallion has a résumé that will turn heads. He’s a multi-world champion and a two-time reserve world grand champion, having earned those top ribbons in a couple different divisions. 
“Joe and I met the winter of his coming three-year-old year and I just fell in love with him,” Zeis said. “He’s been my heart horse ever since. He also gave me my beloved horse Etta James. There’s never been anything I’ve asked him to do that he hasn’t done.”

In 2006, Joe earned his first Celebration blue as a four-year-old in the amateur stallions division with Zeis. Two years later, in 2008, he was in the Big Oval’s winner’s circle again, this time as the winner of the Amateur 15.2 & Under World Championship, which was repeated again in 2010. Several years went by before he’d win at the Celebration again, but he did make that comeback performance in 2015, when he won his third world championship, this time in the 15.2 & under stallions class with Callaway in the irons. 

In both 2017 and 2018, Texas Joe Black and Zeis once again teamed up for world championship victories, this time in the Amateur Class Horses division and they plan to defend that title in 2019. 
This pretty horse with a big heart has continued to entertain his fans with a couple of show ring performances in 2019. Just over a week prior to Columbia’s flag presentation, Joe and Zeis won the Classic horse class at the 2019 Fun Show. 

Zeis said she was thrilled to have him present the flag. Columbia’s show manager David Sisk had asked Callaway to present the flag and he chose Joe because they had already presented the flag once before, at the FAST show earlier this season.

“He just loves it,” she said. “He has that face of a proud horse when he’s out there. You can see it when he looks at the crowd.”