Occupation | Horse trainer |
---|---|
Discipline | Performance Tennessee Walking Horse |
Major wins/Championships | World Grand Championship in 1959 World Grand Championship in 1964 World Grand Championship in 1978 |
Lifetime achievements | Trainer of the Year in 1978 |
Significant horses | |
Rodger's Perfection, Perfection's Carbon Copy, and Mark of Carbon |
Joe Webb (born 1928) was a Tennessee Walking Horse trainer who won three World Grand Championships, and was named Trainer of the Year in 1978.
Webb was born in 1928 and grew up near Lamar, Arkansas. He began training horses at a young age and liked to teach them tricks. At one point, he had two horses and two mules which he taught to perform together; the horses would hold each end of a rope while a mule jumped over it. [1] Webb first began training Tennessee Walking Horses after meeting Dr. Porter Rodgers while attending college. Rodgers later owned Rodger's Perfection, Webb's first World Grand Champion. Webb trained Tennessee Walking Horses exclusively out of a show stable at Searcy, Arkansas. [1] He trained the World Grand Champions Rodger's Perfection, winner in 1959; Perfectionist's Carbon Copy, winner in 1964; and Mark of Carbon. [2] Webb trained the 1968 Reserve World Grand Champion, The Entertainer. [3] Webb's second World Grand Champion, Carbon Copy, was trained to obey voice and whistle commands. Webb would entertain visitors to his stable by putting the horse through his gaits, riderless. [4] In 1971, Webb hoped to win the World Grand Championship with another horse, but was prevented from entering the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration at all by an outbreak of Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus. The virus caused a quarantine to be put in place, blocking horses from Arkansas and several other states from going into Tennessee, where the Celebration is held. [5] In 1978, Mark of Carbon, Webb's third World Grand Champion, beat 15 other horses to win the stake. [6] The same year as Mark of Carbon's win, Webb was named Walking Horse Trainer of the Year. [7] Webb wrote a how-to book entitled The Care and Training of the Tennessee Walking Horse, which was first published in 1967. [8]
Midnight Sun (1940–65) was one of the leading sires of the Tennessee Walking Horse breed, and a two-time World Grand Champion in 1945 and 1946. He was trained by Fred Walker and lived almost all his life at Harlinsdale Farm in Franklin, Tennessee.
Strolling Jim (1936–1957) was the first Tennessee Walking Horse to become World Grand Champion of his breed. Since Strolling Jim's death, a restaurant, street, and annual marathon in his hometown of Wartrace, Tennessee have been named after him.
The Racking Horse World Celebration is the largest show for the Racking Horse breed. It is held annually in late September at the Celebration Arena in Priceville, Alabama, a few miles outside Decatur. The Celebration encompasses over a week of nightly shows, and includes approximately 170 classes. Over 1,000 horses compete there each year, and spectator attendance is roughly 70,000. The World Celebration's counterpart is the Spring Celebration, held in April at the same location.
Steve Hill was a Tennessee Walking Horse trainer. He is one of only three horse trainers to win the breed's World Grand Championship four times, and trained the first three-time winner.
Emerson "Bud" Dunn was a Tennessee Walking Horse trainer from Kentucky who spent most of his career in northern Alabama. He trained horses for over forty years and won his first Tennessee Walking Horse World Grand Championship at age 74 with Dark Spirit's Rebel; at the time, he was the oldest rider to win the honor. He was inducted into the Tennessee Walking Horse Hall of Fame in 1987 and named trainer of the year in 1980 and 1991. In 1999 at age 81, Dunn surpassed his own record for the oldest winning rider by winning his second World Grand Championship, riding RPM. He died of a heart attack in January 2001.
Winston Wiser (1910–1961) was a Tennessee Walking Horse trainer from Shelbyville, Tennessee, who won five World Grand Championships on three separate horses.
Elizabeth Fay Sain, is a former Tennessee Walking Horse trainer and breeder from Tennessee. In 1966 she became the first woman to win the breed's World Grand Championship with the horse Shaker's Shocker.
Haynes Peacock was a Tennessee Walking Horse gelding. He won two World Grand Championships and was trained, owned and ridden by Colonel J. L. Haynes.
Floyd Carothers was an American horse trainer from Wartrace, Tennessee. Carothers trained Strolling Jim, the first Tennessee Walking Horse to become World Grand Champion of his breed. He also trained the third World Grand Champion, Melody Maid.
Ebony Masterpiece was a Tennessee Walking Horse stallion who won a World Grand Championship in 1962. After his show career he retired to stud, where he sired over 3,500 foals, six of which also became World Grand Champions.
Billy Gray was a Tennessee Walking Horse trainer who won four World Grand Championships on different horses. Gray was named Trainer of the Year in 1982.
RPM was a Tennessee Walking Horse who won a World Grand Championship in 1999. As a four-year-old, RPM was sold for $1.25 million, estimated at the time to be the highest price ever paid for a Tennessee Walking Horse. RPM was trained by Bud Dunn, who also trained the horse's sire to a World Grand Championship in 1992.
Sam Paschal was a Tennessee Walking Horse trainer from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Paschal trained three horses who won the breed's World Grand Championship.
Merry Walker was a Tennessee Walking Horse mare. She gave birth to the show horses Go Boy's Shadow and Rodger's Perfection, who won three World Grand Championships between them.
Judy Martin is a Tennessee Walking Horse trainer. Martin trained the World Grand Champion Shades of Carbon, and was Tennessee Walking Horse Trainer of the Year in 1976. She also judged horse shows.
Donald Paschal was a Tennessee Walking Horse trainer who won two World Grand Championships.
Wink Groover was an American Tennessee Walking Horse trainer who won the World Grand Championship in 1970 with the horse Ace's Sensation. Groover was also Trainer of the Year for 1970, and later served as a chairman for the National Horse Show Commission. Groover died in April 2010, at the age of 74.
The horse industry in Tennessee is the 6th largest in the United States, and over three million acres of Tennessee farmland are used for horse raising or horse-related activities. The most popular breed in the state is the eponymous Tennessee Walking Horse, and it became an official state symbol in 2000.
Doug Wolaver is a Tennessee Walking Horse trainer who has won the World Grand Championship in the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration three times. His winning horses were Mack K's Handshaker in 1960, Triple Threat in 1965, and Go Boy's Sundust in 1967.