SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. – The Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration recently formed a committee to review and recommend changes to the Celebration’s class schedule. The committee has met over the last couple of months and reviewed past schedules, participation levels, industry trends and other criteria to come up with an initial class schedule.
The Celebration will be sending the schedule out in a tentative form to many of the leading industry groups as well as including it on their web site and publishing the schedule in industry publications. There will be a 30-day comment period that will end on Friday March 12, 2021. Comments will then be reviewed by the committee and a final class sheet released around the first of April.
The committee consists of Jennifer Bingham who chaired the committee and Nathan Clark, Justin Jenne’, Laurie Toone, Howard Hamilton and Amy Trimble. “We can’t thank the committee enough for their hard work and thoughtful discussions that have led us to a better place in our class schedule. This is a hard task and it is impossible to meet everyone’s needs but the work done is a major step in the right direction. We look forward to getting comments back from owners, exhibitors and trainers to continue to make changes that will improve our schedule,” said Celebration director Jeffrey Howard.
The tentative class sheet will show classes listed in red that have had changes made to them. Changes include moving classes to another day/night or changing, adding or deleting a class. Below is a summary of the changes recommended by the committee:
Model Pleasure Walking Geldings moved from Thur AM to Mon AM
Added Lite-Shod Two-Year-Old Walking Horses, O/T
Added Trail Pleasure Walking Horses, O/T
Park Pleasure Walking Horses, Five Years and Under, O/T moved to Thur PM
O/A Riders on Three-Year-Old English Trail Pleasure Walking Horses combined with O/A Riders on Three-Year-Old Western Walking Horses into O/A Riders on Three-Year-Old Trail Pleasure Horses, O/T
O/A Riders on Western Country Pleasure Walking Horses, Five and Under combined with O/A Riders on English Country Pleasure Walking Horses, Five and Under into O/A Riders on Four and Five-Year-Old Country Pleasure Walking Horses, O/T
Added Amateur Owned and Trained Country Pleasure Walking Horses O/T
Removed O/A Riders on Trail Pleasure Walking Horses, O/T Canter
Western Trail Pleasure Walking Horses, Five Years & Under combined with English Trail Pleasure Walking Horses, Five Years & Under into Five-Year-Old Trail Pleasure Walking Horses, O/T on Thur AM & Four-Year-Old Trail Pleasure Walking Horses, O/T on Fri AM
Added Amateur Owned and Trained All Day Pleasure Walking Horses, O/T
Added Park Pleasure Two-Year-Old Walking Horses, O/T
Changed Park Pleasure Walking Horses O/T to Park Pleasure English Walking Horses & moved to Sat PM
O/A Riders on English Trail Pleasure Walking Horses, Five Years and Under combined with O/A Riders on Western Trail Pleasure Walking Horses, Five Years and Under into O/A Riders on Five-Year-Old Trail Pleasure Walking Horses, O/T and moved to Sat AM & O/A Riders on Four-Year-Old Trail Pleasure Walking Horses, O/T & moved to Thur PM
O/A Riders on Walking Horses, Classic Horses moved to Mon PM
Walking Mares or Geldings 15.2 & Under (Canter) combined with Walking Stallions 15.2 & Under (Canter) into Walking Stallions, Mares or Geldings 15.2 & Under (Canter) & moved to Tues PM
Combined Amateur Owned & Trained Western Trail Pleasure Walking Horses with Amateur Owned & Trained English Walking Horses into Amateur Owned & Trained Trail Pleasure Walking Horses, O/T on Mon AM
Added Four-Year-Old Trail Pleasure Walking Horses, O/T
Moved O/A Youth Riders 6-11 on All Day Pleasure Walking Horses, O/T to Fri AM
Moved Two-Year-Old Walking Geldings to Wed PM
Changed Lite-Shod Walking Horses, O/T to Lite-Shod English Walking Horses
Moved Two-Year-Old Walking Mares to Tues PM
O/A Riders on Walking Pony Stallions combined with O/A Riders on Walking Pony Mares or Geldings into O/A Riders on Walking Ponies and moved to Mon PM
Moved O/A Novice Gentlemen Riders on Novice Walking Mares or Geldings to Sat PM
Moved Lite-Shod Western Walking Horses to Sat PM
Moved O/A Riders on Two-Year-Old Walking Mares or Geldings to Sun PM
Moved O/A Riders on Four-Year-Old Walking Mares or Geldings to Tues PM
Moved Two-Year-Old Trail Pleasure Walking Horses, O/T to Mon PM
Added Show Pleasure Walking Horses, Five Years and Under
Lite-Shod Walking Horses WGC O/T changed to Lite-Shod English Walking Horses WGC & moved to Thur PM & Lite-Shod Western Walking Horses WGC & moved to Thur PM
Park Pleasure Walking Horses WGC O/T changed to Park Pleasure English Walking Horses WGC & moved to Sat PM & Park Pleasure Western Walking Horses WGC, on Thur PM
O/A Two-Year-Old Walking Horses WGC moved to Thur PM
O/A Youth Riders 6-11 on Walking Mares or Gelding WGC moved to Sat PM
Removed O/A Riders on Walking Ponies WGC
O/A Youth Riders 6-17 on Walking Ponies WGC moved to Fri PM
O/A Youth Riders 6-17 on Show Pleasure Walking Mares or Geldings WGC moved to Sat PM
O/A Riders on Walking Horses 15.2 & Under WGC moved to Fri PM
Added O/A Riders on All Day Pleasure Walking Horses WGC to Thur PM
Moved the Four-Year-Old WGC to Thur PM
Moved Park Performance Walking Horses WGC to Fri PM
Added Trail Pleasure Walking Horses, Three & Under WGC O/T to Fri PM
Moved O/A Trail Pleasure Walking Horses, Three & Under WGC O/T to Sat PM
Moved Show Pleasure Walking Horses WGC to Fri PM
Removed Trail Pleasure Walking Horses, Five Years & Under WGC O/T
Moved O/A Riders on Country Pleasure Walking Horses, O/T to Sat PM
Moved O/A Novice Riders on Novice Walking Horses WGC to Thur PM
Moved Walking Horse Specialty WGC to Sat PM
Moved Two-Year-Old Walking Horses WGC to last class Fri PM
Moved the O/A Riders On Lite-Shod Walking Horses WGC O/T to Fri PM
Moved the O/A Youth 6-17 Trail Pleasure WGC O/T to Fri PM
Removed O/A Riders on Trail Pleasure Walking Horses, Five Years & Under WGC O/T
Added Trail Pleasure Walking Horses WGC O/T
Added Retired Trainers Class Sat PM
Moved Equitation 6-11 to Sat AM
Moved Equitation 12-14 & Equitation 15-17 to Wed AM
Moved Equitation WGC to last class on Sat AM
Added Youth 6-17 Lite-Shod
Added Youth 6-17 Park Pleasure
Added Youth Yearling, Handlers 12-17
Added Mare & Foal
O/A – Owner Amateur
O/T – Optional Tack
*All comments should be submitted to Connie Allen, Celebration Director of Operations, at [email protected]. For more information you can also reach out to any of the committee members directly.