The Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders’ and Exhibitors’ Association (TWHBEA), the official breed registry of the Tennessee Walking Horse, would like to clarify the circumstances surrounding an advertisement that appeared in the Sunday, November 11 edition of the Tennessean.

The half-page ad promoted the results of a post card mailer regarding draft legislation being sponsored by Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-KY). The mailer, which included the TWHBEA logo, was not authorized by the Association’s Executive Committee nor was it a work product of TWHBEA.  On September 26, 2013, then TWHBEA President Loyd ‘Buster’ Black stated the mailer “was not sent out by TWHBEA or paid for by TWHBEA.  In fact, TWHBEA makes no request or requirement that you answer this mailer or do anything whatsoever with the mailer, and you can certainly throw it away if you want”. 

Some of the Association’s members reported not having received the mailer, while others, knowing it was not an official TWHBEA request, simply discarded it. 

TWHBEA has no assurance that everyone eligible to receive the post card mailer in fact received one, or that only those that were entitled to receive the mailer in fact received one. TWHBEA had no control over the distribution of it or the counting of it.

The bill proposed by Representative Whitfield has many parts, and TWHBEA feels that an adequate survey would have addressed the individual components of the bill, giving its members an opportunity to express their true feelings on the various aspects of the proposed legislation.

In addition, since the names of each voting member were included on the mailer, this poll violates TWHBEA’s long-standing tradition of secret ballot to ensure the privacy protection of its members.
For those reasons, TWHBEA does not feel that the results of the mailer fully and accurately represent the views of all its members. Please be aware that any publication of the results is not a TWHBEA product.