Tennessee Walking Horses - Pictures

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Tennessee Walking Horses - Brief Breeding History

The breed of Tennessee Walking Horses was founded in the spring of 1886 by Black Allen in Kentucky where the first Tennessee Walking Horse was born. That was a small black stallion that was bred to be a trotting racer and he was sired by the royally bred Allendorf. His dam was a Morgan mare, Maggie Marshall, whose pedigree contained many champion Morgan racers. Although the stallion was of good blood, it could not be trained at all. But, it gave a start to the breed of Tennessee Walking Horses.

Tennessee Walking Horses - The Gait

Tennessee Walking Horses perform three distinct gaits, they are: the flat foot walk, running walk, and canter. These three gaits are the features that make the horse famous. The running walk is the inherited one and that is why it is natural to the breed. The horse can also perform other ways of gait such as the rack, stepping pace, fox-trot, single foot and some other variations of the running walk.
The Flat Walk: It is a brisk, long-reaching walk that can cover from four to eight miles an hour. This is a four-cornered gait. Producing this gait, the horse's feet hit the ground separately at regular intervals. While moving, a Tennessee Walking Horse nods its head in rhythm with the cadence of its feet. This nodding head motion is a distinctive feature that makes the horse a unique one.
The Running Walk This is the other type of a gait that makes the horse famous. This gait is similar to the flat walk but it is more smooth and gliding. At this gait the horse can travel from 10 to 20 miles an hour. The horse makes big steps and the bigger the stride, the better the Walker is considered to be. The Tennessee Walking Horse strides so that it gives the horsemen a feeling as if like gliding through the air. As this gait is easy for a horse to perform, it even may relax certain muscles while executing the running-walk and, thus, its ears flop in rhythm or some horses may even snap their teeth. This gait is pleasant for both a rider and a horse.
The Canter: It is the third kind of Tennessee Walking Horse motion and it is a collected gallop. The breed performs a canter as do other breeds of horses, but this horse is more relaxed while walking this way. The canter is such a moving style that it is performed in a diagonal manner to the right or to the left. When performed in a show ring the horse should lead his canter with the foreleg to the inside of the ring. In the canter, the horse gives this motion with abundance of ease with lots of spring and rhythm, and with proper rise and fall to afford a thrill from sitting in the saddle.

Tennessee Walking Horses - Conclusion

The Tennessee Walking Horse is a native American breed that was developed in the middle of Tennessee to fill the need for a comfortable riding horse for those who spent many hours in the saddle. This breed is a composite of the Standard-bred Pacer, Thoroughbred and Morgan Breeds as well as the "soft-gaited" lines of the American Saddlebred, Canadian Pacer and other selected domestic stock. The resulting breed of Tennessee Walking Horses is distinguished by its stamina and excellent disposition, but most of all by the smooth and easy four-beat walking gait, for which the `Walking Horse' was named.

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