of the breed through this channel is equal to the organization of the association.
" Those of us who are interested in the breed just for the sheer love of the Walking Horse have thrilled with pride at the success of every Celebration. The first show was held in 1939 and since that time has grown in popularity with each succeeding year. A vast amount of money has been invested in the grounds and equipment that make a perfect setting for a show. The Celebration must be preserved!
“ This brings us to the conclusion that only through a perfect harmony of action on the part of all breeders will the interest in Walking Horses continue to expand. The first move was the establishment of the home of the association in Lewisburg and to disturb such an arrangement would be to begin a disintegration of the stud foundation. With equal importance is the necessity of maintaining the Celebration at Shelbyville.
" The Walking Horse will continue to win friends just as long as all interests are back of these foundations that have brought him thus far. The end is not yet. Let all admirers back such programs as will continue to win popularity for the‘ World’ s Greatest Pleasure Horse.’’’
The reader will sense from this statement by Mr. McCord that a plan was suggested bv some to move the Breeders’ Association headquarters and the Celebration to larger communities. This plan was not developed.
Burt Hunter became the first president of the Breeder’ s Association and Mr. McCord was secretary-treasurer. Mr. Hunter and other presidents contributed articles to that Blue Ribbon No. 15 issue.
The article by Mr. Hunter included these facts not mentioned bv McCord:
A name for the Association was suggested by the late Clvde Westbrook of Cleveland, Miss,( who urged that the words " of America” be added so people would not think the group included only breeders of horses in Tennessee); as of 1953 the Association had registered 40.478 horses, and had 1,321 members residing in 45 states and Canada; Federal recognition of the Tennessee Walking Horse as“ a distinct and pure breed of light horse came on Feb. 2, 1950.”
Mr. Hunter also added a personal observation: " I think too, that it is high time the Association, the owners, the breeders and the exhibitors realize there are two distinct types of Tennessee Walking Horse, the show and the pleasure type. Both are important and from a breeding standpoint they are the same, and neither is more important than the other. Instead, a clear and more decisive way of looking at it; one has made the other. The horse you see in the show ring is the same horse you ride for pleasure, the difference is all in his training. He is weighted, pepped up and ridden with much speed. Our horses of today are show horses and rank along with the best of other breeds.”( The author is told by veteran riders that it is difficult for the average pleasure horse rider to manage a highly trained show horse, and that the trained show horse is really not adapted to pleasure riding.)
Mr. Hunter recalled how the Celebration was backed by virtually the entire membership of the Association when the show was launched in 1939... to make the Tennessee Walking Horse " the most publicized breed in the nation.”
Work of the Breeders’ Association has been done to a large extent through committee action, although many personal efforts were made to introduce the breed in important places with important people throughout the world. Recipients and purchasers of horses ranged from Secretary of War Stimson, to Orchestra Leader Paul Whiteman, to Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, to the President of Brazil, to Secretary of State Cordell Hull and to many other important personages.
All of these are interesting stories, but this history must be confined to horses and to events.
The Breeders’ Association selection of the 114 Foundation Sires and Dams( all deceased) took place during the 15-year fight for Federal recognition. Their pedigrees are listed in an appendix to this chapter. The Association coincidentally started its voluminous registration files giving each horse a number and issuing certificates to trace pedigrees through five genlerations.
A major project in the Association’ s promotion program was a documenttary motion picture entitled " Free and Easy.” It traced the history of the Tennessee Walking Horse from pioneer days, and brought the story up to date with scenes " shot” at the 1948 National Celebration during the Championship Slake.
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