The following article was written by Doris Jessen and was published in Germany's equestrian publication, Pferd Magazine. The article was translated from German to English by Regina Calder

TENNESSEE WALKERS

What is a Tennessee Walking Horse?
Gaited horses already existed in the beginning of the 19th century, as the first settlers coming into Tennessee started to breed horses for riding and working on the field. They initially concentrated on breeding horses with a smooth and fast gait.

The discovery of the first and most important stallion to create the American Tennessee Walker was a momentous occurrence. The stallion Allan was born in 1886 in Lexington, Kentucky. The black stallion's sire had been the trotting horse Allandorf. His dam was a Morgan Horse mare called Maggie Marshall, out of Bradford's Telegraph. Because of his strange gaits Allan was not successful in the trotter's breed, nor in the Morgan breed. It was 1903 when breeders first realized the quality of that beautiful looking stallion: his natural way of walking with those quick, gliding steps. The stallion was able to do that walk over miles and miles and the ride was not tiresome. In 1935 when the registry first opened, the registry founders decided to take Allan, now Allan F-1, as the first foundation stallion. There had also been other notable stallions who were important in the foundation of the breed.

The Tennessee Walker Today
Today there are over 40,000 horses and 5,000 breeding stallions registered with the Breeders Association of Tennessee Walkers in Lewisburg, Tennessee. In 1993 alone, approximately 8000 foals were born. The two most important stallion bloodlines that you can find on most of the horses' papers are Midnight Sun (born 1940) and Merry-Go-Boy (1943). Both of the bloodlines give the natural walk to their foals.

The Body
The most important aspect of the Tennessee Walker breed is its natural gait. This gait is inborn in the horses and is exhibited by newly born foals. In this breed you can find horses of any height and color you can think of. They may be from 14 hands up to 17 hands, but most of them are between 15 and 16 hands. Colors are possible from light grey, all kinds of chestnut, or bay, to black and spotted. For conformation, we should consider the aspects that make the horse able to do their special gait. These are the most important points: the neck and shoulder and of course the hindquarters. The neck should come out of the center of the shoulders and should be arched. The well built neck, of the right length, is necessary for balance allowing the Walker to do its characteristic headnod. Therefore even an amateur can see that it is a Walking Horse and not a Racking Horse.

A long, oblique shoulder, with the ideal angle of 45 degrees, is essential for a good walk. A long shoulder, in conjunction with a relatively short forearm, is necessary for the length of the stride. The forearm seems to pull the good walking TWH forward. Strong and straight forelegs are a necessity for good mechanics. The forelegs are often nearer to one another then in other horses because the ribs, directly under the forearm, are a little bit flat. The pastern is moderately long and is in an angle of 45 degrees. The back seems to look a little bit shorter than of other breeds. Because of the oblique croup, the horse looks a little bit as if it has longer legs than others. The hindquarters must be well muscled so the horse can push and drive off the rear legs. In addition, the hindquarters should be angled to let the backfeet step deeply under the horses body.

The Breeding Object : The Natural Walking Horse.
The distinguishing features of the horse's conformation should, before all, make it possible for the horse to do an easy and natural Walk that glides from a slow Dog Walk (equivalent to another breeds normal walk) over the faster Flat Walk and into the quick Running Walk. The Flat Walk has very long steps and the overstride of the hindlegs is important. The sequence in which the legs move in the Flat Walk stays the same while the horse is doing the Running Walk; it is a 4 beat step. The quality of the overstride, however, depends on the horse.

The Tennessee Walking Horse Breeder's Association cites a speed about 12 to 16 km per hour for the Running Walk, in shows the horses can get faster. This faster speed is surely not possible for long distances. Because all these Walking gaits having the same timing, the rider does not feel a difference in the gait, only in the rate of speed.

Most of the Walking Horses can also trot or pace, but these gaits are not typically allowed to be ridden under saddle. So next to the Walk and the Running Walk there is only one other gait that is ridden: the canter, a kind of slow, rocking chair gallop with a lot of movement up in the front part of the horse and less movement in the rear. This rocking chair canter is typically ridden as slow as possible.

As initially discussed, this way to move is genetically fixed in the natural Walkers. Certainly there exists horses from the same breed with less than ideal natural gaits. For shows, it is a usual practice in the USA to manipulate the Walk in an unnatural way The horses have therefore longer front hooves, are padded, and carry heavy front shoes. This is to make the horses lift up their frontlegs in high action and to give them a kind of dancing look. This manipulation is forbidden in Germany and it seems to be better not to bring horses to Germany that have been used as such a kind of show horse in the USA. In the following part, we introduce you to an American farm on which all horses are only shown in light shoes (lite-shod).

Water Tower Farm in Vermont
Dianne Lashoones is a relatively young, but devoted breeder. She found her love of the Tennessee Walking Horses in the 1980's. Her farm was opened in 1988 on a 36 hectar parcel of land in Marshfield, Vermont. She was inspired by the smooth gaits of "this little bit different breed of horse" explains Dianne Lashoones. Her object is it to breed Walking Horses for all kind of riding and driving uses.

Her main stallion is the 14 year old dark chestnut, Midnight Tango, which is out of the Midnight Sun line mixed with Merry-Go-Boy blood.

Usually Dianne Lashoones has 20 to 25 horses, but not all of them are out of her breeding stallion. She also buys horses to train and then sell them.

Her horse trainer addresses the riding habits of the horses, starting first with groundwork at the age of 1 1/2 to 2 years. Even at this young age show training also starts with the Model Class "parking" expected for the American Tennessee Walker. Only 10% of all registered Walking Horses are shown in shows. Parking means that the horse stretches out the front legs to the front and the backlegs to behind.

The next step is grounddriving with the two longlines. The first mounting of the horse starts, depending on the horse's shape, by the age of 2 1/2 to 3. The main part of the training is of course the riding and developing of the correct walk in all speeds. At first, the horses will only be ridden for 10 or 15 minutes. The green broken horses are going to be ridden outdoors most of the time since that is their natural element. The indoor training concentrates on the schooling of the gaits to make them really easy for the horse and rider.

Because Dianne Lashoones wishes to offer horses with only normal, light shoes, her breeding farm is a good source for exporting horses to Germany. The German Tennessee Walking Horse Association recommends Dianne Lashoones as a source of TWH in the USA.