SILVERSPRING Foundation Corporate Sponsor For 2009 TWHBEA National Futurity

LEWISBURG, Tennessee (August 14 2009)- The 71st Annual TWHBEA National Futurity sponsored by SILVERSPRING will be held at the Calsonic Arena on Wednesday, August 26, 2009 beginning at 5:30 pm. The Futurity will use the same judging panel and serve as qualifying classes for the 2009 Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration.

The TWHBEA National Futurity is the showcase for this breed’s youngsters and represents the richest purse of any one-day event in the Industry offering approximately $125,000 dollars in premiums and awards. Nominations for this year’s futurity totaled 531, down slightly from last year’s 566. However, yearling filly nominations were up 31 to 96 nominations and yearling colts represented 118 nominations up 34 from 2008. This year two and three year olds could buy in and next year only three-year olds will have that privilege. By 2011, all three-year olds eligible for competition will have been in the program for the full four years, since the event was restored to true futurity status with the 2008 weanling foal crop. Remember 2009 weanlings can still be nominated through September 30th.

This year’s National Futurity will again include the crowd-pleasing Yearling In-Hand Extended Gait class.  All yearlings nominated to the National Futurity by regular process may nominate to the Yearling In-Hand Extended Gait class. This class, sponsored by SILVERSPRING, is intended to showcase our yearlings’ ability to perform the running walk. Again, the In-Hand Extended Gait class will not qualify entries for any Celebration championship classes.