LBJ & Lady B.

This footage from 1964 shows President Lyndon Baines Johnson and Vice President Hubert Humphrey celebrating their 1964 election victory with a "press barbecue" at the LBJ Ranch. Johnson and Vice President elect Humphrey are mounted on horses for a photo opportunity.  Johnson is riding his own Tennessee Walking Horse named "Lady B." after his wife.  The mare was a gift from his friend, Tennessee Governor Buford Ellington. Johnson and Humphrey are joined by Lady Bird, Muriel Humphrey, and John and Nellie Connally at the Ranch and are seated in a cart talking to press. Because of rainy weather, the barbecue was held in the ranch's plane hangar, which was decorated to look like a barn. Journalist Dan Rather is shown in the crowd of reporters.

July Photo of the Month

Merry Wilson & Steve Hill

1946 National Horseman Article

by Cap'n Flagg

Skyrocketing to fame and fortune in just a few years, the Tennessee Walking Horse in this issue of The National Horseman, enjoys the spotlight again, and rightly so. As you turn the pages to admire the pictures and read the stories of what in many ways is a Cinderella horse, it is interesting to recall that only seven years ago a photographer from Life magazine turned up in Shelbyville, Tennessee. Tom Tune of that city, well-known horseman and trainer, rigged up a tractor and drove it behind a Tennessee Walking Horse while the photographer shot pictures of over-reaching hoofprints on the damp ground. Eventually pictures of these hoofprints with others appeared as a double spread in Life.

I read that story and two weeks later stopped at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where Dick Womack, horse and mule dealer, had a big barn full of Walking Horses. I rode several and was offered a beautiful pair of matched blacks for $600. I don't know what those horses would sell for today, but a good Tennessee Walker runs into five figures, and they are hard to find.

It was only a year or two before the Life story appeared that local horsemen at Flat Creek, just a few miles out of Shelbyville, one Saturday afternoon roped off a wide place in the road and staged a horse show. A horse by the name of Dan won a prize which could have been a sack of flour or a can of coffee. Cash prizes were not common. Dan's owner sold the horse to the late Col. Haynes of Haynes Haven Stock Farms, Spring Hill, for something like $375. It might have been a little more or less. When the deal was made the owner said to Col. Haynes, "You are paying too much for old Dan." The colonel changed Dan's name to Haynes Peacock. He became world's champion twice and earned the colonel large prizes.

Today, Walking Horse champions, when they can be bought, run into real money, three, four, five or even more, thousand dollars. This increase has occurred in a very few years. Probably no breed of horse has ever had as much publicity as the Walking Horse has had in the past six years. I've often thought that the breeders of Tennessee Walking Horses should be eternally grateful for that first big break they got in a national magazine of general and news circulation. Whoever said that "one good picture is worth more than a thousand words," certainly spoke the truth.

Driving south from Shelbyville and through the heart of the Tennessee Walking Horse country, you frequently pass pretty little crossroads churches with wide front porches. I did not know until recently why those churches should have been built with verandas such as you see on some Tennessee farm houses. George Walker, horseman and trainer and formerly of Wartrace, Tennessee, explained them to me. "In the old days everyone from grandma and grandpa on down to the kids rode a horse to church. After service the women and children would sit comfortably on the porch while the menfolks would stage a little horse show in front of the grandstand. Yes, they'd even swap horses and make deals and it wasn't considered wrong or bad. Frequently the preacher would be the judge. You see, in Tennessee for a hundred years or more our horses have been almost a religion with us."

Today Tennessee Walking Horses are still a religion, but they are also a big business. How big no one can say. There's one thing I can personally say for the Tennessee Walking Horse and I have ridden western stock, gaited horses and occasionally, jumpers. The Walking Horse is a safe, easy, rocking chair ride. Most of the horses have fine temperaments and many can still be worked on farm wagons, plows and hayricks as they did back in plantation days.

Wartrace Horse Show by Gilbert M. Orr

1941 Life Magazine Article

The Tennessee Walking Horse, a native American breed, has made its home in the Central Basin of Tennessee, within a 50-mile radius of the city of Shelbyville, for more than a hundred years. It originated in the need of small Tennessee farmers for a multi-purpose animal---one which had sufficient stamina for farm work, which was docile enough for the children to ride to school, and smart-looking enough to hitch up to a buggy on Sundays. Experimentation and cross-breeding of a number of celebrated strains produced a horse which many authorities today consider the easiest-riding saddle horse in existence.

  The Tennessee Walking Horse averages around 15 1/2 hands (62 inches) high, and weighs from 1,000 to 1,200 lb.  It can be almost any color. It is short in the back, deep in body and chest, with a long graceful neck. Its principal characteristic, however, is a gait in which the front feet take relatively short, almost mincing steps while the hind feet take long, graceful strides. The result is an illusion that the hind feet are catching up with the front feet.

  The fame of the Tennessee Walking Horse has spread far from his native pastures. Eleanor Roosevelt, Paul Whiteman and Don Ameche are famous owners. Gene Autry's trick horse, "Champion Jr." is a Tennessee Walking Horse. To publicize the virtues of the Tennessee Walking Horse even more, breeders last month staged a celebration at Shelbyville with parades, barbecues and a Queen's Ball as sideshows to a super horse show in which 400 Tennessee Walking Horses participated. Ten thousand visitors came from other States. The Tennessee Walking Horse was well on its way to becoming an All-American horse.

In the picture above, two experts examine the tracks left by a champion Tennessee Walking Horse, Greater Glory of Hayne's Haven Stables, Spring Hill, Tenn., to measure the difference between her hind-foot and front-foot steps in the running walk. Average step with her front feet was 42 1/2 in., with her hind feet 67 in., making an overstep of 24 1/2 in.

  In the running walk (6-8 m.p.h.) the Tennessee Walking Horse starts with a diagonally opposed flat-footed movement.  As it gains speed the hind foot oversteps the front track from a few inches up to Greater Glory's 24 1/2 in.  This produces a sensation of gliding, considered one of riding's rarest thrills. It is a natural gait.

  The Tennessee Walking Horse easily learns from his trainer how to do the slower flat-foot walk, and the faster canter. In the former gait, the horse's diagonally-opposed feet move in unison in a two-measure beat in one-two order. The canter is a "refined gallop" with a rocking-chair motion.

1944 Celebration Program

The Walking Horse in 1950

Article From "Saddle & Bridle" , December, 1950

The Walking Horse in 1950

by John C. Askew Jr.

As President of the Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders' Association of America, I am quite naturally, vitally interested in the develoopment and expansion of the Tennessee Walking Horse as a breed.

  The phenomenal rise in popularity of these horses and the splendid reception the general public has given them, is not an accident, nor is it, as I have been told the result of smart promotion. It is the inevitable result of quality, disposition, gaits and good looks of the horses themselves.

  1950 has been a good year for our horses and our Association. We have tried to be progressive; and every officer, the board of Directors, executive committee, and individual members have worked toward real progress.

  On February 2, 1950, the United States Department of Agriculture recognized the Tennessee Walking Horse as a distinct and pure breed of light horse. The Farmer's Bulletin no. 592 (Revised) recognized the Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders' Association of America, of Lewisburg, Tennessee as the official registry of the breed.

  In May, 1950, the Canadian Government also recognized the Tennessee Walking Horse as a distinct and pure breed of light horse, and the registration of these horses is now honored and appear in the National Livestock Records of Ottawa.

  The greatest tribute of the year of the Tennessee Walking Horse in my opinion occurred in Washington, District of Columbia, on March 23, 1950, when the Honorable Cordell Hull, former Secretary of State, and one of the greatest living Tennesseans and Americans joined hands with the Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders Association of America, and presented to President Enrico Gaspar Dutra, President of Brazil, an outstanding Tennessee Walking Horse Stallion, King of Haven. This horse was flown by air to Brazil, and the President most graciously has written that he is now a Tennessee Walking Horse enthusiast. The future of a Brazilian market for Tennessee Walking Horses is bright indeed. A real and substantial foreign market for our pleasure horses is shown by the fact, that many inquiries have been received for purchases, and a New Orleans steamship line has had a representative in Nashville recently concerning facilities of shipment to South America.

  Tennessee Walking Horse exhibitors associations of various states have been chartered for the first time in 1950, and their contribution to the future of the Tennessee Walking Horse cannot be underestimated.  The Virginia and California associations both have been very active. The Virginia association has worked out a judges' scoring card that is a real contribution the the association. They also held a week's clinic at Salem, Virginia this year, and Tennessee walking Horse owners and exhibitors attended from all over the state of Virginia. This association, by hard work and example, should be an inspiration for all of us.

  The Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders' Association of America in 1950 has set a standard of conformation and performance for our horses, fully realizing that public education, and the education of Recognized Tennessee Walking Horse Judges will be necessary. Such a standard by which Judges can rely on, as the official standard and Judge accordingly, has long been needed.

  The association has appointed a Judges and Judging Committee which is represented by members of sixteen (16) states. This Committee has set up rules for, and established a system whereby members of the association can be qualified , trained, and licensed by the association to judge Tennessee Walking Horses. This I think will have a wholesome and lasting effect upon judging in general.

  In doing this our association in now way intends to invade the field of the American Horse Shows Association in regard to Judges, but hopes rather to be of some assistance to them in keeping a check upon the personnel who apply to them for licenses to judge Tennessee Walking Horses, at their licensed shows. The American Horse Shows Association is doing a truly wonderful job, and it is a credit to our horsemen everywhere.

  The State of Tennessee, itself has this year made arrangements to include the Tennessee walking Horse in the program at the University of Tennessee Experimental Station. Her only horses with the best blood lines, gaits, conformation and disposition will be placed and the improvement of the breed will receive the best that a great State University can give it. Surely this will mean much in the years to come.

  The Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders' Association has laid careful plans in 1950, that we hope will become a reality in 1951, in regard to a $10,000 annual stake at the National Celebration. This should be contributed by the State of Tennessee and when the Tennessee Legislature meets in January, 1951, a bill will be introduced for legislative action.

  The National Celebration has become an institution in our state and it is our desire to make it, one of the best, if not the best horse show in the United States.

  We have been most gratified that in 1950 an appropriate bill has been introduced in Congress to honor the Tennessee Walking Horse; by the issuance of a memorial United States Postage Stamp bearing the picture of a Tennessee Walking Horse. We sincerely trust that Congress sees fit to pass this bill.

  Yes, 1950 has been a wonderful year for the Tennessee Walking Horse, and the Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders' Association of America. We are proud of our horses, and I heard a farmer remark the other day:  "Sure as you are born the Country Horse has come to town."

B. Major Wilson Puzzle